The Son of Taiwan accosts the First Lady of America

The Son of Taiwan accosts the First Lady of America
Bevin Chu
May 15, 2006

哥國大典 扁握蘿拉手要求合照
At Costa Rican Ceremony A-Bian grabs Laura Bush's Hand demanding a Photo Op
2006.05.10

聯合報記者劉永祥
United Daily News Reporter Liu Yong-hsiang


陳水扁總統八日在哥斯大黎加新任總統阿里亞斯的就職典禮中，主動伸手要與美國第一夫人蘿拉握手，但蘿拉正在鼓掌，陳總統一開始未能如願。美聯社
"President" Chen Shui-bian at Costa Rica President Arias's Inauguration Ceremony, pressures US First Lady Laura Bush to shake hands with him while she is still applauding. Associated Press


陳總統終於握到蘿拉的手，一旁待命的我國翻譯立即拿起相機抓住畫面。法新社
"President" Chen succeeds in pressuring Laura Bush to shake his hand, while his translator captures the moment. Agence France Presse

Comment: Chen Shui-bian, aka "A-Bian," apparently felt he hadn't offended the Bush administration enough by bailing out on US State Department personnel at the eleventh hour, after his request for transit through Alaska had already been approved.

Upon spying Laura Bush at Costa Rican President Arias' inauguration ceremony, Chen Shui-bian got it into his head to accost her, twice. Once at the beginning of the playing of the Costa Rican national anthem, and once again at the conclusion.

Video footage of the incident told the whole story, as the above still photos cannot. Anyone who knows anything about body language knows exactly what happened.

Diplomatic protocol prohibits a man from approaching a woman and pressuring her to shake one's hand. Any exchange between a man and a woman must be initiated by the woman, not the man. Laura Bush kept applauding, hoping "this person" would go away, sparing himself and her any embarrassment. When A-Bian refused to take the hint, she reluctantly shook his hand.

Not only did A-Bian shake Laura Bush's hand longer than was appropriate and longer than she was comfortable with, he trapped her right hand with his left hand in addition to his right, adding to her discomfort.

Not content with committing his diplomatic gaffe once, A-Bian rushed over to Laura Bush again as the Costa Rican national anthem concluded and repeated it a second time.

One can only imagine what George and Laura Bush said to each other later in the privacy of the White House about her encounter with this gauche buffoon.

This international faux pas, captured by the AP and AFP, was not merely a breach of etiquette, it was a highly revealing indicator of the deep ambivalence within the Taiwan "independence" Quisling mindset.

On the one hand Taiwan independence Quislings insist that they are proudly independent. On the other hand, they desperately crave affirmation and approval from certain significant others to whom they feel congenitally inferior, specifically former colonial master Japan and current imperial puppetmaster America.

As I wrote in "Diaoyutai and Pan Green Self-Delusion":

Nothing is wrong with Taiwanese (Chinese people on Taiwan) wanting to stand tall, walk out into the sunlight, and enjoy respect. This is a perfectly laudable, completely understandable, highly desirable goal.

During KMT Party Chairman Lien Chan's stunningly successful "Journey of Peace" to the Chinese mainland, CCP Party Secretary Hu Jintao explicitly acknowledged the legitimacy of Taiwanese wanting to "dang jia zuo zhu" (be masters in their own home).

Demands from Taiwanese for respect are not a problem. Within the framework of One China, as former PRC Premier Zhu Rongji once underscored, all kinds of concessions can be made, because any concessions would be made to one's fellow countrymen.

Demands for respect are a problem only when, as George Washington put it, "ambitious, corrupted, or deluded (i.e., Japanized) citizens, who devote themselves to the favorite nation (Japan)... betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country (China)."

Respect entails self-respect. Before others will respect you, you must first respect yourself. Self-respect in turn, entails self-affirmation. If one respects oneself, one will have no hesitation affirming who one is.

A reluctance to affirm who one is, a determination to pretend one is something one is not, is symptomatic of a deep-seated lack of self-respect. If one is reluctant to affirm who one is, if one is determined to pretend one is something one is not, one has already invalidated oneself at one's very core. Nothing one can do subsequently will ever make up for this initial act of self-invalidation.

The reluctance of Pan Green Quislings to affirm that they are Chinese, their stubborn insistence that they are "Taiwanese, not Chinese," their pathetic attempts to spin themselves as "quasi-Japanese," are all symptoms of the Pan Green Quislings' profound lack of self-respect. Pan Green Quislings who refuse to affirm who they are, who insist on pretending they are something they are not, have already invalidated themselves at their very core. Nothing they can do subsequently will ever make up for this initial act of self-invalidation.

The Laura Bush handshake fiasco was merely one more example of the humiliations Taiwan independence Quislings are doomed to inflict upon themselves as long as they refuse to confront the neurotic contradiction at the core of their "Taiwanese, not Chinese" identity politics.

See: Taiwan Independence and the Stockholm Syndrome

美國總統布希拒絕讓陳水扁總統過境美國本土，但陳水扁還是利用機會，兩度「主動的」握了布希夫人蘿拉的手。

「美國總統夫人蘿拉布希。」大會司儀介紹美國第一夫人蘿拉，當她步上哥斯大黎加總統就職典禮會場舞台時，立即吸引了陳總統的注意。站在右邊第一排第四個位置的陳水扁，不時轉頭望向站在左邊第二排第二個位置的蘿拉。

蘿拉進場後，數度與站在扁左側的墨西哥總統福克斯夫婦及薩爾瓦多總統薩卡談話，但沒有與扁互動；經過一段時間的等待，扁終於按捺不住，趁表演節目開始、大家各自談天的機會，大動作繞過他人，走到後排與蘿拉握手。

兩人互動約一分鐘，扁習慣性地用左手拍拍她被緊握的手，還請隨行的西語翻譯向前。扁當場邀請蘿拉來台訪問，蘿拉則只是禮貌性地回答「謝謝」。

典禮最後，哥國禮賓官向貴賓說明退場安排，福克斯率先離場，不過扁似乎另有期待，數度起身又坐下，注意蘿拉動態；同時與翻譯交談，交代事情。

等待過程中，扁不時望向舞台前的攝影記者席，一度還握住手掌，用大拇指指向記者，隨後邁出步伐，再度走向蘿拉，開口問：「能不能跟妳合照？」

扁再度出現，正在鼓掌的蘿拉似乎有些意外，沒有立即回應，當時蘿拉正在鼓掌，沒有注意到陳水扁已經伸出懸在半空中的右手，扁決定接住蘿拉還在胸前拍手的右手，蘿拉不知是驚嚇還是訝異扁找她合照，不自主的縮回左手，放在胸口上。扁則利用機會要蘿拉代向布希問好。

扁的傳譯從隨身提袋裡拿出預先準備的相機，為兩人拍照，由於蘿拉沒有面向鏡頭，扁不但用手勢請她看向鏡頭，還拉著蘿拉的手請她稍微轉身，終於完成這場「走向蘿拉」的戲碼。為了替這場重頭戲宣傳，事後總統府還主動提供媒體由傳譯拍攝的兩人合照。

2006/05/10 聯合報