City Forums

Jack Anderson, WaPo, Aug 9, 1979. ROC officials considered sending letter bombs to people whose politics they didn't like in the US, but the idea was scotched by Chiang Ching-guo, according to a Senate report.

At New Bloom Brian H writes on Ko Wen-je and the Shanghai forum controversy. Ko agreed to welcome a CCP official as a stand-in for the Mayor of Shanghai. The hooha among the Greens, including very stupid accusations that about Ko's politics (of course he is Green, stop it with the purity tests) is a good example of the short-sightedness of so many in the Green camp. Ko was criticized for hosting a CCP flunky instead of the mayor of Shanghai -- as if the mayor of Shanghai were an independent elected official and not a CCP flunky.

Greens need to take the long view on this -- Ko is still electable and as a non-DPPer can garner a portion of the Blue vote, making him strong for the mayoralty in the next election. Taiwanese like to give a second chance after providing a warning -- so I expect he will win but with a smaller winning margin (like Ma for his second presidential term) -- and in any case, at the moment it appears the KMT nomination is likely to go to Alex Tsai, a blithering mainlander ideologue, instead of some deserving practiced politician. Another four years of Ko would be very good for the DPP, as Ko may be able to make progress cleaning up the cronyism that infests the city government after years of Blue control, and he will take the political hit for doing that (not the DPP). Moreover, another Ko term will demonstrate that the earth will spin placidly on even if the mayor of Taipei isn't Deep Blue, as well as create momentum for alternative parties, which the DPP needs to foster if it wants to prevent the KMT from rising again. After that the DPP can give Ko's presidential ambitions a quiet smile, and show him the door.

By contrast, Kaohsiung has no answer yet for its city forum from any of the five cities invited (FocusTw)...

Kaohsiung sent out invitations to Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Fuzhou in June for the Global Harbor Cities Forum it initiated and will host Sept. 6-8, but the five cities have neither confirmed nor rejected it, Hsu told reporters at the city's press conference held for the forum.

What does this mean? Well, if China had a policy, then they would execute it. But dithering like this over a minor international exchange is a strong signal that China has no idea what it is doing.
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Daily Links:

• Global Expat Rankings: Taiwan number 1
• New Bloom: How KMT Chair Hung's comments on the National Palace Museum treasures reveal the KMT's imagination of its own privileged position
• Doug "Peace in our Time" Bandow at CATO writes another tremendously stupid post advocating selling out Taiwan
• Welcome mat fades for Taiwanese businessmen in China
• Chinese overseas community: watched, surveilled, controlled
• Taiwan machine makers should "look south"
• 600K migrant workers in Taiwan

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[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!

Bits n Bites

Work crews out last week after the typhoon.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je went to the Shanghai Forum this week and announced...

“This is an ever-changing world. Seven years ago, who would have thought that the iPhone would change the world? A year ago, who would have thought that I would become the mayor of Taipei? Just a month ago, who would have thought that I would be standing here in front of you today?” he said. “However, one thing remains unchanged, and that is the long-lasting friendship that Taipei and Shanghai have established.”

Ko said that his stance on cross-strait relations and the forum can be summarized as “one family across the Strait” and four “reciprocal” actions: to know each other, to understand each other, to respect each other and to work with each other.

Ko said: “兩岸一家親” whose "family" meaning is a bit broader, more like "we're all relatives together". Ko did not say "兩岸一家" the straight up "(one household) family" that Beijing always uses. Ko reminds me of Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, who understood the importance of discourse and were always seeking ways to push it and rework it in a pro-Taiwan way. Now Ko has added a new and weaker form of "family" to the range acceptable discourse, widening it in baby steps. Ko is pro-independence, so it's not like we have anything to worry about anyway...

Lowy Interpreter on Wargaming Conflict in the South China Sea... whole thing is interesting, but the players are way too rational.

A new Pacific war would look an awful lot like...the last Pacific war? In nearly all simulations the front becomes the first island chain. Taiwan is 'the cork in the bottle', but only for as long as it resists reunification. The Philippines is prime real estate. Although a small economy, it's a vast archipelagic space of 100 million people, thousands of islands, and airports and harbours galore.

Taiwan is resisting annexation, not "reunification" -- one China's most important forms of soft power is this kind of lazy vocabulary choice. But the analysis of Philippines is quite interesting...
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Daily Links:

• Don't miss: AmCham on the "Red Supply Chain": the threat from Chinese state-backed firms eating up Taiwan's semiconductor businesses.
• Solidarity: DPP projects 54-64 legislative seats.
• A well-written, meaty paper on wrecks and territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea. Well worth the time spent...
• Manufacturing value falls 9.2%. The declining China market is going to hit Taiwan hard, and the Ma Administration wasted eight years cultivating that market when they should have been investing the nation in SE Asia, India, and Africa. 
• PacNet 151 DPP's Policy of Cross Strait ambiguity. Of course this paper uses "Mainland China" instead of just "China". Another example of China's soft power in action... it contains a couple of seriously erroneous assertions, and appears to have been written by someone sympathetic to the KMT. I'll take a look in detail tomorrow....
• Eur Assoc of Taiwan Studies July 31 newsletter out

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[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!

Ko attacked for "gaffe"

Nantou tea farms.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je got himself involved in another mess with a remark that Taiwan has "imported" 300K brides. The Taipei Times reports:

Dozens of members of Taipei’s New Female Immigrant Care Association yesterday staged a protest outside city hall to demand an apology from Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) over his recent off-the-cuff remark describing the foreign spouses of Taiwanese men as “imported foreign brides.”

“I came from China and have been married with a Taiwanese man for 14 years. There are more than 480,000 immigrants in Taiwan. We are human beings, not some products for sale,” association executive secretary Li Xia (李霞) said as she led the protest, which consisted of women like her from

The focus on the word "import", which is very commonly used in this situation in which a nation brings people in, including brides...

• Trouble and Strife: Taiwan's Imported Brides
• AFP 2010: Imported Brides Popular As Money Mixes Asian Marriages
• AIT sex trafficking report 2006: "Care for the estimated larger number of foreign victims of labor trafficking, domestic servitude, or sex trafficking among Southeast Asian contract laborers and imported "brides" remained uneven."
• All across Asia, bridegrooms are increasingly importing their brides from overseas... (same article) "China, a country that suffers a striking shortage of brides in its own right because of the lack of girl babies, is nonetheless the largest exporter of brides...
• Academic paper: "Taiwan is one of the earliest East Asian countries importing foreign brides – the share of foreign brides in South Korea today is about at the level that Taiwan reached in 1997"
• China Post 2004: "Taiwan to import brides as female birth rate keeps falling in Taiwan"
• Government publication 2005: "The number of imported brides in Taiwan has been growing"
• Government publication 2005: "One of the main reasons so many men import wives from abroad"
• Government publication 2003: "more and more "import brides" became Taiwan's latest immigrants,..."
• Weekly World News 1996. Ok, that's just for fun.

Where was the outrage then? Didn't exist, because it is perfectly normal for human beings to be referred to in this language in other contexts, never mind this one. For example...

• AmCham says Taiwan must "import talent" 

OMG a double slam, referring to human beings as mere imports and talents! Technology workers of the world, unite!

I'll stop. Anyone with Google skills can find numerous examples of the term "import" used with various words representing human beings. Just google the term "import workers", for example. Nothing is meant by that; economic framing helps explain key issues of supply, demand, and social effects.

So to return to Ko Wen-je above, note that the bride organization with the long name appeared backed by two KMT city councilors, then called on the DPP to join them. The anti-DPP framing here makes it obvious what is going on -- the KMT has old links to the foreign bride organizations (note that the leader of the organization is Chinese), and simply saw this as a moment to invent a gaffe and attack Ko. Ko himself knew exactly what was going on:

Asked if he wanted to apologize for his comments, Ko said he said that he had said many things at the forum, but only two words were taken out of context and then put under the magnifying glass.

“I am confused and troubled by this kind of social phenomena,” Ko said.

“If we believe someone does not harbor malice toward a subject, then there is no need to blow it out of proportion,” Ko said, but added that he would correct any mistakes that he made.

Ko is so refreshing precisely because he has not yet learned to treat his every word as potentially abused by malice driven responses, unlike many veteran politicians in Taiwan. It will be a sad day when he has to lose that authenticity...

UPDATE: Some claim the term is not used that way in Mandarin. Hogwash. A Google search from March of 2000 to March of 2014 turns up multiple usages in reports, scholarly papers, media, translations, and online forums. For 進口外配   a similar search turns up numerous usages in similar contexts.
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[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!

Ko Interviewed in Foreign Policy

Pages from Steve McQueen's biography about filming The Sand Pebbles in Taiwan passed around Facebook.

I'm offline for four or five days this week...

There are many strains of Chinese thinking about Being Chinese. For every ten or twenty blusters about the awesomeness of Chinese culture, there's one person adhering to the Bo Yang strain. Like Ko Wen-je, the new mayor of Taipei, who observed in an interview with Foreign Policy:

For the [world’s] four Chinese-speaking regions — Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mainland China — the longer the colonization, the more advanced a place is. It’s rather embarrassing. Singapore is better than Hong Kong; Hong Kong is better than Taiwan; Taiwan is better than the mainland. I’m speaking in terms of culture. I’ve been to Vietnam and mainland China. Even though the Vietnamese are seemingly poor, they always stop in front of red traffic lights and walk in front of green ones. Even though mainland China’s GDP is higher than that of Vietnam, if you ask me about culture, the Vietnamese culture is superior.

This analysis may sound strange but its actually quite conventional, I have heard it all before. Many Taiwanese look with disdain on the Chinese. His views of the US are also quite conventional among Taiwanese, where the US is often held up as a model. That version of the US, however, is an orientalizing fantasy, in which the Other is held up as a Positive Opposite that We should follow.

His comments on annexing Taiwan to China are also good:

We have to convince Mainland China that a free and democratic Taiwan is more in China’s interest than reunification.

Bingo.

Speaking of orientalizing, a comically awful article on Taiwan's trash production made the rounds this week to say here is better than there. It claims:

Thanks to policies implemented in 1988, the government has been able to decouple GDP growth and production of household waste over a period of about one generation. As the nation’s wealth has risen—approaching $40,000 per capita—the Taiwanese somehow managed to waste less and defy the notion put forth by economists Michael McDonough and Carl Riccadonna that economic growth leads to more consumption and, therefore, more waste. Today, the average Taiwanese citizen produces less than a kilogram of trash per day, according to the Taiwanese Institute for Sustainable Energy. By comparison, the average American produces roughly two kilos (or about four and a half pounds).

The writer apparently simply sucked up the government line and did not attempt any research. Anyone who lives in Taiwan could point out some of the many issues: the widespread and uncounted illegal dumping and burial of waste and trash, especially from factories and construction sites, widespread trash burning, and the cultural and legal differences. For example, name me a Taiwanese city that has a policy on waste collection and recycling of lawn trimmings. They don't exist here, but many American cities count them as waste. Critical thinking, please.
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Daily Links:

• Speaking of politicians interviewed, Wang Jin-pyng is interviewed in Commonwealth.
• Taiwanese employers can't pay enough to keep talent at home
• Chu takes heat for not providing terminated KMTers with a living?
• 7-11 launches Yuan currency exchange services for Chinese visitors to Taiwan

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[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!

Ko Wen-je VS the Construction-Industrial State: Ko wins one

Beachcombing in Hsinchu.

Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je is rocking the construction-industrial state. The Taipei Times reports...

The Taipei Dome and Farglory’s contract had become a source of controversy in recent days as Ko and his administrative team began looking at several major projects either underway or in the proposal stage.

Prior to last night’s meeting, Ko had said the Dome contract would have to be revised to increase the penalties for failing to meet deadlines. He also said discrepancies between the initial contract terms during the bidding process and the firm’s final contract needed to be discussed.

“Farglory has already gone past the deadline for completing the project, in violation of the contract,” Ko said earlier yesterday, adding that the original contract’s penalty clauses “do not have any real impact,” because they only allow the city government to fine the firm a total of NT$3 million (US$95,300) for violations.

Hacking on the previous administration, Ko pointed out that Control Yuan asked that 39 articles in the contract be revised, but the previous KMT administration had not done so. Former KMT Mayor Hau had used the infamous you-do-not-understand attack to defend himself from Ko's exposure of his administration's apparent embrace of big companies...

Countering criticism leveled at several projects undertaken during his administration, former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday accused Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and his team of using “defamatory” tactics to hide their “ignorance” of municipal issues.

Hau also defended himself by saying that everything had been done according to the law and passed the ethics commission. Such reviews in Taiwan are typically prima facie. KMT Chair Eric Chu has asked Hau to take over the National Policy Foundation, the KMT's internal think tank. Hau is a princeling, like Chu, another clue that "reform" under Chu is going to be limited to revamping and further locking down the Party's relationships with the local factions so they don't bolt. ADDED: Yam ripped him in an editorial solidarity.tw captured.

So far, this is my favorite Ko moment:

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said he has ordered all Taipei City Government departments to draft a complete list of all municipal property, after discovering that the controversial bus lane on Zhongxiao W Road includes a bus stop that is not listed as belonging to the city.

Ko also said he'd can the Taipei police chief if pro-PRC "protesters" in front of Taipei 101 continued their violent assaults on people; the chief subsequently retired, along with a fire department official. Ko is making everyone else administrating a county/city look bad. Commonwealth interviewed him in December shortly after his election victory.

BTW, some of you may recall that the Tax Bureau was pursuing Ko's family in a totally non-political case. Yesterday it dinged his parents for $31,200 NT. This is a symbolic figure -- once it was committed to the apparent harassment, it had to fine them, but if it had been a large amount, that would have called further attention to the fact that Ko's family was being pursued in a totally non-political case.

Mayor Lin Jia-long of Taichung killed the Taiwan Tower project in Taichung when its budget nearly doubled. Should that be read as a genuine commitment to curbing the construction-industrial state? Or just a one-off designed to make Lin look like he is doing a Ko Wen-je in Taichung, using a bad project with no great construction-industrial state support? For me the jury is still out on Lin. Another major project Lin has criticized, the BRT, saw an inevitable accident today.

Up and Coming for the KMT: As the TT reports, during the run up to the KMT Chairmanship election Chu hinted that he'd end the Party's assault on one of its most loyal servants, Legislative Speaker and longtime heavyweight Wang Jin-pyng (MaWangMess, MaWangMess). A group of legislators has proposed that the KMT withdraw its appeal of the court ruling that permitted Wang Jin-pyng to retain his position in the Party and in the legislature. Chu has delayed a response, but if he drops the appeal, it will be another declaration of Chu breaking with President and former KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (like his elimination of Ma's Zhongshan Council and return of power to the Central Standing Committee), who has been doing his Saruman-in-Orthanc imitation since the crushing defeat of the KMT in November. In fact the China Post report has Chu specifically saying he "respects Ma's authority", showing that Chu also views this issue as one that puts himself and Ma in conflict. The Ma-Wang mess really harmed the KMT's relations with its legislators. Surely Chu must sense the urgent need to fix that, and will drop the appeal. If not, then we know something about him and his relations with the KMT.
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Daily Links:

• Gerrit van der Wees of FAPA on US-Taiwan relations, other issues (video)
• Watch out! local monkeys harbor Herpes B.
• WantWant: Eric Chu must staunch KMT hemorrhage.

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[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!

Chu Voted New KMT Chair, but the real reformer is Ko Wen-je

Dragon God Temple.

Reuters reports:

"China is comfortable with Chu taking charge of the KMT ... It has been trying to build mutual trust," said Tung Chen-yuan, a professor at the National Chengchi University and former vice chairman of Taiwan's China policy-making body.

Chu was the only top politician who two high-level visiting Chinese officials met in 2014, a sign China is betting he will be the island's leader.

"Xi Jinping is very happy to meet Chu and he is waiting," said a KMT source with knowledge of the situation, referring to China's president. Chu was not available for comment.

Chu, the princeling son of a powerful KMT insider, now head of the KMT. Same old KMT. Do not confuse Chu's youth with reform mindedness. The KMT is wedded to its China policy and the 1% in the world of finance and land development. They will never permit the KMT to change. The KMT's structural problems are too great.

Want to see a reformer? It's the new Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je, who is giving the construction-industrial state a beating. Solidarity.tw translates a viral blogpost of what Ko is taking on:

1. Taipei Dome (VS Farglory)
2. The New Horizon building (VS Fubon Bank)
3. Reducing city gov’t subscriptions (VS print media)
4. The city New Year’s Party (VS TVBS)
5. MeHAS City development project (VS Radium Life Tech)
6. A NT$2.6 billion cafeteria (VS Hwang Chang General Contractor)
7. Lobbying transparency (VS city councilors)
8. Independence of state-affiliated business chairs (VS Chao Shao-kang)
9. National education (VS the Ministry of Education)
10. Illegal structures (VS owners of illegal structures)
11. Bonuses for city police officers (VS the Ministry of the Interior)
12. Uber (VS the Ministry of Economic Affairs)

Ko is really making things move, making things go. The Hau Administration and Ma Administrations could have done this, but the KMT is closely aligned with the construction-industrial state. Think Chu could carry out a program like this? Don't make me laugh....

I did some riding today with an oldtimer and talked about this. Both of us are concerned. We've been in Taiwan long enough to remember what things were like over the years when the construction-industrial state has been crossed. In 1996 Taoyuan County Chief and 8 associates were whacked in an obvious gangland slaying (Wiki); he was involved in so many deals guessing which one got him killed was impossible. In 2000 the Kuangsan Sogo was shot up over debts, killing the unborn child of a pregnant woman (story). In 2007 PFP city councilor Wu Shan-jeou was executed in his office by a professional, presumably over illegal gravel operations he had threatened. One could list many others, most recently the strange death of Chang Sen-wen. Ko himself is obviously not involved with organized crime and bad debts like the others. But I worry about him still...
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[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!

What a coincidence. Ko's parents under investigation for tax evasion

The view from the Miaoli 51-1.

New Mayor Ko Wen-je of Taipei is making a splash. Not only did he stir up discussion in China with his simple ways, some of the local citizens are asking why their mayors can't be more like Ko. Very refreshing.

I'm sure it is just a coincidence that since he beat the KMT in the election the tax office is investigating his parents. Yes, surely the KMT would never use the governmental apparatus to punish the opposition.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je expressed dismay Monday that Taiwan's tax bureau is going after his parents for possible tax evasion because of a NT$10 million loan they gave Ko to help him pay for a house in Taipei.

Ko, a surgeon-turned-politician, said he was disgusted when the National Taxation Bureau audited his personal income taxes to see if he had reported income from speeches made in a few years prior to last year's Nov. 29 elections.

Ko said that now that the elections were over, the National Taxation Bureau was "going overboard" in having his father go to the agency and explain the matter.

"This goes beyond what any normal person can tolerate," Ko said, publicly asking the agency to explain its actions.

This post-election investigation is standard playbook and has happened to many DPP politicians, though tax evasion is certainly a new wrinkle -- probably because the standard attack is misuse of public funds, and Ko's parents are retired private citizens with no access to public funds. It says a lot about the KMT that it believes that all politicians are misusing public funds...

Sad. But since Ko is an independent, it can only increase his popularity.
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Daily Links:

• Synapticism on a 1940s mansion in rural Changhua.
• UDN savages Ma Ying-jeou in editorial. All stuff I've been saying for years.
• Ryan Scoville on why Japan has a better claim to the Senkakus.
• China doubles its amphibious infantry for Taiwan invasion
• From May: Japan-Taiwan relations after the Sunflowers
• Drew with another great route, this time the Nantou 56.
• Drew again, on Taiwan's strange cycling routes.
• Strategic Risks in the Taiwan Strait. Refers to my blog post on the Black Ditch. Yay! 

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[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!

Taipei Mayor Polls, Debate Round up

Rounded up some stuff on Taipei, where Ko Wen-je, independent candidate extraordinaire, is holding his lead over KMT scion Sean Lien. Click READ MORE....

KMT cranks up the heat on Ko in Taipei

A gun position above Keelung.

Non-aligned candidate for mayor Ko Wen-je, who is supported by the pan-Green side, is feeling the heat from the KMT. It was totally predictable that the KMT would create some corruption charge against Ko, a constant tactic in their major campaigns. Remember the ridiculous accusations against Tsai Ing-wen in the 2012 election? That one featured the same one-two punch of accusations originating with the KMT being investigated by the government investigation apparatus. In Ko's case first came accusations about accounts from his hospital days, and then government investigation followed dutifully on its heels. The KMT has set up a party investigative apparatus for further attacks on pan-Green candidates:

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus whip Alex Fai (費鴻泰) yesterday confirmed the existence of a “PK team” that had reportedly been set up at the order of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to have KMT lawmakers help the party’s campaign efforts for the nine-in-one elections.

Fai, who questioned National Audit Office Auditor-General, Lin Ching-long (林慶隆), on Thursday on the MG149 account controversy that involves independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and threatened to shelve the agency’s budget, said yesterday that the PK team is not aimed at Ko.

“PK” stands for “player killer” and is an online gaming term for players who hunt rivals’ virtual characters to kill them, rather than collaborate with others to solve missions or try to defeat non-player characters in a game.

Ko, who has mired himself in controversies over thoughtless comments, made another gaffe when he accidentally revealed the health status of a powerful local KMTer....

Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) “saved National Security Council Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) last week,” apparently inadvertently confirming a rumor that King recently underwent a coronary artery stent operation.

Ooops. There's another month. Fingers crossed that we can make it through it without Ko blowing himself up with a similar but more dangerous "slip".

Remember also that Ko will have no representatives at the polling stations, because he has no party affiliation. Hence, all the polling people will be KMTers. But of course I'm not saying that the KMT is setting up a corruption charge in order to make an outcome that is not reflected in the current polls believable or anything...
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Daily Links:

• Don't Miss: Frozen Garlic runs down the Nov elections
• Link to DPP's new English website and newsletter
• Thick with info: Hong Kong, sovereignty, economy
• Ma Gov't defends its housing policy ahead of protests.
• Op-ed in LA Times connects Hong Kong, Taiwan
• DPP outlines national defense plans
• Andrew Sullivan mentions the HKK protests. 
• LaoRenCha explains why Sunflowers were media pariahs but Hong Kong protests get tons of coverage.
• Health Minister quits over gutter oil scandal. Remember all the KMT attacks on Chen for changing his Cabinet all the time. LOL.
• Aussie citizen jailed in Taiwan for spying for China
• What? KMT politician convicted of corruption doesn't report to begin his sentence? Who could have predicted that?
• MKL exposes the problem with the gov't's tourism numbers claims: "So while the number of arrivals to Taiwan grew 26.7%, the tourism revenue only grew 18.5%. This means the actual spending of these tourists dropped on average (while the opposite has happened in Japan and South Korea), and that is definitely nothing to be proud of, because we're basically getting more and more people into the country, but they keep spending less and less."

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[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!

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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[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!

Shen heats up Taipei Mayor Race

SETTV Poll

News out: DPP says it will support the independent Ko in Taipei race, agrees with TSU not to field candidate. Quid pro quo:

As part of the reciprocal commitment, Ko agreed to hold talks with DPP candidates in other mayoral and commissioner elections to formulate “shared platforms” and, if he wins the election, take the same positions as DPP mayors and commissioners on major policy discussions.

Ko also pledged to campaign for DPP candidates in the Taipei councilor elections.

On Twitter @Formosanation sent around this SETTV poll. The poll has Ko Wen-je, the independent candidate supported by the DPP, in a comfortable lead over Sean Lien, the KMT princeling. Interestingly, former DPPer Shen Fu-hsiung entered the race the other day and polls at 13%. @Formosanation pointed out that his father, a die-hard KMTer, had switched from Lien to Shen and mentioned that many others appeared to be doing the same -- Shen is not taking votes from the pan-Greens, but from Sean Lien, yet more evidence of how widely detested the candidate of the 1% is in his own party. But with the KMT voters split, conditions are slowly emerging for a major upset -- if Ko's handlers can keep things under control.

Even more impressive is that 19% for the rightmost candidate in the graphic, the DPP's Pasuya Yao. If you add that to the 41% that Ko has collected, you get an overwhelming pan-Green victory. Argh!! I don't believe that will hold up, and polls like this are incredibly unreliable -- voters might utter protests to pollsters, but on election day they come home to the Party. But it makes a nice little fantasy.

It's amazing to think that if Ko actually wins and doesn't screw up too badly as mayor, he'd have to be taken seriously as an independent candidate for President at some point...
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[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!

FocusTW: Ko/Lien Match for Taipei shaping up

On the 159A between Shijhuo and Chiayi city.

The gov't news organ FocusTaiwan rounds up some stuff on the Ko-Lien match:

Although neither major party has nominated a candidate, outspoken surgeon Ko Wen-je could very well represent the opposition in the election for Taipei mayor in late November and face Sean Lien, who would try to retain the Kuomintang's (KMT) hold on the city.

When Lien was shot in the face on the eve of the previous municipal election four years ago, it was Ko who led a team of medical experts at National Taiwan University Hospital to operate on him.

The Liberty Times talked about the DPP teaming up with other outsiders in KMT strongholds like Hsinchu and Miaoli, but UDN observed.....

On the other side, Lien was in Washington to attend the annual National Prayer Breakfast. When asked about his plans by reporters, he reiterated that he will make an announcement before the end of this month.

Addressing the question of whether President Ma Ying-jeou does not favor his candidacy, Lien said only that he does not believe the president, busy as he is, has the time to cooperate with TV pundits in their attacks on him.

The Taipei mayor election could expose the split within the KMT between the KMT old guard and President Ma Ying-jeou. Recall that several years ago, when Wang Jin-pyng and Ma ran against each other for Chairman, party leaders including Sean Lien's father Lien Chan endorsed Wang, while the rank and file endorsed Ma. A lack of support from Ma could hurt Sean Lien; on the other hand, Ma's clinging to the Chairmanship suggests he'll attempt to remain relevant after he steps down from the Presidency, meaning that he might be moved to support Sean Lien. But his vicious attack on Wang a few months back may point to some deep issues with the Old Guard types who opposed him that go beyond rationality.

On the other hand, I've been talking to people and the conspiracy threads are alive and well. One school is holding that Ko is an out and out tool of Beijing. This criticism is pro forma whenever anyone rises in the Greens. Another school holds that Ko is out of his depth, overweening, and a bit of a loose cannon, likely to say something incredibly silly that will cost him the election. Hope his handlers are competent......
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