Singaporeans are not competing only with foreigners physically here, but people all over the world. COVID-19 has taught many companies that “working from home” is just one step away from “working anywhere”.

Foreigners who are here in Singapore strengthen our team. They are our colleagues, and our neighbours and friends. During COVID-19, many worked on the front line, shoulder-to-shoulder with Singaporeans. They too have contributed to Singapore.

We must not turn our backs on them, and give the impression that Singapore is becoming xenophobic and hostile to foreigners. It would be disastrous for us, and it is not who we aspire to be.

We must make it crystal clear to the world that Singapore is determined to stay open, in order to earn a living for ourselves. These values helped transform Singapore from a population of immigrants into a cosmopolitan and vibrant country.

#ndrsg

(Photo: Carousell)

It's awful how racist and xenophobic the Chinese nationalists are, they really make China look awful!

Jenna Cody :

Is Taiwan a real China?
No, and with the exception of a few intervening decades - here’s the part that’ll surprise you - it never has been.

This’ll blow your mind too: that it never has been doesn’t matter.

So let’s start with what doesn’t actually matter.

Until the 1600s, Taiwan was indigenous. Indigenous Taiwanese are not Chinese, they’re Austronesian. Then it was a Dutch colony (note: I do not say “it was Dutch”, I say it was a Dutch colony). Then it was taken over by Ming loyalists at the end of the Ming dynasty (the Ming loyalists were breakaways, not a part of the new Qing court. Any overlap in Ming rule and Ming loyalist conquest of Taiwan was so brief as to be inconsequential).

Only then, in the late 1600s, was it taken over by the Chinese (Qing). But here’s the thing, it was more like a colony of the Qing, treated as - to use Emma Teng’s wording in Taiwan’s Imagined Geography - a barrier or barricade keeping the ‘real’ Qing China safe. In fact, the Qing didn’t even want Taiwan at first, the emperor called it “a ball of mud beyond the pale of civilization”. Prior to that, and to a great extent at that time, there was no concept on the part of China that Taiwan was Chinese, even though Chinese immigrants began moving to Taiwan under Dutch colonial rule (mostly encouraged by the Dutch, to work as laborers). When the Spanish landed in the north of Taiwan, it was the Dutch, not the Chinese, who kicked them out.

Under Qing colonial rule - and yes, I am choosing my words carefully - China only controlled the Western half of Taiwan. They didn’t even have maps for the eastern half. That’s how uninterested in it they were. I can’t say that the Qing controlled “Taiwan”, they only had power over part of it.

Note that the Qing were Manchu, which at the time of their conquest had not been a part of China: China itself essentially became a Manchu imperial holding, and Taiwan did as well, once they were convinced it was not a “ball of mud” but actually worth taking. Taiwan was not treated the same way as the rest of “Qing China”, and was not administered as a province until (I believe) 1887. So that’s around 200 years of Taiwan being a colony of the Qing.

What happened in the late 19th century to change China’s mind? Japan. A Japanese ship was shipwrecked in eastern Taiwan in the 1870s, and the crew was killed by hostile indigenous people in what is known as the Mudan Incident. A Japanese emissary mission went to China to inquire about what could be done, only to be told that China had no control there and if they went to eastern Taiwan, they did so at their own peril. China had not intended to imply that Taiwan wasn’t theirs, but they did. Japan - and other foreign powers, as France also attempted an invasion - were showing an interest in Taiwan, so China decided to cement its claim, started mapping the entire island, and made it a province.

So, I suppose for a decade or so Taiwan was a part of China. A China that no longer exists.

It remained a province until 1895, when it was ceded to Japan after the (first) Sino-Japanese War. Before that could happen, Taiwan declared itself a Republic, although it was essentially a Qing puppet state (though the history here is interesting - correspondence at the time indicates that the leaders of this ‘Republic of Taiwan’ considered themselves Chinese, and the tiger flag hints at this as well. However, the constitution was a very republican document, not something you’d expect to see in Qing-era China.) That lasted for less than a year, when the Japanese took it by force.

This is important for two reasons - the first is that some interpretations of IR theory state that when a colonial holding is released, it should revert to the state it was in before it was taken as a colony. In this case, that would actually be The Republic of Taiwan, not Qing-era China. Secondly, it puts to rest all notions that there was no Taiwan autonomy movement prior to 1947.

In any case, it would be impossible to revert to its previous state, as the government that controlled it - the Qing empire - no longer exists. The current government of China - the PRC - has never controlled it.

After the Japanese colonial era, there is a whole web of treaties and agreements that do not satisfactorily settle the status of Taiwan. None of them actually do so - those which explicitly state that Taiwan is to be given to the Republic of China (such as the Cairo declaration) are non-binding. Those that are binding do not settle the status of Taiwan (neither the treaty of San Francisco nor the Treaty of Taipei definitively say that Taiwan is a part of China, or even which China it is - the Treaty of Taipei sets out what nationality the Taiwanese are to be considered, but that doesn’t determine territorial claims). Treaty-wise, the status of Taiwan is “undetermined”.

Under more modern interpretations, what a state needs to be a state is…lessee…a contiguous territory, a government, a military, a currency…maybe I’m forgetting something, but Taiwan has all of it. For all intents and purposes it is independent already.

In fact, in the time when all of these agreements were made, the Allied powers weren’t as sure as you might have learned about what to do with Taiwan. They weren’t a big fan of Chiang Kai-shek, didn’t want it to go Communist, and discussed an Allied trusteeship (which would have led to independence) or backing local autonomy movements (which did exist). That it became what it did - “the ROC” but not China - was an accident (as Hsiao-ting Lin lays out in Accidental State).

In fact, the KMT knew this, and at the time the foreign minister (George Yeh) stated something to the effect that they were aware they were ‘squatters’ in Taiwan.

Since then, it’s true that the ROC claims to be the rightful government of Taiwan, however, that hardly matters when considering the future of Taiwan simply because they have no choice. To divest themselves of all such claims (and, presumably, change their name) would be considered by the PRC to be a declaration of formal independence. So that they have not done so is not a sign that they wish to retain the claim, merely that they wish to avoid a war.

It’s also true that most Taiwanese are ethnically “Han” (alongside indigenous and Hakka, although Hakka are, according to many, technically Han…but I don’t think that’s relevant here). But biology is not destiny: what ethnicity someone is shouldn’t determine what government they must be ruled by.

Through all of this, the Taiwanese have evolved their own culture, identity and sense of history. They are diverse in a way unique to Taiwan, having been a part of Austronesian and later Hoklo trade routes through Southeast Asia for millenia. Now, one in five (I’ve heard one in four, actually) Taiwanese children has a foreign parent. The Taiwanese language (which is not Mandarin - that’s a KMT transplant language forced on Taiwanese) is gaining popularity as people discover their history. Visiting Taiwan and China, it is clear where the cultural differences are, not least in terms of civic engagement. This morning, a group of legislators were removed after a weekend-long pro-labor hunger strike in front of the presidential palace. They were not arrested and will not be. Right now, a group of pro-labor protesters is lying down on the tracks at Taipei Main Station to protest the new labor law amendments.

This would never be allowed in China, but Taiwanese take it as a fiercely-guarded basic right.

*

Now, as I said, none of this matters.

What matters is self-determination. If you believe in democracy, you believe that every state (and Taiwan does fit the definition of a state) that wants to be democratic - that already is democratic and wishes to remain that way - has the right to self-determination. In fact, every nation does. You cannot be pro-democracy and also believe that it is acceptable to deprive people of this right, especially if they already have it.

Taiwan is already a democracy. That means it has the right to determine its own future. Period.

Even under the ROC, Taiwan was not allowed to determine its future. The KMT just arrived from China and claimed it. The Taiwanese were never asked if they consented. What do we call it when a foreign government arrives in land they had not previously governed and declares itself the legitimate governing power of that land without the consent of the local people? We call that colonialism.

Under this definition, the ROC can also be said to be a colonial power in Taiwan. They forced Mandarin - previously not a language native to Taiwan - onto the people, taught Chinese history, geography and culture, and insisted that the Taiwanese learn they were Chinese - not Taiwanese (and certainly not Japanese). This was forced on them. It was not chosen. Some, for awhile, swallowed it. Many didn’t. The independence movement only grew, and truly blossomed after democratization - something the Taiwanese fought for and won, not something handed to them by the KMT.

So what matters is what the Taiwanese want, not what the ROC is forced to claim. I cannot stress this enough - if you do not believe Taiwan has the right to this, you do not believe in democracy.

And poll after poll shows it: Taiwanese identify more as Taiwanese than Chinese (those who identify as both primarily identify as Taiwanese, just as I identify as American and Armenian, but primarily as American. Armenian is merely my ethnicity). They overwhelmingly support not unifying with China. The vast majority who support the status quo support one that leads to eventual de jure independence, not unification. The status quo is not - and cannot be - an endgame (if only because China has declared so, but also because it is untenable). Less than 10% want unification. Only a small number (a very small minority) would countenance unification in the future…even if China were to democratize.

The issue isn’t the incompatibility of the systems - it’s that the Taiwanese fundamentally do not see themselves as Chinese.

A change in China’s system won’t change that. It’s not an ethnic nationalism - there is no ethnic argument for Taiwan (or any nation - didn’t we learn in the 20th century what ethnicity-based nation-building leads to? Nothing good). It’s not a jingoistic or xenophobic nationalism - Taiwanese know that to be dangerous. It’s a nationalism based on shared identity, culture, history and civics. The healthiest kind of nationalism there is. Taiwan exists because the Taiwanese identify with it. Period.

There are debates about how long the status quo should go on, and what we should risk to insist on formal recognition. However, the question of whether or not to be Taiwan, not China…

…well, that’s already settled.

The Taiwanese have spoken and they are not Chinese.

Whatever y’all think about that doesn’t matter. That’s what they want, and if you believe in self-determination you will respect it.

If you don’t, good luck with your authoritarian nonsense, but Taiwan wants nothing to do with it.

Before I introduce our wonderful angels who are all sharing their craft and unique skills for a minimum fee in which 100% goes to Covidcaremy, allowe me to address the (HORRIBLE) elephant in the room.

I am highly alarmed, upset and disturbed by the xenophobic sentiments of those against the Rohingyas. I am sure you have seen some of footages of undocumented non-citizens at EMCO (Enhanced MCO) areas allegedly being arrested en mass and sent to immigration facitliies - including children!

(update: IGP: Mass operations being carried out to weed out illegal immigrants) Link here: https://www.thestar.com.my/…/igp-mass-o…

For those who need a little recap of what's what, read this article by Aseas Post: https://theaseanpost.com/…/myanmars-roh…

I speak to Maalini Ramalo, Director of Social Protection DHRAA and Secretariat of COVIDCAREMY Marginalized Community Support Group her thoughts about this whole fiasco.

She then gives us a recap of what CovidcareMY is all about and how much has been raised since they first started this coalition of like-minded Malaysian NGOs.

I also get to meet with these wonderful angels (we had Kar Mun aka Lemon on my show before too), and we invited her back for a fun "Let's Get to Know Each Other's Craft Speed Date Style".

Each of us, woulld be given 2-3 minutes each to introduce what we are doing to raise funds for CovidCareMY.

Tune in as we giggle away to this short game and find out how you can help contribute to the fund with these kind souls. All fees taken are donated back to CovidCareMY.

1. Kar Mun aka Lemon (IG: @lemontells) does Oracle Card Reading for RM10-15
2. Sharon Kaur Sidhu (IG: @lunalazuli.x) reads Birth Charts for RM15-20
3. Cheryl Chook ( FB: Gaaken Classroom Puchong) conducts Online Science and Maths Experiments for the family (30-40mins session) for RM10. I'm going to do this with the kids.
4. Megan Chng (IG: meganchng) #Menari4Makan online dance classes for RM10 (She wanted to raise RM140 to help pay for a family for 10 days, but she recently managed to raise RM5000 over within days!!!) and finally,
5.Your Truly conducts prenatal classes at @yogaonethatiwantstudio every Wednesday at 9:15am to help sustain my friend's yoga studio.

You can buy passes (RM25 for one class or RM100 for Unlimited 10days). You don't have to use those passes for my class, you can use it to try other yoga classes too. Check out their Instagram to find out more. ALL my teaching fees are being donated to CovidCareMY too!

Thanks ladies for that really good laugh and workout.

You can also donate to CovidcareMY directly via:

Method 1: https://kitafund.com/7640-suppo…/updates

or

Method 2: RHB Bank 2124790045100 (Persatuan Jaringan Pembangunan Malaysia Luarbandar Malaysia)

Children who have donated to COVIDCAREMY will now receivea COMPASSIONATE CHILD AWARD CERT. Just send them proof of donation receipt & WHATSAPP to Ms Maalini (012 635 6351) with your child's full name on it.

FINALLY .. we have our CONTEST GIVEAWAY!

Tanamera is kindly sponsoring the winner Tanamera Products worth RM500! Whoohoo!!!!

Please answer your qusestions below:

1. How much has CovdicareMY raised so far as Maalini points out during our LIVE show?
2. What is the name of song that Megan was teaching us online?
3. Who are the founders of Tanamera?

Please answer at the comment box of my FACEBOOK PAGE : DAPHNE IKING

Thank you for watching and good luck!

Let's talk about the inexcusable nonsense going on in South Africa at the moment

There will be a Q&A over drinks after the video today

As a foreigner, you're forbidden to have any opinion about China unless it's 100% positive, come and find out why..

For Motorcycle adventures around the world, and a talk-show on two wheels go to ADVChina every Monday 1pm EST
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Barred from Leaving China
https://youtu.be/WDuy7mBzCEk

For a realistic perspective on China and world travel from an American father and a Chinese mother with two half-Chinese daughters go to Laowhy86 every Wednesday 1pm EST
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What BAD Habits did I get from China?
https://youtu.be/aMGTWmxZelM

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