I don’t know how much Taiwan’s AIDC paid for its stand at Singapore Airshow 2008. But I think the airshow organizers definitely should reimburse AIDC for what they did to the company.
According to Chris Pocock, who is currently visiting Taiwan after covering Singapore Airshow 2008 for Aviation International News (AIN), the show organizers not only forced AIDC to blacken out the national insignia of the Republic of China on the aircraft featured at its stand but also barred AIDC from handing out its brochures, in which the national insignia could be seen. AIN’s Thierry Dubois wrote in the February 20 issue (this hyperlink may stop functioning after a while):
“A few days ago, we were told that we could not show our symbol on the stand,” Chii-Ming Yao, the senior manager for technology and service for Taiwan’s AIDC told AIN. Similarly, he could not hand out brochures. “Our logo, although it is not even a reminder of the [Republic of China’s] flag, was barred by the organizers,” he explained.
The airshow organizers were obviously sucking up to China because the renamed Singapore Airshow is now run by the Singapore government after Reed Exhibitions failed to renew its contract to manage the former Asian Aerospace. Taiwan’s former Foreign Minister Chen Tang-shan ( 陳唐山) once accused Singapore of “fondling China’s balls” on an unofficial ocassion. Although some people (mainly from the opposition party) thought Chen violated norms of diplomatic etiquette, I think Singapore deserves it because the Singapore government itself has no balls. (Pardon my language.)
I went to Asian Aerospace in 1998. But I will never go to any Singapore Airshow in the future.
On a related topic, Chris Pocock wrote an article about Taiwan in the February 20 issue of AIN. He was kind enough to use two photos I took at last year’s October 10 military parade.
^@@*#&$((@$@(#*$&(@!!!!
Michael
China must have a very clean ass by know because a lot of countries are kissing it. Last year (2007) I have been with my wife and a Taiwanese delegation to a trade show in Bulgaria. The day before the show the Taiwanese flag was waving outside the show grounds together with the flags of the other countries. At the start of the show the Taiwanese flag was removed however under pressure from China. And also last year a trip of a Taiwanese trade delegation to trade shows in Algeria and Morocco was cancelled at the last moment because visas were rejected under pressure from China. The people already had visas in there passports but they were cancelled. So you see that not only Singapore but also a lot of other countries kiss China’s ass.
Taiwan kisses US’s ass all the time.
…in George W. Bush’s dreams
Singapore’s not kiasi liddat, lah. That’s bo lanphah, one. They only kiss Chinese ass because they know that they, unlike Hong Kong, would never undergo the threat of Chinese annexation despite similar situations, so why care?
(Needs work on Singlish – take THAT, “Speak Good English”!)
If I had to choose, I’d rather kiss US ass than China’s. At least it would have started a lot cleaner. 🙂