China Times can't stop lying

Don't start believin'

It never stops, does it? The mendacious China Times (based in Taiwan) has done it yet again.

In an August 30, 2007 story (and one might as well use the term "fairy tale"), propagandist Norman Fu (傅建中) told another story which only small children would fall for. This particular fabulation claimed that "an important official" in the US government told Fu that if Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) insists on holding a referendum to join the United Nations (UN) under the name "Taiwan," the US will "only need five minutes to organize the people of Taiwan to overthrow Chen."

Of course, this kind of nonsense needed to be corrected as soon as possible, and it didn't take too long for some real reporters to do so.

Who ya gonna call?
An article by Nadia Tsao and Tsou Ching-wen in today's Taipei Times pwns the demons behind the lies:

Following an analysis in the Chinese-language China Times that quoted "an important US official" as saying the US could stage a coup to overthrow the current Taiwanese government in five minutes, top US officials have responded to inquiries from Taiwanese diplomats in the US by unambiguously stressing that this was not US policy, and that no US official would say anything to that effect.

Diplomats were also told that since the original report, written by the China Times' Washington correspondent Norman Fu (傅建中), did not include a source for the statement, there was no way the US could verify whether or not it had actually been said.

They were told that if someone really did say such a thing, it was thoughtless and not a policy statement.

[...]

Sources say that the AIT deputy director told the MOFA officials "that this is absolutely not the US' position" and that he would convey the concerns of Taiwan's government to Washington.

The Taipei Times article also tells us that Taiwanese officials will base Taiwan's next steps on "how the US government handles the follow-up to the issue."

Seeing as the US doesn't recognize the ROC, but refers to Taiwan as "Taiwan" on the CIA World Factbook page, in the Taiwan Relations Act, and in so many of its own policies, I don't see the logic of denying the people of Taiwan's desire to join international organizations under that name. Is the US protecting Taiwan, or is Taiwan protecting the US via such policies?

BONUS REVELATIONS:
* A while back, Fu claimed to have been "taken in" (arrested or detained) by authorities while "covering" the story of Wang You-theng's (王又曾) confinement at an immigration detention center in the United States. Watch Fu reveal his own story to be a lie. [Mandarin listening and reading abilities required, but I'll tell you this much -- Norman volunteered to go in the officer's car to apply for permission to report from the federal facility.]
* Make of this what you will, but see how "competitive" Fu is with "reporters" from TVBS, ETTV, and even with spokesliar Hu Chung-hsin (胡忠信) (once [current?] editor-in-chief of EraNews) at a press conference in Los Angeles for wanted criminal Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪). [Mandarin listening and reading abilities required.]
* Here's part 2 of the above video.

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Spokes in the wheel: Taiwan, 台灣, media, 媒體, China Times, 中國時報, Norman Fu, 傅建中, propaganda, 宣傳, Hu Chung-hsin, 胡忠信

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!