An Inconvenient Democracy: The U.S. Coverage of Taiwan s 2008 Presidential Election

Transcription

1 人文暨社會科學期刊第八卷第二期民國一 一年 35 Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp (2012) An Inconvenient Democracy: The U.S. Coverage of Taiwan s 2008 Presidential Election WEI-HSIN FU Department of Communication Studies, Tzu Chi University No. 701, Sec. 3, Jhongyang Rd., Hualien 97004, Taiwan (R.O.C.) ABSTRACT The relationship among Taiwan, China and the United States is complicated and volatile. This study tries to unfold the framing strategy of Taiwan question via the U.S. mainstream press s coverage of the 2008 Taiwan s presidential election. Through the lens of framing theory and a qualitative framing analysis method, the signature matrix, this research intends to answer two questions: How did the US press frame Taiwan s future (independence from China vs. unification with China) and Taiwan s democracy? This study finds that there are no fixed news frames portraying the Taiwan question. Regarding Taiwan s future, the investigation shows that there is no fixed organizing idea regarding Taiwan s future. Some reports support Taiwan s referendum and its seeking for membership in the UN. But, other remarks concern the reality, namely, the stability in the Taiwan Strait. In other words, Taiwan s future remains an open question. As to Taiwan s democracy, the value of democracy in the 2008 US mainstream press seems to be ignored or even demonized. The constant criticism of Taiwan s referendum both from China and the US is somehow difficult to understand. This study argues the US s Asian policy is to promote democracies while it is handy and demote them when it is inconvenient. Unfortunately, Taiwan s democracy belongs to the category of inconvenience. Key Words :Taiwan question, Taiwan s independence, framing theory, signature matrix 令人為難的民主 : 美國媒體對台灣 2008 年總統大選的報導 傅維信 慈濟大學傳播學系 花蓮市中央路 3 段 701 號 摘要美國 中國與台灣三者之間的關係敏感而錯綜複雜 本研究藉由美國平面媒體對台灣 2008 年總統大選的報導, 分析美國對台海問題的框架論述策略 本文援引框架理論, 運用質化的框架分析方法 特徵矩陣, 提出以下研究問題 : 美國媒體如何框架台灣的未來 ( 獨立 vs. 統一 ) 以及台灣的民主? 本文發現美國媒體並沒有固定或單一的框架論述策略 關於台灣的未來, 美國媒體的報導並沒有固定的中心概念 部分報導支持台灣的公投以及

2 36 Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2012 重返聯合國, 但也有評論關切台海和平穩定的現實面 換言之, 台灣的未來仍是一個開放的議題 至於台灣民主的價值, 似乎被美國主流媒體忽略甚至妖魔化 台灣公投不斷地被美國與中國批評, 頗令人費解 本文指出當亞太情勢單純和緩時, 美國會支持亞洲的民主 ; 但是如果局勢複雜而令人為難時, 民主價值則顯得無關緊要 可惜, 台灣的民主似乎是屬於令人為難的範疇 關鍵詞 : 台灣問題, 台灣獨立, 框架理論, 特徵矩陣 I. INTRODUCTION The triangular relationship among Taiwan, China and the United States is a complicated one. In order to explain this complicated issue in simple terms, the cross-strait relationship is this: China claims that Taiwan is part of China s territory and threatens would attack Taiwan should Taiwan declare independence, but Taiwan maintains its sovereignty. The America plays an important role of balancer: On the one hand, it must try to calm China and seek China s help in coping with many international affairs (e.g., North Korea). On the other hand, it also must try to support Taiwan s democracy and make it part of the East Asia network against communism. America s finesse of playing the balancer between Taiwan and China sometimes worked, and sometimes did not. There have occurred four major Taiwan Strait crises in Taiwan since The first two crises ( and 1958) involved heavy artillery attacks on Quemoy and Matsu, small islands of Taiwan. The last two crises ( and 1999) revolved around military exercises, missiles tests and psychological warfare (Pinsker, 2003; Who manufactured the crisis, 1999, September 24). The resolutions of these crises, without exception, all relied on the U.S. intervention. Under such volatile geopolitical circumstances, this study focuses on the analysis of the U.S. press coverage of Taiwan s 2008 presidential election. This research employs framing theory and a qualitative framing analysis as its research method to examine the news stories about the Taiwan question. The U.S. plays a role of balancer regarding the cross-strait dispute. Therefore the U.S. press coverage about this issue provides a site to review the projections of different forces and ideas. More specifically, how does the idea of democracy play out in the framing process is this study s major concern. This study tries to reveal these ideas which may influence the future in the Taiwan Strait. II. LITERATURE REVIEW There are at least two approaches to study journalism. They are the objectivity and bias paradigm (Tuchman, 1971, 1972; McQuail, 2000) and the framing paradigm (Hall, 1982; Tankard, 2001). This study adopts the framing paradigm as its research approach. The employment of the concept of frames can be traced back to Goffman (1974). After Goffman, many scholars have made their contributions on building framing theory. Basically, frames function either to enable us to make sense of the world (Goffman, 1974; Gamson, 1989) or work to limit (or promote) certain viewpoints (Iyengar, 1991; Entman, 1993). The former approach is related to the study of cognition and the later one is about the practice of journalism. Before explaining the meaning of a frame, maybe we should ask: where are frames from? Scholars have suggested three possible approaches to think about the origins of frames, namely cognitive structures (Gitlin, 1979; Lakoff, 2004), ideology (Hall, 1982, 2003), and language or labels (Said, 1997; Lakoff, 2004). Furthermore, where are news frame from? As Gitlin(1980) put it: Where do news frames come from? How are they fixed into the appearance of the stable, the natural, the taken-for-granted? And how, despite this, are the prevailing frames disputed and change? (p.249) The practice of journalism is very likely to be the answer to Gitlin s question (Entman, 1989; Dickson, 1994; McQuail, 2000). In addition, the framing of the Taiwan question represents high-threshold issues (Lang & Lang, 1981). Lang and Lang distinguish two kinds of issues, low-threshold issues and high-threshold issues. The former refers to issues with which we have direct or personal experience; and therefore we can make our own judgments based on our experience. The later means issues that we have no direct experience with; so we form our opinions through the media. International news is something we seldom have direct experience. The media help us understand the world which is inevitably constructed by certain news frames. This study aims to analyze the news frames from the U.S. coverage of Taiwan s 2008 presidential election. For Americans, the coverage of Taiwan s issues is therefore a high-threshold issue. Scholars have discussed the Taiwan question via different perspectives. We can treat this as a result of the ethnic tensions between Mainlanders and Taiwanese (Chang, 1993), an issue of

3 37 WEI-HSIN FU: An Inconvenient Democracy: The U.S. Coverage of Taiwan s 2008 Presidential Election Taiwanese people s voting behaviors (Yu, 1996), a political choice due to the development of democracy, localization, and international isolation (Chen, 2001), or a frame analysis about the support of Taiwan s independence or one-china policy (Fu, 2007). This study follows the frame analysis approach to examine the U.S. news stories of Taiwan s 2008 presidential election. III. RESEARCH METHOD AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study uses frame analysis to examine news frames in the U.S. press. There are two approaches to conduct frame analysis: one is to count key terms appearing in the texts; the other one is to identify news frames in the news stories. The former one (the quantitative approach) makes frames measurable, the latter one (the qualitative approach) tries to capture the preferred reading of the text. Both approaches have their merits and limitations. Based on the nature of this study, the qualitative approach is adopted. In fact, Goffman s (1974) the organization of experience (p.10), Gitlin s (1979) persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and presentation (p.12), and Gamson s (1989) a frame is a central organizing idea for making sense of relevant events and suggesting what is at issue (p.157), all of them refer to frames as a central idea of a text rather than the most frequent term (Reese, 2001). The most frequent term does not necessarily refer to a central idea of a text. Besides, what is not said or ignored in news coverage could be part of a central idea (Holstein, 2002). News stories may ignore obvious information intentionally. Therefore, the unsaid information can be heard or revealed via a qualitative frame analysis. To lay out the core news frames, Gamson and his collaborators methodology, the signature matrix method is introduced (Gamson & Lasch, 1983).This approach provides five framing devices (metaphors, exemplars, catchphrases, depictions and visual images) and three reasoning devices (roots, consequences and appeal to principles) to unveil how news frames were formed and constructed. Gamson and Lasch said: Every package has a signature - a set of elements that suggest its core frame and position in a shorthand fashion. These signature elements of a package are the condensing symbols by which it is displayed. (p.399) In Gamson and Modigliani s (1989) system, metaphors are the first framing devices which help individuals to understand one thing by another. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) have also referred to frames as metaphors. Why do we need to distinguish framing devices from reasoning devices? Gamson and Modigliani noted: framing devices that suggest how to think about the issue and reasoning devices that justify what should be done about it. (p.3) In fact, Entman (1993) has similar distinction as well. The research question of this study centers on the U.S. coverage of Taiwan s 2008 presidential election, more specifically: 1. How does the U.S. press frame the issue of Taiwan s future in terms of independence from China or unification with China? 2. How does the U.S. press frame Taiwan s democracy? This study examines Taiwan s 2008 presidential election s news coverage in the US mainstream press. The timeframe began on August 13, 2007 (U.S. press started to comment on President Chen Shui-bian s letter to UN for applying for membership), and ended in President Ma Ying-jeou s inaugural speech on May 20, Table 1. The number of retrieved stories & examined stories, 2007 to 2008 News media Number of retrieved stories Number of deleted stories (e.g. Number of examined stories briefs) NY Times Washington Post Wall Street Journal LA Times Time Newsweek Total This research used ProQuest Newspapers database and the websites of the selected press to retrieve relevant news stories. The search used terms such as Taiwan s presidential election, and Taiwan. The purpose is to find news coverage as completely as possible. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times are four of the major newspapers that were examined. Time and Newsweek are two of the major magazines that this article investigated. The first reason these newspapers and newsmagazines were selected is their wide circulation and national reputation in terms of their ability of setting agenda. Second, the number of American foreign correspondents of the selected press outnumbers the major television networks (see Hacgten & Scotton, 2007, p.135).

4 38 Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 2,2012 IV. A FRAME ANALYSIS OF TAIWAN S 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION The number of retrieved stories and editorials/opinions was 178. Some of them were news briefs or irrelevant news. This article does not examine them due to their lack of elaboration or relevance. After deleting news briefs and irrelevant coverage (63), 115 stories were investigated (see Table 1). Among the 115 stories, 89 stories are straight news without reporters comments or irrelevant coverage. The following analysis will focus on 26 stories with reporters viewpoints and news frames (see Table2). Table 2. News titles and their relevance, 2007 to2008 News title Date Media Straight News/NA Frames/ Attitude Superdel 04/27/2008 NYT v F Sympathy on the streets, but not for the Tibetans 04/18/2008 NYT v A not-so-fine romance 04/03/2008 NYT v Chinese nationalism fuels Tibet crackdown 03/31/2008 NYT v Growing gulf divides China and old foe 03/29/2008 NYT v Europe and U.S. press China over Tibet 03/27/2008 NYT v China tensions could sway vote in Taiwan 03/21/2008 NYT v Taiwan s independence movement likely to wane 03/12/2008 NYT v H China plans steep increase in military spending 03/05/2008 NYT v Kosovo is recognized but rebuked by others 02/19/2008 NYT v Taiwan prepares for first of 2 major 2008 elections 01/12/2008 NYT v China promotes Taiwan-focused military officers 10/10/2007 NYT v New challengers emerge, threatening to take the lead 09/25/2007 NYT v Beijing 08: Let the politics begin 08/12/2007 NYT v Taiwan s vice premier under suspicion in scandal over diplomatic 05/06/2008 WP v outreach funds The facets of Chinese nationalism 05/05/2008 WP v $30 million lost in diplomatic scandal, Taiwan says 05/04/2008 WP v Eisenhower advisers discussed using nuclear weapons in China 04/30/2008 WP v China sees change in Taiwan leadership bringing closer ties 04/17/2008 WP v U.S. initially unconcerned about erroneous shipment 03/27/2008 WP v Nuclear parts sent to Taiwan in error; U.S. learned of 2006 mix-up 03/26/2008 WP v Test in Taiwan; democracy has produced a government more 03/25/2008 WP v favorable to Beijing which now must deliver on the promise of better relations Taiwan s Ma sets plan to recast ties to China; vision includes 03/24/2008 WP v economic, security gains, then peace accord Taiwan voters elect new President; Nationalist Ma Ying-jeou s win 03/23/2008 WP v likely to ease tensions with China, pleasing U.S. Taiwan referendum faces boycott; opposition move likely to doom 03/13/2008 WP v U.N membership measure U.S., China resigned to Taiwan vote; both put hope in citizens 03/06/2008 WP v rejecting controversial measure China s military budget reported at $59 billion; sharp buildup raises 03/05/2008 WP v concern in U.S. Taiwan stakes its claim on disputed isle; Philippines raises protest 02/03/2008 WP v Taiwan s democratic lesson; China Communist leadership still doesn t get it 01/21/2008 WP v F China wants U.S. to do more to prevent Taiwan vote 01/18/2008 WP v Despite victory, Taiwanese party urges caution; different sentiments in play for March Presidential vote 01/14/2008 WP v Opposition in Taiwan secures major win in legislative polling; results seen as renunciation of President s independence drive 01/13/2008 WP v B The candidates world of myopia 09/23/2007 WP v A voice for Taiwan s freedom, history 08/24/2007 WP v Taiwan party head to visit China, Hu 05/19/2008 WSJ v The Ma Ying-jeou Era 05/19/2008 WSJ v Museums: In Taiwan, the politics of art; museum s stress on 05/17/2008 WSJ v non-chinese objects fuels cultural dispute WHO Strait talk 04/24/2008 WSJ v Taiwan Tete-a Tete 04/15/2008 WSJ v China, Taiwan signal interest in better ties 04/14/2008 WSJ v Cultural autonomy for Tibet 04/08/2008 WSJ v Taiwan, China leaders plan informal meeting at forum 04/07/2008 WSJ v For Taiwan s new leader, the pressure is on; on promise to forge ties with mainland 03/25/2008 WSJ v

5 WEI-HSIN FU: An Inconvenient Democracy: The U.S. Coverage of Taiwan s 2008 Presidential Election 39 Table2.(continue) News title Date Media Straight News/NA Frames/ Attitude Mr. Ma and China 03/25/2008 WSJ v Tighter Taiwan ties with China? Investors hope so and bid up shares; 03/25/2008 WSJ v Stock Index surge 4% on post-vote optimism; currency s 10-tear high Taiwan shares, dollar soar on vote; Hope over China ties fuels 03/25/2008 WSJ v tourism firms, 4% rise in benchmark For Taiwan victor, pressure is on 03/24/2008 WSJ v China tones down rhetoric ahead of island s election 03/20/2008 WSJ v Taiwan heads for thaw with China; in Saturday vote, economy s 03/20/2008 WSJ v woes spur talk of detente After Chen 03/20/2008 WSJ v Taiwan Strait tightrope 03/18/2008 WSJ v F China urges U.S. to prevent Taiwan poll; Washington says it has done 01/18/2008 WSJ v all it can on independence vote Taiwan s new tack 01/15/2008 WSJ v Our one-china cowardice 01/15/2008 WSJ v F Taiwan vote may bolster ties with China 01/14/2008 WSJ v Taiwan vote may boost China ties; opposition party, less defiant in 01/14/2008 WSJ v tone, gathers momentum Changing the vote, voting for change 01/11/2008 WSJ v Taiwan vote may set stage for warmer China relations 01/09/2008 WSJ v China flexes its muscles 01/03/2008 WSJ v F Beijing delivers Taiwan a message over U.N. slogans 11/15/2007 WSJ v Hu s in charge? 10/19/2007 WSJ v F Hu s central focus is on growth; speech to open National Congress 10/16/2007 WSJ v also lays out environmental goals Chen could strain Taiwan-China ties 10/12/2007 WSJ v Taiwan military parade is revived after 16 years 10/11/2007 WSJ v Trying Taiwan down 10/09/2007 WSJ v F Taiwan asserts separate identity 10/01/2007 WSJ v DPP backs Taiwan identity shift 10/01/2007 WSJ v Let Taiwan join the U.N. 09/17/2007 WSJ v F Taiwan rebuffs U.S. criticism 09/13/2007 WSJ v B King of the U.N. 08/13/2007 WSJ v What s good for Taiwan 03/29/2008 LAT v F China feels the heat of its Olympic ambitions 02/13/2008 LAT v China s man at the anchor desk 12/04/2007 LAT v Sustainable boom? 10/11/2007 LAT v Mattel apologizes to China 09/22/2007 LAT v China s latest export: soft power 09/02/2007 LAT v B Who freed Asia? 08/31/2007 LAT v Tibet s transformation: a new age for once-remote Lhasa 08/19/2007 LAT v Fukuda s last stand 05/01/2008 Time v Taiwan s new promise 03/27/2008 Time v Return to sender: The U.S. nuke slip 03/25/2008 Time v Taiwan s new head seeks change 03/22/2008 Time v B Strait talker 03/13/2008 Time v B Hong Kong democracy still postponed 01/15/2008 Time v Beijing s joy at Taiwan s democracy 01/13/2008 Time v B China s Kitty Hawk problem 12/03/2007 Time v More Taiwan tensions 09/20/2007 Time v H Taiwan s war of words with the U.S. 09/17/2007 Time v H An underwater threat 05/19/2008 NW v Untended garden 05/01/2008 NW v Chinese youth not all strident 04/30/2008 NW v Nationalism in China 04/24/2008 NW v Vanguard international innovator 04/20/2008 NW v A military opening 04/11/2008 NW v Monks protest before media, again 04/09/2008 NW v Meet Taiwan s conciliator-elect 04/07/2008 NW v China s dangerous gane 04/07/2008 NW v The politics of practical nostalgia 04/07/2008 NW v Tibet: Diplomatic incidents? 03/28/2008 NW v Hardliners get the upper hand 03/26/2008 NW v Bay of yaks: Why China mistrusts U.S> 03/23/2008 NW v Washington cries wolf 03/22/2008 NW v H It was the economy, stupid 03/22/2008 NW v

6 40 Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 2,2012 Table2.(continue) News title Date Media Straight News/NA Frames/ Attitude Why anger the dragon? 03/15/2008 NW v F A cooling trend in one of the most dangerous hotspots 02/18/2008 NW v H Foreign correspondent Ching Cheong freed from prison 02/06/2008 NW v Condi wades into cross-strait politics 12/27/2007 NW v Where Guanxi rules 12/17/2007 NW v Strait talk: Fear and misunderstanding 12/14/2007 NW v B Why is PetroChina importing gasoline from Taiwan? 11/02/2007 NW v B The self-absorbed dragon 10/29/2007 NW v B Taipei s show of force 10/03/2007 NW v Taiwan politics: Footwear fight 09/18/2007 NW v Balancing act: Taipei s military muscle is only just enough to deter 09/13/2007 NW v B Beijing Asia s dangerous divide 09/10/2007 NW v B * Attitude means US media s attitudes towards Taiwan. F refers to friendly, H refers to hostile, B refers to balanced. Table 2 demonstrates the whole news coverage that this research has examined. The last column of Table 2 tries to indicate 26 stories attitude towards Taiwan. Based on this study s investigation, if news frames are friendly to Taiwan then mark F, frames are hostile to Taiwan then mark H, frames are neutral or balanced then mark B. Furthermore, to make it more clearer, the last column of Table 2 will be presented as Table 3. Table 3 shows there is no fixed attitude towards the Taiwan question. Among 26 stories, 10 stories are friendly to Taiwan, 5 are hostile to Taiwan and 11 are balanced. The Wall Street Journal seems very friendly to Taiwan. However, other media are less clear. In fact, most of their attitudes are mixed. Based on the signature matrix method, the following paragraphs will provide a demonstration of the framing structure (34 news frames) of the Taiwan question. Table 3. US media s attitude towards Taiwan, 2007 to 2008 News media F (friendly to Taiwan) H (hostile to Taiwan) B (balanced or neutral) NY Times Washington Post Wall Street Journal LA Times Time Newsweek Total Framing devices A. Metaphors: a. The self-absorbed dragon (Moravcsik, 2007) b. Frenemy - a friend and an enemy all at once (Kurlantzick, 2007) c. Taiwan Strait tightrope (Carpenter, 2008) d. rattle the saber (Lam, 2007) e. political gambit (Kingsbury, 2007) B. Exemplars: a. In the 1970s, Taiwan was recognized by 65 nations. Today, only 24 mostly impoverished countries consider Taiwan independent. (Kingsbury, 2007) b. As we have seen with the two Yemens, East and West Germany, and potentially North and South Korea, two seats in the U.N. does not preclude unification down the road. (Schmitt, 2008) c. That s part of Washington s delicate balancing act in the Strait. The U.S. wants Taiwan to be strong enough to deter a Chinese attack, but not so strong that it s tempted to formalize its independence, risking war between Beijing and Taipei. (Liu, 2007) C. Catchphrases: a. Why anger the dragon? (Adams, 2008) b. Let Taiwan join the U.N. (Dole, 2007) c. Our one-china cowardice (Schmitt, 2008) d. Taiwan s new head seeks change. (Schuman & Tso, 2008) e. Taiwan s independence movement likely to wane. (Wong, 2008) D. Depictions: a. Even as cross-strait tensions rise, economic interdependence between the two regions grows, making the prospect of confrontation seem increasingly unlikely, saber-rattling aside. (Liu, 2007) b. The scale of Ma s victory he won by the largest margin in Taiwan s electoral history provides him with the public backing to pursue his agenda with gusto. His mandate is a repudiation of the DPP s preference for a more distant relationship with China. (Schuman & Tso, 2008) c. In fact, Taiwan is highly unlikely to formally declare independence or make any similar moves there s simply no consensus on the island for doing so. (Adams, 2007)

7 WEI-HSIN FU: An Inconvenient Democracy: The U.S. Coverage of Taiwan s 2008 Presidential Election 41 d. Taiwan s independence has proven an impossible dream. (Schuman, 2008) E. Visual images: a. There s no need to antagonize the dragon. (Adams, 2008) b. Washington cries wolf. (Moravcsik, 2008) c. We re dancing with elephants. (Caryl, 2007) d. China flexes its muscles (Chang, 2008) Reasoning devices A. Roots: a. Three years ago, China s congress adopted an antisecession law threatening to use military force against Taiwan if it declared independence, using fen lie for secession, or splittism. Why two t s? Apparently, we slavishly followed the Chinese propaganda agency s English spelling. (Safire, 2008) b. And by electing the first mainland-born leader since the end of Taiwan s authoritarian era 20 years ago, locals will also have stepped away from the identity politics that have long divided this island. (Adams, 2008) c. But we don t want to just make money off the Chinese, Ma says. We want to make friends with them. Then there will be less likelihood of war. (Schuman, 2008) d. For the United States, the clearest way of expressing that support is to give full diplomatic recognition to the state that already exists and that the Taiwanese overwhelmingly wish to preserve. Maintaining ambiguous, informal ties to Taiwan is confusing and potentially dangerous; it obscures Beijing s understanding of just how committed the United States is to Taiwan s defense and self-determination. (Bolton, 2008) e. The referendum, to be held during Taiwan s presidential election in March, would ask Taiwanese whether the island should apply for membership in the U.N. using the name Taiwan. The vote would be mainly symbolic because China can block Taiwan from joining the world body. (Dean & Bussey, 2007) f. But don t expect the Bush administration to cheer Taiwan s parades with the same vigor as its policy makers have supported Burma s prodemocracy demonstrators. That s because U.S. attempts to coordinate its Asia policies with China are linked to distancing Washington from Taipei. (Shaheen, 2007) B. Consequences: a. American Institute in Taiwan chairman Raymond Burghardt repeated U.S. opposition to Taiwan s plan to hold a referendum this March on joining the UN under the name Taiwan. That bid has sparked perhaps the most blunt public criticism the U.S. has ever made of its island ally. Such tough talk should help put the breaks on any possible adventurism in Taipei, and so stabilize the Strait. (Adams, 2007) b. While the Chinese government has said it would not tolerate the referendum, it has toned down its rhetoric and instead relied on pressure from the U.S., Taiwan s biggest ally, to discourage the move. In December U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the move was a provocative policy. (Ramzy, 2008) C. Appeal to principle: a. Washington fears being drawn into a cross-strait war and sees Chen as picking needless fights with Beijing. From that perspective, the sooner a cooler head takes over, the better. (Adams, 2008) b. Beijing and Washington share the same nightmare: that Taiwan will declare independence, forcing the great powers into a conflict they d rather avoid. (Moravcsik, 2007) c. The Bush administration has already loudly condemned the referendum as provocative, Mr. Hu s foreign minister demanded that the United States more firmly oppose holding the vote. How Washington is supposed to stop Taiwan s president from conducting a democratic exercise permitted by the country s constitution was not explained. (Anonymous, 2008) d. U.S. military absorbed by Iraq and Afghanistan, and China having become a major U.S. trading partner, the Bush administration is eager to avoid having to make such a decision. (Cody, 2008) e. No one would tolerate Berlin waking up tomorrow and telling Paris and the world that it wanted revisit the issue of Alsace. But somehow the West has come to accept this kind of behavior from China. Appeasing China will not lessen its ambitions toward Taiwan. If anything, by suggesting the referendum is a move toward Taiwan independence, Washington and its allies are unintentionally giving Beijing the very grounds it could use to take a more aggressive approach. (Schimitt, 2008) Through the demonstration of the news frames regarding the Taiwan issue, the picture seems much clearer. The scenario is: we are facing a dragon (China). Therefore, the situation around the Taiwan Strait is tense as walking on the tightrope. Taiwan has reached a crossroads in terms of moving forward to be independent from China or to be united with China. Some of the comments do support Taiwan s referendum and its seeking for membership in the UN. However, most remarks focus on the reality (e. g., the risk of warfare in the Taiwan Strait) rather than the values (e. g., democracy). However, things are more

8 42 Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 2,2012 complicated. Taiwan and China are political enemies and economic partners at the same time. The boundary between Taiwan and China is blurred. As Kurlantzick (2007) put it, Frenemy (a friend and an enemy all at once) is the true relationship between the US and China as well as between Taiwan and China. To answer this study s first question, the struggle between independence from China and unification with China remains. For instance, Let Taiwan join the U.N (catchphrases), Appeasing China will not lessen its ambitions toward Taiwan (Appeal to principle) show that Taiwan s need for international recognition is legitimate. However, on the other hand, Taiwan s independence movement likely to wane (catchphrases), Taiwan s independence has proven an impossible dream (depictions) indicate that Taiwan s independence is a fantasy but reality. One of the factors that the US considers is its Asia policy to have China s cooperation to deal with North Korea, for instance. As a matter of fact, Los Angeles Times pointed out in 2004: What the U.S. does need now is China s continued help in trying to woo North Korea away from nuclear weapons. Beijing also can help in pushing Pakistan to keep improving relations with India ( The value, 2004, p. B14). Therefore, Taiwan s issue is attached to the position of its Asia policy. As Shaheen (2007) put it this way: because U.S. attempts to coordinate its Asia policies with China are linked to distancing Washington from Taipei. More specifically, the concern of regional peace seems to be the core value regarding the US s Asia policy. Any move (e.g., Taiwan s referendum) that could threaten the status quo is framed as needless fights. As in U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice s depiction, Taiwan s referendum was a provocative policy. (Ramzy, 2008) The US is always a major protector of Taiwan. But in terms of military intervention or fighting for Taiwan, would America do it? Cody (2008) reasoned: with the U.S. military absorbed by Iraq and Afghanistan, and China having become a major U.S. trading partner, the Bush administration is eager to avoid having to make such a decision. Besides, President Ma s landslide victory can be interpreted as a rejection of DPP s course, namely, the pursuit of Taiwan s independence. Secondly, regarding this study s second research question, in Fu s (2007) study, he said: the frame changed from supporting democracy and self-determination to the one-china policy, and then shifted from the one-china policy to promoting the status quo. In other words, it has shifted from pro-taiwan to pro- one-china policy, and then to pro-china. Even though the Taiwanese people have shown their determinations by voting the pro-independence presidents, the U.S. press framing seemed to beg to differ. The frames changing over nearly a decade, from 1996 to 2004, suggest that the room for the movement of Taiwan s independence is slimmer and slimmer (p.114). In fact, the framing of Taiwan question is harsher and harsher toward Taiwan but China. The US officials repeatedly framed Taiwan s referendum as provocative is difficult to understand. We can argue: Why the practice of democracy, namely the holding of referendum, is a provocative act? Why democratic Taiwan is the one to blame but authoritarian China? Is it the case that Taiwan s democracy is somehow inconvenient not only to China but also to the US? In The Washington Post s comment, it says: How Washington is supposed to stop Taiwan s president from conducting a democratic exercise permitted by the country s constitution was not explained. Shaheen s (2007) provides an answer: As the relationship with China warms, the relationship with Taiwan must cool There is growing consensus across the political spectrum in Taiwan the U.S. no longer views Taiwan s democracy as a sine qua non in the three-way relationship between the U.S., Taiwan and China (Shaheen, 2007, p.17). Nye (1999) used to distinguish two kinds of national interest, interest-based (e.g., free market) and morality-based (e.g., democracy) values (p.24). The frame analysis shows that the value of democracy is overwhelmed by the US s interest-based value. Back to 2003, The Washington Post criticized the US s value judgment about the Taiwan issue: It seems hypocritical for Washington to call for democracy around the world while assisting a one-party regime in frustrating a new democracy s desire for self-determination. As William Kristol and Gary Schmitt wrote on the Weekly Standard s Web site last week, Taiwan is a thriving democracy. The Beijing government remains a tyranny. Will the Bush administration stifle democracy in Taiwan actually demanding that it not hold popular votes - to curry favor with the dictatorship? (Swaine & Pei, 2003, p. B2) Obviously, Swaine and Pei s comment is still valid today. However, this viewpoint seems to be ignored by the US mainstream press. However, while Taiwan s independence is not only China s nightmare but also America s, it is understandable in the perspective of the US s national interest. Except for few remarks, an organizing idea or the unsaid part about Taiwan s democracy is: Democracy is not the major concern in the US s Asia policy. One thing that is worth mentioning is the framing of China s image. Even though the relationship between China and the US is very close both economically and politically, the framing of China s image is mostly negative. For example, The self-absorbed dragon, rattle the saber (metaphors), and

9 WEI-HSIN FU: An Inconvenient Democracy: The U.S. Coverage of Taiwan s 2008 Presidential Election 43 There s no need to antagonize the dragon, China flexes its muscles (visual images) are all slanted. However, being critical is one thing, being stereotypical is another. The US mainstream press s framing strategy about China seems to have room for progress. V. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION This study s primary concern is the framing of Taiwan question via the U.S. mainstream press s coverage of the 2008 Taiwan s presidential election. This research employs framing theory and a qualitative framing analysis as its research method. Two major research questions are: How did the US press frame Taiwan s future (independence from China vs. unification with China) and Taiwan s democracy? News stories from four newspapers and two magazines are investigated. Basically, this study shows the US media s attitudes towards Taiwan are complicated. There are no fixed news frames depicting the Taiwan Question. The first research question asks: How does the U.S. press frame the issue of Taiwan s future in terms of independence from China and unification with China? The investigation shows that there is no fixed organizing idea regarding this question. Some reports do support Taiwan s referendum and its seeking for membership in the UN. However, other commentaries concern the reality over the values. The framing strategy indicates the legitimacy of Taiwan s need for international recognition as well as the danger of pursuing independence. The interesting part is these news stories do not suggest Taiwan should be united with China either. There is no central idea about Taiwan s future (independence from China or unification with China). In other words, Taiwan s future remains an open question. Second, how does the U.S. press frame Taiwan s democracy? Unlike the news coverage in 1996 (Fu, 2007), the value of democracy in the 2008 US mainstream press seems to be ignored or silenced. The constant criticism of Taiwan s referendum both from China and the US makes people wonder: Why a referendum is such an undesirable idea? For China, Taiwan is part of its territory and therefore rejects any move that can symbolize Taiwan s sovereignty. For the US, Taiwan s referendum could jeopardize its Asia policy and risk losing the regional peace. However, for many Taiwanese people, holding a referendum is only a way of practicing democracy. In fact, back in 2003, Sanger (2003) has already criticized the US (the Bush administration): His recent calls for support of democracies around the world, especially the Middle East, leave him in a poor position to condemn freely held voting on Taiwan, a place where authoritarianism has given way to a burgeoning democracy (p. A18). 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