April 25 debate: Ma Ying-jeou vs Tsai Ing-wen

I didn’t watch it - I have better things to do on a Sunday afternoon. But I’m slightly interested as to how it went. What’s the word? Was it a good debate?

Cai Yingwen is [color=#FF0000]Hot Hot Hot!!![/color]

Does Yingwen means “English language”? And doesn’t Ma In Jio mean “Horse English 9”? So we have “English Vegetable” vs “English 9 Horse”? Seriously, is this a nursery school here? That’s the best they can do in this country?

And I though the [color=#0080FF]Nigerians were silly[/color]

The wife was impressed by Cai Yingwen.

My wife said they both sounded “educated”.

Mine changed the channel after 2 minutes.

The main point of the debate was less about ECFA and more about Tsai saying “Look, Su Zhen-chang, I’m up here debating with the mf PRESIDENT! Take that, you Taipei-city-mayor-running SOB…see you in 2012!”

Is there any English translation of the debate available? A written transcript perhaps or even better a video with subtitles.

Ailixin, see today’s Taipei Times.

Well I watched it by proxy :fume: The prez was expected to lose and be a softy and then about half an hour into the debate, he came out really strong, was even charismatic (for a few mins) and Cai Yingwen could not hold fort.
Anyways he won the debate by 79%…Maoman, I am glad you did better things, at least someone did :slight_smile:

By whom?

I think despite a valiant attempt by English Vegetables to shake the public’s confidence in Mr. Horse, the latter eventually showed his presidential side and won the debate, like a ravished steed devouring a fresh bucket of carrots and mixed greens.

Won the debate by 79%, what type of twisted poor logic is that?

Anyway…it was quite an inspiring debate to watch, showing the really great atributes of Taiwan democracy in action, seriously. Ma YingJeo came out strongly for ECFA and Tsai YingWen also pushed hard for her side but in a respectful manner. She is streets ahead of their last leader.
To be a mainlander and see such a debate would be very impressive, however that probably won’t show on Chinese TV, or maybe just parts.

I’m just hoping that they get ECFA out of the way as soon as possible, it’s beneficial for Taiwan but only slightly so, therefore it’s best to move to other topics soon. It would have been a much bigger deal 10 years ago but almost all businesses that could have gone to China have already moved there. Also with wages so low now in Taiwan and with Taiwan’s lower tax and lower regulation environment Taiwanese companies are mostly happy to stay here and some are even moving back without any ECFA.
ECFA is more important in terms of attracting foreign investment to Taiwan and making the political situation more stable, giving a sense of direction to the country.

i guess i would be a part of that 79%

[quote=“headhonchoII”]
I’m just hoping that they get ECFA out of the way as soon as possible, it’s beneficial for Taiwan but only slightly so…[/quote]
Oh, so you know all the nitty-gritty details then? Care to share? I’m also curious how you came by this info, when it has not been made public and that is one of the biggest complaints about the treaty and the process itself.

Well it’s what was glaring on the TV screens…

:laughing: :bravo:

Jabo, Adam, Poag -
Same response from my wife also. She is pretty ‘old school’ KMT and has always had a strange good word for Tsai. That is really hard to figure as she is usually very dismissive of DDP (as she calls them) pols.
she also called it for Ma; but not by so wide a margin. She’s very skeptical of the PRC/CCP trade agreement, but is also leery of the DPP agenda. I chalk this up to the hosing Ah Bian gave the DPP once he got into the power & money position and said “Fuck principles - I’m looting like a Warlord!”
Strange mix in her politics - regards Taiwan as a sovereign entity yet is firmly in the KMT camp.

Which TV screen? Who was the judge? Surely you know most TV stations in Taiwan have a KMT angle while a few have DPP angle?
Even then people need to form their own opinions, not follow others. Unlike most of you I can understand Chinese and judge myself.

The ECFA is only lowering tariffs a few % on most items. At this stage there is no serious damage to be done remaining. Rice farmers got hit by Vietnam and Thai rice imports over 10 years ago prior and following to WTO signing. Almost all cheap-assed manufacturing has moved to China. Encouraging petrochemical industry to remain in Taiwan is probably not a good idea for other sectors like tourism and agriculture but what you can do, there are large companies who still want to base in Taiwan in this field. The DPP excel in scaremongering, during their 8 years they did nothing while huge numbers of industries moved to China. They are discredited in this area.

As Tsai YingWen pointed out, a variation in currency rates would generally have a much bigger impact than any ECFA tariff change.

What’s more important is to have importation and labelling rules. For instance when Chinese agricultural produce is allowed into Taiwan I would like to see all produce, in traditional markets or supermarkets, labelled with country of origin. This needs to be looked at carefully. I’m not going to eat any Chinese origin products myself. The same thing has been seen with American beef hubbub, largely resolved by consumer choice. Many countries use this system to protect their consumers and still give preference to local companies following signing of non-tariff agreements.

So you can see that ECFA is most useful in allowing an equal playing field for foreign direct investment in either Taiwan or China. This is very important when a foreign enterprise decides to locate somewhere, if they want to base in Taiwan but cover all of Taiwan and China market, they won’t base in Taiwan if everytime they export something from Taiwan to China the Chinese add 10% tax to it!. The ECFA does not have a huge bearing on 95%+ individuals. It doesn’t cover working rights in Taiwan either. In fact it may improve Taiwan’s exports of high value agri products to China.

I think everybody can see that it’s not a lose-lose situation, better relations between Taiwan and China in general will benefit Taiwanese and investment here, which is badly needed as capital has been has almost all been going one way for 10-15 years and there has been almost no direct investment from Western countries in the last 10 years in Taiwan.

HeadHoncho, I care not about the Politics, I was just filling Maoman in about what happened and what I saw, not my opinion of it. Not my country, not my debate and not my politics…wasting an afternoon for it was bad enough.

I am sure someone else will want to debate it out with you :slight_smile: