Gradually Going Tornado

100 Years of KMT-enforced Nonsense is Enough

2010-12-31T02:02:00.015+08:00

I'm just amazed at the success that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has had at convincing the majority of Taiwanese that the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China government IN CHINA is something worth celebrating here in Taiwan. Forty years of murder of all the nay-sayers, beginning with he 228 Massacre, and 60 years of cultural brainwashing by the KMT's Leninist organizational structure has really paid off handsomely. Or maybe after 40 years of military occupation and martial law in support of the KMT's sinocization efforts and nation-building schemes in Taiwan (not to mention China's threat to murder Taiwanese wholesale if they dare try to improve things), most Taiwanese have just given up trying to conceive of anything else better or more honest. This passive, lazy, and nihilistic mei ban fa (沒辦法) attitude (translation: It can not be changed. So accept it.) can only begin to address the average Taiwanese's unconcerned attitude towards the contradictions inherent in celebrating the ROC's founding in China 100 years ago.

As if the 100-year anniversary of overthrow of the Qing Empire in China has anything to do with Taiwan, which was a legal and internationally recognized territory of Japan in 1911. The ROC government became a government-in-exile when it fled Nanjing, China, to the military occupied island of Taiwan (whose sovereignty 60 years after Japan relinquished it is still officially and legally "undecided") . The ROC government (and the constitution, flag, and other national symbols) were imported to Taiwan in 1949 without the democratic consent of the inhabitants of Taiwan. International law does not recognize any procedures, actions, or methods whereby a government-in-exile can become "the legally recognized government of its current locality of residence." This is why the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government-in-exile does not exercise sovereignty over its location in Dharamsala, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Similarly, the Jan. 12, 1946 military order, which authorized a "mass naturalization" of native Taiwanese people as ROC citizens, was and is illegal under international law.

To steal a line from the excellent Letters from Taiwan: the ROC Centennial is the celebration of 38 years of corrupt and murderous governance in China, followed by 62 years of murderous and corrupt occupation and colonization of Taiwan by the failed state of the R.O.C in exile and its various cronies, gangsters, and hangers-on.

Could Stockholm Syndrome, on a mass scale, explain such mass public acquiescence and general positive receptions over such an a-historical non-event? Left untouched in this backward-looking "celebration" are the myriad unaddressed issues and unfinished business of transition from the ROC occupation and colonization to a truer, and more honest democratically determined government that can actually represent the multi-ethnic and historically complex makeup of the modern Taiwanese.

The '92 Consensus: Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

2010-08-14T13:11:00.052+08:00

Finally… an article in the international press that gets it right about the emptiness of the “92 consensus." As admitted by the KMT's former National Security Council head Su Chi, who was involved at the time, there was never any "consensus" reached in negotiations held in 1992. The term "92 consensus" was fabricated 7 years later as a political fig leaf. If there was any consensus reached in 1992 at all, it was that both the KMT and the CCP agreed that "Taiwan," as a sovereign entity, will disappear in the future into some kind of future PRC/ROC cloud of One-Chineseness, with both the CCP and the KMT getting to claim that it has "reunited" the Motherland.

This "consensus," which the KMT claims allows both sides to swear their religious-like belief in a "One China," but without specifying what that means, has also allowed Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) the political cover they need to ink several economic and trade agreements in the last 2 years, leading to some short-term gains for both parties. However, these gains will only mask various serious long-term "pains" and problems, as the true meaninglessness of the "'92 consensus" will slowly reveal itself, exposing the KMT to greater local political anger and backlash, and enabling the CCP greater political leverage to enact its goals of annexing Taiwan.

First, the short-term gains. The fig leaf that is the "'92 consensus" allows the KMT and the CCP the political cover they need to sign deals, but also provides the KMT the local political cover they need to hide the fact that they've secretly agreed with the CCP to China's growing suzerainty over Taiwan. This cover is essential, as there would be NO deals with the CCP if the KMT had not tacitly agreed in some way to China's claims over Taiwan. But there would also be riots in the streets of Taiwan if the locals ever got wind of the KMT's undemocratic, behind-the-door, secret power-sharing deals with China.

Second, all the agreements of the last few years that have been enabled by repeating the "'92 consensus" mantra mostly benefit KMT-connected big businesses and KMT-connected developmentalist policies. Already the world's richest political party, these deals further entrench the KMT's domination of Taiwan's political landscape.

Third, the phony "'92 consensus" benefits China, as it allows China to sign deals with Taiwan's government, thus affirming the illusion that China seeks "peaceful" re-approchement with Taiwan, as part of its "peaceful rise." This is despite the 2005 "Anti-Secession Law," which threatens Taiwan will death and destruction unless is submits to China's suzerainty, China's continued belligerent language from both the CCP and PLA leadership, the continued double-digit yearly increase in China's military spending, all of which centers around invading Taiwan, and the increase to nearly 2000 Chinese missiles that still threaten Taiwan.

Lastly, allowing either side to operate under the "'92 consensus" ephemera benefits both the KMT's and the CCP's ideological goals. For the KMT, their ideological goals consist of a) never having to admit they lost the Chinese Civil War by maintaining their delusion of the continued existence of the long-defunct Republic of China, which, constitutionally consists of China, Tibet, East Turkestan (Xinjiang), Mongolia, and (by a 1949 ex-post-facto statute only) Taiwan, b) to maintain the political fiction in the minds of the Taiwanese that the ROC equals Taiwan (but to never admit that Taiwan = ROC), and c) just as the KMT's economic and political control of Taiwan has allowed them to utilize their vast network of connections to the island's resources to enrich both their political power-base and their party-coffers, the KMT's future goals are to further enrich themselves on the developing cross-strait CCP/KMT/organized crime nexus. The ideological goals of China are much more simple: to annex Taiwan to the PRC, and thereby maintain its political legitimacy and power within the People's Republic of China.

However, the short-term gains the "'92 consensus" has afforded both the CCP and the KMT will only delay confronting serious long-term political pains. First, how can you have consensus when all you agreed to was to "agree to disagree?" There is no THERE there.... no admission of either side's long-term political goals, nor any real agreed framework that can help either side sort out future political differences or offer any long-term guidance to future political negotiations.

Second, the economic agreements made between the KMT and the CCP in the last two years have denigrated Taiwan's sovereignty and will cement Taiwan in China's economic orbit, thus endangering Taiwan's hard-earned freedoms and fragile democracy. The democratic goals and aspirations of Taiwan’s 23 million people will be ignored as much as possible by both the KMT or the CCP, as they conflict with the ideological goals of these two nationalistic, autocratic, pro-China parties.

Third, China dominates world opinion about Taiwan's status via its Taiwan-isolating "united front strategy" all the while insisting to the world that "one China" really means the People's Republic of China, with Taiwan being a specially administered "region" of the PRC. (Luckily for the KMT, Taiwanese seem oblivious to how China or the rest of the world conceives of the Taiwan/China relationship, and are content with believing the KMT are somehow "pro-Taiwan." (Check out these deceptive KMT campaign posters from 2008 that were in a lovely shade of blue-green.)

Furthermore, as the CCP begins to put increasing pressure on the KMT to enter political discussions on such sensitive issues as a "peace" treaty to officially end the Chinese Civil War and to determine Taiwan's ultimate fate, how will the KMT maintain the fiction that is the ROC, and how do they maintain their economic and political control of Taiwan? The idiocy of the phony "'92 consensus" will unravel as China begins to pressure Taiwan for a "final solution" to end Taiwan's independence. As the CCP slowly squelches the last of Taiwan's sovereignty and international presence, as well as asserting greater influence of Taiwan's domestic affairs, the CCP may eventually call the KMT's bluff: the KMT may be finally forced to show the true weakness of its hand in this deal with the devil called the "'92 consensus."

How, at that point, will the KMT be able to maintain its belief in the continued existence or sovereignty of the ROC? Perhaps, if the KMT and the CCP ever do reach a political agreement, only the best of Chinese denialism and ass-covering, flim-flamming verbiage will work to maintain the delusions of ROC's continuation or sovereignty. However, given past CCP behavior towards their political rivals, the KMT, in a post-peace-agreement era, will be lucky to escape their eventual liquidation or imprisonment, at worst, or absorption into the CCP, at best.

And how about the hapless Taiwanese? Barring the ability of the KMT to keep Taiwan's populace perpetually hypnotized with continuos promises of future economic riches and benefits in the cargo cult that is their pro-China policies, the voters of Taiwan will (hopefully) finally be able to see how firmly the KMT have sold out Taiwan and placed Taiwan under China's control. Expect some political gnashing of teeth, rending of garments, and letting of blood. But by then, will it be too late for democracy in Taiwan and its people?

BP Oil Leak in Gulf of Mexico... Watch our Earth Being Destroyed

2010-06-03T21:50:00.003+08:00

Words fail to capture the enfolding disaster that is this leak in the Gulf of Mexico. I was born in Erath,Louisiana, and visited the southern Louisiana "Cajun" delta area and bayous often as a child. I often vacationed in southern Alabama and the panhandle of Florida. This area used to be so clean and pristine.

Now... the areas I knew as a child are now, for all intents and purposes, gone forever.

UPDATE: Well, thankfully, BP has successfully plugged the leak. But the environment damage caused by the leakage of hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil and the application of thousands of tons of oil dispersants into the Gulf will be felt for many, many decades to come. I still weep for the loss of what once was...

Kill Your TV: It could turn you into the Borg.

2010-05-27T22:13:00.008+08:00

Television is a drug. from Beth Fulton on Vimeo.

This is exactly why I don't watch TV: it just lulls you into this non-thinking, trace-like state, where your opinions and thoughts get shaped into whatever the corporate sponsors want you to think.

I find it odd that every restaurant in Taipei has TVBS blasting loudly on the TV: it reminds me so much of the novel 1984, where here, big-brother China is telling us Proles how to have correct "pro-blue' thought. "I am a zhong hua min zu. I have always been a zhong hua min zu. Chen Shui-bian stole my money. Only the KMT can save me from the evil Taiwan splittists."

Speaking of zhong hua min zu (中華民族), Professor Jerome Keating had an excellent article entitled, "In Search of Taiwan Minzu: the First Step, Seeing What it is Not," in which he argues that:

Nothing exemplifies Ma Ying-jeou's lack of identity with and/or grasp of what it is to be Taiwanese than his constant attempts to push Zhonghua minzu on the Taiwanese. The truth of the matter is that historically Zhonghua minzu has little to do with Taiwan.

I see "zhonghua mingzu" as being a lot like the Star Trek's Borg: it's a vast assimilation of various ethnic groups conveniently fabricated to justify Beijing's territorial expansions.

We are the zhong hua min zu. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

OK, so maybe I've watched more TV than I care to admit! haha

Taiwan: Island of the Blues

2010-05-27T22:06:00.000+08:00

One of my adult students, who I've taught for 3 years, committed suicide last week. A boyfriend of a good Taiwanese friend committed suicide a few years ago. So many of my other friends have talked about, contemplated, or even attempted suicide.

I wonder what contributes to such a high suicide rate in Taiwan? Too much social pressure so succeed? Too uncertain and bleak a future, with Taiwan slowly being absorbed into a faceless and souless Chinese Empire? Living in a material culture with no spiritual, ethical, or political values, as so many Taiwanese Strawberries do?

Taiwan: the Land of Political Purgatory

2010-05-27T21:36:00.008+08:00

The sign in the picture above is a rather extreme statement. But it's also a logical conclusion to the legal and political arguments I summarized before, and a sign of how desperately some Taiwan wish to maintain their hard-won democracy, freedom, and independence from Chinese despotism: independence that the KMT gravely threatens with their recent head-long rush into financial and economic integration with the authoritarian People's Republic of China. Notice the same flag, again: the island of Taiwan attached to the American flag.

It's a fact that between 1946 and 1949, the US government, as principal occupying power of Taiwan, considered removing the Republic of China (ROC) administration from power in Taiwan (the ROC was simply the "subordinate occupying power" of Taiwan at the time) and replacing it with a United Nations-administered government due to Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) utterly corrupt and depraved governance of Taiwan (especially after the 228 massacre). After Chiang and the KMT lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Ze-dong and the communists and retreated to Taiwan in 1949, the US government then considered just washing their hands of him and letting the commies take Taiwan.

Chiang Kai-shek was nicknamed "Peanut-head" by US generals, so great was his incompetence. What saved Chiang's ass was Communist China's invasion of Korea in 1950, which forced Truman to draw a line in the sand against further communist expansion in SE Asia by sending the 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait, and throw American support behind Chiang's corrupt government. How tragic for the Taiwanese that they were stuck with this pathetic loser and his corrupt, defunct ROC government for next 60 years.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen found herself in some hot water recently for stating the truth: the Republic of China (ROC) is a government-in-exile.

Poor Taiwan, continuing in its weird political purgatory. If you speak the truth-- that the Republic of China is an alien, colonialist government that serves only one purpose: to keep the KMT in control of Taiwan's identity, wealth and culture, and that nearly everything that the KMT has done to Taiwan since 1946 has no legal basis in international law -- than you are sure to cause a political firestorm and be branded a "trouble-maker."

And of course, Tsai's honesty exposes the inherent paradox of the DPP: it seeks to gain political control (through democratic means) of a government it sees as illegitimate (because the Republic of China was never established in Taiwan through democratic or legal means) and seeks to replace the ROC with a legal, democratically created Republic of Taiwan, along with a new constitution, flag, national anthem, and all the trappings of a legitimate government.

Of course, neither the KMT or their allies, the Chinese Communist Party, will ever allow such a development to occur. They'd rather destroy Taiwan in war and wash the island with blood than loose their grips on Taiwan identity, economy and culture.

For the DPP, the ROC is just a shell, the only available vehicle for carrying Taiwan's inherent sovereignty and independence until such time that a formal, internationally recognized Republic of Taiwan can be established. Thus, the pro-green side both need the ROC to continue Taiwan's democratic transformation and governance, and despise the ROC as being illegitimate and colonialist at the same time.

For the KMT, the ROC somehow magically floats right on top of Taiwan, a part of Taiwan, yet apart. Taiwan, to them, is just a "region" of the ROC, whose boundaries actually comprise the old Qing Empire: China, Tibet, East Turkestan (also called Xinjiang), AND Mongolia. Taiwan was just thrown in, by statue, at the last minute in 1947. This concoction is pure fantasy, of course. Mongolia is an independent country. Tibet and East Turkestan are, in no way, administered by the ROC government in Taiwan. Rather, they are coerced colonies of the new Chinese Empire, better known as the People's Republic of China.

Of course, the KMT and their version of the "shell" country called the ROC also serve one other purpose: as a kind of religious cult-- based on the faith article of "return to mommyland." This religious faith, through 60 years of violence and coercion on the hapless Taiwanese, have allowed the Chinese who fled here in 1949 from ever losing face or facing the reality that they LOST both the Chinese civil war AND China. They can continue in their little ideologically-blinded fantasy land that believes that if they can't return to China, then China will return to THEM! Come hell or high water or murdered Taiwanese, if need be.

The vast majority of Taiwanese citizens, who, with time and intermarriage, now comprise a light blue/light green continuum, in recent polls show a general support for "the status quo." To them, the official name of the government and its constitution are meaningless quibbles between selfish children. They generally only require a half-way functional government who can keep them relatively safe, keep the trains and buses running on time, and keep the economy humming. Notions like democracy and freedom or even the environment are abstract concepts that mean little to them. Making money and accumulating social status are the main concerns for the vast majority of Taiwanese of all ethnic backgrounds, in my experience.

And thus Taiwan's long, 60-year purgatory of KMT-imposed governmental illegitimacy and non-recognition will continue into the indefinite future.

Thailand See(the)s Red

2010-05-27T21:04:00.008+08:00

I don't think you can just say all of these pro-red supporters throughout Thailand were just ignorant dupes who are being manipulated by Thaksin's bribes. That's insulting the intelligence of too many people and overestimating the power of just one man. Again, this is what happens in a democracy when your views are routinely dismissed and your legitimate vote patronizingly annulled by a coup.

"This is not for Thaksin,” he said. “This is for democracy."

This sentiment can not be forgotten, despite the Red Shirt's poor leadership, which lost much moral credibility when it allowed the protests to descend into chaos, violence, and destruction.

But to me, Thaksin is just an easy scapegoat to blame for all of Thailand's woes. Whatever crimes Thaksin was guilty of cannot compare with the greatest crime of them all: overthrowing the democratic vote of the people. This is just blowback from this disastrous decision to stage a coup in 2006. It's the coup leaders who ought to be having their asses on the line for all this trouble, including he-who-can-not-be-named-lest-you-violate-the-lèse majesté-law.

A bandanna he sells is embossed with the words, "I’m not scared of you."

I just wish there was a similarly brave and organized "green" movement in Taiwan that would be pissed off about what the KMT is currently doing to its citizens.

And so, poor Thailand continues to bleed in a seemingly endless cycle of attacks and reprisals. My thoughts go out to all my friends in Bangkok who are dealing stoically with the chaos.

How to find a way forward? I think even if Thaksin's head was on a plate tomorrow, the underlying causes of the discontent would remain: the entrenched power elite (the military, the aristocracy, business elites, etc), whose corruption I'd bet is identical in every way to Thaksin's, will just continue to keep their hands on the levels of power in the country. The disenchanted poor and working classes will remain increasingly desperate (and perhaps turn increasingly to violence) as their only source of power -- the election ballot -- will continue to be thwarted by the courts or the military by having a hard or soft coup whenever one of the Red Shirt's duly-elected own gets too uppity and threatens the entrenched powers that be.

And one more problem that really needs to be addressed: Thais need to have an open, honest, and FREE debate on the proper role of the royal family in a modern and democratic Thailand, which can only begin by recinding its lèse majesté laws. Without being able to touch that giant gorilla in the middle of living room, the prospects for progress will remain grim.

And so, regardless of the actors of the hour, the tensions will remain until the underlying systematic issues are addressed, including the creation of a neutral military and judiciary that are untouchable by any political parties and who don't have their hands in the till. (Well it's a pipe dream, I guess.)

Let's hope in the coming months and years wiser heads on both sides can find a way forward towards real progress AND justice.

Great Right-Wing Minds Think Alike (continued)

2010-04-05T19:03:00.021+08:00

Recently, I got in a bit of back and forth in the comments section of this recent post concerning the accuracy of labeling the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) "right wing." I do agree that, in reality, very little of what is labeled in Western democracies "left" or "right" applies to politics in Taiwan, because "national identity" and all its ramifications is still the major driver of differences between the pro-blue and pro-green sides. Even though one could point to individual politicians on both sides that could be labeled "left" or "right" in the traditional sense, I still argue that it's possible to tease out some left/right differences between the two sides when one takes into account longer-term trends or historical background.

For instance, I pointed out that the DPP's platform before 2000 did contain a number of "lefty" policies,...

such as opposition to nuclear power, greater environmental regulations, progressive land management reform proposals, pro-labor policies, and the continued strengthening of democratic institutions that were far more prominent and credible than the lip-service to democracy paid by the KMT.

However, as we saw throughout the Chen years, whether it was a result of the inherent institutional weakness of the Presidency, the scorched-Earth opposition of the dominant KMT party in the Legislature, or the corrupting influence of big business and money in politics, most of these "lefty" DPP policies were never implemented or were abandoned. Instead, the DPP often followed the same government-led developmentalist policies of the KMT.

On the other hand, taken in historical context, it's hard to find much in the KMT that qualities as other than "right wing," from their continued worship of anti-communist, military strongman and dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to their long-term anti-environmentalist and pro-developmentalist policies throughout their 60-year reign on Taiwan, to their strong anti-union policies, to their current appeasement and pro-annexation policies with a fascist, authoritarian dictatorship like China. It's very hard to find much "liberal" or "progressive" about much of what the KMT has promoted for the last 60 years, other than lip service.

Now that I think I can stop feeling uneasy calling the KMT "right wing," I've been thinking more about ways that right-wing ideologues like Ma Ying-jeou and Rush Limbaugh might be alike: this new study found differences in the way right-wing and left-wing brains think.

Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

...

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences.

Could this study shed light on why so many American conservatives still refuse to admit that deregulation has led to the collapse of the American banking sector, or that lower taxes have INCREASED the budget deficits, not decreased them? Or why deep-blue ideologues like Ma Ying-jeou still refuse to admit that the KMT lost the Chinese Civil War, that Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was "a savior of the Chinese Race-Nation," and not a ruthless, incompetent dictator, and that Republic of China CANNOT comprise the old Qing Empire: China, Tibet, East Turkestan (also called Xinjiang), AND Mongolia (Taiwan is listed as part of the ROC by statute only, apparently), no matter what the ROC constitution says?

No, I think you need something deeper and more systemic to explain such total obliviousness to facts and reality: epistemic closure, a closed-loop information filter that prevents any idea or assertion from being tested objectively against reality or facts. As Julian Sanchez summarizes in his excellent post on the epistemic closure of the right-wing in America:

Reality is defined by a multimedia array of interconnected and cross promoting conservative blogs, radio programs, magazines, and of course, Fox News. Whatever conflicts with that reality can be dismissed out of hand because it comes from the liberal media, and is therefore ipso facto not to be trusted. (How do you know they’re liberal? Well, they disagree with the conservative media!) This epistemic closure can be a source of solidarity and energy, but it also renders the conservative media ecosystem fragile. Think of the complete panic China’s rulers feel about any breaks in their Internet firewall: The more successfully external sources of information have been excluded to date, the more unpredictable the effects of a breach become. Internal criticism is then especially problematic, because it threatens the hermetic seal. It’s not just that any particular criticism might have to be taken seriously coming from a fellow conservative. Rather, it’s that anything that breaks down the tacit equivalence between “critic of conservatives and “wicked liberal smear artist” undermines the effectiveness of the entire information filter. If disagreement is not in itself evidence of malign intent or moral degeneracy, people start feeling an obligation to engage it sincerely.

If Republicans are guilty of this kind or reality filter, imagine what it's like for the KMT: for forty years, anyone who challenged the KMT one-party state or the official white-washed KMT version of history was arrested, tortured, or even murdered. Blacklists were maintained as late as 1992 of "political enemies" that were not allowed into Taiwan. Text books reflected the KMT's cultural and political hegemony. Encyclopedias that contradicted the official KMT line were physically redacted with a heavy, black marker.

Even now, all the symbols of national identity, such as flags, national anthems and government ministry symbols, the ROC constitution, CKS Memorial Hall, etc. all reflect and reinforce the KMT's version of history as being the saviors of the "one and true Chinese culture." The TV, newspapers, and other media are owned or controlled by pro-blue forces, all of which will reinforce the KMT's slant on history and the issues of the day. Any historical perspective or claim that contradicts their world view can be easily dismissed as "anti-Chinese propaganda" or just a "pro-green political smear."

As Michael Turton pointed out on his blog about the KMT:

...one of the most important components of KMT dominance over society is its Leninist drive to bring all the institutions of society under its own control. In Leninist forms of organization, Right or Left, the Party interpenetrates with society so that whether at home, on the job, or socializing, the Party is always in control, monitoring, and shaping the behavior of others.

The KMT dominates or controls all levels of society from all the national branches of government, including the executive, legislature, the judiciary, the military, to local police groups, 90% of all the media, the state-run news outlets, of course, to the university administrations at all the elite schools, teacher's and government worker's unions, cross-strait financial institutions and crime syndicates, all the way down to the Boy Scouts, farmer's credit unions, irrigation associations, and temple associations. All these levels of society are still dominated by the KMT.

Functioning in such an ideologically closed bubble, or epistemic closure, one will never have his or her world view challenged by facts or contrary historical views, which is why listening to and trying to debate someone like Ma seems like a rather fruitless endeavor. Good luck trying to poke any holes in Ma's ideological armor when trying to debunk his various ECFA delusions, such as ECFA being non-political and not touching on the ROC's sovereignty.

You'd have just as much luck convincing Sarah Palin that the United States wasn't "founded on Christian principles" or that Obama isn't a "terrorist-loving, closet-Muslim socialist."

Keeping up Appearances in Singapore

2010-03-28T17:19:00.010+08:00

Speak the truth in Singapore, lose your shirt. New York Times Pays Singapore Leaders Over $100K For Calling Them 'Political Dynasty'.

Why didn’t The New York Times do what Google just did and tell Singapore they’d rather pull out of town than play their petty dictator games. “Free speech, or kiss my ass!” ought to be the standard operation procedure for all Western media companies.

Of course, just because Singapore's nepotist-in-chief, I mean, Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, is very thin-skinned about any public criticism of how he obtained his cushy job doesn't mean he's not above criticizing how bad democracy is in places like Australia. But no matter. When you are the "king of Singapore," you're free to be as hypocritical and full-of-shit as you please. Dare to disagree? Lee will sue your ass for libel and bankrupt you faster than you can say "Char kway teow (炒粿条)."

Let's not forget that Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regularly holds up Singapore as a role model for good governance. Maybe Ma Ying-jeou's popularity rating in Taiwan wouldn't be in the gutter like it is now if only they could sue all the nay-sayers for libel.

The GOP and KMT: Great Right-Wing Nutjob Minds Think Alike!

2010-03-28T16:14:00.015+08:00

I've always been amazed about how similar the Republican Party (GOP) in the USA and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of Taiwan are, not only in political strategies, but also their tendency to fall for paranoid, delusional fantasies about their respective opposition parties.

Let's look at political strategies: both the GOP and the KMT employed a scorched-Earth legislative policy by automatically opposing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING the opposition proposed, no matter how centrist or sensible. For Taiwan, this meant that much-needed government reform and spending ground to a halt for the eight years of the Chen Shui-bian administration, resulting in higher unemployment and slower economic growth. Then the KMT turned around and blamed Chen for "ruining the economy." For the GOP, their tactics have resulted in ZERO input in the recently passed health-care reform and their increasing isolation from mainstream public opinion. Soon, the GOP will be nothing more than an all-white Southern Rump party.

Here's another another way that both the GOP and the KMT are the same: a belief in crazy conspiracy theories: When some lone pro-blue nut-job tried to shoot Chen Shui-bian in 2004, the KMT claimed that the President had faked the assassination attempt in order to win "sympathy votes," and thus "steal the election." (And let's not forget about another KMT-assassination attempt against Chen's wife: another violent pro-blue nut job tried to run her over with a truck, resulting in her permanent paralysis from the legs down.) To this day, the KMT claim, without evidence, that Chen faked the whole shooting, despite the forensics evidence (see picture of Chen's flesh wound above), polls that showed support for Chen surging ahead of the KMT in the days before the assassination attempt, and the fact that it would require the fore-knowledge of hundreds of people, none of whom have ever "spilled the beans."

Now we have these GOP nutjobs concocting conspiracy theories about how ACORN manufactured the economic meltdown of 2008 by passing the Community Reinvestment Act 30 years earlier, thus creating a vast sea of incapable mortgage holders that would bring down the entire world economy. And why would these crazy liberals want to bring down the whole world economy? Why, as an excuse to impose their totalitarian, socialist government programs on a hapless America, of course. At the same time, ACORN signed up millions of ineligible voters who voted for Obama in lock-step, thus stealing the election from McCain. With Obama installed in the White House, he could then begin his secret plans to turn America into a socialist terrorist-loving nightmare, replete with government-mandated health care and everything.

One in four Republicans thinks Obama "may be the Anti-Christ," according to this poll. Nearly 40% think he is "doing many of the things that Hitler did". Two years ago, the KMT was claiming that the opposition leader, Chen Shui-bian, was going to start a war with China or murder his own party's presidential candidate in order to declare marital law to keep himself in power.

Great right-wing nutjob minds think alike!

Taiwan: Just a Step Away from Becoming North Korea

2010-03-28T15:22:00.005+08:00

You have to hand it to the KMT-led government of Taiwan. Last year, they were busy creating racist tracks that claimed that "educated" people "understand ECFA" and only poorly educated local yocals who speak "Taiwanese Mandarin" would question the inherent wisdom of ECFA. Now, the the KMT klowns in the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) are claiming that if Taiwan doesn't sign the ECFA right away, Taiwan, then it will be marginalized like North Korea. Can you believe they think we are that stupid? Yes, Taiwan will soon be a totally-isolated pariah state where the locals are forced to forage for grass unless we move closer to China. Someone should inform the MAC that North Korea’s biggest trading partner is China!

I love this quote from the MAC: “Taiwan’s sovereignty will be safeguarded only when the people’s right to live is safeguarded.” Translation: Beijing promises not to murder us all if we submit to the Dragon Throne and agree to be annexed by China. In return, Beijing will allow us, the glorious KMT, to continue to rule Taiwan as our own personal fiefdom, whereby we promise to continue “safeguarding” Taiwan’s sovereignty. Of course, we’ve never really given a shit about that, as Taiwan is nothing more than a “region” in our delusional greater “Republic of China” fantasies. As soon as we sign ECFA, Taiwan will become just an “economic zone” in the greater “One-China Market."

The Best and the Brightest

2010-03-28T15:12:00.010+08:00

The ability to honestly and empirically test your assumptions against reality and your policies against their results — to think rationally — is one of the most important attributes a citizen can have in a democracy. However, as is human nature, we are often blinded or misguided by our ideology, which I think of as pre-conceived notions of how the world could and should works that do not always have a rational basis in reality. Often time, we cling to our ideology even when it directly clashes with empirical evidence that should discredit or disprove tenets of our ideology. In other words, ideology is often like a secular Faith, a way of seeing how the world works that transcends the rational and the emperical.

When we are blinded by political ideologies (like the government is always the problem, and the market is always right. Or tax breaks for the rich will make everyone rich AND increase government revenues) or superstitious religion (God will come soon and take us up to heaven, so don’t worry about global warming or causing another World War. Or God wants us to burn the oil, or he’d never have put it in the ground) that are so obviously discredited by rational, empirical evidence against it, then you end up with what passes for thinking by the right-wing in America. And you end up running your country into the ground, while other countries that value reason and non-ideological pragmatism and who believe the government has a constructive role to play (such as regulating the economy and helping people get their basic needs for eduction and health care met) end up leaving our mistake-repeating asses in the dust.

Here’s another result of America’s ideological blind belief in the supremacy of unregulated markets and disbelief in prudent government regulations : the EU is considering BANNING Wall Street banks from the lucrative government bond business in Europe and considering a ban on government debt speculation through Credit Default Swaps (CDS), which would mainly effect American and UK banks.

It’s a very rational regulatory decision to keep out American casino-style criminal capitalist practices from infecting the European financial sector. Yet many Americans are CONVINCED that government regulations are always bad, despite the bubbles that have repeatedly caused financial havoc in the States since Reagan started deregulation.

I’m also reminded of a study that came out recently showing a link between intelligence and having “liberal” points of view. This is probably no accident. It takes a certain intellectual mindset and rational thinking skills to understand certain scientific theories that are non-obvious to the casual observer, such as evolution and global warming.

But more importantly, it takes similar thinking skills to understand one’s inherent connection to and reliance on the interconnected “web of life:” how the suffering, indignities, or injustice of people on the other side of the tracks, the other side of the country, or even the other side of the world can and do affect you. Also, an intellectual and philosophical understanding of why all human beings should be accorded such Enlightenment values such as inherent worth and dignity, etc. allows a person to expand his “kinship circle,” which is an innate empathy we feel for those related to us and closest to us geographically.

Once a person understands intellectually how one is connected to groups of people we will never see, because of distances in space or time, a person’s empathy sphere and sense of community will greatly expand, changing his attitude and behavior toward those unseen people. This expansion might make a person more sympathetic to “liberal” causes that emphasize the relationship between individuals within a group, or social or community contracts and relationships.

Of course, such emphasis runs counter to the ideology of the primacy of the individual, much to the chagrin of right-wingers such as Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh. I would argue that a rational person must seek a dynamic balance between purely socialist impulses and policies, on one hand, and the Ayn Randian cult of the individual, on the other.

Chinese Taipei: the KMT-created Name that Threatens to Erase Taiwan

2010-03-07T16:41:00.015+08:00

The official "Chinese Taipei" Olympic flag, with the obligatory Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party symbol.

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of the U.S. listed Taiwan as "Chinese Taipei" in a list of countries that were warned of a possible tsunami generated by a strong earthquake in Chile. According to the Taiwan News:

An opposition lawmaker has demanded that Taiwan's government defend the country's sovereignty by asking the U.S. government for a correction after referring to Taiwan as "Chinese Taipei" for the first time in official usage.

The first major international organization to use "Chinese Taipei" was the International Olympic Committee. According to Wikipedia:

The Chinese nationalism asserted by the top [KMT] leadership of the ROC government during the 1970s meant that a name such as "Taiwan" would be unacceptable to them. The ROC leadership insisted that there be some kind of “Chinese-ness” to the name under which the island's team competed. The name "Chinese Taipei" was formally created and accepted by the Taipei government in March 1981.

So we can already see that the KMT construction of "Chinese Taipei" as a moniker for Taiwan was originally a way of thwarting any sense of Taiwanese nationalism or consciousness and imposing the KMT's own colonialist Chinese Nationalism on Taiwan's international identity.

But I have to wonder: if "Chinese Taipei" is good enough for the KMT-led government to refer to Taiwan internationally when it was allowed by China to join the World Health Organization and other organizations, why should it raise a stink if the US or other governments start using this offensive, KMT-originated nonsense name? Remember, the KMT's goal is to ERASE Taiwan as a country in the minds of both the world and the Taiwanese because in their minds, it's just a "region" of the old, defunct Republic of China.

Remember when the evil Chen Shui-bian was guilty of the grave sin of "de-sinification": making Taiwan somehow less "Chinese" by removing symbols of the KMT one-party state? Even though everyone in Taiwan still spoke Chinese, wrote Chinese, worshiped Chinese religions, and celebrated Chinese holidays? Now, the KMT are trying "de-Taiwanification": uprooting all the localization and growing Taiwan consciousness that the last two pro-Taiwan administrations achieved by changing the education system and emphasizing Chinese history and Taiwan's Chinese roots, thereby forcing the Taiwanese identity to become an integral part of the Greater Chinese Nation.

The use of "Chinese Taipei" is just part of the KMT's ongoing effort to erase Taiwan as a country and an identity. In fact, one of the depressing aspects of living in Taiwan since the KMT won back control of the presidency in 2008 has been watching them slowly erase Taiwan as a national identity. Looking back at their campaign posters before the March 2008 election, ignorant viewers might have been fooled into thinking the KMT was some kind of pro-Taiwan party.

2008 campaign poster: notice the shape of Taiwan used as the bird's wings and the prominent use of the words 台彎 (Taiwan).

2008 campaign poster: (Táiwān yīdìng yíng) means "Taiwan definitely wins".

Of course, anyone who can read a history book or newspaper should know this is not true. The first thing the KMT did the day after Ma's inauguration was remove the word "Taiwan" from the Chinese version of the official government website. Later, Ma told foreign reports that Taiwan was not a country, just a "region" in the Republic of China. etc. etc.

2009: "Taiwan" being covered over with "Taipei." Don't want to offend our masters in Beijing, do we?

In Fall of 2009, the word "Taiwan" was replaced by the local KMT government with the word "Taipei" at an NBA exhibition game. Like the odious moniker "Chinese Taipei" that China and the KMT forces Taiwan's olympic athletes to use, and which the KMT agreed to use as Taiwan's official name at the World Health Organization, replacing "Taiwan" with the name "Taipei" removes Taiwan's endemic sovereignty and independence, and reduces Taiwan to nothing more than an island built around a Chinese city.

Fortunately, it seems the Taiwanese are finally waking up to Ma Ying-jeou's ideologically driven sellout of Taiwan to China, and have soundly defeated KMT candidates in local legislative bi-elections. It gives me hope that the Taiwanese may finally put a stop to the KMT's ongoing erasure of Taiwan.

Update

An April 25, 2010 article in The Taipei Times pointed out another problem with moniker “Chinese Taipei:” translating it into Chinese.

While China translates it as Zhongguo Taibei (中國台北), suggesting that Taiwan is a part of China, Taiwan translates it as Zhonghua Taipei (中華台北),” where the translation for “Chinese” refers to a cultural entity rather than a state.

So internationally, "Chinese Taipei" not only allows China to define Taiwan as belonging to the People's Republic of China, Taiwan's continued agreement to use this term allows the rest of the world to believe that Taiwan is happy and willing to accept this arrangement.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) first publicly referred to Taiwan as “Chinese Taipei” when he met then-KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) in May last year. The unprecedented move signified important political implications in cross-strait relations, Beijing-based researcher Xiao Yongguo wrote in an analysis for China Review News agency.

Hu’s remark implied the possibility of mutual non-denial between China and Taiwan and underlined a chance for Taiwan to participate in the international community under the name Chinese Taipei while handling domestic affairs under the Republic of China Constitution, he said.

So again, you can see how "Chinese Taipei" serves the political goals of both the KMT and Chinese Communist Party: it's a convenient way to erase Taiwanese identity and nationalism, domestically allowing the KMT to continue to foist their zhonghua mingzu identity on the Taiwanese, while internationally, it allows China to construct Taiwan as Chinese territory belonging to the PRC, while simultaneous erasing both Taiwan AND the Republic of China from international space. So clever. And so ill-serving to the needs and aspirations of the Taiwanese, obviously.

Taiwan's Chen Shui-bian and Thailand's Thaksin: A Comparison of Two Asian Populist Leaders

2010-02-27T15:08:00.001+08:00

I think an interesting comparison and contrast can be made between Taiwan's former President, Chen Shui-bian, and another populist ex-leader of an Asian country, Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister of Thailand. The similarities are numerous: both were born a year apart, and grew up in rural areas of their respective countries. Politically, they both enjoyed the support of the working classes and agricultural areas of the country. Both men were twice elected democratically in free and fair elections. Both tried to use populist programs and policies to motivate and maintain their power bases. Both men operated within an inherently corrupt political system to build up a power base that could rival and threaten their entrenched opposition parties. Their opposition parties (the Chinese Nationalists (KMT) in Taiwan and the "Democratic" Party of Thailand) enjoyed huge support from within their respective capital cities and represented "the elites" of their respective countries: extremely wealthy, intertwined and entrenched, hugely corrupt centers of power, including the military, the government bureaucracies, the police, the media, the judiciary, and wealthy business leaders.

In 2006, these "elite" centers of powers attempted to overthrow both men by undemocratic means. For Chen, he was surrounded for two months by the phony, KMT-led "red ant" protesters, who wanted to depose him. Luckily, democracy prevailed in Taiwan. Unfortunately for Thaksin, his undemocratic deposers were successful, having gotten the King's permission to lead a bloodless coup against Thaksin.

Since then, Chen's and Thaksin's stories have widely diverged. Thaksin was able to escape Thailand to avoid the political persecutions by the opposition and avoid imprisonment for a long string of corruption charges, many of them politically motivated. Recently, the Thai High court found Thaksin guilty in abstentia of various corruption charges, and seized more than $1 billion belonging him and his family. Chen stuck around to face the charges after this term ended, and now has received an unprecedented life-sentence by a KMT-manipulated kangaroo court on a long string of corruption charges, many of them politically motivated.

But both men were populist outsiders who decided to use the corrupt political system to enrich themselves and their party as a way of fighting their respective opposition parties, which had created the corrupt system to enrich themselves and retain power for many previous decades.

Even if both men are truly guilty of these charges, the verdicts of these trials have revealed the utter hypocrisy and biases prevalent in the judicial systems of both countries. In both Thailand and Taiwan, the old ruling elite still wield incredible powers to control the outcome of these trials. For instance, the current Taiwan KMT President, Ma Ying-jeou, was caught wiring public money from a special affairs fund directly into his bank account when he was mayor of Taipei. Former KMT "Governor of Taiwan" James Soong got caught TWICE wiring left-over campaign funds to overseas bank accounts without reporting it to the government. Neither of these men were ever led away in handcuffs. Neither of them ever spent a day in jail. Rather, they were let off with barely a slap on the wrists and allowed to continue their political careers.

Compare that with the treatment Chen Shui-bian has received ON IDENTICAL CHARGES: he's been given a life sentence, virtually his entire family has been framed on various corruption charges, and political donations to his political party have now been deemed by the KMT-controlled courts to be bribes. Similarly, the generals and ruling aristocracy in Thailand have been engorging themselves from the public till for decades. None of them ever saw a day in jail. It's only when an outsider threatened the power of these entrenched elites did the normal practices of these politicians suddenly become "corruption."

Is power too endemically corrupting to ever find a true, pure champion of the poor and exploited masses in these two countries? How can anyone ever find the money and power to compete democratically with entrenched power-elites who continue to enjoy the fruits of the corrupt system they themselves created?

Moral Calculus in a World of Evil: Containment and Engagement vs. Invasion and Occupation

2010-02-19T19:56:00.008+08:00

Recently, I got into a back and forth with someone by the name of Tibby, who fancies himself an expert on foreign policy. It all started when he proclaimed we should be thankful to G.W. Bush, because after 7 long years, we've finally "fixed" Iraq. Although he could never cite any evidence, other than the fact that Saddam and his clique was gone, he proclaimed Iraq fixed, despite the fact that:

1/ over one million Iraqis have been killed.
2/ millions more have been maimed and wounded.
3/ the invasion unleashed a sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite Muslism, killing tens of thousands more. This civil war is only on hold because of America has bribed them to stop fighting, and we have 140,000 troops to keep the opposing sides separated. As soon as American forces leave Iraq, the war could very well continue and ignite a regional war.
4/ the removal of Saddam has strengthened Iran's power and influence throughout the region.
5/ Muslims around the world have been inflamed with anti-American passions because a Muslim country was invaded on false pretenses.
6/ thousands of Muslim terrorists have been CREATED in Iraq and elsewhere as a result. Al Qaeda in Iraq never existed before the invasion.
7/ America has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the Iraq invasion and 7-year occupation. This occupation will continue for years, if not decades. All of the money for this fiasco is borrowed, and it has taken our eyes off the ball in defeating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
8/ Meanwhile, real domestic needs in America, like health care reform, go neglected because of concerns over the continued budget shortfalls.
9/ despite the fact that Iraqis now enjoy the vote, their current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is consolidating power around a clique of Shiite death squads, trampling on Sunni democratic and rights, and replicating the same thuggish and corrupt practices of Saddam Hussein. In fact, the current Iraq, which was created by the British on purpose to be ungovernable, may very well only be governable by another strongman.

Tibby's reply was:

1/ you are wrong. Saddam is gone. Iraq is fixed.
2/ death and suffering is not relevant, as people die of all kinds of causes all the time.
3/ costs are not relevant, as we spend lots more money on things like entitlement programs and the recent bank TARP.
4/ just as I'm always harking about China and the KMT threatening freedoms in Taiwan, the people of Iraq and everyone around the world deserve to enjoy the same freedoms, which should be guaranteed by force, if necessary.
5/ your pacifist attitude towards evil just encourages the bad guys to be more aggressive.
6/ the ends justify the means, because "liberating Iraq" was all for "the Greater Good."

So, here was my response, because I know everyone is so interested in what I think:

You amaze me. You can rationalize everything the neocons have done in Iraq and pull more red herrings than a Norwegian fishing boat. I don't even know how to begin arguing with someone whose moral universe contains such gems as 1/ the ends justify the means 2/ human suffering and death, no matter how it's caused, is irrelevant because everybody has to die of something, and 3/ the only thing that counts is “The Greater Good”. And who gets to determine that in Tibby World? Why, Tibby I suppose. Wow, it's so strikingly similar to the moral universe of Mao, Pol Pot, and Stalin. But I'm not gonna stoop and try to compare you to those guys. That would be silly.

So where to start...

Everyone does have a right to live in freedom, that we agree. But what can America or the Western World afford to do to expand freedom to all of those oppressed people around the world, other than to contain expansionism and foreign aggression (so that those that presently enjoying freedom can continue to enjoy it) and put economic and political pressures on the bad guys to reform. Violence and death is only morally acceptable as a last resort, and then to stop an invasion of a sovereign country, to stop genocide, or to stop a very real eminent attack. Decades of international law is based on this assumption. Without it, any war could be justified "for the greater good," whatever that means. And without the rule of law, then we are no better than Saddam or the Commies.

The Taiwanese managed to find a way to transform their country (with the help of lots of political pressure from the US and abroad) when the conditions were right and without the need for the Americans to kill a million Taiwanese or occupy their country. Since the Taiwanese are now proving that short-term profits and greed are more important than democracy or freedom, and since almost no one (including many Taiwanese) will stand up for Taiwan's flailing democracy, it's only a matter time before they get swept BACK into the miasma of Chinese despotism. Too bad for them. But the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Perhaps they are only the canary in the coal mine for what's in store for the West.

Unfortunately, the conditions for democracy are not right in most of the rotting dictatorships around the world. Replacing one dictator by force there is just going to produce another dictator, as Iraq is proving already. The only moral solution is to make life tough for the dictators while engaging the middle class in those countries to grow and learn and start thinking for themselves. Local adoption of Aristotelian thinking and the desire to question authority is a must, which is one reason why the dictators fell so quickly in Eastern Europe and why democracy is never going to thrive in China. It totally sucks, because that means leaving millions to rot in sticking dictatorships for the indefinite future. But freedom will have to come from the grass roots and be locally home grown. It's the only way freedom is going to stick. It's not exportable by force. We don't live in a perfect world or one that's perfectible by violence. Only American neocons, Al Qaeda, and Marxist revolutionaries think otherwise.

Unfortunately in Iraq, as we've seen in the resulting violence, the institutions required to sustain a democracy were utterly lacking. In this situation, democracy was just an excuse to settle ancient sectarian scores. Result: tens of thousands more are dead. Iraq has now, more or less, been ethnically cleansed, but it remains as divided and unstable as ever.

I guess in the Tibby World of foreign policy, the only people whose freedom are really worth fighting for are the ones who live in countries we can easily invade and occupy. We have to constantly prove that we are tougher and meaner and deadlier than they are, but in reality this only holds for the little countries that we KNOW we can push around. I mean, when do we know to stop with our desire to rid the world of evil? Would we be perfectly justified in declaring war and indefinitely occupying, say, North Korea, because surely there are plenty of people there who would love to be rid of the current regime and who yearn for freedom. So, one World War later, 1/2 of the human race might get wiped out. But hey, that's ok. At least we killed a few cockroaches along the way. Because in the Tibby Moral World of "shit happens", there's no difference between being killed in an unnecessary and unprovoked war and say, dying of poverty or disease or even smoke-related cancer or old age. Dying is dying, right? Who cares what caused it. At least the Kim and his Chicom allies would know (before we perhaps nuked them and most of their fellow inhabitants) that we weren't impotent or weak. After all, we've always felt we had bigger cocks than they had. This would definitely prove it. Yes. it's very very painful, and hey, millions and milliions of people might be dead or maimed as a result. But it's all for the principle of "The Greater Good."

But of course we would never start WW3 in our bid to rid the world of evil. We aren't that stupid. We'll only invade and occupy countries when we can be sure that it's mostly THEY that have to die. After all, their lives are irrelevant in Tibby world. But you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. I'm sure that must be the moral calculus at work in Tibby World.

There are alternatives to the Tibby "Kill 'em all now and smugly sort it out later" school of foreign policy. But unfortunately, that requires a willingness to handle complexity and ambiguous results. The world is a complex place that requires complex and differing solutions. Containing a fascist, expansionist empire like China (and protecting democratic allies like Taiwan) is gonna require a massive, coordinated effort by democracies on a Cold War level that will last generations. And I have no illusions that this is ever gonna happen. We'll have to wait till the Chinese pull a Pearl Harbor before we finally wake up from our Chinese "peaceful riser" dream. Containing tinpot, non-threatening dictators like Saddam or growing thuggish, nuclear powers like Iran will require a totally different approach, combining lots of sticks and carrots. Iran does contain the seeds for democratic evolution, which we should carefully cultivate. But one size does definitely not fit all.

Also, I should remind you that despite the fact that some entitlement programs like farm subsidies are completely nonsensical and the recent TARP bailout was a crime beyond measure, NO ONE was killed as a result of any of these programs. If anything, at least Americans (and others) get to enjoy cheap farm produce, farmers stay in business, and the banks survived, and the economy didn't implode. To compare money wasted on these programs to money wasted on a war that resulted in a million deaths and bogging down American forces in an intractable sectarian mess is a logical and moral fallacy, and you know it.

But your insinuation that I'm always against killing or war is a total red herring. There are times when it's necessary and morally compelling to fight. But the idea that a WW2-style invasion and occupation is a solution-of-choice to whatever evil is in the world is morally reprehensible, fiscally reckless, and utterly discredited after Iraq. And I'm still waiting for you to show me how Iraq is fixed in any way. Saddam is gone, and in his place are sectarian death squads. Great. Sign me up. At best, Iraq's warring factions are in a holding pattern, as they wait for the occupiers to leave. If you want to hold on to your neocon fantasies and discount all the human suffering and tragedy that has resulted from our imperial endeavors, as you say, that's your choice. I'm just really glad there are some realistic, moral alternatives to living in Tibby World.

To which his only response was:

You are wrong.

Ha ha ha. What an arrogant ass. I guess having a PhD from Berkeley makes everything you say intrinsically true, all your arguments logically coherent, and all contradictory evidence just magically disappear.

Obama in China

2009-11-21T15:38:00.013+08:00

Recently, US President Barak Obama was in China and conducted a "town hall" meeting with university students in Shanghai. During this town hall meeting, he was asked an exceedingly leading question about US arms sales to Taiwan. ("I'm so worried that continued US arms sales to Taiwan will affect my business in China.") Obama totally avoided addressing his question, and instead gave this mealy-mouthed answer:

One of the things that I think that the United States, in terms of its foreign policy and its policy with respect to China, is always seeking is ways that through dialogue and negotiations, problems can be solved. We always think that's the better course. And I think that economic ties and commercial ties that are taking place in this region are helping to lower a lot of the tensions that date back before you were born or even before I was born.

Now, there are some people who still look towards the past when it comes to these issues, as opposed to looking towards the future. I prefer to look towards the future. And as I said, I think the commercial ties that are taking place -- there's something about when people think that they can do business and make money that makes them think very clearly and not worry as much about ideology. And I think that that's starting to happen in this region, and we are very supportive of that process. OK?

Now, I don't expect Obama to be an expert in all the many nuances of politics in Taiwan, or even all the intricacies of cross-strait policies and development. But the utter philosophical and political vacuousness of that response just blew me away. Obama calls Taiwan's quest for justice and self-determination "looking backwards;" the ongoing sellout of Taiwan's sovereignty is "looking forward;" standing up for democracy is just a useless "worrying about ideology." And what's Obama's advice? "STFU, you annoying democracy advocates. Let's just make money and get rich." He might as well have added, "to be rich is to be glorious." Doubtless, he was trying to suck up big-time to his Chinese hosts. I'm also reminded how Obama used the same language (Let's look forward, not backwards) about his decision to cover-up and not prosecute GW Bush's many war crimes, including authorizing torture.

Speaking of Bush, remember how 8 years ago, G.W. Bush said that the USA will do "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan against Chinese imperialism and expansionism? My how things change. (But it was about the only thing that Bush said in 8 years that I could whole-heartedly support.) Of course, to first defend Taiwan, there would first have to be a government in Taiwan that cares about being defended, which is obviously not the case anymore. Or remember how Bush had the balls to congratulate Taiwan for its democratic development? But, since Obama came to China with cup in hang to beg for more money to keep the American government solvent, he couldn't make even the weakest statement of support for Taiwan. And this is assuming Obama even HAS any support or concern for Taiwan, which, given his 100% establishment thinking, I doubt he has.

But what is the deal with this STUPID idea that that the current reductions in tensions between China and Taiwan has been a result of both sides putting aside their ideology? If only the Taiwanese cared even 1% as much about "ideology" as China does. What else could explain China's blind territorial ambitions on Taiwan, its utter devotion to one-party rule, or its totalitarian suppression of dissent within its borders (and even attempts to squelch dissent outside its borders. See here, here, and here.)? What else but a 100% dedication to its ideology could explain China's total suppression of Taiwan's international space and its blind devotion to the "One China Policy"? What's more, most, if not all, of the Chinese businesses and banks that will soon start flooding Taiwan are, in part, state-owned. There's no doubt that once Chinese capital gets its hooks into Taiwanese businesses, the "ideology" of their CCP bosses back in Beijing will start poisoning policies and business decisions here in Taiwan. If Obama thinks China doesn't give a shit anymore about "ideology," then he has his head a mile up his ass!

What Obama's answers also indicate is that US foreign policy towards Taiwan is still stuck in the Cold War, and probably confuses anti-Chinese sentiment in Taiwan as some residual anti-communism ideology left over from the Chinese civil war between the CCP and the KMT. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. The ideological war between the CCP and the KMT has been over for 20 years. The CCP and the KMT are now active allies in suppressing democracy in Taiwan. They are just two sides of the same coin of Chinese despotism. If there is anti-Chinese sentiment on the part of democracy advocates in Taiwan, it's merely the result of a long-suppressed people who have the audacity to stand up for themselves and who ask merely to be left the fuck alone so they can enjoy their hard-won freedoms and democracy.

Postcards on Taiwan Politics

2009-11-14T13:40:00.029+08:00

Anyone who knows me knows that the issue of Taiwan's eroding independence from Chinese imperialism and despotism is a consuming passion of mine. Although things seem to have become a lost cause in the past year, there's still a tiny glimmer of hope the sleepy Taiwanese might wake up and throw the colonialist thugs, thieves, and dictator-worshippers out of power before it's too late. But somehow, I doubt it....

August, 2008. Many in the hard-core Taiwanese independence movement insist that Taiwan is legally a protectorate of the USA. The basic legal logic, as I understand it, is as follows:

1) Oct. 25, 1945, was the beginning of the military occupation of Taiwan. According to international law, military occupation does not transfer sovereignty. Taiwan remained as sovereign Japanese territory until given up in the San Francisco Peace Treaty effective April 28, 1952.
2)When the Republic of China (ROC) occupied Taiwan after 1945, the ROC was exercising delegated administrative authority for the military occupation of Taiwan. In other words, it was a "subordinate occupying power." The United States of America has remained the principal occupying power.
3) The Jan. 12, 1946 military order which authorized a "mass naturalization" of native Taiwanese people as ROC citizens was illegal under international law.
4) When the ROC moved its central government to occupied Taiwan in Dec. 1949, it became a government in exile.
5) International law does not recognize any procedures, actions, or methods whereby a government in exile can become "the legally recognized government of its current locality of residence."
6) When the Japanese gave up sovereignty of Taiwan in the 1952 Treaty of San Francisco, they never specified who they gave sovereignty to. So technically, the issue of Taiwan's sovereignty is still undecided, which is still the official US position.
7) Taiwan's sovereignty was definitely NEVER legally transferred to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the Republic of China. The "legal documents" the KMT loves to trot out, such as the Cairo Declaration, are nothing more than memos of understanding between the ROC and other countries, not legally approved and binding treaties. The KMT have simply been the local occupying force of the Allies for the past 60 years.

CONCLUSIONS: (1) The Republic of China is not the legitimate government of Taiwan. (2) The Republic of China will never be recognized as the legitimate government of Taiwan by the world community. 3) Since Taiwan's sovereignty has never been decided, Taiwan is still under military occupation by the Allies, led by the United States as "principal occupying power." Or something like that. Anyway, the Supreme Court of the USA has refused to acknowledge this claim, even though it is legally and logically coherent.

SOLUTION: Under the right of self-determination, a free and fair vote by all legal residents of Taiwan to decide the status of Taiwan, either as an de jure independent country, or as a province of the People's Republic of China. Of course, to be free and fair, China would first have to remove all missiles currently aimed at Taiwan, repeal the "Anti-secession Law," and renounce all use of force against Taiwan. Of course, pigs will sooner fly out of my ass then any of this will come to pass.

But lots of Taiwanese are rabidly pro-American, because they see the USA as the last remaining flicker of hope that might help Taiwan maintain its independence from Chinese expansionism. Some Taiwanese have even advocated becoming the 51st state of the USA. Little do they know that America is run by big corporations and Wall Street banks that all have vested interests in China and stand to profit from Taiwan's further economic absorption by China. Another paradox here is that America sent the KMT $750 million US dollars in aid during the 1950's and 1960's, some of which undoubtedly was later used to slaughter Taiwanese during the Martial Law period and maintain the KMT's one-party control of Taiwan.

August 2008. Prophetic. Notice that the vast majority of pro-democracy protesters are old. They are the ones who remember the brutality of the KMT White Terror period. The younger generation in Taiwan have had it so easy their entire lives; they're soft and bruise easily, and thus are called "strawberries." They care mostly about being cute, accumulating status objects, and taking pictures of themselves. They foolishly believe there are no real differences between the KMT and the pro-democracy or green parties in Taiwan. The strawberries are definitely the demographic most susceptible to KMT lies and propaganda, since they live in an historically-false universe manufactured by the KMT with no genuinely held sense of nationalism or patriotism. And with the pro-China media dominating 90% of the Taiwanese market, there's not much hope they'll ever be exposed to alternative viewpoints.

Other shaping forces: 1) a Confucian society that teaches them not to question authority or the received wisdom of their elders and 2) an Asian "face-saving" culture that ignores injustice, hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance by sweeping it under the carpet. 3) The unresolved injustice and fear left over after 40 years of martial law, in which anyone suspected of being anti-KMT or pro-democracy were imprisoned, tortured or murdered. The fear of the KMT is still detectible in pro-Taiwan folks, manifested in fear of speaking out against the KMT's continued thievery and persecution or even simply letting their political affiliation be known in public. 4) Stockholm Syndrome, in which the views of the oppressors (in this case, the colonialist KMT) become adopted wholesale by the oppressed. Unfortunately, none of these traits are compatible with a democratic society.

Denouncing the current "president" of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, the tallest invertebrate in Taiwan. Note that Ma only uses his title of president when there are none of his Chinese masters around to be offended by the outcome of a democratic election in Taiwan. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

Also prophetic, seeing how this protest in August 2008 was a full year before "president" Ma Ying-jeou allowed Taiwanese to die by the hundreds after Typhoon Morakot hit the island while he awaited orders from Beijing on whether to allow in rescue equipment from the USA and Japan.

A few of the tens of thousands of Taiwanese murdered by the KMT during the White Terror period, many of them representing the intelligentsia of Taiwan of the time. The Taiwanese were always suspect to the Chinese Nationalists (KMT) because the Taiwanese were "corrupted" by Japanese influence and education, or considered "half-breeds" and "low-class" by the "pure-bred" and "high-class" Han Chinese. Very similar to the Han Chinese racism and forced cultural assimilation that the Tibetans and Uyghers in China are experiencing right now.

How to overcome the decades of injustice suffered at the hands of the KMT and escape being perpetual victims so that both sides can start living in peace and harmony? Many suggest a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, similar to what happened in South Africa at the end of apartheid or in Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. It's been proposed many times by the pro-democracy sides, but so far, no one on the KMT side has had the guts to accept such a proposal.

Two Chinese mass-murdering action figures (Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Ze-dong) and one democracy fig-leaf (Sun Yet-sen). This is absolutely revolting. Between Chiang and Mao, they murdered tens of millions of Chinese (and Chiang murdered tens of thousands of Taiwanese), but are still worshipped by the KMT and the CCP. Can you imagine if 7-11 was selling cute Hitler dolls in Germany or Mussolini dolls in Italy? There would be international outrage. But murder tens of millions of Chinese, and you'll be WORSHIPPED by the Chinese and ignored by the rest of the world. Go figure... Something like this was unimaginable in Taiwan only a few years ago. But with the KMT again controlling the entire Taiwanese government since last year, dictators are once again worshipped openly here. And how telling of the KMT/CCP alliance, that the two despots who represented opposing sides of the Chinese civil war are now packaged together! Two great tastes that taste great together!

I saw this "artwork" at a store at Eslite Bookstore recently, depicting Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Marx, and Engels. I can't imagine why anyone would want pictures of 3 of the most ruthless mass-murderers on their living room wall. But seeing shit like this in Taiwan was unimaginable just a few years ago before the KMT started flooding Taiwan with Chinese tourists. So now we got to start selling shit these tourists might like to see or buy. Pathetic!

Chiang Kai-shek's grandson recently made some "pop art" postcards and t-shirts out of images of his mass-murdering grandfather 蔣介石 and dictator-uncle 蔣經國. Not only is he exploiting his family relations for money, but he's trying to make his despotic family look cool and chic. Utterly contemptible and disgusting. Again, something like this was UNIMAGINABLE in Taiwan just a few years ago. But now the restored one-party rule of the KMT has made dictator-worshipping cool again. And again, this shit was on sale at Eslite bookstore. The owners of this bookstore were supposedly pro-green before the last elections. I guess they sold their souls to go with the flow and for some easy cash. Pathetic!

Check out his video from the excellent blog Demo! Taiwan Democracy Movement for a more complete view of this disgusting pop-art collection.

A big rally I attended in Kaohsiung in October 2007, advocating UN membership for Taiwan. A lot of good that did. Notice the same flag: the island of Taiwan attached to the American flag. Ai yo, how naive...

In November, 2008, a Chinese Communist Party envoy, Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), came to Taiwan to sign one of many agreements that were negotiated in secret with the KMT and then rubber-stamped by the KMT-controlled Taiwan legislature. These agreements have sold-old Taiwan's sovereignty at every opportunity and will hollow-out its industries, leaving Taiwan highly susceptible to Chinese economic threats and political manipulation. Here, the CCP delegation visits Taipei 101. I was lucky enough to see Chinese-puppet and "president/CEO of Taiwan Region" Ma Ying-jeou turn out 7,000 police officers to protect the Chinese delegation from protesting Taiwanese across the street. The police also confiscated Taiwanese flags and protest signs that might have offended the visiting mandarins. Even though the rights of free speech were clearly violated that day, police sergeants involved were given promotions afterwards. It was a very sad day....

Here, hundreds of angry Taiwanese turned up across the street from Taipei 101 to protest the impending sell-out of their country by the KMT and their appeasement of Chinese imperialism. Dozens of Falun Gong practitioners were there that night, standing off to the right. According to Amnesty International, China has imprisoned 200,000 Falun Gong members, torturing many, and even executing some to harvest their organs for profit. No wonder so many Taiwanese want to say "no thanks" to this monstrous, immoral beast.

Former Taiwan Democracy Hall, now re-renamed back to Dead Dictator Hall. If only it were really allowed to fall into decay, Ozymandias-like...

Empty spot where once stood a sign saying "Taiwan Democracy Hall," taken down not long after the return of one-party rule by the KMT in May, 2008. Obviously, democracy is something the KMT only pay lip-service to, and continuing the worship of their dead dictator, Chiang Kai-shek, is a means of enforcing the KMT's cultural and political control over Taiwan.

December, 2007. One of the best things that former president Chen Shui-bian did during his term was trying to dismantle the cult of personality that the KMT built up around dictator and mass-murderer, Chiang Kai-shek. Here, some honorific nonsense about Chiang is taken down from the main gate of his disgusting memorial in Taipei, and replaced with the words "Freedom Square" (自由廣場). See my post I wrote about this occasion from two years ago. It was a really great day for Taiwan...

November 2008. Freedom Square, surrounded by darkness. One of the few vestiges of the pro-democracy period (1996-2008) allowed to remain by the KMT in the past year. Many improvements to strengthen democracy or Taiwanese identity enacted in the last 16 years have been erased or reversed already by the KMT as they prepare Taiwan to be annexed by China. Like their role-models in Singapore, the KMT have been using their control of the court systems in Taiwan to dismantle the pro-Taiwan opposition parties, putting some of them away FOR LIFE on "corruption" charges based on the flimsiest of contrived evidence, while KMT politicians, if they're charged at all, are given a slap on the wrist, allowed to get off scott-free (as in the case of Ma Ying-jeou), or allowed to escape to China. Meanwhile the KMT continues to sit on BILLIONS of dollars in assets that they pilfered and stole from the Taiwanese over the past 60 years.

How much longer will the Taiwanese be allowed to enjoy their hard-won freedoms and democracy? Is democracy truly dead in Taiwan? Only time will tell...

Why the New Hate Crimes Law For Gays is a Sop

2009-11-14T13:21:00.005+08:00

President Obama signed a bill recently that adds sexual orientation to existing federal hate crimes laws. Here's why I think this new legislation is a total sop to the gay community:

1/ The original hate crimes laws were passed over 40 years ago when all-white juries in the South were regularly acquitting white racists of racially-motivated violence. Hate crimes were a stop-gap way for the federal government to get involved in these local trials to ensure that these racist killers got convicted for SOMETHING... even if it was for the thoughts they had in their head that motivated the murder. Though acquitting nasty anti-gay killers may have been a problem 30 years ago for some juries (remember how a jury acquitted Dan White for the murder of Harvey Milk?), it's pretty obvious that this is now NOT a regular problem. Even Mathew Shepard's killers were put away for life 10 years ago WITHOUT the need of any hate crimes law. So this new law has zero actual relevance to the Shepard case: in fact, the Shepard case is really salient in showing why hate crimes laws are unnecessary. What is the real purpose of this law, other than to make a symbolic statement by society that anti-gay violence is bad?

2/ Of course, we will have to wait and see if anti-gay crime rates change in the next few years, but I'll eat my hat if the rates of anti-gay violence decreases in any measurable degree as a result of this new law. Expressing anti-gay attitudes through physical violence is deeply ingrained in parts of male heterosexual culture in the West, such as the military and in organized sports. While I don't think the Hate Crimes Law will do any harm, per se, I don't think these laws alone will do anything to change these attitudes. It's only by having many openly-gay role models and a larger acceptance in the general culture of same-sex affection that young men will stop feeling threatened by other gays and by their own latent same-sex desires.

I appreciate that federal government now says beating up on gays is bad, and maybe the unlikely but tiny loop-hole of not being prosecuted by local authorities or being acquitted by an anti-gay local jury has now been closed. But besides a tiny handful of unfortunate victims, who does this law actually help?

It's obvious to me that this Hate Crimes Law is really a total sop because Obama and the Democrats look like they are going to sit on the butts on any MEANINGFUL federal legislation that would actually have a positive, immediate, and measurable effect on millions of gay Americans, namely:

1/ the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell rule, which would allow thousands of gay soldiers to serve openly and honorably in the military. How many soldiers has Obama fired this year already for the "crime" of being gay?

2/ the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, followed by

3/ the enactment of full marriage equality at the federal level for all legally married gay Americans.

And did you notice that when he signed the bill, Obama didn't even mention the word "gay"?

During the ceremony, he said, "After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are."

WTF? Race, ethnicity, and religion have been included in hate crime laws for decades. The "opposition and delay" was over including sexual orientation!!! Did he not get the memo that the bill he was signing was for gay people?

Obama is the support that dares not speak our name! And notice too that Obama and the DNC were completely silent on the ballet initiative in Maine that took away gay marriage rights! WTF???

What's next on their gay establishment's agenda? The Federal Employment Non-discrimination Bill? The perpetual fund-raisers at Human Rights Campaign (why the hell don't they call themselves the Gay Rights Campaign?) have been trying to pass this piss-ant bill for 30 years, and even with 65% popular support, STILL can't get it through Congress. How pathetic.

As Andrew Sullivan wrote:

The gay establishment will have its own private reception with Obama soon to pat each other on the back and get photos of themselves with the president and feel self-important for their seeming accomplishments. Their agenda for mainstream gay rights groups is pretty much the Democratic party's: separate, quiet and just as much a victim special interest group as all the others.

It's still better than the GOP's agenda ("You're all going to hell, pervs."). But no equality yet; and no candor. Remember, Joe Solmonese, head of the HRC, said Obama has until 2017 to make good on his campaign promises to bring about gay equality at the federal level in America!

We really do have the perfect president for the useless Human Rights Campaign, don't we?

He's for gay rights, but not yet, and shhhh!

A Tale of Two Ma's

2009-01-31T13:39:00.016+08:00

Last night, I attended a performance by Yo-Yo Ma, the famous musician and internationally acclaimed cellist. While of course Ma produced the same warm, chocolaty tone and phrasing, especially in the lower register or his instrument, that one expects from a world-class cellist, Yo-Yo Ma's overall performance last night lacked any spark, individuality, creativity, pizzazz, or sex appeal.

I kept thinking last night how lucky those people were standing outside of the National Concert Hall in the cold to watch Ma's performance on a giant projection screen. At least they had the cold and rain to keep them awake. Pity the poor audience members inside the warm performance hall with nothing but an empty stage and Ma's bland visage to look at while listening to two hours of passionless, forgettable goo.

His selections were as monotonous as his performance; while any one of his four pieces he chose last night might have made a passable warm-up selection if played individually, taken as a whole and forced upon his hapless audience for a two-hour test of endurance and alertness, his bland selections melted into an endless pap of featureless scales and arpeggios. Not a single moment of Ma's performance last night was memorable or exciting, his sugary playing melting into nothingness, each piece evaporating into the performance hall and into the audience's memory without trace, like candy floss in the mouth.

If you look at his discography, he's mastered and released many styles of music. From his Wikipedia page:

Ma has been referred to as "omnivorous" by critics, and possesses a more eclectic repertoire than is typical for classical musicians.^[9] A sampling of his versatility in addition to numerous recordings of the standard classical repertoire would include his recordings of Baroquepieces using period instruments; American bluegrass music; traditional Chinese melodies including the soundtrack to the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; the tangos of Argentinian composer Ástor Piazzolla; an eclectic and unusual collaboration with Bobby McFerrin (where Ma admits to being terrified of the improvisation McFerrin pushes him toward); as well as the music of modern minimalist Philip Glass in such works as the 2002 piece, Naqoyqatsi. In 2006, a soundtrack album was released of the music from the 2005 film, Memoirs of a Geisha. He is known for his smooth, rich tone as well as his considerable virtuosity, including a cello recording of Niccolò Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin, Zoltán Kodály's cello sonata, and other demanding works.

So I don't know why he chose to play it safe and boring last night. For Christ's sake, you have one thousand years of written music to choose from, including 20th century jazz and pop music. Play something sexy or fun, at least! And what makes a musician truly great is not playing skillfully or elegantly. Those kind of musicians are a dime a dozen. What makes a musician truly great is someone who takes a chance. Who will shock the audience and expose us to something new and different. Make the hair on our necks rise. Take us to places we've never dreamt of before. The only reason I dreamt last night was because his music was putting me to sleep.

So then finally, after a very apathetic encore and a feeble standing ovation made by a tiny band of hard-core Yo-Yo Ma fans at the very front of the audience, I saw him standing there and giving two flaccid, crooked thumbs up: Ma Ying-Jeou, Taiwan's officially elected "Mr." and self-anointed regional administrator. Suddenly, the annoyance of having to empty my pockets and walk through a metal detector when entering the performance hall earlier that evening and the presence of burly goons wearing ear pieces in the entrance hall made perfect sense.

Afterwards, while walking home in the late winter chill, I started to think about the confluence of these two Chinese horses in the same stable (both of these two upstanding members of the Chinese community have the same family name: 馬, Ma, which means "horse"). I can see now why these too bland and characterless people, these two "mere wisps of a man" would get along so well.

For Yo-Yo Ma, being a musician means playing to the audience's expectations. Don't rock the boat. Don't step out of bounds. Don't improvise. Just play pretty.

For Ma Ying-jeou, being a politician means always striving to please his daddy's dying wish to return Taiwan to the warm folds of his Mommyland China. Don't tell people what they need to hear (in fact, don't say anything that would resemble the factual truth at all). Don't rock the boat by trying to reform the KMT. Don't step out of bounds by stepping up for Taiwan. Don't improvise, just keep repeating the same deluded KMT Greater China fantasies from 20 years ago. And by all means, just look pretty.

This morning, I read in The Taipei Times how the two Ma's had a little love-in and tete-a-tete yesterday afternoon before the show.

Take a bite of these words, and enjoy the pure, undigested after-taste:

Ma Ying-jeou yesterday said Yo-Yo Ma’s music gives people strength that transcended race and politics, and said he expected culture and arts to help end conflicts in many areas including cross-strait relations. “The power of culture and arts is stronger than guns and bombs, and can bring reconciliation to a lot of conflicts, including conflicts across the Taiwan Strait,” the president said.

First of all, Yo-Yo Ma's music didn't give me any strength, but rather SUCKED OUT OF MY SOUL all the strength I had to stay awake during his performance last night.

Second, I find it amazing that Ma Ying-Jeou would bring up transcending race, since it was he himself who referred to the people of Taiwan as belonging to the "Chinese Race Nation" (zhong hua ming zu). This amazing pronouncement will come as a surprise to the thousands of aborigine descendants and millions more Taiwanese of mixed descent and various identities who certainly don't see themselves as belonging to a Chinese "race." It certainly came as a surprise to many of the victims of the last presidential election, who never heard the words "Chinese Race Nation" ever cross the lips of their new president once until AFTER the he had won the last election.

Third, plenty of people have loved music and culture throughout the centuries, but it certainly never stopped them from being murderers and despots. Take Hitler as a perfect example. Boy, did he love his Wagner! This old idea of "the civilizing influence of 'culture'" is a classic worn-out philosophy of every colonial power in history. In fact, "culture" to Ma and the KMT is merely a smokescreen to justify the privilege and hegemony the KMT has enjoyed both in China and Taiwan for the last 90 years. To them, "culture" is just a buzzword to justify the Chinese cultural racism and imperialism they've been imposing on all the Taiwanese, including the aborigines, the Hokla, and the Hakka, and all the mixed people in between since the end of WWII.

Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys Strike Again

2008-04-23T03:26:00.027+08:00

The country that allowed this...

and this...

this week gave the freedom-loving world this sight..

Because France was SO embarrassed that some ne'er-do-wells had the audacity to protest China's imperialism and cultural genocide in Tibet during the recent Olympic torch procession through Paris, (and so fearful of losing a few business deals and sales in China), France immediately sent, not one, not two, but THREE emissaries to China to kow-tow and beg forgiveness from the Dragon Throne for their intransigence and disrespect.

Granted, accosting a wheel-chair bound girl may not have been the wisest publicity move. And of course, I'm not saying pitiful Jin Jing is the moral equivalent of Hitler.

On the contrary, poor, little Jin Jing was just a pawn in Beijing's clever propanganda drive to stir-up the nationalist passions of Chinese locals. Predictably, the media in China is milking online images of a brave and determined Jin Jing -- bravely fighting off those dastardly protesters -- for every bit or national-ego-threatening, rally-round-the-flag, chest-inflating manipulation that they can. Mysteriously, China's Great Firewall came a-tumbling down when it was time to turn on the propaganda floodgates inside China.

Update: There's a great article in today's Taipei Times about how China has manipulated nationalism amongst the masses during the recent Olympic torch protests, as well as manipulated their nationals in Australia during the torch's visit there.

I believe it's imperative that the West take a stand in defense of human rights and against Chinese despotism at every legitimate opportunity. Protesting the Olympic torch is completely appropriate and within the bounds of free-speech, and I would hope Western countries such as France (as one of the modern birthplaces of democracy) would be willing to stand up for their values.

But why do the French always fall over themselves with such publicly-humiliating appeasement spectacles? Of course, this is just one of a long line of French displays of moral cowardice. Let's remember how it's France that would like to lift the arms embargo against China that was imposed on it after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. They can't wait to sell sophisticated arms to China that COULD be used against us in (for now) democratic and free Taiwan.

And why is President Nicolas Sarkozy of France still hemming and hawing about whether he'll boycott the opening ceremonies of this summer's Olympic Games? He should take a clue from the super-classy Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, who, as soon as the dictators in Beijing started mowing down Tibetans, took a firm and clear stand against attending the opening ceremonies (and who handled the predictable uproar and threats from Beijing through quiet back-door diplomatic channels).

At least the Paris city counsel showed des testicules by making the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen of Paris. Money quote from the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë:

"If Paris doesn't express its attachment to values, it's too bad," he said. "Between a good conscience and cynicism, there's defending one's convictions."

Vive le maire!

In honor of France's decades-long dictator-appeasement policies, I bring you the following images at no extra charge:

A typical beret-wearing, cheese-eating surrender monkey.

Democracy Death Watch: Day 18

2008-04-09T22:20:00.013+08:00

Today, my partner alerted me to a big one: Yahoo in Taiwan, taking their cues from their "big brother" in China, have started censoring their blogs! According to the Chinese-language Liberty Times, an anti-Ma posting on a pro-green blog that Yahoo hosts has been deleted, citing "infringement of privacy" and "personal attacks," according to the Yahoo webhost.

Here's the warning from the Yahoo webhost about the deleted posting (in Chinese).

Anyone who's familiar with the blogs on Yahoo will know there's a plethera of anti-DPP and anti-Chen blogs that have flourished, unmolested, for years.

I'm hoping the English-language pro-democracy newspapers will pick up this story tomorrow. If true, I'm urging everyone in Taiwan to start a boycott of Yahoo and all of their various services.

I know I'll be retiring my yahoo email account (which I've had for years) as soon as I can get another one set up with another service. Is Gmail better?

This is not the first time that Yahoo has been caught infringing on free-speech rights and privacy issues. I'm sure many of you know about the pro-democracy advocate in China, whose personal information was divulged by Yahoo to the Chinese secret police. This man is still languishing in a Chinese prison for his speech.

There was also the case of a Taiwanese blogger who was successfully sued and censored for "defamation" last year.

We can't let the same thing happen in Taiwan. Now's the time to get the word out and hopefully embarrass Yahoo about their shameful and hypocritcal Internet policing activities.

Democracy Death Watch: Day 14

2008-04-05T18:13:00.032+08:00

A very small man in front of a big, rotten dictator.

-or-

Dr. Evil and Mini-ma

(Thanks to an anonymous poster on The View)

Photo by Central News Agency

Only two weeks after winning control of all branches of government, Ma Ying-jeou laid a wreath at the tomb Chiang Kai-shek, the murderous dictator who has the blood of 20,000 Taiwanese on his hands.

Disgusting.

Update: Tim Maddog sent me a link to this great pic of Ma playing with this two "dictator" dolls: Chiang Kai-shek and his son, Chiang Ching-kuo. As Tim reminded me, Chiang Ching-kuo was the head of the secret police during the White Terror period in Taiwan. Ma worked directly for Chiang Ching-kuo as his English translator.

Photo by Sam Yeh/ AFP/ Getty Images

Can you imagine if ANYONE in the Italian government tried to lay a wreath at Mussolini's tomb? Can you imagine if ANYONE in the Spanish government tried to lay a wreath at Franco's tomb? Can you imagine if the Chancellor of Germany gleefully played with a Hitler doll in public? What would the reaction be, not only from local citizens, who are only too glad to rid themselves of the ghosts of these murderers from the past, but from pro-democracy and human rights groups within the international community?

Yet for some reason, when the mass-murderers are CHINESE, the whole world turns a blind eye...

Update: Taiwan News has a must-read editorial on the KMT's latest anti-democratic "murderer worship."

Meanwhile, some of the geniuses back in the USA are waking up to the fact that the emergence of a pro-China KMT one-party-state is going to be bad for American strategic interests. Hello? Where were you guys when the US State Department was undermining the pro-American, pro-Western party in the last election? Money quote:

“Some observers in the past have expressed concern that the United States may have underestimated the importance of the sea change in KMT thinking that arose from the visits to the PRC by senior KMT officials beginning in 2005.”

The State Department was obviously relieved and overjoyed that their buddies in the KMT won the presidency in Taiwan. Why? Because the US State Department doesn't want anyone in Taiwan pissing off China and causing any distractions from their disastrous war in Iraq. For all intents and purposes, the US State Department now takes its marching orders from Beijing when it concerns Taiwan. Don't want to upset some of those lucrative multi-billion dollar deals in China, either, do we?

I fear the US's gamble with KMT will prove to be short-sighted. I wonder what they're going to do when some of these pro-China goons inside the KMT (and who really pull all the strings within the party) such as Lien Chan, start to throw their weight around?

Ma is eager to appear to "repair the relationship" between the US and Taiwan. But I think actually his only concerns are:

using America as a hedge against China in case it appears that China's annexation of Taiwan is starting to happen too quickly.
purchasing new American military systems, because, now that the KMT is back in total control, Ma's KMT cohorts in the military and legislature will be able to line their pockets with millions of dollars in kick-backs.

Finally, Ma announced today he would be glad to kow-tow to China and use the humiliating name "Chinese Taipei" to obtain observer-status for Taiwan in the World Health Organization. Welcome to the new Taiwan: "an island built around a Chinese city." Gosh, you never would have known how easily Ma has been willing to sell-out Taiwan, judging from the use of the word "Taiwan" and its image in all of the KMT's campaign advertising in the recent election. My, how quickly things change!

Update: Some observers wonder if Ma's announcement about Taiwan's WHO bid is a result of some back-door deal with Beijing. Only time will tell....

Meanwhile, Ma shows his true colors and allegiance when he continues to refer to China as "the mainland area."

Democracy Death Watch: Day 10

2008-04-01T17:31:00.008+08:00

Today's Taiwan News had a great editorial about Ma Ying-jeou's silly and fictitious 92 consensus, and how dangerous Ma's clinging to his "one China" posturing will be for Taiwan's long-term sovereignty. Money quote:

By reverting to the KMT's former position of the early 1990s and surrendering to "one China" sovereignty even before taking office, Ma has trapped himself into the web laid by Beijing's "one China" principle" and has surrendered all of the manoeuvring room opened by President Chen during the past eight years.

Moreover, Ma has abused his mandate. The people of Taiwan did not specifically endorse him to make any unilateral acceptance of any form of the "one China" principle, a move that would take the power to determine Taiwan's future out of the hands of the 23 million people of our political community.

Ma is like a lion-tamer, who foolishly believes that if he repeats the "one China" mantra over and over again, and for long enough, he can lull the despotic lions in China into a deep trance, hypnotizing the dictators in Beijing into thinking Taiwan is going to play nice and reunite with the great Motherland at some distant point in the future. (Remember how Ma said in the campaign that he wanted to sign a 50-year "peace treaty" with China. What happens after 50 years? Oh well, none of the current KMT party hacks will be alive to find out.)

All the while, Ma would be sticking his head in the lion's mouth, at great peril, in order to lap up Chinese capital, labor, and tourist money from the lion's throat. Ma thinks he can keep Taiwan's hard-won sovereignty and take his head out of the lion's mouth at any time. But as soon as he takes his tongue out of the lion's throat, that lion will wake up and bite Ma's head clean off. In fact, that lion has just been pretending to be in a trance the whole time in order to fool the naive Ma into a false sense of security. The hungry lion isn't going to fall for this "one China with two verbal expressions" shit for a second. The lion IS China! "I call the shots, "says the lion, "not you, you little sniveling, talentless, pretentious, utterly-dispensable, cowardly lion-tamer (ma)n from some backwater province!"

Just like how China gobbled up Tibet before, Taiwan will find itself sliding down the slippery slope into China's insatiable maw once it starts with this ridiculous "one China" fantasy.

Democracy Death Watch: Day 8

2008-03-30T19:57:00.020+08:00

If only...

The Taiwan News had an interesting editorial the other day:

Many actions and statements of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators since Ma's victory Saturday have already sent chills down the spines of Taiwan citizens concerned with protecting our hard-won human rights.
The most disturbing example is the call issued by KMT lawmakers for the minister of national defense to "swear allegiance" to the president-elect even before Ma is inaugurated May 20.
We applaud the decision by Defense Ministry's Tsai Ming-hsien, Taiwan's first truly civilian defense minister, to reject the demand for such an oath which are only common in personal dictatorships or one-party authoritarian states.
The demands for a declaration of personal allegiance to Ma Ying-jeou were not raised by Ma himself, but, apparently without any sense of historical irony or shame, by KMT Legislator Chiang Hsiao-yen, the illegitimate grandson of the late KMT dictator Chiang Kai-shek, and other right-wing KMT lawmakers.

Good to know that old habits die hard! However, I think it might take more than the usual amount of brainwashing to see a big sissy like Ma turned into a tough, authoritarian figure in the eyes of many. But this video below shows you how the KMT wants Ma to seen in the minds of Taiwanese: a tough, all-powerful, authoritarian superman. See for yourself, when the KMT turns humble President Ma into... 馬桶九公!!!

Also, you knew this wouldn't take the fascists in the KMT long at all: they're already salivating at the chance to change the name of "Taiwan Democracy Hall" BACK to its former name: "the (Tribute to a Mass-Murdering Dictator) Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall."

Also on the chopping block: the KMT wants to rename the "Taiwan Postal Service" back to the "China Postal Service" (this is the second time in 50 years the KMT has made this exact same name change). Other state-owned corporations that were localized to include the name "Taiwan" in their official names during the previous Chen administration will, of course, soon follow suit. Chinese nationalists in Taiwan rejoiced. Nothing gets them more excited than appeals to their "China as Zion" mythology.

Democracy Death Watch: Day 7

2008-03-30T19:27:00.018+08:00

Today's papers were abuzz with the news that dictator Hu Jin-tao of China had suggested to dictator-wanna-be George W. Bush of America in a telephone conversation that China might, under very strict conditions, be able to abide by the fictitious "92 consensus." The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) here in Taiwan were cautiously optimistic. Finally, a break-through chance to sell-out Taiwan in order to achieve their dream of a Greater China! Commentator Michael Turton was less optimistic.

For me, the money quote came from the director of the A.I.T. (the de-facto American embassy in Taiwan), Raymond Burghardt. While encouraging talks between Taiwan and China, he let the cat out of the bag when he said:

"But personally I have great faith that people will find ways to talk once again, just as they found a way in the past," he said. "Americans have always respected and been impressed by the ability of huaren[Chinese] on both sides of the Strait to find a way to talk with each other."

Good to know that the U.S. State Department position (which Burghardt represents) is that the people who live in Taiwan are now officially CHINESE! Nice work, Burghardt! And I guess the flip-side of this statement is that people in Taiwan who DON'T consider themselves Chinese are either not worthy or not serious enough to "find a way to talk with each other." Thanks for stabbing the Taiwan independence movement in the heart again!

Speaking of back-stabbers, here's a juicy and revealing quote about Taiwan from ex-Secretary-of-State and perennial-China-appeaser, Colin Powell, at a recent conference:

Powell said the biggest threat to a peaceful relationship with China would be Taiwan declaring its independence.
"And, frankly we can keep that from happening," Powell said.

Yeah, like siding with the anti-democratic KMT, undermining democracy in Taiwan by criticizing its referenda, staying silent on China's 1000+ missile build-up, and laying low on China's "unhelpful" anti-secession law.

Democracy Death Watch: Day 6

2008-03-30T18:53:00.011+08:00

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is contemplating appointing either former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) or People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) as head of the newly resuscitated Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), which will serve as the negotiating conduit between Taiwan and China.

It would therefore be understandable if Ma chose someone like Lien or Soong: As part of the KMT's pro-China old guard, they have much more in common with Beijing's ultra-conservative officials.

I know I'll sleep better at night knowing that those two pro-China stooges will be looking after the democratic interests and sovereignty of Taiwan and its 23 million people.

Also, no sooner was the KMT one-party-state victory complete last weekend, when the KMT hucksters in Taipei immediately resurrected China's offer to give Taiwan two ~~trojan horses~~ Chinese pandas. How obvious can it get? The names of these two pandas given to them by those clever Chinese bureaucrats mean "reunion" in Chinese. Apparently, the city of Taipei just won't give up trying to get them in. Just think of the potential short-term tourist dollars!

If I remember correctly, the reason the pandas were rejected in the first place is because the government of Taiwan has regulations concerning the importation of endangered animals. These regulations require that certain paperwork be completed by the government of the country or origin of any such animals. But since filling out this paperwork would then be a tacit recognition by the Chinese that the Taiwanese government actually exists and has sovereignty over Taiwan, China refused to complete the paperwork. So, the government of Taiwan very rightly refused the importation of the two pandas.

But you know as soon as the KMT gets the reigns of government back, such niceties as government regulations and upholding the dignity and sovereignty of Taiwan will be the first thing they throw out the door.

Democracy Death Watch: Day 5

2008-03-30T12:23:00.014+08:00

Friday's Democracy Death Watch had a couple of interesting features:

Taiwan's pro-China media are awash with glowing articles about newly elected President-elect Ma Ying-jeou. Are they in the process of creating a new cult of personality? Money quote:

The media's depiction of Ma as almost flawless in his patriotism and kindness is disturbingly similar to the quaint anecdotes of the Martial Law era that were designed to inspire awe and loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek.

Back then, Taiwanese were fed stories about his childhood and impeccable behavior while growing up. Likewise, Taiwanese were told that every act Chiang Ching-kuo performed reflected his love of the people.

Taiwan's pro-China media are all owned either by the KMT or the Chinese. They've been white-washing every blimish and covering up every defect of their golden-boy, Ma Ying-jeou, for many years now. The KMT-owned media in Taiwan have turned him into the sweetest, most perfect, most loveable, and harmless creature in all of Taiwan. They have created... 馬甜甜!!!

One-party state once again: A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) committee (and NOT a Constitutionally-anointed government committee) will decide how to coordinate policies and activities between the legislature and the executive branches of the government. Amazing. Once again, there is no distinction between the KMT) and the Republic of China (ROC) government. They are one and the same. Just as the KMT party symbol appears on the ROC flag and most government agencies.

Democracy Death Watch: Day 4

2008-03-30T11:34:00.013+08:00

A U.N. for Taiwan rally I attended last Fall in Kaohsiung. It's hard to see (click on image for a bigger view), but that American flag on the right had the outline of Taiwan's map sewn onto its fabric. In fact, many pro-green activists have promoted the idea of Taiwan becoming America's 51st state! That's how highly regarded America was to the pro-democracy, pro-independence activists. Oh, how naive and innocent we were back then!

Sorry I got a bit behind this week with my blogging. Wednesday's Taipei Times asked an interesting question: Why, if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) claims they back the sovereignty this country, doesn't the KMT-controlled legislature pass a resolution backing the fact that the Republic of China is separate and different from the People's Republic of China? This is especially important given the fact that both referendums that supported joining the U.N. as Taiwan or the Republic of China failed to pass last Saturday (due to the ridiculously high thresh-hold requirements for passing, a KMT-led boycott, and resistance from China, the USA, and many democratic countries. Pathetic).

In the weeks leading to the election, Ma promised to protect this nation's sovereignty in the face of Beijing's oppression. And in September, at a rally in Taichung, Ma said the KMT would fight for an end to the nation's isolation.
Come May, he will be perfectly positioned to make those aspirations heard again. Proposing a resolution would demonstrate his sincerity and offer a clear signal that he will not tiptoe around the issue of national sovereignty to avoid riling Beijing.

Maybe because they don't want to upset China before they sign their surrender treaty with China, necessary before they can flood Taiwan with Chinese capital, Chinese tourists, and Chinese labor.

Democracy Death Watch: Day 1 (Updated)

2008-03-23T12:47:00.023+08:00

I've decided to implement a new feature here at Gradually Going Tornado: a Taiwan democracy death watch. Giving the dictator-worshipping Chinese National Party (KMT) a one-party control of the entire government has got to be bad news for its democracy, freedom, independence, and sovereignty from Chinese control.

The KMT now controls the presidency, the legislature, the judiciary, the military, the police, almost all of the media, the education system and almost all teachers (by way of tax-exemptions and indoctrination), and most of academia in Taiwan.

So every day possible, I'll highlight the proof of how the KMT is killing democracy in Taiwan. That is, until the KMT decides to shut down my website by outlawing all criticism of itself. Which probably won't be very long.

Here's a run-down of some the fascist antics of the KMT just in the last week:

KMT stalwarts praises one-party state in Singapore. Money quote:
"There is nothing 'terrible' if one party controls both the legislative and executive branches of government. Nothing terrible has happened in Singapore after the ruling PAP's (People Action Party) established one-party dominance."
Nothing terrible at all, except for maybe crippling lawsuits if you dare criticize the anointed ruling class in Singapore. By the way, both ~~CEO~~ President-elect Ma and his Vice-president have praised Singapore's one-party system before the elections. Speaking of lawsuits....
Ma sues prosecutor over special allowance funds case. There are legal channels to achieve recourse if you feel you have been unfairly prosecuted by the government. As a former minister of Justice, Ma knows this. But Ma chooses to follow the "sue-them-till-they-learn-their-lesson-and-stay-silent-because-they-are-scared-shitless" method, so perfected by his mentors in one-party Singapore (and also a nifty trick of another anti-democratic fascist, Vladimir Putin of Russia).
Ma to Thereesa Shaheen: know your place, missy! No foreigners are allowed to meddle in Taiwan politics. Unless you're from China, obviously.
KMT legislators illegally break into DPP headquarters looking to conduct a... a fire inspection. Yeh... that's the ticket. We're fire inspectors, honestly.
Lastly, please notice how there was NO post-election violence by pro-green supporters last night after the KMT won the elections. Why? Because only KMT goons riot when their guys lose. Well, now that the KMT is running the whole show, maybe they can engineer the elections so they NEVER HAVE TO LOSE AGAIN. Maybe Ma can give good ol' Putin a call. He seems to have perfected how to have sham elections so you can keep the patina of democracy in an effective one-party state.
Update: I knew it wouldn't take long to find more: KMT's Chairman for Life, Lien Chan (連戰), calls pro-Taiwan U.S. lawmakers "silly and stupid."

Death of a Country

2008-03-23T09:15:00.033+08:00

This picture, taken in a park in Taipei, shows the name of Taiwan's former president, Chen Shui-bien (陳總統水扁), purposely defiled and erased by a pro-Chinese Nationalist (KMT) vandal.

Yesterday saw the death of an country, the death of an ideal; an ideal that promised it could rise above the miasma of Chinese despotism and ignorance, throw off the shackles of 2,000 years of Confucian-inspired dictatorship, and embrace the world of the enlightenment: the modern, the free, the thinking, the critical, and thus, the moral.

With the ascension of KMT golden-boy Ma Ying-jiou, along with the 75% super-majority of the legislature the KMT obtained in January, the dream of developing a separate Taiwanese identity and country that could nurture democracy and freedom from China's poisonous dictatorship lies shattered, slowly returning itself to the rotting Chinese swamp from which it crawled. Returning to the age before reason, to the age of mysticism, to worship at the feet of the twin false gods of Chinese money and Chinese power.

All hail the Great Dragon Throne in Beijing, from which all true power flows!

In fact, the dictators in Beijing have had a very impressive time lately with their goal: re-establishing the boundaries of the old Qing Empire. In one week, they managed to suppress not one, but TWO "splittist" movements that threatened their empire:

They crushed an uprising by Tibetans, who have suffered silently for almost fifty years while their Chinese colonial masters have practiced systematic cultural genocide and repression.
They crushed Taiwan's independence movement by a combination of

Force: China keeps over 1000 missiles pointing at Taiwan. It also reserves the "legal right" to rain down death and destruction on Taiwan at any time it chooses with its "Anti-secession" Law, which was passed in 2005 with scant KMT disapproval. In fact, barely was the ink dry on that outrageous "law," when that traitor to democracy, KMT Chairman for Life, Lien Chan, flew out to shake the hand with its author, the butcher of Beijing, the almighty Emperor Hu himself. (see pic below)

Image from Michael Turton's The View from Taiwan.

Collusion with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT): The KMT has been acting as Beijing's fifth column in Taiwan for the last 8 years. It all started when the KMT told Beijing not to cooperate with Chen in any way when he was elected in 2000. Pro-blue sheep in Taiwan STILL think it was all Chen's fault that no progress was made on cross-strait relations during Chen's administration. Chen had, in fact, offered to talk to Beijing time and time again with only one pre-condition: respect Taiwan's sovereignty. For Beijing, that was always a non-starter. They would only talk to Chen if he accepted their pre-condition that Taiwan was part of China.
Further evidence of collusion: The KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have been actively cooperating on a variety of economic and political fronts ever since the traitor Lien Chan started his economic forums in 2005. When the KMT anointed a new chairman in 2006 (after former KMT chairman Ma had to step down to face an indictment for stealing public money), what was the FIRST thing the new KMT chairman did? Why, go to Beijing for his marching orders, of course!
The last bit of evidence of KMT-CCP collusion: the KMT-dominated legislature starved Taiwan's economy of much-needed government spending during all 8 years of Chen administration (proof: government budget deficits fell from 8% in 1999 to 1% during the entire Chen administration). Meanwhile, to hold up their end of the bargain, Beijing cut off all sand shipments to Taiwan for the last 2 years, thus doubling the price of concrete and shutting down even more much needed construction projects around the island. The net effect?Combined with the mass exodus of factories to low-wage China, incomes in Taiwan, especially for lower-end workers, remained flat through-out much of Chen's administration. The KMT, through all the media it owns and controls, were able to brainwash the population into believing that the economy was horrible (which, in fact, it wasn't all bad. The GDP in the last quarter of 2007 grew at a hefty 5.7%. Unemployment was a tad over 3%. Housing prices in Taipei grew at well over 10%), and that it was all Chen's fault (which is most certainly wasn't. It was a deliberate plot by the KMT and the CCP to starve Taiwan's economy).

There's only one way to deal with such a depressing outcome, and that's with a good dose of saracastic humour. Here he is, the new President of Taiwan Province, the saviour of the Republic of China and the One-China policy, the defeater of those evil Taiwanese splittists, and the defender of all things good, profitable, and Chinese.... my Angel, Ma Ying-jeou!

A Huge Steaming Mound of Crap

2008-03-13T19:30:00.027+08:00

Pointing out the lies, biases, and unbalanced nature of international media coverage about Taiwan could easily be a full-time job. I usually try my best to ignore them, but today I come across this bit of hack journalism that's so utterly biased towards the anti-democratic forces in Taiwan and so filled with nonsense, omissions, and factual errors, I could't help but try to respond. You can read my comments at the bottom of that page, but I'll reproduce my comments here so I can try to swat some more flies that are buzzing around this journalist turd that Mark ONeill laid today. Normally, The Asian Sentinel publishes some decent political analyses. Whenever you see a piece about Taiwan from Mark ONeill, however, you know it's time to hold your nose!

Once again Mark O'Neill proves he's nothing but a hack journalist and shill for the Chinese Nationalist party (KMT), mindlessly passing off KMT lies and propaganda as responsible journalism. Where to begin to flush this load of manure he's written?

If ONeill believes Ma is "cruising to an easy victory," he should cite where he's getting this polling data. More than likely, it's from the KMT- or China-owned media, such as The China Times. These pro-blue polls are notoriously WRONG each and every year election by as much as 20 points! Anyone who has bothered to seriously study Taiwan politics would easily notice how the pro-blue rags overstate blue support, year after year. This could be because pro-green voters are hesitant to state their preference to pro-blue pollsters (learned behaviour from the KMT martial law era, perhaps?). The pro-green polls have historically been much more accurate. In fact, a recent poll put puts Hsieh within 3 points of Ma, others within 10 points. But I'm sure Mark ONeill has never bothered to do his homework or tried to get some accurate facts.

Secondly, ONeill mindlessly reproduces the false meme that Chen had himself shot in 2004 to "win sympathy votes," or even more incredibly, that he FAKED the shooting itself. So we are supposed to believe Chen hatched a conspiracy to have himself shot, which would require the prior knowledge and complicity of scores, if not hundreds, of other people? And somehow he managed to keep them all quiet? Or that Chen was such a evil GENIUS that he managed to either dodge REAL bullets or to fake the whole thing with fire crackers and ketchup bottles, live on national TV? The fact is there is not a single credible bit of evidence that Chen had himself shot. And forensics expert Henry Lee has already proved beyond a doubt that the shooting was, in fact, real. There's no need to say this was an "alleged" assassination attempt. It WAS an assassination attempt! Oh, then to top it off, ONeill insinuates the dastardly Chen faked all the evidence and had an innocent guy killed so Chen could blame the assassination on him.

R-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-GHT.

Dragging this dead horse out again is just more nonsense from the KMT "no-evidence" brigade. If ONeill fancies himself a real journalist, why would he refer to such a ridiculous conspiracy theory without quoting a rebuttal from a pro-green pol or academic to give his article some much-needed balance and grounding in reality?

The fact is, all credible polls done before the 2004 presidential election in Taiwan showed Chen and Lien neck and neck in the final week, with Chen surging in support in the last week before the election. There is not a lick of evidence that the Chen assassination attempt won the election for Chen. Lien, arguably one of the least-effective and most-unlikable politicians the KMT has produced, ran a lifeless campaign, and it is he alone who is responsible for losing the 2004 election.

Then ONeill passes off, unchallenged, other crazy conspiracy theories from another wild-eyed KMT hack about how those evil Greens will do something dastardly again to swing the election by producing fake passports (even though the CEC has already concluded that Ma doesn't have a US passport) or incriminating videos (the most incriminating Ma video has already been released: one with a drunk Ma shouting "沒有啦" like a sissy 小妹妹).

While you're at it, Mark, why not let the readers know about some of the other KMT fantasies they've manufactured? Like how Ma's VP pick said Chen was going to have Hsieh assassinated before the election (because Chen prefers Hsieh's running mate)? Or how Chen may start a war with China (even though the Taiwan legislature and military are all dominated by the KMT) to win more sympathy votes? What other bits of stinking KMT garbage will ONeill force down the throats of his readers?

Finally, ONeill echoes the KMT lie that the economy is "weak." Just what are the facts about the Taiwan economy, Mark? Why don't you bother to share those with your readers? The economy in Taiwan grew in the last quarter at 5.7%, unemployment is under 4%, exports to China (which you mention) are at an all-time high, housing prices in Taipei are growing annually at double-digit rates. These enviable facts are hardly the numbers of a "weak" economy, would you think? Of course, since ONeill prefers to just cut and paste KMT talking point rather than doing his job and presenting some facts, his readers are left with nothing but another KMT deceit.

I really wish Mark ONeill would bother doing his job as a journalist to get the facts about Taiwan, quit passing off KMT propaganda as anything other than the lies and deceits that they are, and at least TRY to show a balance when talking about Taiwan. Or Mark, perhaps the the cheque from the KMT is already in the mail? Don't spend it all in one place, dear.

A Sad Day for Democracy

2008-01-13T06:11:00.009+08:00

Yesterday, Taiwanese voted against their own political best-interests and returned their KMT colonial overlords to a super-majority status in the legislature. This is an unmitigated disaster. Now, there will be a REVERSAL of all the great gains the Democratic Progressive Party has made in the last eight years towards creating a localized, Taiwanese consciousness and undoing the stains and crimes of the previous KMT dictatorship. There will be NO incentive for the new legislature to institute democratic reforms, progressive legislation, or environmental regulations.

I'm sure the KMT's puppet-masters in Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party, are overwhelmed. They just need to wait for their puppy, Ma Ying-jiou, to be installed as ~~CEO~~ President of Taiwan in March, and wait for him to create his ~~surrender treaty~~ peace deal with China. They'll finally get their long-lost province back into the fold to add to their growing Chinese Empire. LONG LIVE THE GREAT DRAGON THRONE! Surely, Emperor Hu must have the mandate of heaven!

How did this happen? Taiwan Matters has a wonderful discussion of the causes. But here are my ideas, based on everything I've read and observed. The causes are complex, obviously. First, of course, most TV and newspapers are owned either by the KMT or Chinese in Hong Kong. Taiwanese are subjected to non-stop lies and propaganda that would put the Nazis and Leninists to shame. Got a complex problem, like stagnant wages? Anxious about competing in the global economy? Got anal warts? It's all Chen Shui-bien's fault. He should have waved his magic wand and done SOMETHING. What it is he should or could have done, neither the KMT or their shills can specify, but it usually involves something about sending more factories, jobs, and know-how to China. Oh, and flooding Taiwan with eager Chinese tourists and spies is a distant second, according to these great KMT economic experts.

Second, there is a staggering ignorance by Taiwanese about the complexities of global economics, coupled with a fatal nostalgia for the economic boom days of the 1970's and 80's. People here may be totally oblivious of how economies and markets mature, and how 10%+ yearly GDP increases are impossible to sustain, long-term. But by god, things felt great twenty years ago, so it MUST have been something to do with the inherent economic genius only possessed by the KMT mandarins of yesteryear.

Third, I find most Taiwanese utterly ignorant about the basics of civics or the mechanics of their very own government. Most of the adult students I have taught over the years don't seem to understand the inherent powers of the presidency or the legislature, thinking the presidency has far greater powers over the economy or over the government than he actually has. They forget that the presidency isn't like it used to be when Chiang Kai-shek was running the show. They don't seem to realize that President Chen cannot spend a single NT or pass a single law. If you want to enact some real government spending to impact the economy, it's got to be passed by the legislature, which as always been dominated by the KMT. On top of all that, the KMT-dominated legislature is constantly chipping away at the president's already limited powers, usurping powers that are granted in the constitution to the president.

Nor does it seem to bother most Taiwanese that the KMT has systematically and deliberately sabotaged the functions of the constitutionally-mandated branches of the government, such as the Control Yuen and the Judiciary, by opposing nearly everyone that President Chen has recommended to these critical positions. The KMT has systematically opposed nearly every bit of government and democratic reform proposed by Chen, as well as much-needed military spending that could help prevent war in the Taiwan Strait. The KMT has also deliberately squeezed off domestic spending on local construction projects, starving the local economy, increasing unemployment, and increasing discontent of working-class people with the economy. Why? Because the KMT has a scorched-Earth policy: Oppose everything that Chen proposes, block much-needed reform and domestic spending, grind down the normal functions of government, make the population fed-up with the grid-lock and inaction, undermine the economy, and then, using the KMT-owned media pointed out above, make the population believe it's all Chen's fault that nothing is happening and that incomes of working-class people have remained flat. Again, if Taiwanese were educated on the basics of the functioning and happenings of their own government and how opposition and ruling parties are supposed to act in a normal democracy, then Taiwanese wouldn't be putting up with the KMT's shenanigans for a moment or putting the blame incorrectly on Chen. They'd be booting those bastard KMT legislatures out left and right.

Fourth, the DPP miscalculated the effects of the new single-candidate districts, with its new winner-take-all voting system. Because the KMT was able to outspend the opposition 5-1 (using money that was stolen from Taiwanese during their 50-year dictatorship), as well as cleverly gerrymandered districts, the KMT was able to squeak out wins in 75% of the voting districts, while the DPP only won 25% of the districts. The fact is, however, that the KMT only got 63% of the total vote, while the DPP got 35% of the vote. Clearly, the new single-candidate districts are much LESS democratic than the old multi-candidate districts. The DPP were fools to agree to the new system.

Fifth, and this is the most frustrating and potentially ill-boding feature that threatens the long-term viability of democracy in Taiwan: an inability of the common person to think critically, to use and understand rhetoric or the rules of deductive logic, to question received wisdom about one's own history because it might cause one to lose face, or even an ability to question one's family politics or to support ideas that are contrary to your family's or peer group. I put it down, of course, to Confucian ideas of harmony, tradition, and respect for authority, which was great for a feudal society a thousand years ago, but has absolutely no place in a modern democracy. Until Confucius is consigned to the ash-heap of history and replaced with Socratic thought, I'm afraid I don't see much hope for the development of critical thinking skills that are required in a modern democratic society.

The enormity of yesterday's great loss for Taiwanese self-determination is perfectly summarized by this letter to the Taipei Times.

When I was told I should prepare for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) winning the presidential election in March, I acknowledged that it was a possibility. I pointed out that once the KMT takes hold of Taiwan, it would use the nation as a lever, trading sovereignty for some opportunity to get into China.
After all, for the past 50 years, Taiwan has been nothing more to the KMT than a piggy bank and parking space, as the party's dream has always been to return to China.
For the other half of Taiwan, there is no going "back." There is only here.... [The Taiwanese] do not welcome the prejudice, the racism and the derogatory attitude [of the KMT] toward people considered "too Taiwanese" that persists to this day.
So what are we faced with? Two months from the election, and we still don't know what KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will do, not "for" but "to" Taiwan. Will he surrender to China? Possibly. Will he fight China? Never. Will he dissect Taiwan, allowing it to be raped slowly by China, in exchange for the KMT scions returning to China as kings and kingmakers, as wealthy owners and directors, setting up a new network of loyal KMT legions?
All of this will be done at the expense of Taiwan. After all, Taiwan is merely a bargaining chip, something to be thrown in as part of some deal -- a deal that may already have been made. For the KMT, Taiwan is not something of value, not a place to stay in, but only a place worth leaving. And with Ma comes the opportunity to finally find a place in the sun in China once again.
Yes, cross-strait tensions will lessen, but only because a Ma administration will have moved toward surrendering Taiwan's sovereignty.
Perhaps the KMT will agree to outlaw the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Perhaps the KMT will use its majority to adopt China's "Anti-Secession" Law in Taiwan and use it to suppress any talk of independence.
Perhaps once again talk of independence will become a crime and DPP members may become targets of arrest.
Taiwan will once again become a one-party town. And it will no longer be Taiwan. It will become Chinese Taipei, an island built around a city.
With the lowering of all barriers to investment in China, Taiwan will lose all of its industry to China and become the Honolulu of China, a mere tourist island, where international fame comes from its betelnut beauties.
For many people, that may be the only job left, after all the high-tech jobs have fled to China.
I don't know if all of these will happen or not. But if Taiwanese were to elect the KMT, giving it a legislative majority and the presidency, they will be voting for their own demise.
Lee Long-hwa

Of course, the American angle involved in this is that Condi Rice and her merry band of Chinese-commie appeasers have consistently been undermining Chen and the DPP, attacking him for being "provocative" and a trouble-maker. (see blog post below) It's been apparent for a while that Rice has sided with the KMT in this year's elections because the KMT will play along quietly with China's empire-building games. And as long as no one in Taiwan is making any trouble for America by "provoking" those thugs in Beijing and diverting precious time and resources away from tending their debacle in Iraq, then the state of Taiwan and its democracy is apparently of no consequence to America. Yet if the KMT controls both a super-majority in the legislature and the presidency, they will be able to pull Taiwan out of the Western sphere of influence and into China's. Yet another betrayal of American principles and another long-term strategic disaster created by Bush's incompetent foreign policy.

The Empire Strikes Back

2008-01-10T00:52:00.001+08:00

Well, today Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primary. As some have said, she's Nixon in a pantsuit: paranoid, cold-blooded, brittle, vindictive towards her "enemies," and constantly dissembling. She feels entitled to the presidency and bitterly angry that Barack has the audacity to challenge her coronation.

But don't just take my comparison between Nixon and Clinton. In today's New York Times, Maureen Dowd sees the similarities between Clinton's emotional crack and Nixon's cracking-up:

There was a poignancy about the moment, seeing Hillary crack with exhaustion from decades of yearning to be the principal rather than the plus-one. But there was a whiff of Nixonian self-pity about her choking up. What was moving her so deeply was her recognition that the country was failing to grasp how much it needs her. In a weirdly narcissistic way, she was crying for us. But it was grimly typical of her that what finally made her break down was the prospect of losing.

And here is Camille Paglia on Salon:

Contemptuous condescension seems to be Hillary's default mode with any male who criticizes her or stands in her way. It's a Nixonian reflex steeped in toxic gender bias.

I love how Hillary manipulates people by constantly playing the victim card. The supposedly feminist Hillary cracks up and shows a tiny glimmer of emotion under the strain of campaigning. "If only they knew how much good I'd be for America! boo hoo!" What would the media have made of it had any of the male candidates done the same? They'd be instantly finished. Some Democratic women voters in New Hampshire who remained undecided in the last few days of campaigning actually admitted they decided to vote for Hillary because those fake tears of hers reminded them of just how tough and unfair those big, mean men are to women!

And then, there was this little jewel:

"I was laughing because you know in that debate, obviously Sen. Edwards and Sen. Obama were kind of in the buddy system on the stage. And I was thinking whoever's up against the Republican nominee in the election debates come the fall is not gonna have a buddy to fall back on. You know, you're all by yourself. When you're president, you're there all by yourself," - Senator Clinton on her two rivals for the nomination.

Oh, those big, mean boys! They were beating on me! Oh boo hoo!

And the utter hypocrisy of this woman when she says "you're there all by yourself!" Can there be any doubt that Hillary would NOT be coasting towards the Democratic nomination for president had she NOT had the forsight to marry and stick with Bill Clinton? Strange, I thought feminists were supposed to compete in this world WITHOUT the need of a man or the right marriage to get ahead. And you KNOW that if she were elected president, she'd be on the phone to her hubby Bill the moment the first crisis broke out on her watch. "Bill, what the fuck should I do?" In fact, both Bill and Hillary Clinton are running openly on the fact that American will get "two for the price of one," if we elect Hillary. Hillary has never had a buddy to fall back on? My ass!

God help us all if we have to put up with another four years of the endless Clinton scandals, fear-mongering, lying, wrangling with the "vast right-wing conspiracy," and scorched-Earth politics. And shame on us Americans if we are too stupid to avoid creating ANOTHER fucked-up family political dynasty by returning another Clinton to the White House. Nepotism does NOT make for good democracies.

A blogger on the Daily Dish summarizes my feeling on the Clinton win perfectly.

Update: Andrew Sullivan's post reminded me today of another reason why I fear and loathe the Clintons: Bill's horrible track-record on gay rights. He started off his administration with the "Don't Ask. Don't Tell" policy in the military. And then he reversed the progress of gay families and civil rights for gay people for an entire generation with the Defense of Marriage Act. And who was mastered the art of this same horrendous right-wing triangulation? Why, Hillary Clinton, of course.

Know Hope!

2008-01-05T21:14:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses, beating out John (Breck Girl*) Edwards and Hillary (Nixon in a Pantsuit) Clinton.

OK, maybe I'm just being naive, maybe I'm so starved for good news from back home, that ANYTHING will do. But yesterday was the first time in six long years of living in political exile that being an American gave me actual tears of joy, instead of tears of shame.

I really believe this man, if he can make it all the way to the White House, has the chance to heal the poisonous wounds of racism in America, to bridge the nasty divide of blue state/red state thinking by appealing to independents and Republicans, improve the lot for gay Americans, and what's more, finally put an end to Bush's disastrous foreign policy. And most of all, he gives me hope that we'll finally have someone with the political courage and moral decency to dismantle the Bush-Cheney pro-torture police state!

Go, Obama, go!!!

AND YET

As much as I hate to admit it, I'm quite certain Obama will continue America's wishy-washy "protect the fictitious status quo" policy towards Taiwan and China, which lately has really become the "protect China's delicate 小妹妹 feelings at all possible costs" appeasement policy. Why is it that no one other than the most rabid right-wingers is willing to stand up for a struggling democracy like Taiwan, especially when it's in America's strategic interests?

Bent blogs far more intelligently about this topic than I could.

* To be fair, I do like John Edwards, though his populist messages wear a bit thin and don't seem quite convincing, after a while. And even though the "Breck Girl" label comes from Rush Limbaugh, whom I detest, I just couldn't resist poking a bit of fun at a good guy who came in second to Obama.

Thank You, Ma'am!

2008-01-05T20:54:00.005+08:00

December 22, 2007 Today, Condi Rice, in her infinite wisdom, condemned Taiwan's upcoming referendum on whether to join the United Nations under the logical name "Taiwan," calling the referendum "provocative."

Well, I've got one thing to say...

[sarcastic irony]

Thank you, ma'am!

Thank you for undermining democracy in Taiwan.
Thank you for ignoring the fundamental rights of the Taiwanese for UN representation.
Thank you for mindlessly doing the bidding of those thugs in Beijing.
And lastly, thank you for being one of the chief apologists for the pro-torture Bush-Cheney police state.

[/sarcastic irony]

A Great Day for Democracy

2008-01-05T20:23:00.003+08:00

December 7, 2007 A great day for democracy in Taiwan. And another nail in the coffin of KMT fascism. Today, the honorific title for that murderous dictator and KMT uber-hero, Chiang Kai-shek, was finally taken down from the main gate at Taiwan Democracy Hall (formerly CKS Memorial Hall), and replaced with the words "Liberty Square."

The original inscription on the gate, 大中至正, "Da Zhong Zhi Zheng," means "Great Mean/Perfect Uprightness." I guess Chiang Kai-shek was displaying some "great mean" of a different sort when he had 20,000 Taiwanese murdered for resisting their new-found, colonial KMT masters. If only all those murdered people the KMT left scattered on the hills near my home had just shut up and accepted their place in the Confucian hierarchy, they could have lived to find out how magnificent it was to live under Chiang's "perfect uprightness!"

Taiwan's democracy is still struggling to throw off the shackles and insidious corruption of its authoritarian past, as are other new democracies. At the same time, it is being squeezed between the neo-fascist Chinese nationalists of the KMT here in Taiwan and the neo-imperialist Chinese nationalists of the CCP in Beijing.

My question is: where are all the other of the world's democracies, especially America? I thought Bush was all about spreading "liberty" and supporting "democracy." Did this story make headlines anywhere else in the world? Did the world notice that free people in Taiwan dared to stand against a tyrant? Why do the Taiwanese have to continue to fight for freedom and democracy alone?

First Post

2008-01-05T18:55:00.000+08:00

I hope I don't run into any copyright infringement problems with the name of this blog. I stole it from an old 1980 Bill Bruford album. (Shout outs to any Bruford fans out there!)

My associations of the word "tornado" were shaped by growing up in the "tornado alley" or Northern Alabama, especially April 3, 1974. I still remember vivadly hiding under a table while tornadoes zipped through nearby neighborhoods, fearful, waiting for roof to go flying off or our house to get transported to Oz, listening to sound of a train locomotive roaring overhead. Then heading out the next day in that always glorious sunshine-filled, post-tornado weather to find the trail of destruction a few miles away, finding entire neighborhoods flattened, trees and building ripped to shreds.

What does Gradually Going Tornado mean? A whirlwind state of mind? Loss of control? Growing freneticism? An fragile ego sucked into a cultural vortex? Physical destruction by violent, oraganied chaos?

The title seems to sum up life right now after having been hiding out here in Taiwan for so many years, patiently observing the growing winds and grumbling storms both here in Taiwan and back home in the States.

And feeling that something BIG in the world is coming up this year. And something BIG has gotta give soon.