Lots of commentary on the election out there.....
BLOGS:
- Snarky Tofu with video made by putting his camera on the conveyor at a sushi place
- Taiwan in cycles takes the wife to Sanyi.
- Danshui loses its status as a great seaport by the Danshui history blog
- Frozen Garlic on the Lien shooting.
- Adjusting to Taiwan's crazy work ethic
- maddog rips TVBS' polling
- The Nanpu stone lord festival from the excellent Wandering in Taiwan
- David lists some of our great English-language blogs
- Sinocentric was actually at the DPP HQ when news of the shooting broke.
- Ben on flying in pan-Blue voters from China
- Tea Masters on the Famen temple exhibition, a must for tea lovers
- KMT takes hit in the prediction markets for 2012; Ma's chances of winning fall still further.
- Stocks, housing prices to rise on KMT election results.
- Asian press says election a warning for the KMT.
- CNA says elections results might slow cross-strait policy.
- US scholars say "both parties refrained" from using Lien Sheng-wen shooting as mobilization tool. Did they not watch TV on Friday and Saturday? Did nobody see Lien Chan crying? What earth are they living on?
- Commercial Times: what election results reveal
- United Daily News: alarming election results.
- Pundits also see alarming results for KMT, landscape shifting in DPP's favor.
- Hu did not do well in Taichung county and promises to work on that.
- WSJ rebounds from its horribly slanted article the other day with a good column on the election. Contains more useful commentary from Jerome Cohen on the judiciary.
- Sean Lien now claiming the gunman called his name before shooting him. Yeah, right.
- Radio Oz with Aussie scholar Bruce Jacobs on the elections
- Heritage discusses the elections this wednesday.
- What kind of party is the KMT? Construction stocks rebound on the news that the KMT won 3 of 5. Now you know.
- AFP's report. Don't bother if you've already read Xinhua.
- Territorial disputes: proxies for US-China competition
- Indian scholar on China's visa policy of treating Jammu and Kashmir as separate territories.
- Anti-Korean spleen in Taiwan
- The effect of the 1937-45 war with Japan on Chinese society.
- Business Insider on the now famous Taiwanese animation team.
- Wikileaked US cables say China was behind hack of Google. The database contains over 3,400 cables from AIT in Taiwan, according to the Guardian.
- East Asian welfare regimes
- Antarctic ice melt, predicted decades ago, now beginning to come true.
- Global Post on Amazon drought
- National Geographic photo contest: stunning images
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
8 comments:
Yes. And the plot thickens.
Lien told a high ranking KMT official that the shooter Lin Zheng-wei said 'Lien Sheng-wen, you are dead!' before pulling the trigger. SIx other witnesses who were on the stage including cops supposedly have told police that Lin said 'Lien Sheng-wen, gan li niang' before shooting.
One of the witnesses, who seen grabbing Lin and preventing further shots, is now being identified as one Liu Zhen-nan (劉振南), now a 'businessman' in the Zhonghe/Yonghe area and the former head of the Bamboo Union's Ai Hall. He just happened to be on stage because he is good friends with the candidate Chen Hong-yuan. Chen and his father run a family construction business [gangster alert] and the elder Chen used to be the deputy speaker of the Taipei County Council (gangster alert!!]. As it happens, the Chen family is trying to develop the Guting market but not all the residents have signed up yet [gangster alert!].
So a known gangbanger shoots the son of a former KMT Chairman who is on stage to endorse a local candidate with links to organized crime. Then a known 'made man' in one of Taiwan's largest criminal organizations just happens to be on stage as well to stop the hit from being successful.
Even by KMT standards, this is pretty good stuff.
After following the election reporting and the discussions here on the blog I would like to ask the following questions for everyone to discuss:
1. How are the chances of Su to become the DPP candidate? He holds no position in the party and wasn't elected to a mayoral position. Plus his election result was disappointing. However he has a great campaign team(which actually helped Tsai in Sinbei) and maybe still grassroots support
plus he is already over 60 years old so it would be his last chance in 2012.
2. As you mentioned Tsai is more popular with undecided voters, she also managed the factions of the DPP well and has very good relations with the media plus is as the chairman in a very strong position. I am afraid it will
come to a conflict within the DPP over this issue which would hurt the party's chances in 2012. An academic even mentioned the strong possibility of a DPP split in 2011/12 over this issue. How likely is this?
3. In 2016 Tsai should have a good chance, but the likely contender Eric Chu would also be strong because of his administrative abilities (possibly 6
years in Sinbei) plus he could be considered a 'local boy'. How strong is Tsai if she lacks the administrative experience which Chen and Hsieh had?
4. What will happen if Ma get's reelected with a narrow margin? I believe he himself would wish to move ahead with political negotiations to firmly link
Taiwan to the PRC which is in line with his political stance and Chinese identity and create a situation which would make independence of Taiwan as
one of the options of the Taiwan people forever impossible (arguably after ECFA it is already impossible). The PRC would of course also pressure him
massively and in his second term he does not have to care about public opinion. Both sides would see it as unique chance to create hard facts. This could lead to massive protests in Taiwan, especially if the 2012 elections were close, which results are unpredictable. What do you
think about this scenario?
I am guessing Lien Zheng-wen was peddling influence to opposing crime groups and the losing gang didn't take too kindly to being treated like a bitch.
No, i think they are trying to distract attention from the fact that a gangland hit took place on an election platform of the KMT involving KMT candidates.
"Did nobody see Lien Chan crying? What earth are they living on?"
Would you not cry if your son is shot in the face?
Barry
I followed your link to Diana Lary’s “China and Japan at War: Suffering and Survival, 1937-1945” in Japan Focus and…, yawn...
That people in academia still find harping against a long gone militarist Japan relevant is only proof to the long shadow China is projecting on our academia and mass media.
I much preferred, because more relevant to Taiwan, her earlier scathing indictment of the KMT prosecution of their war against Japan in her “The Water Covered Earth: China’s War-induced Natural Disasters”, page 143-170 of “War and State Terrorism – The United States, Japan & The East Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century”, edited by Mark Selden and Alvin Y. So. Partially available online at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=D0icvm2EQLIC&pg=PA143#v=onepage&q&f=false
“In China, in 1938, a military action, conducted by the state turned out to be an act of terror against that state’s own civilians, in short, terror conducted by and in the name of the Chinese state, for the protection of China.”
Joseph Stilwell, among many, knew first hand what the KMT had been up to in China. Why did they held the Taiwanese in such contempt that they had to foist those institutionalized terrorists on Formosa?
crying and asking voters not to let Sean Lien's blood be spilled in vain! Obvious flogging of the incident for votes.
"crying and asking voters not to let Sean Lien's blood be spilled in vain! Obvious flogging of the incident for votes."
Mickey, if your son was shot in the face I would first pray for his fast and safe recovery and comfort you being the father.
The life of your son who is not even a candidate would be more important than plain partisan politics.
We know that you are a very well educated person and a much respected teacher/professor so you also have the responsibility to talk like one and be a good model for your students.
Barry
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