Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

GIO protests ‘China, Taiwan’ label for movie at film fest

Taipei Times

The Government Information Office (GIO) has lodged a protest with the Venice Film Festival for labeling Seediq Bale (賽德克巴萊), which has been nominated for the Golden Lion award, a film made by “China, Taiwan” and demanded a correction.

Chu Wen-ching (朱文清), director of the GIO’s Motion Picture Affairs Department, said the protest was presented by the Taipei Representative Office in Italy on Friday.

FUNDING

ARS Film Production (果子電影公司), the producer of the film, also wrote a letter to the festival organizer, asking it to correct the name of the country of production. ARS said the film was not funded by China and did not employ Chinese actors.

Premier Wu is like Ma’s very own Wendi Deng

James Wang 王景弘

When a comedian tried to throw a plate of shaving foam at Rupert Murdoch during his testimony in the British parliament, Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng (鄧文迪), leapt at the perpetrator with the vigor of an American football player and hit him with the precision of a volleyball player going for the decisive smash, as the world held its breath.

Very Chinese, Deng’s reaction was different from how other people reacted: Murdoch and his son James did not try to evade the attack or hit back, while an assistant held out an arm to try to stop the attacker. Deng, however, did not try to stop the attack, but hit back, as if wanting to avenge her husband and prove that attack is the best defense.

Taiwan's MOFA, in Need of Reform: Is Life on the Beach that Boring?

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

At a time when Taiwan deeply needs skilled diplomats to help make its place in the world, it appears that MOFA's members are either asleep at the wheel as Taiwan's sovereignty is marginalized or they are turning into scam artists. The latest case appears to be the former representative to Fiji, Victor Chin.

Fiji could certainly be considered a cushy assignment; mild climate, good beaches and a population of under one million. Ironically MOFA has three representatives there, perhaps that was the problem, not enough for them to do, though if they were skilled and creative, one is sure they could find ways to help Taiwan be known.

No legal evidence, no sovereignty

Kuo Cheng-deng 郭正典

ASEAN held its regional forum last week in Bali, Indonesia, against a background of sharply escalating territorial disputes in the South China Sea. On July 23, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was present at the forum, called on all parties to these disputes to abide by international law and “clarify their claims in the South China Sea in terms consistent with customary international law,” rather than just basing them on historical precedent. China has always stressed that its territorial claims in the South China Sea are based on historical fact.

If any country could claim sovereignty over any place based on historical precedent or fact, and if Mongolians and Manchus are counted as part of the great Chinese nation, then the big swathes of European territory once ruled over by the Mongolian empire and the parts of Siberia formerly occupied by the Manchu-ruled Qing Empire would all belong to China, so why doesn’t China claim sovereignty over those territories?

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