UK's "The Guardian" Editorial on the ROC Mocked by Reality

Tuesday May 21, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The normally reliable UK paper, "The Guardian" found itself with a strange editorial on Sunday, May 19th. Commenting on the recent spat with the Philippines over the shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by a Filipino vessel, the heading read, "South China Sea Dispute: Taiwan Flexes its Muscles"

The following editorial read like a PR release by the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and approved by President Ma's secretary. It basically tried to say that Ma was showing strength in diplomacy while at the same time bringing peace to the Taiwan Strait conflicts. Say what?? Such spin is obviously both ignorant of Ma's sagging public approval ratings and the reactions in Taiwan as to how well Ma is handling this latest crisis. For anyone at ground level in Taiwan, such thoughts are only present in the "spin masters" if they can be called that -- on Ma's team. An effort to try and impress people that black is really white and white is really black.

The general attitude in Taiwan is that Ma botched it and is desperately trying to play catch up ball.

In an almost direct mockery of the editorial's reference to Taiwan "flexing its muscles," Taiwan's air force witnessed its second crash of one of its jets. This one was an aging Mirage 2000; the previous was an F-16 a week earlier. Hardly a good show for the flexing of one's muscles; if it was a real life situation, the nation would find itself in dire straits. (no pun intended)

The worry of course is that as Ma has let the nation's defenses slip in his 5 years thus far of presidency, how bad would the "flexing of muscles" be if the nation had to go to war.

One can only speculate as to how much was paid to get this editorial in "The Guardian" and who it was trying to convince that black is really white and white is really black.