LOLz from Reuters on the defeat of Gambling referendum in the Penghu

Three former students I miss very much show off curry cooked by Indian students for one of the campus festivals.

With the sound of that train wreck that is the US election crescendoing across the Pacific, it's always fun to explore what our unbiased international media is feeding us. Reuters reports on the crushing defeat of casino gambling in the Penghu referendum on Saturday...

Taiwanese residents in Penghu on Saturday shut the door to casino development in a referendum that proponents had said would bring jobs to the isolated, tiny, offshore archipelago. [no presention of case of opponents of gambling]

The referendum to allow gaming, open only to residents of the outlying county just west of the main Taiwan island, was opposed to by the ruling independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). [...just so you know that the DPP is opposed to "development"]
.....

"The focus is not gaming, it is our dissatisfaction. We have a small population, few votes, no influence," a voter who gave his surname as Hsiao told Reuters. [no comments from opponents provided. No explanation of why the referendum was defeated is ever given, let alone why it was defeated so crushingly]

.....

The concerns of Penghu, with a population of around 100,000 against the 23 million national total, are part of the bigger economic divide that has seen Taiwan's second-tier cities and its offshore counties lag in resources and development compared to the wealthier metropolis areas of the north, including the capital Taipei. [no mention that this divide is the result of the deliberate policies of the former ruling party, the KMT, nor that the DPP has pledged to address this divide. Why is this paragraph here and not further reporting on the casino referendum and gambling in Taiwan? The answer is below...]

Last month, local government officials representing eight Taiwanese cities and counties, mainly ruled by the opposition China-friendly Nationalists, visited China and met with its top Taiwan policymaker in a bid to continue economic and cultural exchanges.[We segue directly to the local official kowtow to Beijing... what on earth do these visits have to do with a casino gambling referendum in the Penghu...? Nothing at all! Their inclusion, rather than more robust and detailed reporting on gambling in Taiwan, shows how the piece attempts to be a hit piece on the Tsai Administration. Gambling in Penghu was/is a long-term plan unrelated to this recent event.]

.....

China has frozen official communication with Taiwan since President and DPP leader Tsai Ing-wen took power in May because she refuses to acknowledge the "one China" principle, agreed to with the previous China-friendly Nationalists that allows both sides to interpret who rules a single China that includes Taiwan.[a plain error, Beijing has never agreed to that -- the "two interpretations" claim is merely KMT propaganda, and one the ruling party has been debating. However, 1C2I has become a Media Fact, existing only in the media bubble world, and there is no stopping its constant repetition, like so many Hail Marys on the geopolitical rosary.]

China deems Taiwan a wayward province to be taken back by force if necessary and deeply distrusts the DPP, which traditionally advocates independence.[Look how far we have strayed from gambling, into geopolitics, though no concrete connection to the Penghu was ever offered -- now we are told that China distrusts the DPP -- of course never how Taiwan feels about the CCP, though there is copious polling on many angles of that. But why are we even given this information?]

If anyone wants information on the referendum, consider Matt Fulco's report in Nikkei Asian Review:

Yan plans to vote "no." In his view: "Casino resorts will drive up land prices, making housing unaffordable for many residents. Besides, most people in Penghu can get by on their earnings from the high season and tourism has been growing."

Those three sentences contain more useful information than the entire Reuters report. The Taipei Times report, which notes that gaming legislation would not have passed the legislature, observes:

Chen Kuang-fu [Penghu county chief] said the county is moving forward and he hopes the central government would amend flaws in the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例), which he said is an ongoing point of contention between Taipei and the local government that arises every three years to the detriment of the county.

The China Post report is actually clearer: Chen was complaining that because changes to the Offshore Islands Development Act were made to enable the gambling referendum, every three years there is a divisive vote on the issue that is bad for public unity. The gaming industry's local promoters have promised not to have another referendum in three years' time.

It is also important to note that the groups behind these projects are the same groups that at various times have pushed for the Penghu to become some kind of cross-strait transshipment center for people and goods, and similar. China has indicated that it will not tolerate a Taiwan-based competitor to Macao, so this casino would have been aimed at other tourists, though most likely it would have become just another heavily subsidized way for elites to transfer wealth from Taiwanese to themselves.

In 2009 I observed, fearing that the gambling would pass...

Just as an example of what's happening, AMZ Holdings, a property development firm, holds the largest single plot of land in the Penghu, a 27 acre property that it hopes to develop into a gaming resort. Their website about it is here. This discussion of the value of the firm notes that the land is worth $46 million even without the resort, and that the acreage was assembled by purchases from over 280 landowners over eight years. That's $46 million dollars of irresistible pressure on local governments... another news report says that Lawrence Ho, the son of Macau kingpin Stanley Ho, is looking to expand into the Penghu if the Beijing government gives the ok signal.

Despite savage repression of anti-gambling arguments in the media and in public meetings by the local government and KMT officialdom, that referendum was shockingly defeated. Looking back, that may have been the inflection point in growing opposition to the KMT by social movements and their supporters.

Thanks, Penghu, for that vote, and for this one.
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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!

Gambling referendum in Penghu

A 1930s house outside Shihgang

Gambling referendum: Matt Fulco gives the background on the Penghu gambling referendum in Nikkei Asian Review. President Tsai opposes gambling in the Penghu. Opponents note that the wording of the referendum is misleading (who could have imagined that in a referendum involving gambling?). Early returns suggest that it is being crushingly rejected. UPDATE: Yup. Crushingly rejected.

KMT lawmakers are concerned about the purported meeting of KMT Chairman Hung Hsiu-chu and Xi Jin-ping, the president of China, as the KMT continues its internal squabble over the direction of the party. New Bloom talks about the proposed meeting here.

IMPORTANT: JapanFocus on Taiwan's energy situation and prospects for renewables, but it doesn't matter because the DPP totally screwed up the power reforms. Damn.

Academics yesterday criticized the Executive Yuan’s policy stance on a draft amendment to the Electricity Act (電業法) as a “great” setback for the government’s policy to liberalize the nation’s electricity industry.

“The government’s stance represents a policy U-turn, because Taipower [Taiwan Power Co (台電)] would still monopolize the industry,” said Kimmie Wang (王京明), research fellow at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research’s (中華經濟研究院) Center for Energy and Environmental Research.

The proposed amendment would make no difference to liberalizing the industry, because non-renewable energy firms are still not allowed to enter the market to compete with Taipower, he said.

Taipower hates renewables, so this change has basically killed renewable energy-oriented reform.

IMPORTANT: On the other hand, AmCham lauds the Tsai Administration for changing the rules to make government more open.

In an executive order likely to have far-reaching implications in improving the transparency and effectiveness of Taiwan’s regulatory process, the Executive Yuan in early September issued a directive extending the notice and comment period for proposed regulations from the current 14 days to 60 days.

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Daily Links:

• DON'T MISS: JapanFocus on Taiwan's energy situation and prospects for renewables
• Yet another writer who thinks that Chinese tour groups are really important in our $530 billion economy. *sigh*
• DON'T MISS: The Fall 2016 issue of Orbis has a great collection of articles on Taiwan's politics.
• Excellent commentary on Chinese tour group economics in the TT
• Canada's disgraceful silence on Taiwan
• Taiwan and US Congress support
• Dutch era colonial ships found in Tainan
• Gao Tie reveals the incomprehensible horror of working for a Taiwanese company
• Taiwan's new multicultural identity
• JOB: 70-80K month English job with Taitung city government
• JOB: Vestas looking for an wind energy tech.

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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!

A Little Taste of Penghu

This week I spent 36 hours in the Penghu. What a blast! I hope to make it back in a couple of weeks for some riding around the islands. I went to a bed and breakfast today and there was a cute boy playing with his dad in the lounge, so on the way I out I said: "Bye!" And he said "Bye-bye, grandfather." Luckily there are no trees in the Penghu, or else I would have hung myself immediately.

Enjoy the pics by clicking on READ MORE....

Islands Gambling, Round 2,

Cutting leaves to wrap betel nut in Dashan, Miaoli.

Since President Ma assumed the Dragon Wyvern Throne in 2008, the KMT has been pushing for casinos on one of the islands under its jurisdiction. Ma himself is often said to personally favor this policy. However, since being surprisingly spanked in a referendum on the gambling in the Penghu in 2009 despite using the usual tactics, the Ma Administration has been quiet on the issue of gambling.

As a commentary in today's Taipei Times by Green Party spokesman Pan Han-shen observes, we are right now in a similar run up to a referendum July 7 on gambling on Matsu, an island off the coast of China. Matsu is a reliably pro-KMT district and residents can be expected to vote for gambling. The KMT made this easier, as the TT noted in 2009 just prior to the Penghu vote, by amending the referendum law specifically for offshore island gambling referendums:

TN goes on to observe that the KMT built an impossibly high barrier to the passage of the referendum with the infamous "double majority" law that requires that the vote consist of a majority with at least 50% of voters having voted. What they did was cheat: in January the KMT rammed through a clause in the offshore gambling statute deleting the requirement that 50% of voters must vote in the referendum for it be valid. An article on it in Gambling Compliance describes:

But the amended law only requires that more than half of the voter turnout vote yea for the referendum to pass - a much lower threshold than that stipulated in Taiwan's Referendum Act. That law requires that at least half of all eligible voters participate in a plebiscite, with more than half of that turnout voting yea for it to pass.

As someone commented in the Taipei Times piece, the KMT's streamlining of the referendum law means that if 3 people vote and 2 favor it, it will pass. This time the KMT has moved the gambling initiative to the even more reliably pro-KMT island of Matsu to ensure passage. Why Matsu? AmCham hosted a one-sided article on the gambling issue last year that explains. Of the two islands off of China, Kinmen and Matsu, the latter was seen as more welcoming...

Enactment of the law would set the stage for another round of local referendums in the two jurisdictions considered to be main candidates for casino development: Kinmen and Matsu. Approval of the referendum in Matsu is thought to be a shoo-in, as the island group, home to only a few thousand residents, is “desperate” for casino gambling, says Anita Chen of Park Strategies. Matsu reportedly wanted to hold its referendum as soon as possible to get a foot in the door, but was widely seen as responding to KMT pressure to hold off until after the presidential election in January.

Park Strategies is a US lobbying firm close to the Ma Administration. The AmCham article notes that infrastructure on Matsu is primitive and bad weather often shuts down transportation, making it the less preferable of the two islands. It seems intuitively obvious that a referendum for Kinmen is in the cards at some point.

The AmCham article makes the claim that casinos can be kept free of money-laundering and gangsters. No doubt this is because it's so common for vice-related businesses in Taiwan to be free of such activities that I am sure they will have no trouble. In related news, this weekend I am leading a hunting expedition looking for flying pigs.

Pan writes that....

In 2009, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) promoted a referendum on gambling in Penghu on the condition that gambling would not be legalized on Taiwan proper under Ma’s watch. [Taichung mayor] Hu, however, thinks that “we should not look upon ‘gaming’ as some kind of ‘compensation’ and only allow the establishment of special zones in more slowly developing areas,” and is thus promoting the establishment of a special gambling district in Greater Taichung. The intent behind the text which would allow gambling in the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例) is finally revealed.

There are no real islands off of Taichung, but no doubt one could easily be made out of reclaimed land, or simply magicked into existence by creative definition ("for the purposes of the law, an island is defined as an area bounded by land on four sides but selected by Mayor Hu"). The Offshore Islands Development Act "encourages" development on islands by relieving businesses there of the burden of tax....

2. Goods sold, delivered and used locally on offshore islands, or services provided locally on offshore islands by business entities to which the Act applies, are exempt from business tax starting from the date the Act is implemented, except for business entities in Lyudao, Lanyu, Liouciou, which are exempt from business tax as of 25th January, 2009.

That means that -- you guessed it -- all those casino businesses will have taxpayer-funded roads, water, police, fire, and other services -- without paying any tax themselves. They will return nothing to the society, while putting tremendous strain on local resources. The Matsu page of the National Tax Administration confirms that businesses there pay no taxes. Pan adds that DPP Mayor Chen Chu of Kaohsiung supports gambling; Kaohsiung hosts right offshore the already popular tourist destination of Cijin Island, famed for its seafood. One wonders if it will fall under the Offshore Islands Act.

The casino drive is using the same kind of ZOMG we're missing out! shock-doctrine tactics common to KMT-approved construction-industrial state projects and China-related policies:

Anita Chen of Park Strategies says that casino-resorts could represent the next big wave of infrastructure development in Taiwan – but only if Taiwan acts quickly. She notes that Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines are considering their own plans for casino development, so that long delays might cause investors to look elsewhere. “We’re not only competing for Chinese customers,” she notes. “We’re competing for investors.”

Fortunately, casino proponents are handicapped by a lack of coordination. So stay tuned -- what might fly in Matsu might sink in Kinmen. I think at that point the Administration will start looking for a site on the main island of Taiwan.

If we are going to have useless, parasitical casinos -- and I see no reason that sooner or later we won't, given who backs the Ma Administration and why -- then they really ought to be heavily taxed and a clause inserted in the law to make sure that they source their machines and personnel locally. Taiwan has a large, and largely unknown, gaming machine industry, which could certainly use a boost onto the world stage. But we both know, dear reader, that pigs will fly.....
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Daily Links:

• The second letter in Today's Letters to the TT is hilarious.
• Capital gains tax condensed into only five proposals. Haha.
• Articles like this one on how Taiwan ag tech might benefit Philippines is a reminder of the massive potential of exporting Taiwan's technological skills as a key and underutilized form of soft power. 
• Legal Warfare: China's strategy to win without fighting

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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! Delenda est, baby.