[h=1][/h]
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/...-president-is-extreme-because-shes-unmarried/
May 25, 2016 6:55 pm HKT
ENLARGE
In this photo taken Friday, May 20, 2016, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen waves as she delivers an acceptance speech during her inauguration ceremony in Taipei. Photo: Associated Press
There’s been no love lost across the Taiwan Strait since the self-ruled island inaugurated Tsai Ing-wen as president last week, with China ratcheting up attacks against her out of concern she’ll make moves toward formal Taiwanese independence.
One Chinese official took it further Tuesday, tying Ms. Tsai’s political leanings to her status as a single woman. Without the burdens of love and attachments of family and children, Ms. Tsai developed a political style that tends “toward emotionalism, individualization and extremism,” according to Wang Weixing, a member of China’s Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits, or ARATS, an organization that handles ties with Taiwan.
“When we deal with Tsai Ing-wen, we must always consider important factors like her experience, personality and psychological traits,” Mr. Wang wrote in a commentary carried on the website of the International Herald Leader, a newspaper owned by the government’s Xinhua News Agency.
Though the commentary landed amid a slew of official remarks, editorials and state media reports savaging Ms. Tsai, Mr. Wang’s remarks went too far for some in China. While other criticisms focused on Ms. Tsai’s reluctance thus far to endorse Beijing’s formula for continued political ties, Mr. Wang veered into what many readers perceived as misogynistic personal attacks, stirring a heated backlash on social media.
“This is very shocking. How did such dirty and obscene viewpoints get associated with Xinhua,” Gao Lidong, chief editor of a local news website in the southeastern city of Jiujiang, wrote on his verified Weibo microblog. Another Weibo user chimed in: “Looks like Xinhua wants to become the public enemy of the millions of unmarried women in China.”
Others wondered if state media would conduct similar assessments of other political leaders.
[h=4]“This is how North Korea attacks Park Geun-hye,” the South Korean president who’s also unmarried, a Weibo user wrote. “If single women can’t become president, can remarried old men become chairmen?” asked another user, in reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was once divorced before remarrying.[/h]
Mr. Wang, who heads the foreign military studies department at the People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Science, couldn’t be reached for comment. ARATS, the Chinese government’s Taiwan Affairs Office and a Taiwanese presidential spokesman also didn’t immediately respond.
Mr. Wang’s essay, which was published mid-morning Tuesday, has since been removed from the International Herald Leader’s website, as well as several mainland news portals, though summaries of the essay remained accessible on Weibo. It wasn’t clear why the article was taken down. Neither Xinhua nor the International Herald Leader immediately responded to requests for comment.
Ms. Tsai, whose political party traditionally supports Taiwanese independence, clinched the presidency with a landslide election win in January. Widespread resentment among Taiwanese of China’s growing influence over Taiwan fueled her victory, making her the island’s first woman president.
Mr. Wang’s commentary aside, China is still maintaining its pressure on Ms. Tsai. The two governments split in a stalemated civil war more than six decades ago, and Beijing wants Ms. Tsai to acknowledge a formulation agreed upon in 1992 that both sides belong to “one China” without defining what that means.
At a Wednesday news briefing, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang reiterated Beijing’s view that Ms. Tsai must offer a clear answer on whether she acknowledges the “92 consensus,” which Ms. Tsai’s predecessor as president, Ma Ying-jeou, had affirmed before his Nationalist Party lost the election to her and her Democratic Progressive Party.
If Ms. Tsai wishes to preserve the existing mechanisms for cross-Strait political dialogue, she “must agree to a common political foundation with the mainland that reflects the ‘one China’ principle,” Mr. Ma said.
–Chun Han Wong
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/...-president-is-extreme-because-shes-unmarried/
Chinese Official Says Taiwan’s President is ‘Extreme’ Because She’s Unmarried
May 25, 2016 6:55 pm HKT
In this photo taken Friday, May 20, 2016, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen waves as she delivers an acceptance speech during her inauguration ceremony in Taipei. Photo: Associated Press
There’s been no love lost across the Taiwan Strait since the self-ruled island inaugurated Tsai Ing-wen as president last week, with China ratcheting up attacks against her out of concern she’ll make moves toward formal Taiwanese independence.
One Chinese official took it further Tuesday, tying Ms. Tsai’s political leanings to her status as a single woman. Without the burdens of love and attachments of family and children, Ms. Tsai developed a political style that tends “toward emotionalism, individualization and extremism,” according to Wang Weixing, a member of China’s Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits, or ARATS, an organization that handles ties with Taiwan.
“When we deal with Tsai Ing-wen, we must always consider important factors like her experience, personality and psychological traits,” Mr. Wang wrote in a commentary carried on the website of the International Herald Leader, a newspaper owned by the government’s Xinhua News Agency.
Though the commentary landed amid a slew of official remarks, editorials and state media reports savaging Ms. Tsai, Mr. Wang’s remarks went too far for some in China. While other criticisms focused on Ms. Tsai’s reluctance thus far to endorse Beijing’s formula for continued political ties, Mr. Wang veered into what many readers perceived as misogynistic personal attacks, stirring a heated backlash on social media.
“This is very shocking. How did such dirty and obscene viewpoints get associated with Xinhua,” Gao Lidong, chief editor of a local news website in the southeastern city of Jiujiang, wrote on his verified Weibo microblog. Another Weibo user chimed in: “Looks like Xinhua wants to become the public enemy of the millions of unmarried women in China.”
Others wondered if state media would conduct similar assessments of other political leaders.
[h=4]“This is how North Korea attacks Park Geun-hye,” the South Korean president who’s also unmarried, a Weibo user wrote. “If single women can’t become president, can remarried old men become chairmen?” asked another user, in reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was once divorced before remarrying.[/h]
Mr. Wang, who heads the foreign military studies department at the People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Science, couldn’t be reached for comment. ARATS, the Chinese government’s Taiwan Affairs Office and a Taiwanese presidential spokesman also didn’t immediately respond.
Mr. Wang’s essay, which was published mid-morning Tuesday, has since been removed from the International Herald Leader’s website, as well as several mainland news portals, though summaries of the essay remained accessible on Weibo. It wasn’t clear why the article was taken down. Neither Xinhua nor the International Herald Leader immediately responded to requests for comment.
Ms. Tsai, whose political party traditionally supports Taiwanese independence, clinched the presidency with a landslide election win in January. Widespread resentment among Taiwanese of China’s growing influence over Taiwan fueled her victory, making her the island’s first woman president.
Mr. Wang’s commentary aside, China is still maintaining its pressure on Ms. Tsai. The two governments split in a stalemated civil war more than six decades ago, and Beijing wants Ms. Tsai to acknowledge a formulation agreed upon in 1992 that both sides belong to “one China” without defining what that means.
At a Wednesday news briefing, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang reiterated Beijing’s view that Ms. Tsai must offer a clear answer on whether she acknowledges the “92 consensus,” which Ms. Tsai’s predecessor as president, Ma Ying-jeou, had affirmed before his Nationalist Party lost the election to her and her Democratic Progressive Party.
If Ms. Tsai wishes to preserve the existing mechanisms for cross-Strait political dialogue, she “must agree to a common political foundation with the mainland that reflects the ‘one China’ principle,” Mr. Ma said.
–Chun Han Wong
