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Kinamedia's avatar

Ma Ying-jeou is pretty irrelevant in Taiwan today, even in his own political party. So it's difficult to understand why he is given so much space, repeatedly, in this newsletter.

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Zichen Wang's avatar

thanks let me give you a blunt answer: it is my newsletter and i alone decide what to put out. here, i decide who is relevant or not.

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Kinamedia's avatar

Yes, no one is questioning your right to decide over your own newsletter. Just a friendly notice from Taiwan that Ma Ying-jeou has made himself irrelevant here, lest the Chinese media gives you another impression. To constantly quote someone who lacks importance could be confusing for an international audience.

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Zichen Wang's avatar

I am sorry my tone was very bad. I was probably having a bad day. My apologies for the attitude on that day. Yes, he is apparently not going to hold another public office or significantly influence personnel within Taiwan. Still, he is the former two-term President for 8 years, and the last president from the current opposition party. I would be surprised if people rush to bill Barack Obama as irrelevant in press reports about him. Aside from Taiwan, the Chinese mainland is the other key player in cross-Strait relations. Ma is one of the very few Taiwanese politicians whom Xi Jinping has met repeatedly - and as recently as last year. Ma has also met senior mainland officials in charge of Taiwan affairs and visited the mainland multiple times. I'd say even by the importance solely afforded by the mainland, he is pretty relevant in today's cross-Strait relations, at least much more so than any scholar, commentator, or analyst who appear much more often than he does in English-language international media.

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Tim Culpan's avatar

Not really. Taiwanese have decided he’s irrelevant. You certainly have a right to write about and analyze his policy positions. But believing he’s relevant to the future of cross-Strait discourse says more about your biases than it does about the current state of Taiwan- China relations.

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Zichen Wang's avatar

I'm sure I'm biased, as everyone else is in their own way, but let me try to argue why he is still worth a few inches in a paper. Yes, he is apparently not going to hold another public office or significantly influence personnel within Taiwan. Still, he is the former two-term President for 8 years, and the last president from the current opposition party. I would be surprised if people rush to bill Barack Obama as irrelevant in press reports about him. Aside from Taiwan, the Chinese mainland is the other key player in cross-Strait relations. Ma is one of the very few Taiwanese politicians whom Xi Jinping has met repeatedly - and as recently as last year. Ma has also met senior mainland officials in charge of Taiwan affairs and visited the mainland multiple times. I'd say even by the importance solely afforded by the mainland, he is pretty relevant in today's cross-Strait relations, at least much more so than any scholar, commentator, or analyst who appear much more often than he does in English-language international media.

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