Why is it they can shut down villages in Pingtung County but not a couple of communities in Taipei? Is it impossible to do that?
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Delta!
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People think he is doing well. Most opinion polls show that.
Ko is finishing up his time as Taipei mayor. No doubt he has national ambitions. Folks like Nathan Batto at Academia Sinica think he won’t get very far as he deliberately tries to side step what Batto calls “the China cleavage” (i.e. where one stands in relation to China). Batto thinks politically this can be side stepped at the municipal level but national level elections will alas make this position hard to sell. We shall see . . .
OK! Back on topic! 
Guy
Avoiding the China cleavage is Ko’s advantage and his main pitch. He has tried to show that he can be an alternative to the two parties and still keep business relationships with China, but without capitulating like the KMT.
I disagree with what you said though. Ko’s problem is that he is too Taipei focued. He is popular with the metropolitan and intellectual and wealthy class in the political center, which is basically mainly in Taipei. He is seen as competent and I think he has been a good mayor for Taipei, the city has improved a lot under his tenure.
But all the polls show that people are much happier with his COVID response than the central government, kind of surprised of the opinion here that he is a mess.
That’s cool. I’m just speaking for myself. Remember his unhinged remarks about America only giving ractopamine pork to Taiwan after it seemed like the USA might not provide a lot of vaccines to us? Eventually they gave a huge amount… 2.4 million doses… but instead of being patient and waiting for the situation to play out, he shot off at the mouth. This is just one example of his grandstanding antics at the Taipei conferences. As I’ve said before he reminds me a bit of Andrew Cuomo from last year; a lot of dramatics and seeking the spotlight at the expense of just keeping his head down and doing his job as Mayor. And now he’s reopening night markets… oy.
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With Taipei City using HUKOU as a means to determine vaccine eligibility in the first instance (they are not doing this now), consider me less impressed than you.
Guy
防疫民調：蔡英文不滿意度超過滿意度、柯文哲信任度陡升 | 政治 | 新頭殼 Newtalk People are not happy with Tsai and central government, Hou and Ko’s approval ratings have gone up in COVID.
New Taipei and Taipei have super high population density, hard to compare their COVID response with Changhua or Nantou
Correct. We can’t stay closed for them. To be fair, they don’t want us to.
Once every vulnerable person has been offered a vaccine, time to open up.
Horse…water…drink or something
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Ko’s worst part is not controlling his mouth when needed, his best part is getting stuff done and speaking straight
Chen Shi Chung has done his own fair share of grandstanding as well. Remember he said before Japan offered vaccines, “If anyone wants to donate, give them to me early or I wont need them later”.
Someone I know, who knows workings of DPP, said that they have tried to reign in Chen a few times, but his ego has been out of control since last year and he wont follow central government. He basically says and does what he wants. Not sure if constitutes rumors
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Don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending Tsai, Chen or DPP. My criticisms of them are faaaaaar greater.
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Important people live in Taipei.
I suspect this has been true in several other countries where health officials are unused to wielding absolute power over millions of people.
Chase Nelson has, at his very informative twitter feed, updated his chart tracking daily cases:
Guy
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More as a result of the success of last year.
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To be fair, 27 of the positive cases are already in quarantine.
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So did he get off his high horse now or still riding it? Perhaps “fall off” is a better way to say it.
What has he gotten done? All he does is talk stupid shit. Anyone with a brain can see how much of a fraud he is.
Chen is probably the least egotistical politician there is. He is barely a politician. 
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In Ko’s defence, he did some nice work around the Beimen area early on in his first term. He also yelled a lot about that ridiculous dome at Zhongxiao Guangfu.
He 100% lost me though after he shrugged off the beating up of students by White Wolf led gangsters at the Sing China event held on the NTU campus. To their eternal disgrace, Taipei police stood by and watched.
There’s no way I’d want this guy as my president.
Guy
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