Taiwan’s Front Line

It’s not Penghu Island that was the site of conflict between Mainland China and Taiwan. Rather, it was the World CyberGames in Seattle, Washington. According to the Taipei Times, several jealous Chinese gamers took out their frustrations on their Taiwanese counterparts:

Taiwanese player Liu You-chen (劉祐辰) won the bronze medal in the grand final of Project Gotham Racing 3 and displayed the Republic of China (ROC) flag during the award ceremony.

More than 10 Chinese gamers and Chinese media employees scrambled toward the stage to grab the flag.

Surely, several pairs of plastic-rimmed glasses were broken during the fisticuff. Whether this bizarre behavior came from the Chinese without provocation is unknown. Seattle police were called to maintain order.

Taiwan still plans to participate in the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing. It should be interesting to see the reaction if and when a Taiwanese athlete stands on the podium in front of a Chinese crowd.

Spy Games are Expensive

Taiwan has had trouble recruiting new spies. Substantial cuts to the intelligence budget have made it hard for the island to keep an eye on the mainland, the Taipei Times reports. Also to blame is the indiscretion of Taiwan’s leaders:

Lin Yu-fang (林育方) said in a statement that one of the reasons fewer spies are working for Taiwan in China was President Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) failure to keep some of the intelligence gathered by the spies confidential. During an election campaign in 2003, Chen made public the number of missiles China had pointed at Taiwan and also mentioned the sites where the missiles were deployed.

This is not good news for Taiwan, which has long been under the gun because of its refusal to accept China’s authority. The renagade island remains one of Asia’s flashpoints.

The question is, though, would China risk its booming trade with countries like the US to invade Taiwan, a US ally. This would surely lead to sanctions, if not outright war between the two powers.

For now, anyway, it seems like the brash and unpredictable moves of the Communist Party leaders are a thing of the past. Still, Taiwan still needs to keep its spy network in order, if only to keep China on its toes.

Ang Lee Plays a Good Guy

Celebrated director Ang Lee, known for films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountian, is doing his part to support grassroots filmmakers in his home nation of Taiwan. According to the Taipei Times, Lee wants to help would-be directors make it big:

“I am happy to receive the award, but I cannot pocket the money because I am one of those few lucky filmmakers who can really rely on this business to make a living. I shall use the money to help more of my kind get a break,” Lee said.

Lee has broken into Hollywood in a big way, but other art house filmmakers, like Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, and Tsai Ming-liang, have not had much success outside the festival circuit. As Ang Lee knows from earlier in his career, artsy films don’t necessarily pay the bills.