Taiwanese Are Disappointed With the Foreign Media’s Response to <PERSON> Tweet · Global Voices
U.S. President-elect <PERSON> and Taiwan's president, <PERSON>. Photo credit: Taiwan's Central News Agency.
<PERSON>, the next president of the United States, surprised Taiwanese on Dec. 2, when he tweeted about a congratulatory phone call he'd received from Taiwan's president, <PERSON>.
The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!
— <PERSON> (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016
Due to the “one China” policy in diplomacy, Taiwan has been isolated from the international scene for decades, at least officially. After <PERSON>'s tweet, the number of Google searches for “Taiwan” spiked worldwide, tripling in some places. 871
Furthermore, for many people around the globe, <PERSON>'s decision to refer to <PERSON> as “the President of Taiwan” signals American recognition of Taiwan as an independent democratic country.
Capturing the mood sarcastically in The Atlantic, <PERSON> wrote, “[T]he island once had a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Now a simple phone call with its leader is international news.”
In an interview with Fox News anchor <PERSON>, <PERSON> elaborated his position on China and Taiwan:
I don't know why we have to be bound by a “one China” policy, unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.
This, again, surprised Taiwanese. For decades Beijing has used the “one China” policy to break other countries’ official ties to the Taiwanese government while they want to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
Netizens in Taiwan expressed concerns that President-elect <PERSON> is only using their country as a negotiating chip with China, but some say the next U.S. president's scheme could give Taiwan the opportunity to improve its standing internationally.
Some Taiwanese netizens complained about being bullied by the international community, following the response of the outgoing <PERSON> administration and the world mass media to the tweet, which warned that Beijing would be enraged, and the possibility of damaging U.S.-China relationship — all before the Chinese government even issued a formal statement on <PERSON>'s comments.
A sample of the headlines right after <PERSON>'s tweet.
Taiwanese netizens criticized the international media for being so quick to focus on Beijing's diplomatic line without describing the voices from Taiwan.
<PERSON>, the co-founder of the “Taiwan March” activist group and one of the student leaders during the 2014 Sunflower Movement, wrote on Facebook after his article was published in The Washington Post:
我們在行文最後想表達的本意其實很簡單：這通電話的意義是正面的，它提供了重新檢視台美關係的機會。[…]令人遺憾的是，美國大多數一向傾向自由派的主流媒體，包括《紐約時報》、《CNN》，在第一時間，就搶在中國都還沒回應之前，就大幅度警告「此舉將會觸怒中國」。乃至近幾日的報導也環繞著中國學者、民眾的反應，卻少見來台訪問台灣人自己的看法。
What we want to express at the end of this article is very simple: The meaning of this phone call is positive, because it provides a chance to re-evaluate the Taiwan-U.S. relationship. 871