Tag: Ma Ying-jeou

Taiwanese Cry Foul Over Obama Shout-Out

The other day Barack Obama publicly praised Taiwan for its humanitarian contributions for refugees from the Syrian and Iraqi civil wars, leading Taiwanese who would normally not agree with each other to react with anger and alarm at being placed into ISIS's crosshairs.

First, Chinese nationalists at Taiwan's China Post:

…Obama's statement has not generated the [favorable] traffic that might be expected on [Taiwanese] social media. When it is mentioned, Obama's Taiwan mention is…greeted with a "why us?" analysis.

The U.S. president knows full well that naming Taiwan in such a way will, to a degree, put Taiwan on the terrorists' map…

And second, Taiwanese nationalists at the Taipei Times:

US President Barack Obama naming Taiwan as one of the US’ partners in the global battle against terrorism might have come across as a nod to the nation’s aid to Syrian refugees to some, but his remarks at the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur were not only hypocritical, but have put the nation in danger of being targeted by Muslim extremists.

[…]

As with any talks at the international level, the two parties [KMT & DPP], intentionally or otherwise, have sent a clear message not only to IS, but also to Obama: “Keep Taiwan out of your fight.”

I'm gonna zag where readers might expect me to zig, and defend Obama on this one. (Or rather, not so much defend him as to place the blame elsewhere — on Ma Ying-jeou and Taiwan's KMT government.)

Taiwan's humanitarian contributions to alleviate the Syrian crisis are presumably not on some sort of top-secret budget, but are a matter of public knowledge in Taiwan as well as parts of the Middle East. The China Post elucidates the composition of Taiwan's aid:

The nation donated prefabricated houses, LED lamps and medical supplies worth nearly US$10 million in recent years in humanitarian assistance through the U.S. and relevant countries to refugees and other people affected by terrorism and war in the Middle East, according [to Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs].

It seems to me that if the Taiwanese government wanted its donations kept on the q.t., the onus was on it to communicate this wish — clearly & firmly — to the U.S.

It certainly had ample time to do so…YEARS of time, in fact.

So yes, Obama should be faulted for not understanding how ISIS's attacks on one U.S. ally (France) might cause nervousness on the part of a lesser player like Taiwan. But that does not absolve Ma Ying-jeou's administration from the responsibility it had for informing the American government about its desire to avoid the attention of the monstrous Islamofascist organization, ISIS.

Amidst all the finger-pointing at Barack Obama, the KMT's failure in this matter should not forgotten, either.

POSTSCRIPT: I've even seen a "Downfall" parody on this subject. Not knowing Chinese, I can't speak to its quality or lack thereof.

UPDATE: The China Post whistles past the graveyard:

Also, IS does not consider Taiwan an enemy. The monetary and humanitarian support Taiwan gives the American-led coalition is insignificant. The new caliphate feels no need to retaliate against Taiwan.

How do you know that? You got a secret hotline to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?

And if so, do you believe everything he tells you?

Xi Jinping’s Utter Contempt For Ma Ying-jeou

A revealing exchange from the meeting between the presidents of China & Taiwan:

During the meeting, Ma raised the issue of Taiwanese concern over China’s military deployment against Taiwan…

According to Ma, Xi said that “the [PLA] deployments do not target Taiwan.” [Emphasis added]

UPDATE (November 12 / 2015): From today's Taipei Times:

Ma said nothing in response [to Xi's contention that China's missiles were not targeted against Taiwan]. He did not point out the obvious: Taiwan is the only nation in sight in the direction and range of China’s nearly 1,600 short-range missiles along its coast across the Taiwan Strait.

If, as Xi claims, the missiles are not aimed at Taiwan, what are they aimed at? Xi cannot possibly be suggesting that the missiles are targeting bluefin tuna off the coast of Pingtung County or humpback dolphins of the coast of Changhua County, can he?

Supreme Communist Leader Campaigns For Taiwan’s KMT At Ma Ying-jeou’s Request

My first reaction to the recent meeting between President Mister Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan and President Mister Xi Jinping of China:

Over the past 10-15 years, other observers have noticed the similarity between Taiwan's KMT and cargo cultists — particularly as the KMT touted economic relations with China as a panacea for curing all of Taiwan's woes.

After nearly 8 years with Ma in the presidency, voters don't believe Chinese manna's going to fall from heaven anymore, so the KMT's cargo cult has morphed from the economic to the political realm.

Got a tough election coming up?

The correct response isn't to fight a tough campaign or even prepare to retrench in the face of potentially-large losses at the polls.

No, the correct response is to go crawling to Beijing for a contentless photo-op with China's Communist dictator.

'Cause remember those 500,000 people who marched last year against closer trade relations with China? Well, when they see Ma shaking hands with Xi, they're gonna have a complete change of heart and demand MOAR ONE CHINA.

Or so the theory goes.

Ma Ying-jeou shaking hands with Xi Jinping

(Image from CBS News)

Now personally, I would be inclined to vote against the KMT for pulling a stunt like this to influence the outcome of an election only 2 months away. (Recall how bitterly the KMT bitched and moaned for 4 years about "sympathy votes" after an assassination attempt prior to the presidential election of 2004. Now however, the party seems positively smug about DELIBERATELY manufacturing a "November Surprise".)

But that's just me. I very much want to see how Taiwanese voters react.

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Should Hung Hsiu-chu Take The China Post’s Advice And Become Taiwan’s Dictator-For-Life?

I think the living would soon envy the dead:

Picture of KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu with captions: '...autocracy can work, sometimes, under wise leadership.' -- The China Post. Democracy and autocracy each have their merits. July 25, 2015. and 'If coronated president, I promise to rule cruelly (yet wisely!) during my 38-year term.' --Hung Hsiu-chu

Long-time observers of Taiwanese politics will note this marks a logical progression from her predecessor's 2012 campaign slogan:

Image of man beaten bloody during Sunflower protests against Taiwanese president Ma Ying jeou, with caption: 'Rah rah, Obey Ma, Respect his, Authoritah.'

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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?)

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.

President Ma Ying-jeou Of Taiwan Asks The Japanese To Do His Job For Him

More Taiwanese visit Japan than vice versa, and Ma The Bumbler thinks Tokyo needs to get right on it:

President Ma Ying-jeou on Friday told a Japanese envoy that the Asian country should review the imbalance of tourist flow between the two nations.

[…]

[In a previous meeting with former Deputy Minister Okada Katsuya, the] president was quoted to have said that Taiwanese tourists visiting Japan greatly exceed that of Japan to Taiwan, and that Japan should take measures to rebalance the difference.

Perhaps it's not surprising that Ma's response to this "problem" is both lazy and incompetent. Because the most obvious solution is for his government to pony up the funds for a tourist promotional campaign in Japan.

But of course, that would take effort.

His government could also get off its duff and do a marketing study about how to make the country more attractive to Japanese tourists, and then go about following the study's recommendations.

More work, again.

Taiwanese KMT President Ma Ying-jeou sits and crosses index fingers from both hands.

(President Ma Ying-jeou makes the teenage "crucifix"-gesture to ward off the evil expectation that he do the job he was elected to do. Whined Ma: "Oh, maaaaan, Foreigner, all your proposals sound TOO HARD. Why can't I just let somebody ELSE do it, instead?" — Image from the Want China Times.)

Another option would be for his government to stop going down-market with its ardent pursuit of low-income Chinese tourists. It's entirely possible that concentrating on this niche discourages higher-income Japanese from visiting…

A different angle would be for Ma to tackle some of the anti-Japanese bigotry that the KMT fostered during its decades-long misrule of the country. I once witnessed (with my own eyes) a Taiwanese woman in her 30s walk up to a Japanese man in a bar and, unprovoked, tell him straight to his face in English, "I don't like Japanese."

(Fortunately, it was a foreigner pub, and there weren't any Taiwanese men around. The situation might have escalated quickly had any drunken, Japan-hating, Chinese nationalists been present.)

By my reckoning, that Japanese man probably told his family and a few of his co-workers about his unfortunate experience with Taiwanese hospitality. Undoubtedly, a few other Japanese later heard about it second-hand. Does Mr. Ma think that's the kind of word-of-mouth which encourages Japanese visits to Taiwan?

Finally, if Ma Ying-jeou wants more Japanese tourists (or tourists from any country, really), he could see to it that the country's legal system charges and prosecutes Taiwanese who assault tourists. His pathetic failure to do so is certain to leave a few foreign tourists crossing Taiwan off their itineraries.

Update: After sleeping upon it, I realized this post gave the false impression that Taiwanese in general behave badly towards Japanese tourists. So to clarify: most Taiwanese are cool. Really cool.

However, Taiwan has a very small, ugly minority (who usually prefer to be called "Chinese") which rabidly hates Japan and all things Japanese.

Having made that qualification, an encounter with even one of the latter is enough to ruin a vacation…

UPDATE (Aug 31, 2014): With more temperate language, the Taipei Times makes much the same point.

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President Ma Ying-jeou Allies With Gangsters Against Taiwanese Because Constitution!

Visiting Communist Party apparatchik Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) must feel right at home watching President Ma of Taiwan brutalize the citizenry.

Using members of the Taiwanese mafia, no less – for plausible deniability. That PhD in law from Harvard sure does come in handy sometimes.

With a bloody face, a wound on his forehead and blood-stained clothing, Liang Po-chou (梁伯洲) told reporters at the square in front of the temple that he was assaulted by five or six people using steel blowpipes.

Liang said he was there with his father, Changhua County Councilor Liang Chen-hsiang (梁禎祥) of the Democratic Progressive Party, and other people trying to show Zhang posters with slogans against the cross-strait service trade agreement and slogans that the future of Taiwan is a matter for 23 million Taiwanese people to decide.

The “gangster-like people” began beating him when he was trying to argue with executive officers of the temple because he was angry that they asked staff to set off firecrackers on the streets in an attempt to disperse people who refused to leave, Liang said.

Perhaps the Strongman-In-Shortpants ran out of policemen willing to do his dirty work.

KMT President Ma Ying-jeou's mafia. Taiwanese mafia members wearing black shirts and pants stand waiting to beat Taiwanese protesting the visit of Chinese Communist Party negotiator Zhang Zhijun.

(Chinese mafia runs security for Taiwanese mob boss president Ma ("Fredo") Ying-jeou. Image from the Taipei Times.)

Professor Jerome Cohen must be very, very proud of his former student's scrupulous adherence to the rule of law.

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The China Post Projects Its Own Love Of Autocracy Onto Others

Taiwan's worst English-language newspaper put out a howler today:

…the Sunflower students, who violated the law by hijacking the parliament and storming the government house of the Executive Yuan, [conducting a peaceful sit-in at government buildings against an economic surrender agreement with Communist China] have succeeded in imposing their “people's democracy” on Taiwan. Theirs isn't democracy. It's monocracy. [Emphasis added]

Monocracy? Mono, as in ONE?

500,000 Taiwanese students came out to protest the KMT's dangerous backdoor economic deal with the Communist Party of China.

Hate to break it to ya fellas, but:

500,000 >>> 1

Guess that old trope about Asians being really good at math was just a myth…

Oh, but wait, the best part comes at the end of the China Post's latest editorial:

The last card President Ma may play may be to invoke the Statute Governing the Relations between the People in the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area to have the trade in services agreement go into force by an executive order. [emphasis added]

..it's probably the only way to ensure Taiwan's economic survival.

Evidently, the only way for Taiwan to avoid the dangers of monocracy…is for its president to govern by dictat!