China Slaps Taiwan in the Face: Ma Ying-jeou says Relations are at Their Best

Saturday October 31, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Taiwan's sometime president, Ma Ying-jeou, continues to live in his alternate universe and has added a new name to the long list describing him. Included in that list are Ma Ying-joke, Ma Ying-jerk, the Phony Pony, Ma Teng (Ma the Toilet)etc. The new name for Ma is the Taiwan Ah-Q.

Ma Ying-jerk, the Taiwan Ah-Q, continues to boast that his kow-towing and placating attitude to China has put relations between the two countries at their best in 60 years. At their best? One wonders what they were like at their worst.

Ma boasts that his "low-key" and "surprise-free" approach are working. Working for who? I have news for him, they are not surprise-free for Taiwanese. The most recent Taiwanese who got a bitter surprise was the Taiwan delegation to the Tokyo Film Festival when they were denied entrance to the festival and the Green Carpet.

What happened? A low level Chinese delegation led by director Jiang Ping demanded that Taiwan use a name that had "China" in it. He not only demanded that Taiwan not use the name "Taiwan" a name that it has always been using in recent years, but he also commanded that if the Japanese did not resolve this in 10 minutes, the Chinese delegation would walk out and contemplate never returning. A real slap in the face, not only to Taiwan, but even Japan.

End result, the Taiwanese participants were denied entry and not allowed to go on the Green Carpet for photos etc. Later, of course, there were all sorts of excuses and apologies by Japan etc. but the damage was done. Further, it revealed just how much Ma's approach was not working.

Examine, if a low level person like Jiang Ping could make such demands, he must have either been encouraged to do it by the powers that be in China, or if not ordered to do so, he would have known that he, a low level person could make such demands with impunity and that he would probably be applauded when he returned back home.

Ah-Q Ma continues to say that his policies are working. What the citizens of Taiwan need to ask, how many slaps in the face must our nation take, and what other damage must it suffer before they realize it is time to dump the phony pony.