China’s ongoing claims to Taiwan has been likened to a “fairy tale.”
That is, according to Taiwan’s representative office in the EU and Belgium.
It has again teamed up with Lectrr, a well-known Belgian cartoonist, to – albeit relatively gently – lampoon its big neighbour across the Taiwan Straits.
Over the past few years, Lectrr, from Flanders, has drawn a series of cartoons for the Taiwan Office on issues that, a Taiwanese spokesman said, “matter a great deal to Taiwan but are rarely easy to explain.”
The spokesman said these range “from threats to undersea cables to Beijing’s misuse of UN Resolution 2758.”
The cartoonist’s latest offering takes on Beijing’s One-China principle and, said the Taiwanese spokesman “puts it on the bedtime reading list alongside Snow White and Cinderella.”
The cartoon now features on tote bags and notebooks produced by the Taiwan Office in Brussels.
The material says “Taiwan is not a province of China” but “is a “well functioning democracy ..with a “freely elected” president.”
It also states, “It (China) has never governed Taiwan for a single day.
“If one was never married how can one get divorced?”
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be under its control. It has not ruled out the use of force to take the island.
But Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders. Polls show that the number of people who identify as Taiwanese, as opposed to Chinese, has gone up.
Beijing refuses to have diplomatic relations with any country that officially recognizes Taiwan. Under its “One China” principle, it asserts that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it.
Taiwan sits in a vital shipping lane but China insists its intentions are peaceful.
- Image credit: Lectrr
