Seven hours after the results of the Taiwan Presidential elections were made public, communist China had not reported the news. Afterwards, the PRC government published a brief message. In recent days, the election controversies have stirred up a great commotion overseas, but the Mainland’s media has only published a few brief items. With a uniform media policy covering the whole country and a blockade of overseas news websites, China only allows its readers to view the events through a thick fog.

Communist China is afraid of several issues in reporting the Taiwanese election:

1. The reelection of Chen Shui-bian

The communists have hated Chen all along, but the more they attack his “Taiwanese Independence,” and the more their propaganda apparatus declares that his reelection will break Taiwan away, the more the people will feel a strong sense of patriotism and ask the Chinese government to attack Taiwan. If the Chinese government fails to act, it would lose its credibility. However, despite its vehement denunciations of Taiwanese independence, the Chinese government is not ready to send troops to fight.

The communist government is now requesting that universities advise students not to demonstrate and to trust that the government can handle the election crisis. This shows that the Chinese government is eating its own words.

When the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed, the Chinese government first urged people to protest in front of the U.S. embassy, but as soon as the mob got angry and demanded that the government do something against the U.S., the communist government had to put on its emergency brakes and banned further demonstrations, because they were afraid that the protests could evolve into a democracy movement. In that case, they said exactly the same things, such as, “please trust that the government can handle the crisis.”

2. Lien and Soong’s defeat is not reported widely

One of the factors that contributed to the Nationalists’ defeat in 1949 at the hands of the communists was that the communists had heavily infiltrated the Nationalist Party. Those of us who grew up in China may remember that in movies depicting the communist-nationalist war, the top Nationalist general invariably has a high-ranking aide who happens to be a communist mole and plays a key role in the communist victory.

Even though the communists are now sympathetic towards Lien and Soong, they can only do so behind the scenes. Otherwise, people would think that the pair is communist agents and would give their votes to Chen Shui-bian.

3. The invalidation of the referendum is not something to chuckle too much about.

Even though only 45% of Taiwanese voters cast a vote in regards to the referendum, thus not meeting the 50% voting threshold for validation of the motion, these voters still contradicted the communist propaganda, which stated that all Taiwanese people are against the referendum. The referendum is a democratic process and communist attacks against it could only backfire, because if Mainland Chinese also demands a referendum for something, the communist government could be cornered.

4. The communists are happy about election validity controversy but their happiness has risks

If Taiwan’s election controversies can reach a resolution through legal means, the island’s democracy will prove mature through withstanding complications. If the Chinese communists laugh too early they could find themselves in an embarrassing situation later on.

The communists are hoping these controversies will create riots to prove their theory that democracy leads to instability.

However, if the communists were to truthfully report that the “Pan-Blue” protesters are on the streets and millions are demonstrating, they would again be in a dilemma because if Mainland Chinese start their own street demonstrations to support Lien and Soong, those demonstrations could easily turn into a democracy movement opposing communist corruption. (The “pan-blue” camp refers to the coalition consisting of the Kuomintang, the People First Party, and the New Party. The name came from the party colors of the Kuomintang. The “pan-blue” candidates for this year’s election are Lien Chan and James Soong.)

5. The assassination attempt is very sensitive.

First of all, some suspect that the communists could be behind the assassination attempt against the Taiwanese president and vice-president, because the communists stand to gain most from the resulting chaos. If the Taiwanese police were to search for those with the strongest motives, the communists would clearly be the top suspects.

Secondly, there have been no attempts on the life of a Chinese president so far, but if the Taiwanese assassination attempt is reported widely, some Chinese, with the growing gap between the rich and the poor, unfair distribution of wealth, and intensifying clashes between the people and the officials, might try to imitate the Taiwan incident.

What else could the communist media report?

It’s no wonder that readers in China are only able to view a brief news report, an official statement, and a few articles denouncing independence or suspicious events in the election, as well as some trivial items such as voters fainting or tearing up their ballots.

How can Chinese readers make sense of the situation when their news is so heavily censored?

Editor’s Note:

Pan-Blue Coalition
The Pan-Blue Coalition, or Pan-Blue Force, is a political coalition in early 21st century Taiwan, consisting of the Kuomintang (KMT), the People First Party (PFP), and the tiny New Party (CNP). The name comes from the party colors of the Kuomintang. This coalition tends to favor a Chinese nationalist identity over a Taiwanese separatist one and favors a softer policy and greater economic linkage with the People's Republic of China. It is opposed to the Pan-Green Coalition.

Although the Pan-Blue Coalition is associated with Chinese reunification, much of the support and opposition to the coalition has nothing to do relations with Mainland China. For example, support for the coalition among the poor and Taiwanese aboriginals is high because of the patronage networks that the coalition maintains.

Editor’s note reprinted by permission from From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)