Frozen Garlic heats up the blogosphere with two good posts that you should peruse. The first looks at potential splits in the Blue vote in key areas.. .Yesterday, there was a story about Lo Fu-chu 羅福助, who may be considering a run in New Taipei 12. (New Taipei 12 is centered on the Xizhi district.) Lo is one of Taiwan’s most infamous citizens. He is widely considered to be one of the top figures, perhaps THE top figure, in Taiwan’s organized crime landscape. Lo previously sat in the legislature, winning in 1998 and 2001. His tenure in the legislature was marked by controversy, to say the least. He was often verbally attacked by other legislators who wished to grandstand as being against organized crime. Lo did not always react with restraint. In one case, Liao Hsueh-kuang 廖學廣, a colorful legislator in his own right, locked horns with Lo. A few days later, Liao was abducted. He reappeared naked inside a dog cage next to a road a few days later. Maybe this was just coincidence; maybe it wasn’t.Oldtimers will remember Lo when he was at one point co-chair of the legislature's -- hold for it -- judiciary committee. Yes, the man who used to brag that he was "spiritual leader" of what was then one of the island's three most powerful organized crime gangs, the Celestial Alliance, was head of the judiciary committee and questioned the minister of justice. While in the legislature Lo, nominally independent, acted as a KMT enforcer. Fabulously wealthy, allegedly from illegal gambling, loan sharking, and the sex trade, Lo was imprisoned for a couple years in one of the anti-gangster sweeps two decades ago. Lo is a sharp operator, generous to his local area through his charities. As Frozen Garlic points out, he could well mount a strong challenge based on his ability to organize locals and toss money around. The whole post is good, be sure to read it.
Speaking of the KMT and organized crime, Frozen Garlic also blogs on Ma Ying-jeou and his alleged secret meeting with an underground gambler/bookie kingpin in the wilds of Chiayi. From FocusTaiwan, which reported on the President's denial that such a thing occurred:
The KMT's presidential election campaign headquarters also voiced a strong protest and asked Next Magazine, which published the report in its latest issue Wednesday, to clarify the facts and issue an apology.Ma has never been shy about cavorting with organized crime figures -- recall that he showed up at the wedding of powerful legislator and longtime alleged organized crime heavyweight Yen Ching-piao's son several years ago, along with other major KMT politicos. According to eTaiwan News:
Under the headline "Meeting Underground Gambling Tycoon, Stepping on Black Gold Mine," the report said Ma and Chen Ying-chu, a local businessman, had a closed-door meeting at Chiayi Mayor Huang Hui-min's home Sept. 10. It hinted that Ma had received a donation for his reelection campaign.
KMT spokesman Chuang Po-chung said the entire report was a a mare's nest. It is "untruthful reporting" based on rumors and it violates media professionalism, he said.
Meanwhile, Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi said Huang did in fact introduce Chiayi residents to Ma on two separate occasions at the old mayoral residence which has consistently been used as a reception hall -- one in 2008 and the other in 2009. However, they were routine greetings, he said.
Chen is reportedly involved in international online gambling and in betting on Taiwanese elections. He also has a criminal record, Next wrote.(Note that the nation's gambling establishment thinks Ma will win). Chen Ying-chu is not just any gambler, btw. This 2006 China Post article identifies him as a gambler with vast international connections:
In the process of investigating Lu’s account books in the following six months, Chiayi prosecutors found that Chen Ying-chu, the largest banker for online betting operations in Chinese communities around the world, and deputy city council speaker Chiu Fang-chin, were also involved in the case.If anyone wanted to funnel donations from sources overseas, the banker for Chinese communities all over the world would be just the ticket. But I'm sure nothing like that is happening.
Chen Ying-chu operates two general gambling Web sites abroad to handle all kinds of betting operations from Chinese gamblers, with Chiu Fang-chin serving as Chen’s general agent in Taiwan. If the stakes were for Hong Kong’s “Mark Six” lottery ticket numbers, the stakes were usually switched to Lu Po-hsien.
In any case, as Frozen Garlic pointed out, the brush with organized crime occurred just as Ma was raising the farmers subsidy after reversing himself when it was pointed out the pittance he had originally proposed would cost him thousands of votes. In other words, a double dose of bad news for Ma this week. Chip, chip, chip, the lead erodes.
ADDED: Oh, and CCA minister and longtime KMTer Emile Sheng stepped down today over the ridiculous bill for the musical staged on ROC national day... chip chip chip
__________________
Daily Links:
- Bloomberg's William Pesek with an excellent piece on China's mercantilist approach to capitalism, the US, and the Obama Administration. Some people get it...
- FPIF on China's coming economic crisis
- Coryn holds up nomination of Mark Lippert as Obama's east asia point man over F-16 sale to Taiwan. Lockheed, the F-16 maker, is a big donor to Sen. Coryn.
- Taroko Race from Drew
- Why you should care about Taiwan. And Michael Mazza from AEI. And National Review Online (which sucks). The wretched Kane piece's one silver lining was its ability to bring out people to speak on Taiwan's behalf. Some of the stuff has been good. Oh yeah, at The Atlantic, James Fallows hosted some of my complaints about Kane.
[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.
17 comments:
Organized crime is in so many countries that you think what the hell is going on with law enforcement. When dealing with these, one needs to be careful because if you use brute force, you create more problems than good. Normally you have to negotiate enough that will keep them in line and use there own influence to help keep things in order. They want to make money, they want to have power, just like any company. It is how they do it that makes a difference. I have met people in Taipei that tried to rob me, and we were actually able to strike a deal and both walk away satisfied.
There are different ways to handle things that unfortunately the average person has no knowledge as to how difficult it is to maintain a good balance. These are also the people whom would be reluctant to pay for what they believe is doing the right thing. They do not hesitate to urge the Government to do things util you ask them is it important enough that you will pay for it. These are also the same people that complain the Government is not doing enough for living support. These are also the same people that are reluctant to go out there and learn more skills and knowledge to contribute to the well being of where they live, these are also the people that will also throw waste down the gutter and wonder why they get flooded, these are also the people that like to build things wherever they want and blame the Government when it gets damaged by the Typhoon, these are also the people that block the roads to prevent you from parking where you should be able to legally park...
I am more worried about disorganized crime you cannot communicate with, and they have nothing to loss.
George
The US military has bases in Korea and Japan and is going to station
more soldiers in Darwin,Australia.
Taiwan wants US to defend it so I think the US should move some bases from Okinawa to Taiwan.
Daily Links
people to speak on
Taiwan's behalf???
National Review
"I also have no desire to go to war over Taiwan and think we need to make clear we’re not going to do that..."
DAVID MILLAR - reunify rejoin .. with the mainland.
It's hard to believe claims of "Swiftian satire" from someone who spells "misspent" as "miss spent"...
George-
It sounds like you are advocating a system which circumvents democratic rule and unfairly costs taxpayers billions in inflated government projects.
Lots of money is riding on the horse that is closest to corruption and organized crime because a lot of rich people can get even richer by fleecing the system like they have been doing.
Still, your way of incorporating the anti-democratic function of organized crime into the governing structure leaves a lot of people out in the cold.
I hereby refuse to address any comments on my posts made by sissies hiding under the Anonymous skirt unsigned. Please put at least your first name to assume responsibility for whatever you say.
George
Whatever George... Does a name really matter when calling you on your bullshit? Is it the name you are afraid of or the comment?
Rose
Rose,
I put my signature because I feel openminded enough to discuss issues without betting emotionally involved.
Bare in mind that most youngsters that joined in gangster groups are mostly those that were left out in the cold! These groups took them under their wings at a time that nobody else cared for them. These may include parents that were emotinally unstable (possibly like you), cast out from schools that did not want to deal with thier behavior (schools which did not live up to their responsibility to educate, and for many other reasons. These cannot be solved by brute force, but with sound reasoning and caring.
Gangsters are organized like any political party or companies, they just have a different management system. If proper communication is conducted, the majority will abide the law and are actually well controlled so that they do not disturb others.
If you have better solutions, please make them available to all of us.
George
Sorry George...
These gangsters were the children of well connected military officer families with connections and protections. They could get American contraband off base without fear of persecution under a system that favored the KMT class.
By Any Other Name
Not the ones I have met.
Most of the people I have met that were wanted for crime some time in their life were the kind I have mentioned.
Now, what I can only conclude from the information involved is:
Children of well connected military officer families with connections and protections take people left out in the cold under their wings which formed the gangster group.
Any more information that can shed light on the issue?
It seems to me of the families took care of thier own children, and schools would hold on the students that were on the verge of joining gangsters, the gangsters could never have grown.
George
American supported gangsters?
It sounds like CIA operations.
Let's try to piece the information together without making conclusions or taking sides yet.
George
It seems to me of the families took care of thier own children, and schools would hold on the students that were on the verge of joining gangsters, the gangsters could never have grown.
George, the gangster class that grew by selling blackmarket items from American military PXes is a well known feature of Taiwan life in the 1950s and 1960s. I am surprised you have never heard of it -- many famous people whom I will not publicly name were part of this network of organized crime. These gangsters were not uncared for children but were generally well-connected individuals who could get consumer items -- remember that sales of consumer items were controlled in Taiwan, to force the public to save money and to reduce imports. Hence you had to be somebody to get access to the goods. This network of corruption thus indeed took in knowing Americans.
The gangsters in Taiwan are generally pro-KMT and allied to the mainlander elites, many of them have their roots in the old military villages around Taiwan. They are not the result of neglect, except by the government, but rather of the KMT's colonial system of governance. Like organized crime the world over, such gangs got their start extorting funds by preying on their own people, the old soldiers and than later branched out into other businesses, though in legend they grew out of the need to defend the bases from Taiwanese (ha ha).
The gigantic American PXes were also used by diplomats from other countries, who supplemented their incomes by purchasing appliances and other consumer goods and selling them to mainlander gangs.
These networks of corruption flourished because the KMT's colonial regime was so incredibly corrupt. One needed to pay bribes even to get a phone, as oldtimers will tell you.
Michael
>>>"It sounds like you are advocating a system which circumvents democratic rule and unfairly costs taxpayers billions in inflated government projects."
Hey, that funny, sounds like the U.S.! But wait, we don't have gangsters. How does that work?
>>>"Lots of money is riding on the horse that is closest to corruption and organized crime because a lot of rich people can get even richer by fleecing the system like they have been doing."
Hey wait a minute, that sounds like...er....see above...
>>"Still, your way of incorporating the anti-democratic function of organized crime into the governing structure leaves a lot of people out in the cold."
Here we go again. The democracy jock in action....because clearly western liberal democracies have ironed out the corruption issues...all of Asia should be taking their lead...thank god they have the west to show them how real countries run their business...
Michael,
American military PX products should only be available to the US military, "it takes two hands to clap" as we would say, to making these available was the American military PX. Was it illegal? Not to my knowledge from the ROC side of the legal system. What do you know about the US side?
Current gangsters no longer thrive on that, so I think it's part of the history, but has nothing to do with how you deal with it today. We can go all the way back to the hatred of foreign invasion on China and blame foreign influence,including foreign values that fueled the current economy situation, but that certainly does not help improving the current situation, so I say we should learn from the past but deal with the current to build a good future like mature grownups.
George
PS. Got you message that you could not make it.
BTW Michael,
From what I know about the PX issue, the money made were the foundation for taking those out in the cold under their wings. Which is still does not change what I could gather from the information presented so far.
George
I took some time to read some parts of the Bloomberg article.
"A stronger stance toward China need not lead to confrontation for a very simple reason: It’s no more in China’s interest than the U.S.’s. The glue that holds together the entire Chinese economy is exports. The imposition of steep U.S. or European tariffs on Chinese goods would be a huge blow."
Tariffs will work on countries that does not have a large enough self sustaining economy. China is not among those. So unless foreign countries want to raise hatred by repeating the history of the invasion during the Ching Dynasty, it is best be more creative. Only this can show true leadership style, and be fit to continually lead the world.
George
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