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Rally ’round the UN

By Kevin Steel ⋅ September 17, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Pretty good round-up of a pro-UN membership rally in southern Taiwan from the blog, The View From Taiwan, with some explanation of the internal politics of that country.

Perhaps some of you–those who keep a closer eye on domestic politics, for instance–are thinking this is just a tempest in teapot, faraway places, nothing to do with us, etc. But some observers of international affairs I have spoken with over the last year, within Canada and without, have made the same statement to me; namely, that 2008 will be a very interesting year for the entire world because of three events; 1. the Beijing Olympics, 2. the American presidential election, and 3. the election in Taiwan (along with referendum). The outcomes of these three things, they maintain, will have big implications globally.

For a little flavour, you might want to take a boo at some Chinese government propaganda in Xinhua: Overseas Chinese continue to blast Taiwan referendum plan

"Overseas Chinese across the world condemn this separatist act and oppose in the strongest terms any attempt at "Taiwan independence," the statement said."

I’m not sure if those are sarcastic quotation marks, or they are acknowledging the fact that Taiwan is already independent. I suspect the former.