Taiwanese thumb their nose at China

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Apart from a wedding in Hawke’s Bay at the weekend, much of the attention of the news cycle in the past week and the one that started yesterday has been focused on overseas developments.

At the head of it is the Israel-Hamas war that has now passed the 100-day mark without any sign of relief in the bloodshed.

Israel has well and truly lost the moral high ground with its intransigent determination to destroy Hamas despite the devastation and death and injury toll among what are mainly innocent civilians.

Even those who accept Israel’s right to defend itself, and remember the barbarity of the Hamas attack, are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with nightly television news footage of suffering Gazans.

The worst part is that there are no encouraging prospects. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to ignore diplomatic efforts from the United States and much of the rest of the world.

The fear of an extended conflict in the wider region increased after the US and Britain launched multiple airstrikes on bases in Yemen occupied by Houthi rebels, and warned that these would intensify if any more ships were attacked in the Red Sea.

Disruption of this critical trade route is affecting countries as far away as New Zealand with increased costs and delays.

But probably the major development of the weekend was the win in Taiwan’s election by the Democratic Progressive Party and its new leader Lai Ching-te.

This result is a blow to China which before the poll described Lai as a troublemaker and a separatist.

Despite the pressure, the island nation has returned the DPP for a record third election in a row, in effect thumbing its nose at China.

This will only increase the already high tensions in the region and the, hopefully remote, possibility of a Chinese invasion.

During the election Lai repeated his formula that “there is no need to declare independence because Taiwan is already a sovereign state; its name is the Republic of China - Taiwan”.

This will not placate China’s leader Xi Jinping who seems determined to base his legacy on getting control of Taiwan.

In the US the race for the Republican nomination for president begins in a frozen Iowa. Former president Donald Trump remains the strong favourite; the goal for his main challengers Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis is to avoid being crushed at the outset as they try to build momentum among moderate Republicans.

And getting back to that wedding, former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern married a guy from Gisborne.