Friday, Oct 21, Taiwan Blog Round Up

Whoa! Friday already? Wasn't it Friday just last week? Here we are again with another round of wit, wisdom, and wackiness from the blogs on and about Taiwan.

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Anarchy in Taiwan's series on Moshing in the Third World comes to an end as he returns from the Philippines.

When we arrived at Anak Bayan, Melona came out of the women's room coughing and said they would give me a three part lecture. Her friend Rhea would teach me the history, while Melona would cover the "problems" and the "solution." Just then Rhea came out of the room and told me she would need some smokes for the lesson. We walked across the street where a vender handed her a pile of Marlboro singles. She dropped some coins in his hand and we returned to the flat. It began raining and the water leaked on to the floor next to me as Rhea began her lesson.

I was going to write a whole entry about Anak Bayan's history of the Philippines from the end of Spanish colonization to the present, but I decided to just write a synopsis of the lecture:

Anarchy in Taiwan also pointed me to this great tale on POTS about Taiwan's greatest rock band ever, a snapshot of the early democracy period after the end of martial law.

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the leaky pen, rapidly becoming one of my favorite Taiwan blogs, describes the disillusionment of living in Chungli.

Now, I know, I've come down pretty hard on my surrogate home in this blog lately, but in all seriousness there's a lot about the place that a fella can dislike...besides the way it's history is written. For instance, I've lived here for over a year now and I've yet to find a decent place to eat, which is pretty damn rare for any Taiwanese town. Plus, there's no nightlife aside from a few seedy dives that woulda made good redneck bars back in the states, in places like Georgia or Alabama. Sure, there are what seem to be some nice x-rated KTVs and hooker-filled "barber shops" around--places like "Caesar's" right behind the Jhungli Train Station or the "Golden Lotus" next to the Jhungli City Museum--but those aren't exactly my cup of scotch if you know what I mean.

Come down to Taichung some weekend, tlp! We'll go have a drink downtown with the gang down here.

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Several bloggers caught the Canadians being busted in Korea for using fake documents. Freedom Slopes notes:

Korea has taken a strong stand against English teachers with dubious credentials lately . Taiwan however has always taken a liberal attitude towards the English Teaching trade and Taiwan has always had high levels of unqualified teachers. Taiwan does not actively seek out teachers with fake credentials or those teaching outside of their assigened schools as Korea does. I don't think Taiwan even has a proven method of certifying teacher credentials. Just last year there was a story of a South African who was deported, after his taiwanese GF reported his fake credentials, but then he returned and cleared his name in a Taiwanese court. No one had chosen to really scrutinize his documents that he provided. If they had they would have found that the uni he had studied at provided a BA, Masters and Ph.d online for 999$USD.
Perhaps the Taiwanese could take note of the Korean crackdown and at least make an attempt to better enforce the laws here.

There is a verification system, FS. The Ministry maintains a list of accredited foreign schools, and there is supposed to be a check against that somewhere in the system. The brazen South African you refer to I blogged on earlier. I sent letters to all the English newspapers to alert them to the truth, but nobody printed them. Scott Sommers blogged on the Canadians as well, as did Fred Shannon.

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Jonathan Benda warns on Babelfish, which his students appear to be using:

Recently I've been coming across some English compositions that have me completely dumbfounded. They contain sentences the likes of which I have never seen--grammatical errors and diction problems that are completely new to me (and I've been teaching EFL writing for over 10 years). I am about 90 percent sure that the students writing these compositions are composing in Chinese, then using some sort of translation program (either online or some software) to translate the compositions into English. As you can probably guess, the compositions that come out of such an approach are sometimes pretty bizarre. I'm not going to quote any student writing here, but I'll copy some text that I plan on showing them tomorrow.

I haven't seen this yet, but it does seem to be a sort of inevitable development.

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The Taiwan Chronicles is another convert to the local health system:

This week, I had my first encounter with the Taiwanese health system, and I have to say that I am impressed. I went to see at doctor at 8 p.m. with no appointment, and was seen after about a 20-minute wait. With my government-issued insurance card, the visit cost $150 NT (about $4.50 US) including the prescription, which I was able to obtain from the pharmacy attached to the doctor's office. Between that visit, my current need to also see a dentist, and the recent conversations I've had with other foreigners about their healthcare experiences here (one coworker just had a filling replaced for about $1.50 US), the thought of coming home to the American health system (or lack of one) is quite saddening.

The health system here is great -- for now.

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Axis & Allies lovers shouldn't miss Karl's very funny find at the A&A group Caspian Sub:

Jorge: Ok, we do too. We also put a little twist on it. If all of Germany's planes are destroyed then they are able to build the 'Visigoth Catapult'. It allows one infantry to be launched up to 3 spaces away. They fire for a round and then die.
Oleg: Oh, kind of like Kaiten Torpedoes.
Jorge: Kind of, only this is cooler. This is the 'Visigoth Catapult'.
Oleg: Ok. Anything else?
Jorge: Yes. We didn't think there were enough spaces in the board once the Allies get to Germany so we use the Holy Roman Empire expansion map.
Oleg: Fiefdoms of 1157AD or fiefdoms of 1036AD?
Jorge: Man, around here you won't find ANYONE using the fiefdoms of 1157. That map is retarded.........

ROFL. Caspian sub, hosted at Yahoo, has lots of fun stuff, including strategy packs and questions, and house rules that are excellent, aimed at solving the problem of Axis weakness.

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More from the humor column: The Taipei Kid finds a scrubbing pad with a special name:

The Kid observes:

I know a scrubbing brush company that needs to find itself a better marketing director. Love the fine print on the package as well: "convenience grasp", "usage do not harm the hand".

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David at jujuflop hits the all-important problem of reform of Taiwan's moribund banking sector.

The thing that strikes me about this is that there are currently 12 state-run banks in Taiwan. Note that this is the state after several years of reform (there were about 50 banks 10 years ago). Huge numbers of banks I can understand (one of Taiwan's characteristics is the large number of small companies that continually pop up then disappear and generally help the Taiwanese economy), but what is the possible advantage of huge numbers of state run banks? It goes some way to explain the sad state of Taiwanese banking.

This idea of tate control is an old one in Chinese culture, going all the way back to the old Discourses on Salt and Iron, a first-century BCE text recording debates on whether and how the state should control the iron and salt industries. Nothing has really changed, as today both of those industries are still in state hands in Taiwan, in the form of China Steel and Taiwan Salt. Robert Wade once noted that Taiwan had the highest percentage of state-owned businesses outside the old Soviet bloc. One of the things that makes Taiwan so fascinating is the way it embodies contradictions like crappy and inefficient banking with dynamic economic growth, and massive state ownership of the economy with a vibrant export sector.

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Cold Goat Eyes makes his own list of what's special about The Beautiful Isle:

It seems that everyone is making a list these days. Over on Isla Formosa, Dave compiles a selection of the things he doesn't miss about home (Canada), Compass lists 16 things to do in Taichung, and BigEll provides a rundown of his literary morsels over the last six months, including Martell's Booker-winning Life of Pi. Never one to be afraid of jumping on the compilatory (?) bandwagon, I present the Cold Goat Eyed guide to what is good (and not so good) about life here on the island.

One of the things that CGE mentions is of course the plight of western women in Taiwan:

This is a big fat cliche in Taiwan, and the subject has been dissected, probed, prodded, and picked apart more times than a fat Western chick complains about the shallowness and superficiality of the average local girl. However, the facts remain; a) Western guys like Taiwanese girls. b) Western girls do not especially care for Taiwanese guys. c) Taiwanese girls do not especially care for Taiwanese guys. You do the math, as the Americans would say. Here, the balance of sexual power is reversed. Any half-decent dancing-round-her-handbag chick in a London nightclub can be assured of getting picked-up, even if only by an inebriated acne-ridden roofer's mate from Hounslow, but you put the same girl in a Taiwan meatmarket and she will invariably be going home alone.

The Peking Duck hosted another round of discussion of this topic too:

Now that I have your attention... I recently had conversations with no fewer than three separate female Western expats who are living in China or have lived there in the past, and I was struck by one theme that each of them brought up: the difficulty that Western women have dating Chinese men, in sharp contrast to the infamous ease with which Western men date Chinese women.

Again, the scenario each of these friends shared was remarkably similar. Each described her love life in Asia as highly wanting, and each had more or less the same explanation, namely that Asian men in general and Chinese men in particular seem to be afraid of Western women and unwilling to take the risk of asking them out for a date. Two of them said they felt it had to do with the "feminine side" of Chinese men, and the third, when I mentioned this to her, embraced it as truth.

Don't miss the comments as there are many good ones....

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Taiwan's Other Side, a pro-KMT blog in English that gives some insight into the way minds work on the side that has neither a moral leg to stand on, nor any positive vision of Taiwan's future, nor anything good to say about the island and its people, worries that there is a conspiracy in the English-speaking world to avoid mention the Kaohsiung MRT scandal, writing:

Though you won't hear many English-speaking blogs or newspapers talking about it, the Kaohsiung MRT Scandal just won't go away.

Actually, anyone who reads the English newspapers has seen plenty on the scandal. For example, a quick search over at the Taipei Times, the pro-Green English paper, revealed two articles on the 14th and one from the 13th alone (as I have noted before, fact-free analysis is one of the hallmarks of criticism on Taiwan). It is one of the usual run-of-the-mill state-colluding-with-business scandals that infest The Beautiful Island, of the kind that made the KMT, TOS's party, wealthy and powerful. Despite TOS' claims, several English bloggers have commented on it at one time or another. Many of those same bloggers have focused on aspects of the scandal not much mentioned in the KMT charges: the terrible treatment of the overseas laborers. The KMT itself is more interested in using the scandal as a club to attack the DPP, rather than create real change in Taiwan, typical of their visionless style of leadership. They could care less about the workers.

I am sure that the scandal will bring down a minister or two. That happens about every three months in Taiwan, regardless of government. However, it is not a big deal as other DPP screw-ups, and is being pushed by the KMT to divert attention from their move to divest of the assets they looted from Taiwan over the years.

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The Forgetful writes on his parents' visit:

They've been here a few days now, and late last night Lady D got the idea to call an old friend of ours who owns a bar up in the Combat Zone and say that we were coming over. That's always only an almost, but not quite, good idea, because it is the Combat Zone, where numerous glorious battles were fought over the local women between the local men and the GIs until they were pulled out in '79. The first bars along lane 32 still send out their escort girls to try to get us into their bars. They always do, and I always wonder why -- they clearly see that we are the kind that come in couples. It's not like I'm going to abandon D to go in and pay through the nose for a watery drink with some escort girl in a tacky bar and hope that she'll make my wildest dreams come true. D already does that.

My aunt and uncle arrive next week. Can't imagine taking them there, though...

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The Gentle Rant blogs on those drug-addled Canadian teachers, the source of evil in Taiwan:

Governments and the media love to turn immigrants into scapegoats. In the thirties in America it was the Mexicans and the blacks. Growing up in Calgary, it was the Vietnamese who were vilified. In Vancouver it was the Hong Kong gangs and then the Russians. It's always someone else, never the home team.

Yup.

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Bourdeiu Boy reviews a book on everyone's favorite topic, popular culture in Taiwan:

All of the individual chapters are worthwhile contributions to knowledge of contemporary Taiwan. As a whole, the book suffers to varying degrees from an inconsistent application of social theorizing across each chapter. Chien-juh Gu's piece on Amway in Taiwan offers many remarkable insights into the socio-economic history of the direct selling as it has been "translated" into a Taiwanese social experience, but applies the work of Foucault somewhat programatically to fill out its descriptive analysis. SImilarly, Shuenn-der Yu's chapter on night markets can only acknowledge the broad theoretical categories of space and time, as well as the Taiwan-specific category of xiangtu, within a detailed account of social practices.

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Scott Sommers had an interesting post on the Kafkaesque world of Ministry of Education information. It should be taken for granted that information about a university put out either by that university or by any other university must be consumed with a small dose of NaCl.

In the MOE document, Ming Chuan University is listed as having a number of programs taught in English. While it is true that the International College offers a complete degree that can be taken solely in English, I am not so certain about the other programs. I believe they refer to the fact that there are a number of courses in these departments that are offered in English. Some of the courses it refers to may even be specialty classes intended to introduce English technical vocabulary to students. Language teachers would be more likely to call them ESP classes. I teach in the Department of Applied English, and even there, it would be extremely difficult to finish even a graduate degree solely in English.

Impossible to get a degree done in English at our U, unless you want to do an English degree. All you can say about universities here is: promises, promises.

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Love Songs (Are for Losers) has some fascinating posts on Being Asian: Mastering the Secret Art of Asian Parents, On Being Asian Part 2, and On Being Asian:

Invariably this was told to me by a white person. What I want to know is, why the hell didn't I know that Asian hair, Asian ears, Asian lactase enzymes are different than other people's? I am Asian, shouldn't I know? What the hell's wrong with me for not knowing? And most importantly, how the hell do random white people know more about the details of Asian physiology than me?

Perhaps instead of that talk your parents are supposed to have with you about sex, they should sit down with their kids and have "So you're Asian" talk and all that this entails.

Don't miss the hellish tale of control freak Asian parents importing their parenting methods to the US:

Speaking of exposes of Asian secrets, I guess a couple Korean women wrote a book about how white people can turn their kids into overachievers. There's an article about them at the New York Times. Since I'm not sure if being a member is required for this article I'm just going to include it here and hope they don't sue me. I'm curious what people think about this article so hopefully some of you comment. I'm still thinking so I'll hold off on my own comments at the moment. You can read the article here and see the book here. As usual, I read about this at www.angryasianman.com.

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POTs continues its series on Linda Arrigo, this week covering her participation in the independence movement.

Dissent at this time came from the middle class, which demanded that the state normalize society. And that dissent had a decidedly leftist cast to it. Taiwanese dissidents saw themselves in solidarity with other anti-authoritarian movements internationally. More concretely, this meant that Taiwanese dissidents tended at that time to see themselves as defending universal values of human rights and democracy against the Chiang regime, which they saw as a US client state.

Arrigo's own intense interest in liberation struggles in Latin America grew out of this context. Arrigo wanted the Taiwanese democracy movement to connect US-backed repression in Guatemala or Nicaragua with repression in Taiwan. For Arrigo and many Taiwanese at that time, they were in a global struggle with a US-dominated capitalist order.

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Taiwanese nationalism began growing in strength after the Kaohsiung Incident of 1979 - much to the disgust of many old-fashioned pro-China leftists, who eventually left the movement when the goal of Taiwanese independence was formally adopted. While this may have been the beginning of Arrigo's disenchantment with the DPP, she acknowledges that the rise of Taiwanese identity also corresponded to the growing political potency of the democracy movement.

Good reading....and this comment:

Her view is that identity politics have divided Taiwan so badly that substantive discussion of other issues is almost impossible now.

Deserves a much larger treatment....next installment?

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Apple Daily, which is journalism what avian flu is to bird populations, is the source of a Belligeretron post on mock fellatio by a mock singer on TV:

The other night, they've got this Taiwanese singer on. She's the one unzipping the guy's pants, in the photo. Her name is Phoebe Huang. She probably sucks. Most Taiwanese singers that make it to television do.

Hmmm...describing a singer as one who sucks in an article on failed fellatio should be some kind of pun crime. The next post on living with road desconstruction is also well-written:

They're out there, right now. The foreman, I'll give him this: He's a good yeller. He's got one of those voices that ring out like a shot and hit you square between the ears. His voice carries around our building and through the little alleys, sidestreets, lanes and parks our apartment overlooks. It goes over the drone of the machines. It even goes over the forceful poundings and hydraulic whines of the backhoe.

I've often thought it would be a good idea to allow the Taiwanese to arm themselves. I mean with projectile weapons. But, thinking back on how angry I get listening to that foreman and his crew, I realize it's not such a good idea.

Because the Taiwanese aren't such good shots.

ROFL.

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Wandering to Tamshiu notes the social upheaval likely to result from the new WiFi initiative:

Wireless access for all? The ability to stream A片 on your PDA while weaving through traffic on your scooter? Sweet! (Note to self: buy stock in Taiwanese auto insurance companies)

A片 = porno flicks. Don't miss his post on Chen Chu's account of her interrogation by the old security state.

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Pinyin News writes of another tribe seeking official recognition in Taiwan:

The Sakizaya people of Taiwan's Hualian County want to be officially recognized as a tribe and registered their application with the government's Council of Indigenous Peoples on Thursday, according to an article in the Taipei Times. Among their claims in support of their application is that they have a separate language from that of the Amis, a tribe they have lived among since the nineteenth century. A few examples of words are given in the final paragraph.

It's good that some of these people are finally beginning to pick up the scattered threads of their identity.

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Rank had some good posts this week. His analysis of Ma Ying-jeou's spinelessness is dead on.

One has to wonder about Ma Ying-jeou's willingness to push the envelope to any extent at all. Today, he criticized the Presidential Office for selecting LY President Wang Jin-ping to represent Chen Shui-bian at an APEC summit. In this Chinese-language article, Ma is quoted as saying that you need to do a backroom deal first; then you make the announcement. This comes just a day after Ma and the KMT gave their blessing to Wang's trip (Shortly afterward, Beijing said they opposed Wang's appearance at the APEC summit; Ma found out through KMT-CPC channels that the PO knew Beijing's position before announcing Wang would go to Busan).

Lee Teng-hui and then Chen Shui-bian have been strategically pushing the envelope in various kinds of announcements. The result has been that Beijing no longer reacts strongly to certain kinds of statements and Taiwan has more international leeway. Sure, Wang may never have had a chance to represent Chen, but if you don't try to advance your position, you certainly won't get anywhere. I hope that when Ma is elected president, he won't take such a spineless approach as he seems to be advocating now.

Ma's approach to public policy appears to be: GET BEIJING'S APPROVAL FIRST.

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I normally don't round up myself, but this week my Taiwan Invasion Scenario provoked plenty of comments and responses. Don't miss MZT's critique. It's good to see MZT's correction on lift capability, which I didn't realize, and the news that the US carriers will be hanging around here in greater numbers. I may do a reverse scenario of China failing to take Taiwan before the US arrives. Along those lines, Sun Bin has a fantastic post -- as always -- on Taiwan, Google Maps, and Game Theory:

To formulate a "game theory" model, we need to list the options of both players in a 2-dimensional matrix, mainland's options as column entries and Taiwan's row entries. The more the number of options we can contemplate, the larger this matrix is. We then proceed to assign values of each cell in the matrix: option m(x) vs option t(y), based on the result of option x from mainland and option y from Taiwan. A mathematical analysis can then be performed to find out which option (combination, with a probability mix) will generate the maximum value for the palyer (m or t), assuming the opponent is also applying the best strategic option mix available. This is the classical von Neumann model in the normal form. To apply Schelling's theory we need to apply many of these matrices as the follwing "turns" of the game. One may also needs to incorporate the options and responses of the US. The analysis could get immensely complicated.

A great, far-ranging post stuffed with information.

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Tea Masters, always full of learned advice:

Of more practical use is this other teaching from Lu Yu: "The water that is from the same region as the tea will be its best fit." It makes sense. The tea leaves will perform best when they are hyydrated with the same water that used to nourrish them.

This explains, among other things, why the tea you drink in the producing region tastes much better than back home. (One time travellers to China should beware! My advice: bring some tea from home so that you can evaluate the change in taste).

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Genslay describes an incident with a friend and a motorcycle and an old woman.

We have a supermarket called Taisuco that is right around the corner from our house. The parking lot has these weird cinderblock tiles that shake and rattle when you drive over them and don't come close to lying flat on the ground. An old woman was walking out of the store and tripped on one of the tiles and fell right into Robert's scooter as he was getting off of it to go into the store. The elderly woman fell flat on the ground after knocking Rob's bike over. Everyone ran over to check on the old woman. The mass of people immediately turned on him and accused him of hitting her with his scooter and knocking her to the ground. Luckily Rob knows Chinese and was able to diffuse the situation before anyone called the cops. You see, most people hate foreigners. I know this first hand, as I have been on the receiving end of a "Fuck you" for no apparent reason as two old men drove by me on a scooter. I can only imagine what was said before they half-believed he was telling the truth. I'm sure it went something like this: "Gan ma!?!? Bide-tz Wygorin tzu! Ta ama! Ni pien wa! Pien lun! Gan-nina". Loosely translated, "What the hell are you doing!?!? Stupid foreign pig! She's a grandmother! You're lying to me! Liar! Motherfucker!" I've been told everyone of these things at one point or another, mostly by my students.

Do people here hate foreigners? I've been on the receiving end of revolting commentary from young males shouted out from junior high schools. Don't think it constitutes a social trend though, other than the one of young males being out of control. Might be a good discussion in there somewhere.

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Wild at Heart, a local environmental defense organization, blogs on a topic that I noticed was more commonly discused outside of Taiwan than in it: the "gift" of pandas to the island. They provide a comprehensive overview of why this is a really stupid idea:

2) Animal Rights
Taiwan's Shin Kong Group claims it will pay NT$200 million towards the construction of a 5,500 square-meter cement display house in which to put both pandas. According to reports, however, the living space given to the pandas released into the "semi-wild" environment in Sichuan Province in China is 240,000 square meters, and the space given in the "second phase of release" is ten times bigger. In comparison, bringing the pandas to Taiwan means exchanging this chance at increased freedom for a life in a far smaller cage in a subtropical climate for which this species is simply not evolved. In addition, Taiwan will also have to spend NT$40 to 50 million a year on maintaining all kinds of equipment for the artificial feeding of the pandas as well as the maintenance and air conditioning of their confined space. According to research by foreign animal protection groups, the cost of letting animals such as the rhinoceros live in a more spacious and natural environment in the wild is about one-sixteenth of the cost of raising it in captivity.

Hell yes. And let's not forget that one important purpose of Pandas Out of China is to give the authoritarian state across the Straits a cuddly face, a move that has proven to be extremely useful in international diplomacy. Good work, guys. Donations to Wild at Heart can be made here.

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Blue Stasis posts on Taiwanese:

Taiwanese was abound. Basically, the only time someone spoke Chinese was to speak me, and they approached it like they were speaking the queens English. The speaker was given time to annunciate, and they tried to speak clearly and slowly. However, it seemed that they were not doing such a performance for me, but rather, Chinese was a big deal. They all spoke Chinese, but they viewed it as a foreign language, much like the restaurant manager.

I think Taiwanese is equivalent to whatever language America's Deep South spoke a truly different language. It is ugly, and bluntly, it sounds uneducated. I could catch words because the people were drunk and spoke slowly, but I could not understand anything.

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Yet, I realized later that the people I drank with were all pretty big deals. I kept asking one what his job was. He said he was a "boss" and I said a "boss of what" and the comment just sort of sat there, ike it was unheard. Now I think it was heard, just ignored.

Want to live a long healthy life, Blue? When someone says to you they are a boss, show them deference and respect. Maybe he means boss of a small factory and is a mite embarrassed about running a small one. Or maybe he is being modest as the boss of a large one. Or maybe he means he is the boss of a local gang.

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Casey and Molly's missionary blog promises years of great missionary blog comedy:

I must say it is different living in a city of 6,000,000 people, there are so many people and you know in your heart that EVERYONE you see is lost.

Speaking of being lost, Casey: there are no cities in Taiwan with 6,000,000 people. Who's the lost one? Not the people of Taiwan. The arrogance of these people is unbelievable.

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Turning to religion of a more life-affirming kind, J&J blog on Yom Kippur service:

We weren't sure what to expect from a Taiwanese Yom Kippur service, especially one that had to meet the needs of all of the Jews in Taiwan. Would it be Orthodox? Would I need a hat? When we arrived for Kol Nidre, the rabbi (a small, older man from Europe who has been in Taiwan for close to 30 years) was reading aloud in English from the prayerbook. When he was satisfied that enough people were present, a lay cantor (a Citibank exec from the U.S.) began the chanting of Kol Nidre. The services were fairly traditional, conducted mostly in Hebrew, and men and women were asked to sit separately (but separated only by a tiny aisle), but the congregation seemed to come from a variety of backgrounds. At the end of the service (which lasted nearly 4 hours!), the rabbi asked everyone to introduce themselves. We went around the room, hearing from Jews from the US, Canada, Israel, South Africa, Venezuela, Spain, and other countries. Some were just passing through Taiwan (a semiconductor expert from Vermont in town for a conference), and others were congregational regulars. The rabbi had a story for nearly everyone in the room—he once met the president of Venezuela, he has a daughter in Florida–which may be why the service was so long! It was pretty astounding to be in a room in Taiwan full of Jews from all over the world. Our Hebrew school teachers were right—if you learn the Hebrew prayers, you can go to a synagogue anywhere in the world and speak the same language.

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SHORTS: aemoncannon goes to Gu Guan in the mountains outside of Taichung and returns with a few shots. Poagao treks through the underbrush to modern ruins. IslaFormosa.com blogs on beef noodles. Don't miss the podcasting at Getting a Leg Up and Ugly Expat. Taiwananonymous discusses a documentary on a local gymnastics team. As always, great photos at 35togo, Unplugged, the forgetful's photo gallery, amateur commune, andres, Clarke vs Matt, Cat Piano,T_C at Fotolog, Fotologging Taiwan, Photoactionboy, leftmind, MaMaHuHu (Jackson, you gonna put new stuff up there?), Everything Visible is Empty, Roger in Taiwan, Love Songs (Are for Losers), Photoblogging Taiwan, a better tomorrow, and This Life. Don't miss some fantastic mountain panoramas at Formosa Online. Yuuchiro found some great pics of mountains and water. There's a big list of Taiwan fotologgers at Fotolog.net. Pagebao points to the most recent issue of Sinorama online with articles on Greening Taiwan and on rock-n-roll. Congratulations to Wild at Heart for winning the President's Butterfly Cultural Award for their contributions to Taiwan.

EVENTS OF NOTE: The deadly strain of Bird flu arrived in Taiwan today.






New Blogs on the roll this week: American in Taiwan, Dooley's house, Genslay, my blog (the tale of an swf living in taiwan), Thoughts from Taiwan, Just Danny, and The Matrix Unplugged

[Taiwan] [China] [Taipei]

Taiwan Beer to Foreign Partner?

The International Herald Tribune reports that Taiwan Beer is looking for a foreign partner.

Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor, which controls about 80 percent of the island's $1 billion-a-year beer market, is looking for overseas partners as rivals like Heineken and Tsingtao Brewery siphon away its sales and crimp its profit.

"We're willing to talk if any international tobacco, liquor and beer company is interested," the chairman, Ray Dawn, said in a recent interview in Taipei. Foreign investors "can be our long-term strategic partners."

Here's a hint guys: try investing in product quality. Perhaps that foreign partner will help...

[Taiwan] [beer]

Festivals and Shows Around the Island

The Taichung Jazz Festival lights up the Desert of the Real with some real cool jazz. We'll be down there tomorrow.

The Tsou, an aboriginal people of Taiwan, are having their Fona festival this week.

An oil painting exhibition is taking place in Taipei....

[Taiwan] [Taichung] [Taipei]

Bird Flu Arrives....

The IHT and other news organs are reporting our first case of the deadly strain of bird flu:

Taiwanese authorities on Thursday confirmed the island's first case of bird flu, the Agricultural Commission said.

Birds taken from a Panama-registered freighter that was stopped by the Taiwanese coast guard on Oct. 14 tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the commission said.

The IHT article also has a good global roundup of avian flu developments. Taiwan News says that the birds were smuggled into the country. [Deleted due to David's sane comments]

A national outbreak is unlikely, as samples taken for testing were collected from birds that were already dead before they were destroyed, said Ying Yeh, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine.

"Taiwan is not a bird flu-affected area, as the birds were not local but smuggled from abroad," said Watson Sung, the bureau's director general.

Do they think that the smugglers had no local connections? Or what? Those gangsters abed with the police, both political parties, and other local power structures are going to kill us. To be safe, officials say, follow the Ten DON'Ts and Five DOs:

The "Ten Don'ts" include: don't stay in crowded areas for long periods of time, don't engage in physical contact with birds, don't travel to infected areas and engage in physical contact with birds, don't breed different kinds of domestic or foreign fowl, don't release birds into the open, don't purchase poultry from unknown and unauthorized sources, don't eat uncooked poultry or poultry made from infected birds, don't discard dead birds that have been infected, don't privately slaughter birds.

The Five Do's include washing hands frequently, taking flu vaccinations, eating wholly-cooked food, improving one's immunity, and taking care of one's health.

There you have it.

[Taiwan] [Avian Flu]

Fitzmas: so what?

I haven't blogged on the whole Plame Affair. And I am not going to either. Sure, Fitz will indict the whole White House. In the long run it won't mean a thing. If things get hot, the Bush Lite will simply issue blanket pardons like Clinton did for about 200 of his dirtier pals, and Bush Classic did for the Iran-Contra traitors. Nothing will actually happen to any of those traitors either.

[Plame]

Ma Says Chen is an Emperor

Mayor Ma Ying-jeou of Taipei yesterday criticized President Chen for acting in an imperial manner:

Mayor of Taipei Ma Ying-jeou characterized President Chen Shui-bian's rule as that of an emperor yesterday.

Questioned at the city council, Mayor Ma referred to President Chen's pledge to let the Ministry of the Interior outlaw the Kuomintang's sale of a school complex and said such an intervention is what an emperor used to do.

The Kuomintang sold the party school in Taipei for NT$4.2 billion last month. The buyer is asking for a change in the zoning code so that it can be developed as a residential complex.

The school is one of the KMT's many ill-gotten gains from the period of one-party rule. The "President Chen is an Emperor!" is a common refrain from mainlanders that I have heard many times. I suppose it takes one to know one....and Ma himself, who got a scholarship as a student spy ratting out his fellow students from Taiwan to the security apparatus of the KMT state, knows all about imperial behavior.

[Taiwan]

Taichung has.....Attractions?

TaiwanFun has a pointer to the local Taichung mag COMPASS, which has a list of 16 things to do in Taichung...the list entitled The Beauty of Taichung's Ancient Temples takes you to...well, you'll have to see for yourself. But there's something very appropriate in its ironic error.

[Taiwan] [Taichung]

Taiwan's Military: A few (heh) Problems

Whaddaya know. I blog that Taiwan's equipment is in worse condition than everyone thinks, and lo and behold, the Taipei Times hands me a great article on the condition of the local war stuff:

"The quality of weapons and equipment used by the military was so poor, and I think this has eroded the military's combat capability," Jung added.

For example, Jung said, there were about 40 armored vehicles in his unit. While the unit told its supervisors that all vehicles were combat-ready, military personnel in the unit knew that just half of the vehicles were operational.

and don't miss this:

The indictment of former Armed Forces Reserve Command vice commander Lieutenant General Hsieh Kang Chien (謝抗建) last month revealed why the armed forces' weapons and equipment are so bad, and that corruption in the military is still rampant.

According to Taipei prosecutors, Hsieh and former army rear admiral Yao Kai-lin (姚凱林) became advisers to a military equipment company immediately after retiring, helping the company to win a large number of military contracts through illegal means.

What? High-ranking military officials working for companies the contracted with as military officers? It's good to see the Taiwanese learning from the US again.

Now imagine it is wartime. About a third to half of the island's equipment is not operational. All that hardware counting is now irrelevant.....because there is no hardware.

Folks, we're worse off than we think. We need about 300 fighters, parts, pilot training, and ammo, and we need them now. Today.

[Taiwan] [China]

Taiwan Goes Wifi Wild

All over the blogs today is this news report from PC World that Intel and Taiwan are teaming up to make the whole island wireless accessible by 2007.

Taiwanese government officials said on Monday they plan to make Taiwan the world's largest testing ground for WiMax, and inked a pact with Intel to work together on the wireless broadband technology.

The government will provide around $209 million in funding for the initiative, in addition to spectrum allocation and other assistance, while Intel is expected to pitch in its technical resources. Next year, the government will provide an additional $32.8 million in research funds specifically for WiMax, a separate budget from the above figure, said Minister of State Lin Ferng-ching.

[Taiwan]

China Takes Taiwan

In the last few years a consensus that the China threat might be greatest prior to the 2008 Olympics has emerged among many of us armchair analysts in the Blogosphere. Brian Dunn at the Dignified Rant has a an argument for a pre-Olympic invasion here, and a Taiwan invasion scenario to go with it. Commentator Wendell Minnick has published a fascinating account of an invasion as well. Here's a bit of fantasy for your enjoyment.

Timing
Dunn's article argues that

May to July is a non-monsoon window for the Taiwan Strait region (the other is October) and so would fit very nicely with the assumed pre-Olympics timing.

The summer may be non-monsoon, but 80% of the island's rain falls in that period, as it is typhoon season. Invading in the summer is a really bad idea. Not only do typhoons roll out of the Pacific every few days, but it is excrutiatingly hot and muggy.

No, the summer is a bad time. A much better time would be December or early January. The weather will be cool by day, and chilly by night, but certainly not intolerably so -- ideal weather for combat operations. The typhoon season will be over, but the rains will not have arrived. Look for the pre-Olympic invasion to take place in the late winter of 2006 or 2007. An earlier invasion will give the fallout time to blow over.


Extent
China will have several goals. First, it will want to localize the conflict as much as possible. Second, it will want the war over as soon as possible. Ideally, long before the US arrives, Chinese troops should be ensconced on the island and impossible to dislodge, with Chinese aircraft flying from airports in Taiwan and the island surrounded by Chinese ships and submarines. The Taiwan army should be comprehensively defeated and the Japanese presented with the quandry of beginning intervention against a military power astride their lines of communication to Persian Gulf oil -- with the US not having arrived.

Diplomatic Offensive
One important goal for China is to keep foreign intervention down to a minimum. There is no fear that Europe will actually do anything, though there will be expressions of solidarity and public protests, after which everyone will promptly go home and snap up Chinese goods, just as they made no material responses to the illegal US invasion of Iraq that might have required sacrifice on their part. The main diplomatic goal will be to keep the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, and other non-European powers who might have an interest in a free Taiwan from actually intervening. For the US and Japan, a speedy military victory is the most important lever for doing this. For the other nations, the invasion will come at a time when Chinese diplomacy has been putting on a charm offensive, spending money, promising markets, and engaging in pro-active diplomacy.

China's charm offensive will not need to provide distractions for the US. Dunn argues that China will have to isolate the battlefield, but that is only half the goal. The Chinese need more than anything to isolate the United States. Unfortunately for Taiwan President Bush has already managed to achieve this goal better than perhaps any hostile nation in our country's history. China need merely give history a nudge.

Achieving Surprise
It goes without saying that China will need to achieve surprise. This means that preparations will be minimal and cloaked by training exercises and so on. Commandos and spies already in Taiwan will begin sabotage operations, cyberwarfare, and the planting of beacons and other aids for navigation and attack. Spies will place homing beacons on important targets such as bridge and freeway spans, power lines, dams, dikes, and so on. All of this will take place a few hours before the attack. Dunn has suggested that warehouses with supplies and equipment will be pre-positioned.

The Opening
The battle for Taiwan begins, not at dawn, but after breakfast, when the early morning patrols have returned and people are just waking up and eating, and roads congested with people on their way to work. Strikes by commando teams hit on targets all over the island, including pipelines, fuel storage, ammo dumps, equipment, and military hardware. Fishing smacks loaded with explosives are detonated in ports.

At the same time the Chinese perform pre-emptive strikes on Taiwanese airfields, using their advanced Su-27 and Su-30 fighters to shoot down those few Taiwanese aircraft that beat the 15 minute window of air time between Taiwan and China and get into the air. The main attacks are carried out by aging and archaic jets, which have no trouble carrying dumb munitions and striking stationary targets on runways. There is no warning -- the jets have been prepped at night with the usual "training exercise" cover story, and the men are not told their true missions until a few minutes before the attacks are scheduled to begin. They have naturally been carrying out exercises in bombing airfields over the past few months, and have become competent though not skilled. But not much more is necessary -- the short flight time means that the strike aircraft can be over the island again in 90 minutes, assuming very slow turnaround times, long before the Taiwanese can organize any concerted response. Like the commando attack, the air attack is schedule to arrive during breakfast, dawn being the traditional and thus expected hour. As the air attack unfolds, Taiwanese airfields are also hit by Chinese missiles, which, though inaccurate, will slow down Taiwanese responses.

Strikes are also carried out on Taiwan's electricity network, whose terrible vulnerability was exposed by the 9/21 earthquake. Power plants will be left alone as they are difficult and costly to repair, but power lines and substations will be destroyed. These have been marked with electronic beacons that Chinese air-launched missiles can home in. Since Taiwan no longer has control of the air, even 1960s and 70s aircraft will have no trouble ranging over the island, dropping missiles on pre-planned targets, and taking out targets of opportunity. Water systems, including exposed piping, will be cut. Major highway bridges including the two sites where the 1st and 3rd north-south highways meet (near Hsinchu, and just south of Taichung), will be obliterated, along with the rail brides, the Chungchang and Chungtou expressways, and the West Coast Highway. This will be exceptionally easy since all cross the river just below Taichung within a few kilometers of each other. This will cut the island in half and force Taiwanese army units to cross on smaller bridges in the cities. In fact, Taiwan's topography, which crams all the infrastructure onto a plain fifty kilometers wide criss-crossed by wide rivers, is an interdiction expert's dream.

In addition to whacking transportation and communications infrastructure, the Chinese may consider knocking out some of Taiwan's dams. Consider this article in the Taipei Times a few months ago on the claims of an engineer that the Shihmen Dam could collapse.

The letter was written by former WRA deputy director-general Wu Hsien-hsiung (吳憲雄), and was published in the Chinese-language newspaper China Times on Aug. 16. In the letter, Wu said that the additional construction -- huge water pipes and pumps on the top of the dam -- could damage the structure, make it leak and possibly even cause it to collapse. If that happened, water from the reservoir would flood most of Taoyuan and Taipei counties and more than 3.5 million residents in Taipei and Taoyuan counties could be killed within a few minutes.

"The entire process would take less than two hours," Wu said in his letter.

Dams are notoriously difficult targets in wartime, often requiring specialized equipment and training. In WWII the famous Dambusters used specially-developed bombs for knocking out the German dams on the Rhine, and in Korea AD-4 Skyraiders used leftover WWII torpedoes dropped from the air -- the last time torpedoes were dropped from aircraft in anger -- to destroy the sluice gates of the Hwachon Dam in 1951. Shihmen is an earth-rockfill dam. Taking out the dam from the air may seem an impossible task.

But think about it: the Shihmen Dam is already considered vulnerable to collapse by its overseers in Taiwan. And here's another point: destroying dams is usually a problem of hitting them in the right way to produce a catastrophic failure. That requires pinpoint accuracy probably beyond the technological and human capabilities of the Chinese. There is little to prevent a potential saboteur from placing electronic beacons on the dam to guide weapons right to it. This would enormously simplify both the task of sabotage (e-devices are easy to conceal or disguise) and the task of hitting the dam, as it is simple to produce weapons that can home in on a beacon.

A look at the map will show that water from Shihmen will go directly into Taipei and cause massive destruction of electricity, transportation, and communications, completely disrupting any effort to coordinate a defense. A bonus is that unlike destroying the nuclear plants north of Yangmingshan, the effects of taking out Shihmen would not be permanent; the water would eventually drain and the locals can be taxed to pay for the damage, or perhaps the World Bank, always ready to pay for Chinese expansionism, could be tapped for cash. Similar effects could be obtained from dam destruction elsewhere on the island. For example, knocking out Wushantou would devastate a section of a major north-south freeway, the new Highway 3.

Dunn believes the Chinese may use chemicals, but I do not think so. The need for a diplomatic fait accompli is powerful, and the Chinese will be sensitive to world opinion. Instead, if they want to totally disrupt communications, they will selectively destroy the Dams and dikes that bottle up Taiwan's rivers. Few will notice, and if anyone complains, the Chinese can point to similar British and American acts in the world wars and in Korea and Vietnam.

At the same time, as the Taiwanese military begins its response, its own officers betray it. The Taiwan officer corps still harbors many pro-China mainlanders who will only be too happy to serve the Chinese. As Lawrence Eyton noted:

It also follows the release of an alarming statistic by the Ministry of National Defense according to which more than 3,000 former Taiwan military officers are now either doing business or working in "consultancies" in mainland China.

Suborned by appeals to "ethnicity" and lumps of cold hard cash, these traitors send out conflicting or irrelevant orders, sabotage responses, and refuse to fight. They also betray key codes and hand over important information. This means that the Chinese probably will have access to many of Taiwan's key defense computer systems as well.

Speaking of computer systems, cyberattacks begin on Taiwan's computer systems, both civilian and military. All networks go down to both network attacks and sabotage of key hardware systems. Private satellite operators like SPOT notice that their networks have failed to function and that they have no coverage of Taiwan.

Dunn has an excellent take on the psychological warfare which I will simply reproduce here:

Broadcasts will urge the Taiwanese military to stand aside. Some might. The Chinese will announce that unlawful combatants, which will include all the Taiwanese military, will not be treated as POWs but as criminals. The Chinese will claim the world considers this an internal matter and give wide play to any real statements to that effect. If any US Senator urges caution in reacting, that too will be played to the Taiwanese. The Chinese want the 23 million Taiwanese to feel alone and facing the power of 1.3 billion Chinese charging hard at them. Of course, ethnic solidarity will be emphasized and the pride of a powerful China able to end the long humiliation at the hands of the West will be used to convince Taiwanese soldiers to defect or go home.

The Troops Arrive: Phase 1
Dunn argues that the Chinese will do two things. First, they will drop paratroops in and around Taipei (this position is also taken by Minnick above. Wendell Minnick describes:

An airborne assault directly on Taipei by China's 15th Airborne Corps (Changchun), with three divisions (43rd, 44th, 45th) would be the first phase of the assault, with additional paratroopers being dropped in Linkou, Taoyuan and Ilian, to tie up Taiwan's four divisions assigned to the 6th Army (North). A Chinese airborne division contains 11,000 men with light tanks and self-propelled artillery. Some intelligence reports have indicated that China was able to airlift one airborne division to Tibet in less than 48 hours in 1988. Today, China's ability to transport troops has greatly improved. China is expected to be able to deliver twice that number - 22,000 - in two days.

The Chinese have upwards of 22,000 paratroopers but bear in mind that troops can be taught to jump out of an airplane with relative ease -- thousands of out-of-shape hobbyists learn every year in the States (simple training consists of 4-5 ground hours plus a solo jump). The Chinese do not care if they get bloodyminded elite troops or not, nor do they care if half the poorly trained jumpers die in their jumps. Their goal is to get warm bodies on the ground in Taiwan so that the mainlander officers can plausibly surrender, or just turn their troops over to the invaders. A week prior to this the Chinese have been putting ordinary infantrymen through crash courses in jumping. As the transport planes return to their bases, they are quickly serviced and the newly-training troops are thrown aboard and tossed out of the aircraft over Taiwan in a steady stream. Remember, it's just a half an hour across the strait. Plausibly, each aircraft could do a drop every two hours, given an hour for refueling and reloading.

The first jumps put Chinese troops in two or three places. First, thousands of troops, light tanks, and light artillery drop on Yangmingshan overlooking Taipei. There they capture the listening post atop Tatun Mountain, with its collection of telecommunications hardware, from which US intelligence has been tracking Chinese moves for years. This station was not targeted precisely so it could be taken intact. From Neihu on the northeast side of the city artillery can easily hit Sungshan Airport, both denying it to the locals, and providing cover for attacking troops for whom that airfield is a key target. Elite paratroopers begin immediately moving into the northern suburbs to grab that airport. They can walk there in three hours, and drive even faster. Although Yangmingshan looks like a collection of peaks on the map, vast areas of it are actually flat and grassy, especially at higher elevations, and it is criss-crossed with paved roads that locals use for Sunday outings. The real problem will be coming down off the mountain, which breaks up into steep ridges on the Taipei side, especially over to the east, where there are fewer roads and far more trees. That is precisely the terrain Chinese light troops must cross if they are to take the Sungshan airport.

At the same time the Chinese also grab Guanyin Mountain, the mountain on the west side of the Tamshui River. From those heights even small artillery can command the city and the approaches to Taipei from the small harbor of Tamshui. With the air secure the Chinese begin helicoptering in supplies and larger artillery to the area.

The third drops will take place on the ridges around Keelung. These are heavily forested and many troops will be lost. But with light artillery, the Chinese can deny the use of the port to the Taiwanese, as well as cover it for their own seaborne assault. Scattered drops of units of 20-40 men will take place at key points along roads and railroads, to block incoming Taiwanese units, and destroy more infrastructure targets.

Where will the Chinese make their initial headquarters? On the other side of Yangmingshan, of course. There, nestled in the flanks of two nuclear plants, no one will dare hit them with heavy weapons. It will be a pain to coordinate operations with units on top of Yangmingshan, but any military commander will tell you that terrain is more easily overcome than the enemy.

Phase 2
With the air secure the Chinese can then begin coming ashore. Earlier the previous evening civilian shipping had been loaded with military gear and troops. Many observers have argued that China lacks the amphibious units to take Taiwan, but such analysts are thinking like Americans, who are like an eccentric old aunt who can't go anywhere without taking her 38 suitcases. No, the Chinese will simply commandeer everything and throw troops over. The result would be a bloody mess by western standards, but again, the idea is to get warm bodies onto the island. The Chinese have done this in the past:

The PLA also adopted a new strategy during invasion of Hainan Island in April 16, 1950; while they continued to conscripted civilian ships to transport the troops, they modified 32 of them into motorized gunboats by shielding them with sandbags and arming them with light artillery. To gain an element of surprise, the cross strait operation was conducted at night, and it was also backed by artillery and air cover, which were lacking during Jinman.

Dunn suggests something I have long believed, that the Chinese will not come ashore on beaches, exposed like extras in a WWII flick, but at ports. The island's ports have long been havens for Chinese fishing craft running from storms and Chinese intelligence will be intimately familiar with them. The invasion force, which set out in the early morning begins arriving around noon, landing in Keelung, Tamshui, Taichung, and Suao on the east coast (around 6 pm). The initial attacks are made by dedicated amphibious units, but civilian shipping carrying military units follows on throughout the day. The paratroopers have thoughtfully seized the heights on both sides of Tamshui and the invasion forces, covered by artillery and air power, can come ashore with ease, confronting only local defenders without coordination. The port in Taichung lies on flat ground serviced by excellent six lane roads that have completely clear views. Resistance can easily be suppressed from the air. Suao can defended indefinitely from the heights above it, but the mountains are so steep there that a defense may be impossible to carry out. With only one road down the coast, Suao can easily be cut off and taken. Keelung is taken, also assisted by paratroops. By evening of the first day Chinese troops are ashore.

Alternatively, the Chinese can blow the Shihmen Dam early in the conflict, around 8 AM, during breakfast. The water reaches Taipei in a few minutes and in a couple of hours, floods the city completely. The flood itself continues on down the Tamshui to the sea, where it scours both sides of the Tamshui River clean of everything human, leaving bare infrastructure and no defense. By noon everything is over. This will pose severe problems for the Chinese troops coming ashore, but I've never met a trooper who would rather face an armed enemy than a mud and mess. With Taipei completely knocked out, the Chinese can rest, reorganize, and then march into Taipei directly from Tamshui, along any of several roads -- a half-hour drive in traffic -- having thoughtfully brought along inflatable boats and other equipment required to tool around the city. Resistance is not possible, as local ammo dumps, tactical command centers, and equipment are all filled with water. The major roads into the city are all cut either by the flood from the Dam (which knocks out a major highway), airborne interdiction, sabotage, or control by Chinese paratroopers. In fact, if the Dam is to be blown, the timing of the invasion may well be determined by water levels in the Shihmen Dam, which naturally must be high if this strategy is to be carried out.

Evening falls. Chinese troops enter Taipei. In Taichung, light units race to the top of Tadu Mountain, meeting choppers there carrying airmobile artillery. Heavy units begin coming ashore in Taichung. With all major links across the river between Changua and Taichung cut, the island is cut in two and everything in the southern part of the island is essentially irrelevant to the campaign. Light units begin working their way out of Taichung and to points north, with one important goal being the airport in Taichung city, a forty minute drive from the port in traffic. Additionally, if the Chinese can work their way around the city and to the suburbs of Dali and Wufeng in the southeast, they can prevent the movement of Taiwanese reinforcement over the many bridges on the rivers there, through the city, and to points north. In Keelung light troops have begun to scale the ridges out of Keelung and begin the 25 kilometer trek to Taipei and the Sungshan airport, to link up with the paratroopers. Meanwhile as regular troops disembark around the clock in Tamshui, the paratroopers are pulled out of line and shipped back to China, so that, if necessary, they can be dropped again on Day 3 or if possible, late on Day 2.


The Surrender
With Chinese troops in the capital and the city itself perhaps submerged, communications and transportation links cut, Chinese marines ashore along the northern rim of the island, the air under Chinese control, the Taiwanese navy suppressed and the air force destroyed, the President of Taiwan meets with his advisors. A mainlander President will probably urge surrender on his largely mainlander senior officers, a course they will probably be only too happy to comply with. A Taiwanese President may be a harder sell.

Night arrives. Taiwanese units have begun to slowly recover from their disorganization and inherent incompetence. Minnick makes the call:

Except for special forces and the marines, it is unlikely that the rest of Taiwan's infantry brigades scattered across the island would do much. As the saying goes, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog that matters." Taiwan's military is rife with lethargic and ineffectual troops just begging for their 20-month tour of duty to end so they can go back to their girlfriends and jobs. Many call Taiwan's youth, including its young soldiers, the "strawberry generation" because they are soft and spoiled by the good life. US military officials visiting Taiwan often complain that the military's boot camps are too lax. The military appears more afraid of angering the parents of the conscripts than confronting a Chinese invasion, say visiting US soldiers. One politically correct legislator recently complained to Asia Times Online, "Taiwan has to do something about violence in the military." The correspondent reminded him, "The military is a violent institution." The conversation was over; the lesson lost.

Taiwanese military preparedness is also typified by this from last year's TECRO magazine, the official publication of the Taiwanese trade office overseas:

Cadet Hung Wan-ting of Hsintien in Taipei County is enrolled at the USMA at West Point. Like every foreign exchange student, Cadet Hung had to adapt to a different culture to survive in her new surroundings. To her, two of the biggest differences between Taiwan's military education system and that of the United States are the physical demands placed on cadets and the U.S. army's focus on realistic training in the field. "Here, they stress tactics like marksmanship and land navigation. The USMA also teaches cadets about infantry tactics, such as squad movement, platoon movement, conducting raids, and defense in the field environment," whereas the Taiwan military focuses more on military discipline and seldom allow cadets to practice using live ammunition.

"Seldom uses live ammunition." "No stress on marksmanship and land navigation." Everyone familiar with Taiwan knows this story. Drills are unrealistic, officers give orders but do not lead. The result is that even the best intentions go awry. Troops fling away their weapons and run home to search for their families, fearing they are dead. Officers give contradictory and meaningless orders. Key bridges, ammo dumps, and tunnels are not destroyed as originally planned. Troops discover that much equipment has been pilfered over the years, while the another chunk is found to be useless, the victim of falsified reports and inadequate maintenance oversight, a common problem in all Taiwan bureaucracies.

In the morning, the President of Taiwan gets some startling news. There is a new President of Taiwan! As Minnick writes:

Once Taipei was captured, a new government chosen by Beijing would be sworn into office. There would be plenty of Taiwanese politicians to choose from. It is well known there are many pro-China legislators who have investments in China and more than a few who have had private meetings with Beijing officials. The inauguration would be conducted in the spotlight of the international media, giving it some psychological legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. There would be too many pro-China people in the US State Department - privately relieved the Taiwan issue was finally settled - to say anything in Taiwan's defense.

With his communications out, the elected President is out of touch and cannot gainsay the Chinese propaganda offensive. Bad news continues to roll in. Despite bitter last ditch resistance by local forces, Sungshan Airport has been taken during the night. Engineers are already working to pump out the water and get it operating again, and it is just a matter of time until the Chinese starting bringing men and equipment into the city. Scattered reports of fighting at the airport in Taichung are tinged with pessimism, Chinese heavy units are known to have formed up in Chingshui near the port and are now driving east across the northern flank of Tatu mountain and directly into Taichung down Chungching Rd. The air force commander reports that his forces have ceased to be effective. The head of China Petroleum informs the President that the nation's oil reserve was destroyed in sabotage attacks. The Naval commander has not reported in since his headquarters was repeatedly hit, but radio broadcasts from abroad say that most of Taiwan's fast attack craft have been sunk. Little does the President of Taiwan understand it, but Xinhua, despite being openly and obviously controlled by the Communist government of China, has quietly become an important source of news for Western newspapers, who, incredibly, cite it as if it were a news supplier and not a propaganda organ. The result is that Chinese propaganda has already begun to shape western reporting on the conflict.

At the same time, the President of Taiwan has not heard about any efforts by Western nations to intervene. Japan has demanded that China stop, but there are no reports of Japanese clashes with Chinese forces. The Chinese have vowed that oil shipments will continue and trade will go on during the conflict. Anti-Japanese prejudice in China has been held in check, but the Japanese are quietly informed that the mobs can be unleashed. To back this point, the Chinese Navy makes its presence known in the waters between Japan and Taiwan, where it will "maintain security for an unimpeded flow of goods as the splittist bandits in Taiwan are suppressed" as one Chinese official puts it. Europe bleats but does nothing in its usual fashion, except for the UK, which wonders aloud whether something should be done. The rest of ASEAN, already overshadowed by Chinese diplomacy, is mute. Russia smiles benignly and returns to its running sore in Chechnya. Australia, following Chinese progress on the satellite maps, announces that it will not intervene. India sighs with regret, and adjusts its attitude accordingly. The President of Taiwan tells his staff that if the US intervenes, he will advocate continued resistance. Out of touch, he is unaware of the decision already made hours ago.

All eyes turn to the United States. Caught by surprise -- though conspiracy theorists will charge for years afterward that the Administration let the war happen to distract attention from its domestic troubles -- US forces already began to react......or do they?

Two scenarios suggest themselves. In the first, Japan-based US forces react aggressively, attacking Chinese ships, aircraft, and invasion forces. US marines attempt to land on Taiwan. Aircraft from carriers, Guam, and southern Japan begin operating against Chinese forces on the island. Prodded by the Americans, the Japanese at last enter and a full-scale minor war begins. What the outcome of that will be no man can say.

In scenario two, as the US begins operations, in Washington it is 8 PM and everyone has gone home. The Chinese ambassador in Washington meets with the President immediately. The Chinese hold dollars, lots of dollars, it is pointed out. Flooding the world economy with dollars will break the dollar, and with it, the US and world economy. Washington is in a tizzy. Members of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus meets with the President at 10:30 PM and demand that something be done. Cooler heads point out that President already broke the budget in Iraq and that the US cannot now afford a major war against a major power. Already by the dawn -- evening of the same day Taipei time -- there are rumblings from Democrats and the handful of fiscal conservatives left on the Republican side in Congress that the nation cannot afford this war. At the same time everyone in the debate is following the progress of the Chinese, brought to them exclusively by the intrepid reporters of Xinhua, which announces that advance units of the Chinese army have taken Taichung, blocking troop movements from southern Taiwan, and entered Miaoli on their way to seize the information technology firms in Hsinchu. Major US corporations eye their technology investments in Taiwan nervously, and put pressure on the President to choose the less destructive of two evils. More importantly, they also point out that the Chinese markets will be closed to them for years if the US intervenes.

All night, as the main US forces wait for orders while individual units engage the Chinese, the President agonizes. News pours in. The Chinese have taken Taipei. Chinese troops are ashore in Taichung and have taken the local airport. Xinhua puts out a steady stream of serious-sounding victory nonsense, which is dutifully repeated by major establishment papers as actual news. All of this the President and his key advisors read. The Chinese, their ambassador indicates, are willing to overlook US participation with the Taiwanese at this point. They understand that the US has to keep its face. Further, in the back of the President's mind there is the project in the Middle East. The US cannot simply pick up and leave to go fight for Taiwan. But who wants to be the President who lost Taiwan? he asks himself

The Pentagon reports that it is ready to go. US fleet units are already en route. The State Department, long a haven for pro-China types, however, notes that if the US moves it will move alone. The President's policies have isolated the nation. The Chinese have also been effectively in stifling impulses to intervene among such powers as might be willing. Even the Japanese are waiting on the US decision.

All through the night the debate goes on as Chinese troops consolidate their positions across the northern end of the island. Finally, at 8:31 AM EST, as Chinese paratroops reach Sungshan airport and Chinese armor forms up to begin rolling into Taichung, the President of the United States commandeers the US emergency broadcast system. A nation falls silent to listen as the President clears his throat: "It is with a heavy heart," he begins.....

[Taiwan] [China]

Taiwanese move as Guangdong's Importance Fades

India Monitor reports that Guangdong is encountering trouble as Taiwan companies pull out, leaving behind unpaid debt:

But in January, the factory's 2,000 Chinese employees took to the streets to demand the company pay four months in overdue wages. The protest ended up with the arrests of eight workers. About two months later, another Taiwanese-invested factory, owned by Compex, which produced outdoor furniture, unexpectedly closed after its Taiwanese managers left Chinawithout notice, leaving some 3 million yuan (US$370,924) in unpaid salaries and 300 million yuan in loans. The hasty nature of the two companies' departure, and they fact they wanted to leave at all, is a reflection of the changing dynamics of China's economic system.

And further...

While there is no data on the number of factories that have closed as a result of worsening conditions, customs figures show that Guangdong has slipped from the nation's leading exporting province to just eighth. Luo Huai-jia, an executive director of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association, said around 20% of the area's 4,000 Taiwanese manufactures have already withdrawn from the area, or would soon have to. An estimated 600 Taiwanese manufacturers, including Paragon and Compex, have pulled out of Shenzhen in the past two years alone.

Taipei-based accountants and economists have suggested that Taiwanese enterprises are slowly shifting toward China's Bohai Sea area in the northeast, while those who are seeking cheaper labor are looking at Vietnam. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan's investments in Vietnam increased from $321 million in 2003 to $469 million in 2004 and reached $7,629 million total as of this June. Few of these businessmen, however, are considering returning to Taiwan, observers suggest

Shockingly, Taiwanese businessmen prove to have no civic responsibility:

Anna Lu, an accountant with KPMG, criticized Taiwanese businessmen for lacking social responsibility, noting that it was easy for Taiwanese businessmen to wire several hundred thousand US dollars of capital out of China, then claim bankruptcy without the government knowing about it. "There are reasons Taiwanese businessmen are not so welcome anymore," she said.

A blip? A trend? Probably the latter.

[Taiwan] [China]

Taiwan Navy to Add Missile Craft

Taiwan is building new fast attack craft armed with missiles.

Taiwan has signed a deal to produce up to 29 additional guided-missile patrol boats. These are Kuang Hua VI class boats, and are part of Taiwan's modernization program. These boats are to replace 47 older Hai Ou-class ('Seagull') boats. The pursuit of modern small combatants by Taiwan is no real surprise. When a strait of water separates two enemies, larger vessels like destroyers and even frigates are at a disadvantage, but small craft like corvettes and missile boats are almost at home in limited waters where the action will be close. This was the case in the English Channel during World War II, and the same will be true of any combat in the Formosa Straits.

[Taiwan] [China]

Promising New Blog

A post by Maoman over at Formosa led to this blog that looks very promising...Doubting to Shou? Here's part of a post:

In Taibei there are quite a few schools of this type. There are also a few in Taoyuan; I don't know of any in the south, though. Almost all of these schools are about the same. The first one was Mòdàwèi 莫大衛, started in the heart of Taibei, near Sogo, about 20 years ago by an Australian guy named David. He paid well, and was able to attract foreigners who could speak Chinese, could control a large class, would work hard, and would stay for a long time. As a result of having good teachers who stay from day one until graduation day 3 and a half years later, the students learned well. Studying at Mòdàwèi for one year was nearly as good as putting in three at a big chain school. Amazingly, with no marketing, Mòdàwèi grew into a large branch through word of mouth alone. However, David wasn't interested in letting other teachers open franchises or other branches. One of the best and brightest of his teachers, a guy named Tom, eventually got tired of making a fortune for somebody else. So, Tom opened his own school, called Tomcat (湯姆貓), across the street. Nearly all of his students came with him. Naturally, being a bilingual foreigner with a great deal of teaching experience, and 200 loyal students, it wasn't too hard to make a success of it. In fact, Tom later let one of his best teachers, Rich, open a branch. Around the same time, an American guy named James, a VERY good example of a black man who has made it as a teacher in Taiwan, was opening another Mòdàwèi clone called Cortland (科特蘭). As of now there are 8 Cortland branches and over a dozen Tomcat franchises. In addition, there have been at least 4 other schools started by former Mòdàwèi employees since Cortland that I know of. Mòdàwèi hasn't grown much, but it's still around. More importantly the HFRB (Hard-core Foreign Run Bǔxíbān) style of teaching is here to stay.

[Taiwan]