Chinese politicians kicked out of Taiwan
October 24, 2008 – 6:46 pmThe vice-chariman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and the superintendent of the journalist faculty of Xiamen University (厦门大学), Zhang Mingqing (張銘清), went to Taiwan last Sunday to attend an academic event at Tainan University (台南大学). They were accompanied by a delegation of 21 other Chinese guys.
As early as Monday when this Chinese guys gave a speech and also while Zhang went on a tour in public, protesters for independence voiced their opinions loud and clearly. Therefore the schedule was suspended for two days. As early as Tuesday the protests went on when the Chinese delegation visited a Confucian temple. The angry mob also pushed around Zhang and he fell to the ground. As a result the visit to Taiwan was abruptly stopped and the Chinese delegation went back home.
Taiwan’s pro-independence South
To better understand the happenings, it is important to say, that the opinions towards China mainland are mixed. While in the middle and northern regions of Taiwan a open and friendly atmosphere
is prevelant, the South is strickly against any connection with the Chinese neighbour. Zhang’s schedule led him to the South and it was clear beforehand, that problems would occur. Obviously Zhang didn’t thing about what might happen if he visits the southern Taiwan.
While this incident didn’t generate big waves, the next visit of a Chinese politician during the next weeks could lead to more confusion. Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) wants to visit Taiwan soon. This time the visit was of purely academic nature, however Chen Yunlin’s visit to Taiwan will be more political. A reunion of mainland China and Taiwan seem to be not a near term thing. Protests against China are frequent in Taiwan. In Hong Kong protests against mainland China and the Chinese Communist party also occur, however Hong Kong can’t choose if they want to reunite with China, as this already happened, although the Hong Kong people have mixed feelings on this matter.
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One Response to “Chinese politicians kicked out of Taiwan”
Well, obviously Taiwan’s government didn’t think that far either… Or they didn’t want to discourage Mr Zhang from going South (loss of face, and maybe nothing will happen after all)? Or maybe either the Kuomintang or China’s Communist Party wanted this to happen (my most unlikely theory)? Two things that come to my mind – Taiwan’s political culture is somewhat, umm, rough at times, and secondly, I don’t see this roughup of Mr Zhang as a big scandal – the mainland Chinese missiles aiming at Taiwan are sort of rough too, aren’t they?
By justrecently on Oct 25, 2008