Read on Twitter
Taiwan's "Chinese Wild Bird Federation" forced out of UK-HQed conservation org BirdLife International bc...yup https://www.bird.org.tw/news/585
The Telegraph contacted BirdLife International for comment, but it said it would be “inappropriate for us to comment publically on matters relating to, and interactions with, partner organisations”. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/15/ruffling-feathers-bird-group-ejected-birdlife-international/
if you do a search for "Taiwan" on the BirdLife website and try to access the bio page for the "Chinese Taiwan" page, well you can't
there's a long history of China pressuring Taiwan in @BirdLife_News. @cwbf1988 in fact used to be called Wild Bird Federation Taiwan, but had to change its name to Chinese Wild Bird Federation in 2008. Taiwan was even a founding member of BirdLife in 1996. https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/focus/paper/239376
a 2013 TW article says that China wasn't even a member of @BirdLife_News - indeed a search for China on its website brings up only the Hong Kong (China) mission - but China only sought to push TW out of any participation in intl institutions https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/local/paper/695209
Taiwan has contributed annually to @BirdLife_News conservation projects in Sao Tome, Cambodia, and Madagascar. what happens to that funding now? https://www.birdlife.org/asia/news/chinese-taiwan-support-birdlifes-forest-programme
in the canon of "nothing is too small for China to politicise when it comes to Taiwan" anecdotes my fav is probably still the one about Rockhampton council in Aus painting over a TW flag painted by kids on a bull sculpture in line with the one china policy https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-09/childrens-cow-statue-design-altered-taiwan-flag-painted-over-qld/9739574
i keep coming back to this quote by @RollandNadege in an intvw with a Dutch newspaper earlier this year: "China is already shaping us more than we think.” https://gaodawei.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/de-volksktrant-interview-rana-mitter-and-nadege-rolland-china-is-already-shaping-us-more-than-we-think/
as per @TaiwanBirding, no matter how "non-governmental" something is - in this case a literal NGO - it will get politicised as a One China issue. https://twitter.com/TaiwanBirding/status/1305725780744310786
seriously another day another china streisand effect https://twitter.com/catielila/status/1305734930521972736
also very fitting that i learned about this incident first thru @niaocollective
“So much of birding and bird life involves migration and travel between different areas. Birds do not care about borders," said @TaiwanBirding https://qz.com/1903623/bird-conservation-ngo-boots-taiwan-group-over-china-relationship/
a reminder that now that @cwbf1988 has left @BirdLife_News, the Chinese representative is the HK Birdwatching Society and not a mainland Chinese NGO. https://twitter.com/TaiwanBirding/status/1305808423020232705
. @BirdLife_News still hasn't responded to my request for comment https://twitter.com/TaiwanBirding/status/1306485734879027200
as per Reuters, @birdlife_news told employees not to comment on the expulsion of Taiwan group in an internal email, and its CEO called @cwbf1988's response a “sadly public statement” https://twitter.com/TaiwanBirding/status/1306802595160186885
(it reminds me of comments from some public health experts and health writers who were admonishing Taiwan during the WHO/China saga suggesting that TW was being petulant and needlessly political)
the birding world is aflutter https://twitter.com/urbanbirder/status/1306820111886626816
free of political shackles, the China Wild Bird Federation has been renamed Taiwan Wild Bird Federation, releases further details of @BirdLife_News's expulsion of the group. CEO accused @twbf1988 of being "unwilling to leave global politics at the door" https://www.bird.org.tw/news/602
