2008 March | The View from Taiwan

Entries for March, 2008

Media views of Ma and Taiwan

Mar.31, 2008 in Ma Ying-jeou, media

Imagine this: Ma Ying-jeou criticized in the international English-language media.
I’m not kidding you.
Stephen Nelson in Asia Times has a nifty piece pointing out that Ma Ying-jeou is a man who has reimagined himself in the last two years:
Shortly after becoming KMT chairman in mid-2005, Ma told the Associated Press that - if he became president [...]

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Camping in Gukeng

Mar.31, 2008 in camping, photos

Tsaotun town.
This weekend I went to the Gukeng Coffee District to “camp” with some local families. I’d love to show you magnificent scenery and beautiful coffee plants, but it was much too hazy for decent scenery shots, and we sat around chatting and playing cards instead of charging about hiking and imaging. Very relaxing. The [...]

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DPP Chairman Discussions

Mar.30, 2008 in Annette Lu, DPP, DPP chairmanship election, Frank Hsieh, KMT, Su Tseng-chang, Yu Shyi-kun

Sign of the rising price of metal: One of my neighbors is an artist who works in various metals. This weekend he surprised a thief attempting to make off with some metal which he had kept as parts for his work. The thief had stolen one basket and was surprised when he came back for [...]

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Media Quick Hits

Mar.29, 2008 in 2008 Presidential Election, media

I’m off camping in Gukeng, the center of Taiwan’s coffee production. Coffee-themed kitsch on a galactic scale…. Meantime lots of commentary out there on the Taiwan election. First is this disturbing editorial from Taiwan News on the human rights situation and the KMT. The money quote:
However, many actions and statements of KMT legislators since Ma’s [...]

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1992 Consensus Rises from the Grave

Mar.27, 2008 in China, Ma Ying-jeou

The Taipei Times reports on Hu Jin-tao’s phone conversation with President “Not since Montezuma handed his empire to the Spanish has there been a worse leader” Bush. The key comment was in this paragraph:
In response, Hu indicated a willingness to reopen cross-strait talks on the basis of the so-called “1992 consensus,” which stipulates that both [...]

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The Politics of 6th Grade: Contested English

Mar.27, 2008 in Education in Taiwan, English, speech judging

Yesterday was all Elementary English day. First, I got invited out to one of the better local elementary schools near my house. It was the leading elementary school in its part of the world, but last year a horrible thing had happened: none of their kids had finished in the upper tier of the English [...]

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Not Being Careful What You Wish For

Mar.27, 2008 in Australia, Ma Ying-jeou, Solomons, South Seas Islands, diplomacy

The Pacific islands’ relationship with Taiwan is back in the news. Last January I discussed several articles on Taiwan’s diplomatic initiatives in the South Seas. I cited one piece which said:
Following destructive riots in the Solomons capital Honiara in April, the Australian and New Zealand governments criticised the Taiwanese government for engaging in chequebook diplomacy [...]

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Daily Links, March 27, 2008

Mar.27, 2008 in Daily links

A specialty vehicle used at a fishing port in southern Taiwan.
What’s rolling across the blogs lately?

A-gu has some caustic comments on the KMT’s demand for a little time to get things in order.

David on Formosa announces a new website: Images of Old Taiwan.

Taiwan Matters has a long and detailed critique of the KMT move to [...]

Fox Paws and Snafus

Mar.26, 2008 in Ma Ying-jeou, SNAFUs, Taiwan-US relations, military and defense

The Taipei Times reported that President elect Ma Ying-jeou had already flatpetered his first essay into the US-China-Taiwan diplomatic swamp:
The US administration on Monday sidestepped questions about whether president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would be permitted to visit Washington before his inauguration in May, while some sources said that Ma may already have sparked a [...]

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More election comments (if you can stand them)

Mar.25, 2008 in 2008 Presidential Election

Some comments in no particular order:
First the mea culpa. I was totally wrong on the swing vote, as Forumosa poster Mick stopped by to caustically remind me in a comment that I lost (along with about 12 others in a Blogger error). The swing vote was about twice as big as I thought. More on [...]

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Election Day Hike

Mar.24, 2008 in Keelung, Taiwan history, hiking, military and defense

On election day, rather than torture myself by waiting for the election returns, I went hiking in Keelung to visit some of the old military structures in the area and hang out with my good friends Jeff Miller, Michael Fahey, and an Englishman named Laurence, of the Petrochemical Industry. (As always, click on any pic [...]

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The Political Economy of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region, 2008-2016

Mar.24, 2008 in 2008 Presidential Election, Ma Ying-jeou

Old military works outside of the port of Keelung.
…excerpted with permission from Mai Che-en’s The Political Economy of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region 2008-2016, published in June of 2017, Armonk: ME Sharpe.
….in the summer of 2008 controls on Chinese investment in Taiwan were lifted, and both Chinese capital and international capital flowed into Taiwan [...]

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Election Rejection

Mar.22, 2008 in 2008 Presidential Election

Wow! That was certainly a blast with no uncertainty. Taiwan took a huge step backward yesterday, all the way back to before 2000. Lots of people have written over the years that Taiwanese are committed to their democracy and love it. That will now be put to the test. The KMT-dominated legislature has repeatedly attempted [...]

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11:00 News

Mar.21, 2008 in Uncategorized

Lots of news out there. Snapped these pics of a DPP commercial on Tibet and Taiwan as I rode the bus out to Keelung tonight. Clearly percieved as a major issue useful to the DPP. The Taiwan Documents collection has rounded up a several articles in major newspapers on the relationship between the Taiwan elections [...]

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5:00 update

Mar.21, 2008 in 2008 Presidential Election

Banged around Taipei visiting events. Came back to Yungho to find a miniature parade for Frank Hsieh marching around the residential areas there.

Of course, not everyone was focused on what they were supposed to be doing. Take AP, for example: they recommend that Taiwan’s electorate, take two Xanax. Yes, Ma Ying-jeou, a calming figure:
Ma Ying-jeou [...]

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