Taiwan: Responses to Thailand’s upheaval, if there is any · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

Taiwan is no stranger in terms of “Red Shirts” and street protests. In September, 2006, the island had its own anti-corruption campaign which also involved about one million red-shirt protesters demonstrating against the former President Chen Shui-bain (who has been still under custody since Nov.12, 2008). And when the first tide of Red-shirts protest started in Bangkok, 2007, and Yellow-shirts in 2008, many Taiwanese people expressed concern over the situation.
Two years later, for many Taiwanese, memories of fierce protests had become history although Thailand is still the hottest tourist spot and one of the most invested country for Taiwanese people. (400,000 Taiwanese tourists visit Thailand every year, and Taiwan ranks No.3 in terms of foreign investment in Thailand.) People were no longer interested in understanding the cause of the protest, nor its political implication. The most direct reaction was touristic safety.
The consecutive upheavals make many Taiwanese worries about their safety, the twitter queen Carol Lin is one of them:
還好之前一直阻止我弟他們去泰國畢業旅行，曼谷市區連百貨公司都被燒了…….Central World Fire Bangkok May 2010 http://bit.ly/d7oorg
It seems that the whole world is indifferent to the situation in Thailand. Torrent Pien was one of the first commenting on this weird silence:
From@torrentpien
從國際至今仍靜觀泰國政府執行的和諧社會政策，可以看出平常口水噴得一堆的普世價值只是虛偽、看對象的垃圾嘴泡而已
From@torrentpien
真是死有輕於鴻毛、重於泰山，平平都是狙擊暗殺，也都有影片流出，伊朗的Neda就能獲得國際媒體大量煽情報導，泰國Khattiya卻只是一個小插曲，每個人都該自問，為什麼當時會被Neda感動到，對Khattiya卻完全沒感覺
From@torrentpien
要我是泰國政府，會覺得國際媒體真犯賤，之前幾次國際上的鎮壓事件，記者被抓、被關、被殺傷個幾個國際媒體就排山倒海譴責。這次泰國軍方不知道已經有意無意射傷、射殺好幾個記者，國際媒體還是維持「平衡」報導，這個真理部在哪裡啊？泰國政府要感謝都找不到單位
Cobain Yah retweeted Torrent's opinions, and explained why people kept silence:
一堆人等著去泰國瞎拼阿,有誰會去伊朗,當然希望泰國政府越快解決這件事情越好,哪管得著用什麼方式解決…
I also used the twitter account of Global Voices in Chinese@globalvoiceszh to collect conversation related to Thailand:
相信許多人都對泰國的情況很關心，如果你對泰國有話要說，歡迎直接 @globalvoiceszh 給我們，我們會將你的問題、意見整理成文章。
Publisher and blogger @octw asked:
@globalvoiceszh 我想知道泰國政爭的結構性背景。泰國知識份子如何看待這樣的鬥爭？總理、王室、樞密院和國會的組成和相互的權力關係是？
Political talkshow host of PTS(Taiwan Public Television)@achhong suggested a twitter account to follow:
關心泰國鎮壓的網友，可follow此推特帳號得知最新情況 http://twitter.com/georgebkk/
Music commenter and blogger @honeypie said:
關於曼谷情勢，我從鳳凰衛視記者閭丘露薇的微博看來的現場報導，比我看到的所有台灣媒體都更有料、更翔實。 http://t.sina.com.cn/luqiuluwei
So, maybe the last tweet of Rose LuQiu before she left Thailand could be a useful note for Thailand people, for Taiwanese people, and for many:
離開酒店去機場，泰國司機說，終于結束了。其實沒有結束，撇開政黨鬥爭，如果泰國社會沒有一支發展中的力量代表基層來爭取利益，泰國的社會矛盾會更加深刻。
Special thanks to Marta Cooper for language editing