Pure Entertainment: the Taipei Mayor's Race

O the pain, the comedy is too much. Lien Sheng-wen (Sean Lien), son of Honorary KMT Chairman for Life Lien Chan, and KMT mayor candidate in Taipei, has put out this wonderful commercial above, asking people to tell what they would do if they had his kind of money. I think the idea is to show what a noble, self-sacrificing lad is our hero Sean Lien, running for mayor of Taipei when he could be out having a good time... Hey, I've got an idea -- let's remind everyone that I am totally rich and have never worked a day in my life. A completely empty ad, it says nothing about what Sean Lien can do for Taipei.

More interesting than the ad's amusing premise is its choice of presenters -- all young people and notice that all are brightly white-skinned and freckle free. No dark skinned people in KMT Taiwan. Its construction of "Taiwanese" is quite stereotypical. I wish someone out there would point that out.

Meanwhile Ko Wen-je, the non-KMT candidate, has been sticking his foot in his mouth with relentless regularity. This week it was totally sexist remarks about a female candidate down south. Needless, stupid remarks. Ko's handler's need to teach him never to criticize anyone except Sean Lien, in the tradition of coaches talking about the opposing team... "Well, they have some good players, and we're going to face a tough battle. But we'll prevail." With Ko and Lien both insensitive and gaffe prone, these last seven weeks before the election will be fun.

Less amusingly, the KMT has started its inevitable attack on Ko, which I've been expecting for some time. A KMT legislator accused him of corruption, etc. This is only the tip of the spear, the attacks are going to get worse. As an administrator for many years, there's probably some receipt issues (here in the land of fake receipts) and other minor stuff that someone could blow up into a scandal.
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Daily Links:

• Ralph Jennings at Forbes says China is taking a swipe at Taiwan because it is losing patience. The general opinion of this piece is that Jennings has read too much into the official's remarks. 
• Don Rodgers at Thinking Taiwan with the second of his excellent pieces this week, this one explaining why President Ma rules as an imperial president despite incredible political weaknesses
• Don Rodgers' other good one this week, on defending Taiwan's economy and society.
• Jamestown org on the devolution of China's maritime authority to local provincial structures. Chinese ships also harassing Vietnamese fishing boats. 
• Taiwan exports hit three year high
• Taiwan-US talk on submarines. For heaven's sake can we get subs since we can't get fighters? And why not buy the Soryu-s Japan is currently retiring? Someone in the US needs to push someone in Japan to sell to Taiwan.
• China taking aim at Taiwan's semiconductor talent with high salaries. 
• Nat B: Hong Kong a mirror for Taiwan?
• Jens Kastner: Taiwan-China relations souring. Chang An-lo's quote about Ma is nonsense.

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