During Chen Shui-bian’s second term a number of officials were prosecuted for corruption in what looked to many like a deliberate political put up job intended to create the impression that the Administration was corrupt. Today the Taipei Times reported on an acquittal in one of the most outrageous cases:
The Tainan District Court on Wednesday [...]
Taiwan News rocks with another great editorial, this time on KMT dysfunctionality and corruption:
Opposition Kuomintang presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou has based his call for a “second transfer of power” largely on claims that the Democratic Progressive Party administration has been “incompetent” and “corrupt” and that only a restored KMT government can “restore” clean government.
Frankly, we [...]
Analysis of the election continues apace, with more from the Blogosphere, this time from the Only Redhead. I’m tired of arguing with people that I know and love, like Robert, but the fact is that lots and lots of commentators out there fondly imagine that if the DPP had only come up with the right [...]
Shot of Taichung showing massive haze over the city, Jan 19, 2008.By its workings, astronomical sums have been appropriated into circuits from which many benefited. While the momentum of growth was maintained, Japan’s reputation as a great power was enhanced, and trade frictions with G7 member countries eased. Massive civil-engineering projects were favored: bridges, tunnels, [...]
Apologies for the light blogging, but I just spent probably the most disheartening week of my life in Taiwan… But the dark hours have passed….and so it’s back to the blog….
Speaking of dawning light, Ma Ying-jeou was found not guilty of stealing the government money that he had downloaded into his personal account and used [...]
The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation.– Lord Halifax
The secret meeting between Raymond Burghardt, Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), our officially unofficial representative body here in Taiwan, and Vincent Siew, the Vice Presidential candidate for the KMT, the officially unofficial pro-China party in Taiwan, [...]
I’ve stressed often in this blog that one important driver of identity politics in Taiwan is structural: on a range of important issues, the two parties have very similiar views. The one reliable difference between them is the pro-Taiwan stance of the DPP and the pro-China stance of the KMT. Hence, at the national level, [...]
Now that we have chimps outsmarting college students — a finding that will come as no surprise to college professors everywhere — it’s not surprising that the numbers out of China have serious problems….
Blinded by China’s false statistics —Jonathan Power
Beware of extrapolation, a British Chancellor of the Exchequer once remarked: it can make you go [...]
I’ve often mentioned the Chu An-hsiung case, still canonical as far as Taiwan city council speakers are concerned, but certainly KMT’s Lien Ching-tai, former city council speaker of Tainan deserves an Honorable Mention, as he was recently charged with fraud in a land case that highlights how the System works…
Former Tainan [...]
Last week Robin Winkler, whose energy and commitment to The Beautiful Isle I deeply admire, was allegedly punched during a protest by a local elected official. Taiwan Headlines has the call:
Environmental groups protested outside the Environmental Protection Administration on Monday morning to condemn the agency for siding with the Formosa Plastics Group on a proposed [...]
For quite some time now I’ve been arguing that the government needs to do more about the local fraud gangs that operate in conjunction with Chinese gangs and use the latest technology to carry out their operations. Now the Asahi Shimbun complains that gangs from Taiwan are operating all over Asia — including a few [...]
Typhoon Krosa, which caused the usual allotment of landslides, roadbed destruction, and flooding on the east coast, has apparently led to calls to build the Suhua Freeway:
The repeated disruptions in transport service and calls from residents on the east coast prompted the government to propose a new transport artery — the 89-km Suhua freeway [...]
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The Taipei Times reported that DPP heavies Annette Lu (the Veep), Mark Chen (many positions of power), and DPP Chairman Yu were indicted yesterday for the common practice of substituting false receipts for expenditures from the special funds:
Spokesman for the Supreme Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Panel Chen [...]
AFP reports that the Red Ant Army of Shih Ming-te is back in action.
Thousands of people rallied in the Taiwanese capital Sunday to mark the one-year anniversary of a campaign to oust President Chen Shui-bian over alleged corruption.
At least 1,000 riot police were deployed, but no clashes were reported in the candle-lit vigil, held on [...]
For the last year I’ve been noting how Ma Ying-jeou has faced opposition from within his own party, by insiders who dislike him. During the Chairmanship elections last year longtime political observer and commentator Lawrence Eyton noted:
Ma was widely touted by the media as the favorite, but he was certainly a very odd favorite. When [...]
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