Could the KMT really go with Hung? + Linkfest

Found this glorious beetle decked out in aboriginal colors.

Solidarity translated two reports from the local news today. First, an Apple Daily piece saying that the KMT is courting destruction following its rules and going with Hung.

Visit the countryside and ask a KMT legislative candidate, still straining to keep a wisp of a smile on his face, how he feels right now. Having heard that for the sake of its system the party will nominate a “systemic” presidential candidate, he shakes his head and waves his hands and says, “We’ll fight our campaign on our own. I can’t possibly put up a campaign ad where I’m pictured with Hung Hsiu-chu 洪秀柱. As soon as my voters saw that picture, I’d lose their votes!”

This view is especially strong in the central and southern regions. Hung is clearly and colorfully a waishengren 外省人, and she can’t understand a word of Taiwanese. How can she establish a connection with voters there? Outside Taipei’s city limits, the fear is already spreading.

A Hung candidacy will be a train wreck for the KMT. I'm still stunned that it is even under discussion. Are wiser heads are prevailing inside the KMT? From Solidarity again:

The two sides have not reached a consensus on whether to have a “comparative poll” (placing Hung head-to-head against Tsai) or a “support poll” (simply asking whether one supports Hung’s nomination). Hung is calling for a support poll, while the party is leaning toward a comparative poll. Hau said that as the convener of the party’s nomination review committee, he does not have the standing to determine the issue, but he will communicate Hung’s position to the committee to discuss.

Solidarity has translated a couple of articles in that second post, which indicate that the consensus on how Hung's nominating process will be carried out was trashed by the Sec-Gen of the KMT. Confusion and disarray within the KMT, and hard to tell who is charge, with people acting independently. Hung's complaints are rounded up in Frozen Garlic's post...

The economy is not getting better. Articles below discuss the NT, which the central bank is frantically trying to shove down in order to keep pace with the yen, whose fall is hurting exports in both Taiwan and S Korea. For ordinary people the economy is totally stagnant, with three-fourths of the working class not getting a raise this year, and seven years of Ma Administration failure is going to punish the KMT candidate hard. Our trade surplus with China will also fall this year.

KMT legislators, put into power by local factions, have repeatedly indicated they want either Wang Jin-pyng, long the informal leader of the KMT factions in the Legislature, or KMT Chairman Chu. Every day that the party dithers over Hung is another day that the factions will consider making a deal with the DPP or running candidates against the KMT.
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Daily Links:

• Chen Chu once again has highest satisfaction ratings among mayors. 
• Nearly three-fourths of workers have seen no rise in pay. That will definitely impact the election.
• This Taipei land grab is a textbook case of how public land is converted to private wealth.
• Births rise 8% in 2014
• The falling yen slams Korea and Taiwan
• Frozen Garlic on whether the DPP should yield districts to smaller parties and an interesting post on a Keelung candidate's lousy polling instructions,
• One key one from two weeks ago I forgot about: the head of the Straits Exchange Foundation -- not a government body, as a sharp observer pointed out to me -- announces that limits on Chinese students are likely to fall. Flooding Taiwan with Chinese has always been a key goal of Ma's annexation policy.
• WantWant is all about defending big business and attacking the DPP
• The awesome Dr Sullivan with another great Taiwan reading list, this one on Taiwan's democracy in comparative perspective.
• The trade in Taiwan box turtles to China is going to wipe them out. Another example of the glorious benefits of integration with China
• Smith and Mazza on Tsai's dilemma with the US. Note that the demand that Tsai "clarify" her cross-strait policy, is a pro-KMT move.
• Arthur Waldron, longtime Taiwan supporter and watcher, on the South China Sea mess.
•  US re-evaluating Taiwan's South China Sea role. Haha. With the KMT at the helm? Don't think so, guys. You'll have to wait for Tsai's election. But a Taiwan admiral attended the US Pacific Fleet handover.
• Speaking of re-evaluating, signs are afoot that the US is at last re-thinking its China policy. CFR on revising US grand strategy. And here. Also here. Along with this, the US Right is pushing Taiwan as a great example of democracy and prosperity. Last week in Forbes, and now this week in The National Review. If only Taiwan was mentioned on the Left as often as it is on the Right....

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