RIP Taiwan Communique / Thinking-Taiwan

So today the news was confirmed that the Thinking-Taiwan blog was to be closed down on May 20th. This comes hot on the heels of news that the very useful periodic compendium of Taiwan news, Taiwan Communique, published by FAPA, had also ceased to be published. And, according to The View From Taiwan, it seems like another website on Taiwanese politics will also close soon too.

A few days ago when I got the heads up about the fate of Thinking Taiwan I commented to a friend that the timing was inauspicious and remarked somewhat glibly that “LOL they may as well close it on May 20th for how subtle this is”. Imagine my astonishment then to see the tweet above from Thinking-Taiwan Editor in Chief J. Michael Cole.

May the 20th of course is the date the new DPP President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) gets inaugurated into office. For my readers who don’t know the connection, this About Us blurb on the Thinking-Taiwan website clarifies matters:

Putting aside the rather aspirational claim that T-T is “the nation’s premier source of nonpartisan analysis and commentary about politics, society, and culture in Taiwan” (Oxford commas matter guys), the news that T-T is shutting down on May 20th of all dates immediately belied the claim that T-T was non-partisan. Of course it was nothing of the sort but that said T-T was jam packed with great commentary from a wide range of established scholars and emerging thinkers, Taiwanese and foreign, an example here being the pieces submitted by my good friend solidaritytw. who immediately and helpfully compiled and archived a list of his T-T articles on his own blog.

Unfortunately what this hasty move telegraphs, whether intended or not, is that Thinking-Taiwan was a forum to host voices and promote writers who were generally friendly to the Tsai campaign and the DPP for the purpose of getting the DPP back into power. The timeline of these publications unfortunately lends credence to this theory. Tsai’s foundation was established on August 6th 2012 and Thinking-Taiwan was launched on May 6th 2014. Whether this is actually the case is something that could only be actually confirmed by the people who informed Cole that T-T would be shut down but such rumours won’t be negated by Cole’s tweet that it was “not my decision”, suggesting a perhaps sudden edict from on high that Cole was powerless to counteract. Nevertheless, the news has left in my mind the feeling that Cole and the other contributors at T-T were crudely used and disposed of once their utility to an ulterior goal been exhausted (albeit successfully). Above all though I’m left with the impression of a sad and hasty abandonment of talent and a valuable and unique internet space. The idea that T-T would serve no purpose after May 20th was also deeply questionable as Michael Cannings rightly pointed out:

The fact is that the T-T and a number of us bloggers outside of the publication likely contributed hugely to what seems to be a slow reawakening on the part of US politicians, state institutions, and think tanks that the US establishment narrative on Taiwan had not only been catastrophically wrong-footed in its Taiwan policy but that it had wasted the last sixteen years punishing Taiwan for being a victim of Beijing’s aggression, in turn only emboldening Beijing’s clumsy and provocative ‘foreign policy’ towards Taiwan, Japan, the US, and the South China Sea. It is arguable that T-T was an essential component in a network of publications which paved the way for Tsai to get much better treatment from the US than she received prior to her first run for office in 2012. And therein lies the rub. Closing the T-T now not only sends a crude message of ‘Thanks for all the fish’ but it potentially leaves Tsai or the DPP open to the charge that they do not want T-T to become a forum that might turn its analytical eye on their administration and any potential failings it might suffer. The whole affair unfortunately, rightly or wrongly, screams “better to shut it down now before it starts asking questions as to why Tsai is not meeting her promises”. It suggests a pre-emptive move to remove a source of ‘receipts’ that might encourage tweets like this:

Of course, this is speculation and there is probably a logical reason for the shut down that might owe itself to rules on conflict of interest, concerns about T-T writers producing content that could become a liability for her administration, legal constraints on how she spends her tax-payer provided salary, or perhaps budget constraints, but the timing only encourages the flames of suspicion rather than quench them.

One last comment. There is no doubt that J. Michael Cole has contributed greatly to wider understanding of Taiwan outside of the country through his tenure as the editorial writer for the Taipei Times and through his books on Taiwanese politics. Also unquestionable is his passion for Taiwan, his skill as a writer, his research, and his desire to defend Taiwan from the vagaries of Beijing’s bullying and the international media’s culpability in facilitating that aggression. Cole has always consistently been an ally of Taiwan and not an uncritical or fawning one, producing over the years reams of excellent work. Credit where credit is due and Cole should have little difficulty finding another position, considering his readily apparent expertise and skill, but if he does he might consider the fact that writing “not my idea” in a tweet sends a counter-productive signal to future employers of a tendency to burn the bridges he has deemed he will not need to cross again.

This also happened at the end of his tenure at the Taipei Times when he hastily published a denouement on his blog accusing management at the paper of being blind Tai-du affiliates uninterested in a less partisan critique. Even if his accusations were true, such an action was unprofessional and potentially harmful to his reputation and career, a fact I think he quickly realised when he deleted the post very soon after. But a second problem has also been persistent: a tendency to ignore and show a mild if polite disdain for other foreign Taiwan politics commentators deemed to be ‘less professional’ or producing something similar in output to what he posted at his own blog. His consistent refusal to post links to other blogs or retweet other commentators not only reduced the effectiveness of the network’s ability to combine voices in support of Taiwan, but also spoke to a mild snobbery as if other bloggers, having not regularly rubbed shoulders with officials and military brass were lesser. Whether intended or not it often felt like he was, politely if condescendingly, saying “I am the only serious embedded foreign commentator on Taiwan. I am a professional journalist and I will not taint my brand by associating with amateur bloggers and helping promote their poorly-researched suppositions”. In turn this kind of attitude has not endeared him to a number of long-term resident foreign commentators who regularly put out top quality analysis on their respective social media sites. For my part, my interactions with him over the last seven years of writing this blog have been extremely limited but one of them serves as an example of how alienating he can be at times. Last year when I offered to write a piece for Thinking-Taiwan I received this patronising and demeaning reply:

Our policy at Thinking Taiwan is to publish articles by “professionals” in fields related to Taiwan - journalists, academics, grad students, and so on. This is intended to distinguish our product from other web sites out there (e.g., blogs, Taipei Times, etc). The only exception to this rule applies to Taiwanese, as we aim to give them a voice and the ability to communicate with our key audience - government decision makers, academics, foreign media, and so on. So I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass.

Not only did Cole sort me as chaff to his wheat by suggesting my output wasn’t professional because I wasn’t a credentialed professional commentator he still went ahead, despite that only exception rule, and published articles by foreign contributors who, although excellent in their output, also didn’t meet the criteria by which he had rejected me. The email was polite but clumsy, offensive in its corporate speak, and exclusionary. It came at a time when I had two other forums eager to publish my articles and shortly before I was interviewed and quoted in international media on the upcoming elections. It was all in all a very messy and unnecessarily bad handling of a simple offer to provide content from someone who had already written multiple articles alongside his at the University of Nottingham China Policy Institute Blog.

Nevertheless, my commentary is still often requested and my blog remains and will continue to be a place where I provide my thoughts on Taiwanese politics and the new Tsai administration in the same vein that it has before: critically deconstructing events to help provide those outside Taiwan another source and interpretation aside from mainstream media. Blogs haven’t gone away and are still relevant, as we all saw in this past election. They play a niche role alongside other social media forums and allow a deeper more nuanced analysis than can be achieved in 140 characters. When bloggers who share some similar values combine to create a narrative or counter-narrative the impact can be powerful if at first difficult to quantify or readily see. Bloggers might be amateurs or they might be, as with Cole, also professional analysts, but they are still relevant and necessary in the absence of professional media’s independence from the influence of investors or state pressure. As he is now only a blogger again, I hope Cole will reach out to mend bridges and join the wider community of commentators who still respect him for his work and his dedication to making Taiwan an ever better and increasingly internationally recognised nation.