Taipei – The Foreigner in Formosa

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.

Senile, Foul-Mouthed KMT “Aristocrat” Lien Chan Hurls Obscenities At Doctor Who Saved His Son’s Life

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’s Worst Place To Hold A Convention

Taipei's Grand Hotel wins that dubious honor, and then takes the cake:

Clashes broke out between Tibet support groups and Grand Hotel staff in the lobby yesterday after the management canceled a room reservation made by the groups in preparation for the arrival of a delegation headed by Sichuan Province Governor Jiang Jufeng (蔣巨峰).

“We have signed a [room rental] contract with you and it was clearly written on the contract that the room would be used to hold a press conference. How can you cancel our reservation at the last minute? Is this how the Grand Hotel honors its business contracts?” Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT) president Chow Mei-li (周美里) asked Grand Hotel manager Michael Chen (陳行中) after being informed of the cancelation. [emphasis added]

Granted, it's understandable that the hotel management would want to avoid unpleasantness under their roof. The type of unpleasantness that might ensue after renting rooms to antagonistic parties. However, a contract is a contract, and having signed it the hotel was obligated to manage the situation as best it could.

But instead, hotel management decided to compound their error by plunging themselves into a public relations fiasco:

More serious verbal and physical conflict broke out when Tibetans accompanying Chow grew impatient and took out banners and Tibetan flags that were to be used to decorate the news conference venue. They shouted slogans calling on Jiang to release the more than 300 monks arrested from Kirti Monastery in the predominantly Tibetan area of Ngaba in Sichuan Province and to withdraw troops and police that had placed the monastery under siege.

The manager and other members of the hotel management tried to take the signs and banners from the Tibetans by force.

The two sides pushed and shoved, while hotel management and staffers chased Tibetans running around the lobby with Tibetan flags in hand. [emphasis added]

What a lovely picture that makes — tourism workers in democratic Taiwan reduced to acting as paid goons of the Chinese Communist Party.

"Room service? This is the C.C.P. delegation. Someone here spotted a cockroach and a Tibetan on the premises. Would you kindly send somebody up to remove them?"

Security at Taiwan's Grand Hotel seize Tibetan guest on behalf of Chinese Communist Party guests. Hotel security attempts to pull the Tibetan's flag from his hands.

(Operating under the theory that "no publicity is bad publicity", thugs in the employ of Taipei's Grand Hotel set upon an unarmed Tibetan dissident in full view of press photographers. Image from the Taipei Times.)

But the hotel's antics were was all for nothing, because when police arrived, they took one look at the rental contract and admitted the Tibetans had a point. After which management conceded, grudgingly allowing the press conference to go forward . . . in a different room in the hotel.

Heaven forbid anyone should ever label Michael Chen, manager of Taipei's Grand Hotel, a collaborator.

But one really does have to wonder at the new paint job he's given the place…

UPDATE (May 24/11): Taiwan's premier communist-funded newspaper, The China Post, spikes the story.

Imagine that.

i-2