Last night’s edition of Foreign Correspondent on ABC TV featured a program about Taiwan. It included an interview with President Chen, an interview with KMT legislator Su Qi and coverage of President Chen’s recent visit to the Solomon Islands and Palau.
The report was probably a useful primer for the average Australian with little knowledge of Taiwan, but it lacked depth and promoted various misunderstandings about Taiwan politics. It seemed to paint a picture of Taiwan where the politics was very black and white. According to the report Taiwan was a nation divided where 50% of people supported independence and the other 50% wanted to reunify with China. The reality is far from that simple and the only thing you could safely say about Taiwan is that there is a diversity of opinion and a majority of Taiwanese support the status quo, even if it is only to avoid any possible confrontation with China. It also failed to explain how the entire political landscape has been restructured since President Chen