A few links...
- Overseas KMTers petition to expel Wang Jin-pyng from the KMT. This is very very good for Taiwan's democratization... episodes like this illuminate the Leninist, quasi-religious nature of KMT ideology, with its powerful urge to purify instead of modernize. The radicals who think they are "Chinese" are making Vatican II impossible for the KMT... this urge to get rid of the Taiwanese because they are "impure" is the kind of ideological radicalness that produced the more-KMT-than-the-KMT New Party, which has been an electoral catastrophe. Now if only the DPP has the good sense to support and expand the NPP... because in winner-take-all election system, there usually isn't room for 3 parties.
- Taiwan-Hong Kong: Former KMT spokesman denied visa to Hong Kong apparently because he is on the assets committee. Discussed by EJI Insight: Hong Kong getting dragged into China-Taiwan struggle. VOA here.
- Migrant worker reforms needed: did you know 1 in 10 kids is the child of a migrant worker?
- Josh Ellis: doing the city god inspection
- Tourism claims now helping KMT in Hualien by-election. Of course a whole infrastructure arises to service political flows of tourists -- a subsidy, in effect -- and then this parasitical infrastructure demands action when the flow of subsidies is cut off.
- Post Office Bank hit by Mega bank stock tumble
- Synapticism: another trip to Dadu Shan's military installations
- The Diplomat: Lovable Taiwan's soft power
- Amitai Etzioni wants to sell out Taiwan in the name of peace
[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!
"..and then this parasitical infrastructure demands action when the flow of subsidies is cut off."
ReplyDeleteThese businesses deserve no sympathy for putting all of their eggs in one economic basket. Welcome to the real world!
Hualien City is a tough one to call; there are a lot of pro-greens in the actual city, as opposed to the county, but as you say, the government will get the blame for the lack of Chinese tourists, although many of us who live there were glad to see the back of them and felt we have got our county back after 8 years! However, Hualien is still a KMT stronghold, and I would say they will win this comfortably 60-40, and they are running a local candidate from the KMT political clan. The DPP's candidate, the widow of the previous mayor, was dressed at rallies in flashy designer clothes, and has not much experience, both of which haven't gone down well apparently.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking me down memory lane with the counterfeit article. I used to love going to those Taiwanese electronics markets in the 80s. I was once admiring a nice Sony receiver and I asked the salesperson how he could sell it so cheap. The salesman said "It is a Goldstar receiver packed in a Sony casing." As an interesting postscript to this episode, today (30 years later) Goldstar, now know as LG Electronics, is actually a larger company and has more advanced products than Sony.
ReplyDeleteLol. Yeah, i wanted this for memory lane too...
ReplyDelete