Taiwan, China, and other things. Recovered from the defunct TypePad platform.
Chinese Communists seek outside investment to fund their military ship-building program
Who knows? For his generous contribution, the ChiComs might even name an aircraft carrier after the old boy.
(KMT chairman emeritus Lien Chan in his new People's Liberation Army duds following his disgraceful attendance and endorsement of a Communist military parade. Image from Holy Mosquito)
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If the KMT's chairman emeritus wishes to tie his party to the Butchers of Beijing and their PLA stormtroopers, that can certainly be arranged.
Welcome back to Taiwan, Lien Chan. Not everyone has a good time at Tiananmen Square, but you enjoyed yourself.
And that's the important thing.
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We always hurt the ones we love:
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:
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.
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.
Lien Chan, the two-time loser for the Taiwanese presidency, finds it unbearable that independent candidate Dr. Ko Wen-je is trouncing his baby boy Sean Lien in polls leading up to the election for Taipei mayor:
"He [Ko Wen-je] calls himself a commoner and us the privileged few, but I call him a ‘bastard.’
Taiwan's Kuomingtang. Keepin' it classy since February 28, 1947.
Taiwan Today has the story:
The ROC Military Supreme Court sentenced former Maj. Gen. Lo Hsien-che to life imprisonment July 25 for selling secrets to mainland China and jeopardizing national security.
(Major General Lo Hsien-che image from Taiwan Today.)
SinoDaily describes the information Taiwan's Turncoat General is said to have passed along to China:
. . . documents Lo handed over to China included details of the Po Sheng (Broad Victory) command, control and communications system that Taiwan is buying from US defence contractor Lockheed Martin for US$1.6 billion.
They said Beijing is believed to be extremely interested in learning more about the project, which gives the Taiwanese military some access to US intelligence systems.
Other information leaked by Lo reportedly covered the army's procurement of 30 Boeing-made Apache AH-64D Longbow attack helicopters and the army's underground optical fibre network.
As for motive, there are some reports that Maj. Gen. Lo was seduced by a Chinese female agent. Lo, on the other hand, claims he turned traitor only after Chinese Intelligence threatened to expose damaging photos of himself in the company of Thai prostitutes, taken while he was stationed in Bangkok. (As utterly improbable as THAT scenario may sound…)
Others may speculate that he was merely doing some "eventual reunification" freelance work. As some Chinese Nationalists have occasionally been known to do.
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Well done, Honorary Chairman for Life Lien Chan. With any luck, next year you may yet be the proud recipient of China's "World Harmony Peace Prize". Fingers crossed!
(Where Lien can share the podium with the previous winner — General Chi "Mahatma Gandhi" Haotian. A tireless warrior for peace, who issued the courageous order to flatten Tiananmen Square protesters with 30-ton tanks back in 1989.)
Great stuff from Taiwan's Next Magazine:
UPDATE: News reports from Hong Kong suggest that the Butchers of Beijing wish to make their Toady in Taipei vice-president of the People's Republic of China.
Nah. For China to publicly out their unpaid $15,000 agent would simply be too good to be true. Chairman Wormtongue is much more useful behind the scenes, cutting shadowy deals with Saruman.
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
(Lien Chan image from Life.com)
UPDATE #2: MSNBC reports on the farce.
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Fortunately, the injuries to Sean Lien, son of Lien Chan, aren't life-threatening.
I will not for a moment entertain sleazy conspiracy theories that Sean Lien somehow masterminded a failed assassination attempt against himself in order to win sympathy votes for his party on the eve of an upcoming election.
Because blaming the victims of political violence would be crazy talk.
Right, Lien Chan?
Right, China Post?
Right, Bevin Chu and the rest of Taiwan's pan-Blue media?
Postscript: It will be nothing short of poetic justice for Sean Lien to be accused of plotting an assassination attempt against himself — when his father forever disgraced himself by making that very same repulsive charge against a different victim of political violence a mere 6 years ago.
I however, will not stoop to Lien Chan's level. Nor the China Post's. Nor Bevin Chu's or the rest of the pan-Blue media's.
I do note in passing though, that the China Post reports President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan has instructed Premier Wu Den-yih to take charge of the case.
Ughhh. GREAT judgement. Ma puts a Taiwanese politician with known Chinese mafia connections at the head of an attempted murder investigation???
Boy, sure hope no conspiracy theories emerge out of THAT decision . . .
UPDATE: The Japan Times reports the gunman in custody was known in gangster circles by the nickname, "Horse face".
Hmmm . . . "Horse face" . . . "HORSE face" . . . Now it's been a while – what's that Mandarin word for "horse" again . . .
Whoa. This thing goes right to the top, people. You just have to connect all the dots, man.
And to think Lien Chan came within 26,000 votes of the Taiwanese presidency. Does he really expect people to believe he's never read about the first Chinese to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize?
On second thought, this is Lien Chan of Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party we're talkin' about. And the man has his priorities. When someone of his ilk has to choose between standing up for democracy advocates or bringing pandas to Taiwan, there's really no contest.
(All my panda-huggin', all my panda-kissin', you don't know what you've been a-missin'…)
Postscript: Good on France and Nicholas Sarkozy for defying The Empire and sending ambassadors to Oslo for Liu's award ceremony. Same goes for Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
As for Japan, we'll see. On the one hand, Prime Minister Kan seems willing to bend over backwards to appease the PRC. On the other, his poll numbers seem to be tanking as a result:
Public support for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet has plunged 14.9 points since early October to 32.7 percent, reflecting growing frustration with the government . . . reflect[ing] public dissatisfaction with the government's handling of Japan's row with China and a political funds scandal dogging ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa.
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