We know those ones. But they don’t necessarily say vote a specific way.
He labeled the DPP and all those that vote for them as troublemakers wishing to declare independence.
Then the CCP had top level meetings with people from the KMT.
Then the Australian ambassador came out and said the last quote. That was today or yesterday. So he was essentially backing up what he said at his National Press Club address a few weeks back.
He also tried using some hostage diplomacy with imprisoned Chinese Australian reporter Cheng Lei while rewriting the official narrative of consular and family access. Basically he claimed that Australian consular officials and her family had access to her when they haven’t had access for about 15 months now.
Bonus points for any forumosan who remembers this spineless Canadian twit. 
Guy
These guys will simply lie without blinking. It’s really appalling, and it cannot be helping Beijing’s sliding diplomatic standing in the world.
Guy
It’s OK to call WHO officials twats. It’s mod-sanctioned!
Former Nantou county magistrate sentenced on corruption charges, faces more than 400 cumulative years in jail
Meanwhile, business as usual (such as it is) in Hualien.
https://twitter.com/shu_wang_gong/status/1599977756619460608
Guy
The KMT is dying and is basically just plundered from its clout and by corrupt officials.
My biggest issue with this is that the DPP has no serious and credible opposition, which never is good for the democratic process.
The PRC remains a real threat and I wonder if there’s a way to actually leverage some safety based on the current events rather than just going down the road we’re going, while not being literal PRC shills like the KMT.
Do you have anything in mind? What current events and why would they give any leverage?
The kmt might be able to win presidency if they run with Hou
They won’t though, because he is not waishengren and not really pure KMT
China has lost a lot in terms of reputation and in terms of trade agreements. Notably because of their attitude towards Hong Kong, which then gave raise to additional awareness of Taiwan’s current situation and now everyone has eyes on that. By making acting in an appeasing way towards Taiwan, it could help them regain a little good faith.
We’ve seen what happens when going HAM on a cornered country like Russia. Now it’s not a 1:1 transposition, but by isolating China, we’re only buying a little time until they can repurpose their economy in such as way that further isolation wouldn’t worry them too much. I am not quite sure if what i’m saying is factually and objectively true, but I still think it’s a question that ought to be debated. But it can’t be when the only ones bringing counterpoints to the DPP policy are obviously PRC-aligned.
It’s a fool’s errand to try to game China. How did that work out for Hong Kong?
Russia isn’t cornered, unless you mean some countries won’t let them arbitrarily hack off pieces of their neighbors.
That’s not a great way of initiating debate 
Start with something smaller you can be more sure of?
I don’t think this is a terrible point. If there was an electable third force that was agnostic on cross strait issues, it might temporarily ease tensions
In China any type of independence movement is treated on the same level as having sex with minors. Saying you publicly support Taiwan independence is the same as publicly admitting you are a paedophile
The dpp has the original sin of being an Independence Party, even though they changed their constitution . There can never be any cross strait talks because of that
Hong Kong wasn’t in the same position as Taiwan, because HK was a done deal to begin with. Also, Honk Kong’s bargains were them selling their sovereignty piece by piece, because really, there was nothing they could do, and the HK government was basically sold out to begin with.
Don’t you think that there could be actual, mutually beneficial deals that can take place that do not require Taiwan doing anything sovereignty wise ? Trade agreements for example ? Or simply showing that Taiwan won’t escalate friendly relations with America ?
Russia was cornered in the sense that it was wrecked by trade sanctions and was isolated from the rest of the world aside from its usual allies. By Russia, I of course mean the government that was indeed also poltically cornered into making a move to keep their power afloat.
It is Russia’s isolation that allowed for this war to happen. Their economy was already starting recuperate since the whole crimea thing, and it was far less dependent of foreign investments. You could say that it was intentional (and a very shitty move) on Putin’s part so that the shock of an all out war against Ukraine wouldn’t be as violent as it would’ve been.
Xi is basically doing the same thing with his people by shocking them into isolation and destroying all the former alleys of trade that they have (advantageous tariffs for example).
Political decisions, especially in geopolitic and foreign affairs, never have one obvious solution nor do the people who decide have all the cards in hand. Admitting to that and not starting from a position of “I know i’m factually and objectively right” is, actually, a terrible way of initiating any kind of political discussion since you’re just polarizing the narratives. And by debate, I do not mean one here, but on the national scene. We need good faith actors that have diverging opinions, not a unified (to be nuanced, i know) DPP that runs unchecked, as much as their decisions haven’t been half bad thus far.
Do you ever think: wow the KMT is a hot steaming mess of contradictions, one that seemed to be held together for a while by Ma before again falling apart in his fateful feud with Wang Jin-pyng toward the end of his presidency.
How do these contradictions work? Can they be overcome? Chieh-ting Yeh writing at Taiwan Insight tries to answer these questions, providing a very helpful primer about the contemporary KMT and its how it got here. It’s a great read.
Guy
Interesting the OPs point is to literally not be the Chinese KMT hehe.
They really need a rebrand. But honestly I am enjoying them so literally retarded. It would be horrifying to see their will actually push forward stronger with competent leadership! I would prefer the lesser of the evils rebrand instead(DPP) and flush out all their toxic waste. It’s far more plausible than curing the other cancer.
Not having a primary was a great move
It’s the selection method that has caused the KMT grief, as they have at the national level nominated nutcases in 2016 (Hung) and 2020 (Han). Hou is not a nutcase, so . . . progress? This year’s nomination process doesn’t make clear however whether the deep blue Chinese nationalists will show up and vote for him in January 2024.
Guy