Relations – Taiwanese-Japanese – The Foreigner in Formosa

President Ma Ying-jeou Of Taiwan Asks The Japanese To Do His Job For Him

More Taiwanese visit Japan than vice versa, and Ma The Bumbler thinks Tokyo needs to get right on it:

President Ma Ying-jeou on Friday told a Japanese envoy that the Asian country should review the imbalance of tourist flow between the two nations.

[…]

[In a previous meeting with former Deputy Minister Okada Katsuya, the] president was quoted to have said that Taiwanese tourists visiting Japan greatly exceed that of Japan to Taiwan, and that Japan should take measures to rebalance the difference.

Perhaps it's not surprising that Ma's response to this "problem" is both lazy and incompetent. Because the most obvious solution is for his government to pony up the funds for a tourist promotional campaign in Japan.

But of course, that would take effort.

His government could also get off its duff and do a marketing study about how to make the country more attractive to Japanese tourists, and then go about following the study's recommendations.

More work, again.

Taiwanese KMT President Ma Ying-jeou sits and crosses index fingers from both hands.

(President Ma Ying-jeou makes the teenage "crucifix"-gesture to ward off the evil expectation that he do the job he was elected to do. Whined Ma: "Oh, maaaaan, Foreigner, all your proposals sound TOO HARD. Why can't I just let somebody ELSE do it, instead?" — Image from the Want China Times.)

Another option would be for his government to stop going down-market with its ardent pursuit of low-income Chinese tourists. It's entirely possible that concentrating on this niche discourages higher-income Japanese from visiting…

A different angle would be for Ma to tackle some of the anti-Japanese bigotry that the KMT fostered during its decades-long misrule of the country. I once witnessed (with my own eyes) a Taiwanese woman in her 30s walk up to a Japanese man in a bar and, unprovoked, tell him straight to his face in English, "I don't like Japanese."

(Fortunately, it was a foreigner pub, and there weren't any Taiwanese men around. The situation might have escalated quickly had any drunken, Japan-hating, Chinese nationalists been present.)

By my reckoning, that Japanese man probably told his family and a few of his co-workers about his unfortunate experience with Taiwanese hospitality. Undoubtedly, a few other Japanese later heard about it second-hand. Does Mr. Ma think that's the kind of word-of-mouth which encourages Japanese visits to Taiwan?

Finally, if Ma Ying-jeou wants more Japanese tourists (or tourists from any country, really), he could see to it that the country's legal system charges and prosecutes Taiwanese who assault tourists. His pathetic failure to do so is certain to leave a few foreign tourists crossing Taiwan off their itineraries.

Update: After sleeping upon it, I realized this post gave the false impression that Taiwanese in general behave badly towards Japanese tourists. So to clarify: most Taiwanese are cool. Really cool.

However, Taiwan has a very small, ugly minority (who usually prefer to be called "Chinese") which rabidly hates Japan and all things Japanese.

Having made that qualification, an encounter with even one of the latter is enough to ruin a vacation…

UPDATE (Aug 31, 2014): With more temperate language, the Taipei Times makes much the same point.

i-1

Phantom Menaces

The China Post (Taiwan's pro-Communist newspaper of record) frets that the greatest menace to peace in Asia is . . . Japan. Beware a second Pearl Harbor, the editors darkly warn.

LOL. The chances of PACIFIST Japan pulling Pearl Harbor II anytime during our lifetimes ranks somewhere between an attack by trident-wielding Mer-people and a Zombie Apocalypse.

In other words, not bloody likely.

Mer-Man from He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe.

Quiet, you.

UPDATE: China now matches the number of attack submarines (63) that Japan had when it struck at Pearl Harbor. Funny coincidence, that. (Modern Japan has only 16.)

Some other facts the Chinese ultranationalist editors of the Post may be aware of:

China has nuclear weapons. Japan has none.
China has over a thousand missiles targetted onto Taiwan. Japan has none.
China has offensive weaponry. Japan is constitutionally prevented from possessing same.
China maintains the largest number of territorial disputes (somewhere between 19 and 26) in all of Asia.
China has recently laid expansionist claim to the entire South China Sea. Japan has not.
China's military has enjoyed double digit budgetary increases for several years now. While on the other hand, high Japanese vehicle costs mean that Japan's military expenditure in real terms is roughly on par with South Korea or Taiwan.

And finally, China routinely ranks among the 10 worst countries in the entire world when it comes to press freedom. Maintaining strict media censorship, the government indoctrinates the population with ultranationalist propaganda, just as Imperial Japan once did.

(Far more difficult to imagine the Japanese being similarly brainwashed since Japan has the world's 11th freest press.)

So 2,500 Japanese marched in downtown Tokyo in defiance of Chinese bullying over the Senkaku Islands. Big deal. With a population of 128 million, that's a 0.002% turnout.

Reckon more people showed up for the latest "Tentacle Pride" rally . . .

UPDATE (Oct 26/2010): A profile of those Japanese "wildmen" Taiwan's China Post is so afear'd of.

i-1

Pack Hunters

"You are an excellent tactician Captain. You let your second in command attack, while you sit and watch for weakness."

-Khan Noonien Singh, ST:TOS

Perhaps that's the only explanation I have for China's relatively mild reaction to the recent incident off the coast of Japan's Senkaku Islands. I mean, think about it: Japan arrests a P.R.C. fishing boat captain for violating Japanese waters, and what does Beijing do?

It blusters, dresses down the Japanese ambassador a few times, cancels a few underwater resource meetings, and sends a SINGLE fishery escort vessel. (For good measure, it also leaves open the possibility that it "may not be able" to control anti-Japanese mob action.)

A relatively measured response, given that it's Communist China we're talking about.

Shortly thereafter though, Taiwan does a curious thing. Remember, absolutely none of its mariners are cooling their heels in Japanese detention. Yet despite this, President Ma Ying-jeou reacts far more militantly than the P.R.C., making the "independent" decision to dispatch not one, but twelve — 12! — coast guard ships to the Japanese islands.

Like the man said, the second-in-command plays the heavy.

While the boss sits back, watching for weakness.

Khan Noonien Singh (played by Ricardo Montalban). From Star Trek: The Original Series.

(Khan image from Zaphodsheads.spaces.live.com)

UPDATE: The Chinese might be breaking their pledge not to drill in a disputed undersea gas field. This, we don't know for sure, yet.

i-1

Madman Ma Orders 12 Armed Taiwanese Ships To Violate Japanese Waters

Story at the Taipei Times. The press in Taiwan is still mum though, on how much the irredentist president's gunboat diplomacy has cost the nation — not only in precious taxpayer NT dollars, but in squandered international credibility as well.

One need not speculate what world reaction would have been had Ma instead dispatched 12 Taiwanese coast guard vessels into CHINESE waters. So that a "civilian" fishing boat could attempt to raise the Republic of China flag on P.R.C. soil. Because the answer is clear: the world would have regarded it as an outrageously dangerous provocation.

A very REAL provocation, quite unlike any of the phony "provocations" the previous Chen administration was accused of.

UPDATE: Citing irrelevant history, Beijing's mouthpiece newspaper in Taiwan urges Japan to quietly give in to the divinely-ordained territorial encroachments of the KMT-Chinese Communist Party alliance.

Saw THAT comin'…

UPDATE #2: Japan's ambassador to China has reportedly informed the Chinese government that Beijing should "take the necessary measures to avoid a worsening of the situation."

Good for him. I'm rooting for scrappy little Japan the way I used to for Taiwan. (Before the KMT surrendered body-and-soul to the Chinese Communist Empire, that is.)

Taiwan's former KMT chairman Lien Chan shakes hands with Chinese Communist dictator, Hu Jintao

(Hu Jintao & his "very special" KMT friend. Image from Life Magazine.)

UPDATE #3: Coming soon: A Tiananmen Square near you. Courtesy of Supreme Leader Ma Ying-jeou and the KMT Party. Uppity Taiwanese, beware.

Taiwanese who protested against Chen Yunlin (Communist China's negotiator) beaten by KMT-controlled Taiwanese police

(Taiwanese victim of the Chinese Nationalist Party police-riot of 2008. Image from the Taipei Times)

UPDATE #4: Perhaps I was too hasty in dismissing the relevance of the history the China Post presented. Because the Beijing - Taipei axis certainly seems busy manufacturing "incidents" and pretexts for war in 2010 the very same way Imperial Japan did in the 1930s…

i-2

More Senkaku Fallout

1) China finds the excuse it needed to avoid signing a gas field treaty with Japan.

2) What's your's is mine: Beijing orders a Japanese coast guard ship to stop surveying — in Japan's own Exclusive Economic Zone.

3) War & rumors of war: Chinese dispatch quasi-military ship to the Senkaku islands. At the same time a Hong Kong group will charter a Taiwanese fishing vessel to also make a trip to the Japanese-owned islands. Convenient timing.

[That last story also mentions that Captain Ramboat's grandmother passed away in China during his incarceration for violating Japanese waters. Which is sure to calm the passions of Chinese jingoists.]

4) Taiwanese KMT legislator fans the flames: "“Without government support on both sides of the Strait, efforts by civilian associations of [Taiwan, China and Hong Kong] alone will not be enough and will be to no avail [for Taiwan to help seize the Senkaku Islands from Japan]."

Er, just what are the odds that that "civilian association" [Hong Kong's "Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands"] is actually a Chinese Communist Party front group? Leading everybody down the garden path to war?

From The Land Of Melamine And Honey

Just finished tossing out a Moon cake leftover from the Midautumn Festival, as well as some old powdered milk and soda crackers. Figure that's about a $150 NT loss, but ya do what ya gotta do if you want to avoid ingesting the chemical precursor for whiteboard resin.

Got me to thinking, though. Suppose everybody in Taiwan is doing as I am. And let's be conservative: they each toss out $25 NT worth of bread or cookies or what have you. Times 23 million people — that's $575 million NT, or about $20 million U.S. dollars. Add to that losses local businesses are taking due to stock they've had to pull from the shelves. And the losses they're taking because people are too afraid to buy ANY milk-based products, because they can't be certain of the provenance.

I STILL haven't seen estimates of the latter two yet, and I'm reluctant to hazard a guess. Must be mucho dinero, though.

Say, does anybody remember the Senkaku Island incident earlier this year? Back in June, a Taiwanese recreational fishing boat strayed (either unintentionally or deliberately) into Japanese waters and was rammed by a Japanese coast guard vessel. In short order, Taiwan's ambassador was recalled, threats of war darkly uttered, demands for apologies and compensation issued.

After a brief standoff, the Japanese government made an apology and paid reparations.

My point is, that all that fuss was made over ONE fishing boat. One. One boat that was worth a heckuva lot less than what Taiwan's economy has recently lost due to dairy products imported from China. So where are the recalls of Taiwan's negotiators? The threats of war? The demands for apologies and reparations? *

* Rhetorical questions, some of these. (I don't seriously think war should be threatened over this.)

Now, Taiwan's opposition DID ask China's government for apologies and compensation late last month, and the Taiwanese premier seconded the motion a day later.

However, Taiwan's chief negotiator was a little less enthusiastic about the whole thing:

Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) said yesterday that the foundation would definitely “communicate” with Beijing if the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) asked the foundation to seek an apology from China over the tainted milk scandal.

When asked whether he would ask his Chinese counterpart — Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) — to apologize or bring up the issue of compensation when he visits Taiwan later this month or early next month, Chiang said he would “exchange views with Chen on issues placed on the agenda.” [emphasis added]

The name's Chiang. " Firebreathin' " Chiang.

No Phallic Imagery There

Taiwanese President-elect with Chiang Kai-shek statue in background. Image from the Taipei Times.

KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou giving speech while standing at crotch-level in front of giant statue of dictator Chiang Kai-shek.

Will Ma Ying-jeou remember his own words next time he criticizes a Japanese official for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine?

Ma said he was not very concerned about any controversy over his visit to the tombs [of Taiwan’s former dictators], adding that “everyone can hold different views on history.”

[…]

“Your views may be different from mine, but you cannot coerce me into adhering to your opinions,” said Ma, adding that the public should welcome differences of opinion.

UPDATE (Apr 8/08): Yesterday’s Taiwan News has more on the Yasukuni angle.

UPDATE (Apr 9/08): My favorite caption: "Doctor Evil and Mini-Ma."

i-1

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

Terrific set of editorials in Taiwan’s China Post on Monday – from a blogger’s point of view, anyways. Both deal with issues of Taiwanese sovereignty. The first, "Did Taiwan give up sovereignty over the Tiaoyutai Islands?" makes the case those islands belong to Taiwan rather than Japan, then takes the government to task for not pressing Taiwan’s claim assertively enough:

Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration appears reluctant to confront Japanese patrols over the Tiaoyutai [known to the Japanese as the Senkaku Islands – The Foreigner], where Yilan* fishermen now often get caught for "intrusion" into Japanese "territorial waters." Activists have been forbidden to make any protest trips there…

You want an international incident…over THIS???

Japan's Senkaku Islands

(Image from twhistory.org)

The second editorial, "What’s in a name?" ridicules President Chen Shui-bian’s efforts to have the country named "Taiwan" rather than "Taiwan, China":

[President Chen] is obsessed with the idea of getting Taiwan to accede to the United Nations under its rightful name. His government bristles whenever anything from Taiwan shown abroad is said to be from Taiwan, China.

That’s why the Government Information Office lodged a complaint with the organizers of the Venice Film Festival, who, under pressure from Beijing, listed Taiwan-produced films as entries from Taiwan, China. Among them was "Se Jie (Lust Caution)," directed by Ang Lee of "Brokeback Mountain" fame. It was originally described as a production from "USA and China" for it was shot in both countries. It was later changed to Taiwan at the request of its producer. That in turn drew complaints from China. Then the name was settled as "USA/China/Taiwan."

[…]

All this sounds like silly gags in a bad TV sitcom. Can’t we try just to forget whatever name other countries in the world choose to attach to our island nation? [emphasis added]

Ironically enough, the Post‘s conclusion is contradicted by the very example it provides. The Venetians didn’t "choose" to list Taiwan-produced films as originating from "Taiwan, China"; they were PRESSURED by Beijing into doing so – by the China Post‘s own admission.

Be that as it may, we’re still faced with the question: Is this, as the Post claims, just a silly semantic quibble? Isn’t the whole "Taiwan" vs. "Taiwan, China" vs. "Chinese Taipei" debate on par with arguments over tomayto-tomahto or Germany-Deutschland? Shouldn’t Taiwan just get a life and ignore trivialities?

What’s amusing is that a paper that spilt so much ink complaining about the renaming of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall would have the face to turn around on a dime and subsequently ask its readers, "What’s in a name?" Let me guarantee you, the China Post wouldn’t be nearly so philosophical about that question if Tokyo started referring to Taiwan as JAPANESE-Taipei. Nosiree – the China Post would be the first to regard THAT as an attempt to de-legitimize Taiwan.

No Czech newspaper would nonchalantly ask, "What’s in a name?" if Berlin started talking about "Sudetenland, GERMANY" once more. Not if it didn’t want to appear treasonous, it wouldn’t. And papers in the Baltics wouldn’t give little sermons about semantic freedom if Vladimir Putin had pressured other countries into referring to Lithuania as RUSSIAN Vilnius.

No, in both cases, the Czechs and Balts would be swift to recognize their own self-interest. They’d instantly see those names as something sinister, as preludes to future attacks upon their national sovereignty.

Maybe now you can see why I was so impressed that the China Post printed both those editorials on the same page. Because recognizing that the second piece calls upon Taiwan to surrender its sovereignty in one arena, the writers compensated by defending it in another.

Now, I may be one of the world’s worst chess players, but even I know that as a general rule, the key to success in that game is to protect your important pieces, while sacrificing your unimportant ones. Yet, the China Post counsels the exact opposite. The Post would have Taiwan defend the sovereignty of the Senkakus – risking war through "confrontation" with Japanese patrols ** – over a relatively insignificant group of islands 7 square kilometers in size, on which not a single Taiwanese lives, or ever HAS lived. That, while ignoring Chinese threats to the sovereignty of Taiwan Island itself – an island 36,000 square kilometers in size and populated by 23 MILLION people.

There are only two possible conclusions here.*** Either those guys are even worse chess players than I am…or, this is a game they deliberately want Taiwan to lose.

* Yilan is a county on Taiwan’s north-east coast.

** A Taiwanese confrontation with Japan over the Senkakus risks war with not only Japan, but America herself:

The 1960 US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security applies to territories under the administration of Japan, including the Senkaku Islands. In November 1996, Assistant Secretary of Defense Campbell stated that the basic position of the US is that the Japan-US security treaty would cover the Senkaku Islands. Secretary of Defense William Perry reconfirmed this fact on 03 December 1996.

A conflict is, perhaps, what the China Post hopes for. Stir up Chinese nationalist sentiment in Taiwan and provoke a war with Japan and its ally, America. Chinese nationalists then have their excuse to renounce America, and openly ally themselves with their communist brethren across the Strait. From twhistory.org:

But the fight for sovereignty of the Diaoyutai [Senkakus], even to the extent of debating Taiwan’s international position and legitimacy, has been continuously examined and contended, with some people [in Taiwan] even advocating a United People’s Republic of China, or so-called Overseas Chinese, fighting together for the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai… [emphasis added]

With the strategic goal of uniting Taiwan with the PRC accomplished at last, the victor in any war for the Senkakus’ would be largely besides the point.

*** Actually there is a third possibility. While as a general rule the good chess player protects valuable pieces and sacrifices weak ones, he sometimes does the opposite in order to BAIT his opponent. Parenthetical point #2 above represents an example of what this might look like.

The opponent in such a case would be none other than the Taiwanese people, who, if misled into taking the bait, would be lured away from a democratic ally and into the arms of authoritarian one.

i-1

Japanese Election: Who Do’ya Root For?

In an editorial on Monday, Taiwan’s China Post described Yasuo Fukuda, the front-runner in the upcoming Japanese election for prime minister. While the Post‘s editors didn’t directly endorse Fukuda, one can assume his policies would meet with their approval:

Fukuda, 71, an advocate of a less U.S.-centric foreign policy, stressed he would not visit Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, seen by many Asian countries as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism. He is also critical of Abe’s proposal for a "broader Asia" partnership of countries that would include India, the U.S. and Australia – but not China.

From the point of view of a Chinese nationalist, any Japanese P.M. who’d give China more of a free hand by weakening Asian alliances is a P.M. "devoutly to be wish’d."

Meanwhile, the Taipei Times came out in favor of Fukuda’s rival, Taro Aso:

There are already too many leaders who are willing to cozy up to Beijing — and what good has that done Taiwan or Tibet, or the countless Chinese locked up in jail for seeking human rights?

Aso, perhaps, isn’t such a leader, and therein lies a tremendous opportunity for Taiwan

The reason for the Times‘ optimism has something to do with a statement he made in 2006:

Taiwan’s "democracy is considerably matured and liberal economics is deeply ingrained, so it is a law-abiding country," then Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso said in March last year, adding that "in various ways, it is a country that shares a sense of values with Japan."

Aso said Taiwan is a law-abiding COUNTRY? Not too hard to see why supporters of Taiwanese independence would like him. Not coincidentally, today’s Taipei Times and Taiwan News both featured stories portraying Aso as a sort of political version of Hiro Nakamura from the TV series Heroes:

An avowed booster of "manga" comic books and animation known as "anime," Aso has won the support of fans – called "otaku," or nerds – for his promise to promote Japanese pop art overseas.

"Aso is a true nerd. He should be prime minister!" said Asami Suzuki, a 20-year-old college student shopping for comics in Akihabara.

"He understands that manga and anime are so important to Japan’s image," Suzuki said.

(Hiro Nakamura: "I can bend the space-time continuum. Just like Mr. Spock!")

Hiro Nakamura closing eyes and stopping time. From the Heroes tv show.

(Hiro Nakamura image from Vividrealism.com)

Unfortunately, the truth is that Aso’s not quite as lovable as Hiro:

While Aso was the presumed successor until quite recently, he is widely disliked by powerful figures in the LDP and is prone to gaffes. (Referring to a fellow Diet member, descended from members of Japan’s once-untouchable caste: “That burakumin can’t be Prime Minister,” which would be kind of like a GOP presidential candidate in the US replying, “That [N-word] can’t be President,” when asked about Barack Obama. Referring to the Korean slaves who worked for his father prior to and during World War II being forced to adopt Japanese names: “Most Koreans wanted Japanese names anyway.”)

So, one more time. Who do you like in the Japanese election? The polite guy who’ll be no friend to Taiwan, or the politically-incorrect jerk who will?

i-1

Forbidden Nation

I picked up a copy of this book about Taiwanese nationalism, as well as I, Claudius, a few weeks ago from PageOne in Taipei 101. I, Claudius I will read in August – I have no idea when I’ll get to Forbidden Nation.

For those interested, David Frum reviews Forbidden Nation at the National Review:

Jonathan Manthorpe, a journalist who has covered China and Taiwan for the Vancouver Sun and other newspapers, has written the supremely useful single volume history of Taiwan, from its pre-Chinese Malay-Polynesian origins to the present day. The book is titled Forbidden Nation, and as the name suggests Manthorpe devotes most attention to the interaction between Taiwanese nationalism and the dynasts and colonialists who have suppressed it: mainland emperors, Japanese imperialists, the Chiang Kai-Shek regime, and now the Communist rulers of Beijing.

Manthorpe does not conceal his sympathies for the Taiwanese underdogs in thesestruggles, but he works his way through the story fair-mindedly and accessibly. The book is mercifully short, but powerfully lucid.

Frum proceeds with a brief summary of Taiwanese history, and closes with a few thoughts on idealism vs. realism in American foreign policy.