BBC story on China demanding overseas museums return their ill-gotten loot.
[quote] China has demanded the return of cultural relics housed in overseas museums [snip]
It is estimated that about a million Chinese treasures are kept in more than 200 museums in 47 countries.
China claims the offending museums have breached a pact by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Xinhua news agency said. A 1970 UNESCO convention calls for the return of antiquities and works of art to their countries of origin. But it does not apply to artefacts or objects taken to other countries before 1970.
Among the museums that refused China’s request were the Louvre in Paris, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Prado in Madrid.
[/quote]
Why doesn’t Taiwan start the ball rolling, give them the jade cabbage and all? It seems this is just the sort of goodwill gesture to appeal to Pres. Chen.
“thanks to you, we’re not in the UN, so it doesn’t apply to us. Let us in, and we’ll give them some plates (but you have to promise not to have another cultural revolution, because they’ll all get broken)”
or (following up on Alleycat’s point)
“You say Taiwan is part of China, so these plates are still in their country of origin. Admit that Taiwan is a seperate country and we’ll give you the plates and maybe even the cabbage”
just as long as we keep that white thingy with all the concentric balls carved inside each other. you know they glued that together, you can see the seam if you look close enough.
[quote=“Sir Donald Bradman”]
“You say Taiwan is part of China, so these plates are still in their country of origin. Admit that Taiwan is a seperate country and we’ll give you the plates and maybe even the cabbage”[/quote]
That’s why i wonder. The article didn’t mention Taiwan despite Taiwan having far more of the stuff than anyone else. I presume the Chinese don’t want to mention Taiwan in connection with this campaign.
Unilaterally offering them the National Palace treasures would put China on the spot: they take the stuff, they tacitly admit that Taiwan isn’t China. They don’t take it and their insistence that the rest of the world hand over the pots fall apart. All the plates in the Louvre pale next to the cabbage.
It would also be a grandiose poilitical gesture of no real benefit to the people of Taiwan. Given that, how come Chen and the TSU-tendency aren’t doing it?
