Category: Taiwanese Politics

With KMT Poised For Defeat In Taiwan’s Next Presidential Election, Its Supporters Extol The “Virtues” Of Dictatorship Once Again

The aura of Loserdom is strong with this one:

Taiwan's China Post declares that autocracy works under "wise" leadership

The paper's argument rests upon three examples: Singapore, China and South Korea.

With regards to the first country, it must be asked: If autocracy in Singapore works so well, why do over half its citizens wish to emigrate? Is it possible there's something Singaporeans know about Singapore that the China Post does not?

Perish the thought. The people can NEVER know more than their would-be masters.

As for China, it's telling that the Post omitted any defense of the wisdom of the Chinese Communist Party's Nazi-like policy of exterminating religious minorities for the purpose of organ harvesting. (But how splendid though, that the Butchers of Beijing make the cattle cars to their ghoulish death camps run on time.)

Lastly, we come to South Korea, which represents a full third of the author's defense of autocracy:

South Korea is another case in point…The free economic zones promulgated by the government have won support from the public majority, and are en route to attracting more foreign investment.

That would be an admirable achievement for autocracy…if indeed it was an autocracy that had conceived and implemented it!

(The facts however, show that the first of South Korea's economic zones was set up in 2003. At which time, Korea was a democracy…)

Welcome back from your operation, Joe Hung. It's good to see the quality of your columns has not suffered despite your convalescence: rest assured, they are as error-riddled and badly-argued when their author ingests mind-altering pain medication as when he does not.

This Message Is Brought To You By The Chinese Communist Party…And The Committee To Elect Hung Hsiu-chu

CCP releases computer simulation of Chinese invasion of Taiwan to lend "support" to KMT presidential candidate

He’s a Boticcelli, He’s Keats, He’s Shelly – He’s Ovaltine

Ma’s advisers think he's "The Tops"

Now gifted humans
Like Vincent Youmans
Might think that their praise is bad:

…[Lee Tsung-chi (李總集), one of President Ma Ying-jeou's consiglieres,] criticized former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) for lifting the…restrictions that banned the establishment of new newspapers — which he said led to biased reporting that failed to do Ma justice.

But I've got a notion
(Not to second the motion)
But here is what I'm going to add:

That President Ma's close aides endorse censorship by the former KMT military junta speaks volumes about the character of the man who hired them. His authoritarian bent explains both the dictatorial style of governance he's subjected Taiwanese to over the past 6 years, as well as the source of his latest 70% disapproval rating.

Passengers Shall Refrain From Bullying The Nice Pilot Who’s Steering The Plane Into A Mountain

Comrade Joe Hung of the China Post complained last week that Taiwan's students and opposition parties are a bunch of big meanies for preventing President Ma Ying-jeou from surrendering the country to the Chinese Communist Party:

The opposition party has been bullying the Hong Kong-born Kuomintang president since he was first inaugurated in May 2008. The bully preys on those who are afraid of him. As they show fear, the bullying gets all the more overbearing. It's a vicious cycle.

[…]

He has been a pushover for more than seven years, in addition to being labeled as an incompetent president. Actually, he isn't incompetent. He is a victim of the bullying.

Which leads to the inevitable question: If President Ma really is the spineless coward that Joe Hung declares him to be, why is it so difficult for his supporters to imagine that he'd capitulate to Communist China?

(Or is Joe Hung so divorced from reality as to believe that the Chinese Communist Party is a lesser bully than the DPP and the Sunflower Movement?)

So That’s Why There’s So Many Women Hobbling Around In Taipei From Chinese Foot Binding…

Joe Hung from Taiwan's China Post: 'No reform has EVER succeeded in Chinese history.'

(Dumber than my boots: Dim-witted PhD-edjamacated historian Joe Hung, on why progress and reform are categorical impossibilities.)

UPDATE: Contrary to my earlier sarcasm, up to 70% of urban women in Taiwan once had their feet bound for cosmetic reasons – but the practice was completely eradicated many, many years ago.

Horribly curled toes due to Chinese foot binding.

(Image from Aspundir.blogspot.ca.)

UPDATE #2: The full quote, from Joe Hung's latest China Post column:

Every presidential candidate promises reform. It's a hackneyed political cliche. Incidentally, no reform has ever succeeded in Chinese history. Can anyone build a corruption-free government? Corruption is universal, and no governments have succeeded in stomping out corruption and graft throughout history. Transparency in government is an ideal every democracy clings to, but has never fully achieved. [emphasis added]

All reforms are failures then, unless they deliver utopia. That's Joe Hung, setting the bar a little too high.

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China Uses Ex-PLA Mouthpiece To Communicate Its Plans To Drown Taiwan In A Sea Of Blood

From today's Taipei Times:

“The Taiwan issue will not remain unresolved for a long time. We will not abandon the possibility of using force; according to the law, it is also an option to resolve the issue by military means if necessary,” said Liu [Jingsong], a former president of the influential Chinese Academy of Military Sciences. [emphasis added]

In response to the Communist Party's barbarous threat, veteran political commentator Joe Hung of Taiwan's China Post enthusiastically gushed:

Satire: The China Post's Joe Hung regarding Communist China's threats to invade Taiwan: 'China's generous offer to murder my Taiwanese brethren is the epitome of Confucian benevolence, justice and morality'.

That's truer than you know, Joe. Truer than you know.

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Lien Chan Rises From The Political Grave, Drives Stake Through The Heart Of His Own Son’s Electoral Campaign

We always hurt the ones we love:

How dessicated corpse Lien Chan took son Sean's 10-point gap in the polls…and widened it to an unbridgeable 20-point chasm

While most pundits thought [KMT politician Alex] Tsai originated several negative campaign tactics that are thought to have been a top factor in [Sean] Lien’s loss [in Taipei's mayoral race], a Lien campaign official yesterday said that the strategy originated with Lien’s father, former vice president and former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰).

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that surveys conducted for internal use only suggested that Sean Lien would lose to Ko by just 10 percent.

“We expected we would lose the election; we just did not expect to lose by this wide a margin,” the official said.

Elsewhere in the news:

KMT officials are falling over themselves resigning in response to the party's losses in Taiwan's recent local elections.

Even President Ma Ying-jeou is not immune, with his position as Kuomingtang chairman looking less and less secure by the minute.

If Ma steps down as KMT chairman, may I nominate Chairman Emeritus Lien Chan for a second stab at the job?

Oh, pleasepleaseplease Santa – I don't want much, and I've been awfully good…

POSTSCRIPT: Whut? You mean the Lien family had ulterior motives in having Sean Lien run for the mayorship of Taipei?

Sean Lien’s defeat is not merely a setback for his personal political career: It also severely tarnishes his father’s position and political stature in Taiwan — and in Beijing as well.

Likewise, the special privileges awarded by Chinese [Communist Party] authorities to Lien family businesses could be revoked or reduced in due time.

But, but – the China Post assured us that Sean Lien wasn't in it for the money. He was only seeking to become mayor out of a deep sense of altruism and commitment to public service for the people of Taipei. They gave us their WORD!

This is my shocked face.

“And We’d Have Won Those Elections Too, If It Weren’t For You Meddling Kids!”

Loserdom runs in the family: Taiwanese electorate overwhelmingly reject Sean Lien in Taipei mayor's race

Elsewhere, a great many other KMT candidates also went down to thorough defeat

It's difficult to feel much sympathy for the KMT, given their open disdain for large swathes of the voting public. When the KMT's Honorary Chairman Lien Chan dismissed Taiwanese who lived under Japanese colonialism as "bastards", that had consequences. When the KMT had students beaten for protesting the Kuomingtang's plan for Taiwan's economic anschluss under Peking's suzerainty, the party lost votes, too.

And, to add insult to injury, the KMT couldn't resist insulting members of the student Sunflower Movement by refering to them as young people with "bad morals".

Not a wise thing to say about a political faction that brought out 500,000 students to Taipei streets earlier this year. And that doubtless enjoys support from other adults and students who didn't openly participate.

Evidently, the KMT believed its own bullshit – that since the Sunflower Movement's street protests eventually fizzled (as most street protests usually do), that the students' political concerns had disappeared as well.

Kuomingtang reports of the Sunflower Movement's demise were greatly exaggerated, then. And their campaign slogan, "Vote KMT – Because we're BETTER than you low-life sons-of-bitches," apparently wasn't the big vote-getter that the Party's political warfare geniuses thought it would be.

Erudite Confucian-Educated Gentleman Lien Chan Curses Like A Drunken Sailor In Public Speech, Corrupting The Morals Of Innocent Taiwanese Youth

No doubt, we can all count on the China Post to condemn Lien's astonishing breech of Confucian propriety and traditional ethics.

Ah, no. I guess not.