Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

President playing with fire

Taipei Times Editorial

With 23 days to go until the Nov. 29 elections, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) appears to be banking on a strategy of polarizing pan-blue and pan-green voters. Despite general dissatisfaction with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) governance and poor polling numbers by some candidates, KMT nominees could nonetheless achieve electoral success if voters are swayed to follow traditional blue-green lines in areas where pan-blue voters predominate.

This strategy was evident in comments by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who expressed optimism over KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) chances of being elected, despite less-than-satisfactory survey results.

Poll finds rising fear of HK-like future

Taipei Times

More than 70 percent of Taiwanese fear that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies will lead the nation toward becoming a “second Hong Kong,” and just 10 percent view China in a favorable light, a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan Brain Trust found.

The think tank’s president, Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), said that more than 70 percent of respondents regard Taiwan as an independent country.

Lin Yu-fang is disloyal to Taiwan

Lee Hsiao-feng 李筱峰

With the exception of Taiwan, there is no democracy in the world where soldiers would be punished for stressing that they identify with their own country.

Nor is there any other democracy in the world where a parliamentarian would be unhappy because a soldier stresses that they identify with their own country and request a question-and-answer session as a result.

A few days ago, Lieutenant Tsai Yueh-sheng (蔡躍陞) was given two reprimands for expressing his support for Taiwanese independence in a post on Facebook.

Taipei rally urges electoral reform

Taipei Times

Despite drizzling weather, more than 1,000 demonstrators rallied on Jinan Road outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei last night to support calls for reforms to the nation’s electoral policies, while also expressing their dissatisfaction toward what they say is the government’s failure to respond to demands made during the Sunflower movement.

Entitled “Blasting Jinan Road with Roars of Anger” (怒吼炸濟南) to signify participants’ outrage, the rally was launched by a coalition of civic groups, including many youth political movements that bloomed after the Sunflower movement.

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