The first debate began at 2 p.m. today (Saturday) on channel 53 (public television) and will continue for a couple of hours.
Your reactions?
I’ll definitely watch it tonight when it’s rebroadcast at 7:00 (according to my wife). I find that the debates I’ve watched in the past were pretty poor. The whole idea of academic debate doesn’t seem to have a precendent here. Now I know that often it deteriorates to cleverness and political point-scoring in the west, but the foundations are stronger. I wish local pols would watch every episode of “The West Wing”, and then be tested on their comprehension of the issues involved.
The debate will be rebroadcast on Public Television (channel 53) at the following times:
Sat 14 Feb 2200 - 0010
Sun 15 Feb 0900 - 1110 and 1600 - 1810
The second round of the debate will be next weekend at the same times. You can also watch PTS on line.
I suggest watching it on PTS because: 1. They arranged it in the first place and 2. They haven’t covered up the sign language interpreter with intrusive “infobars” or whatever they call them.
Saw the whole thing and it was as dull as dishwater. Considering the weather, I guess most people made the right choice and spent the afternoon outside.
The debates had no new content whatsoever, only the positions we already know. Lien says Chen is incompetent and sank the economy, Chen says Lien is a stooge for China, though they were more polite than that.
There were just a couple of nasty stabs: Chen said “I wouldn’t beat my wife,” and Lien said that under Chen, anyone pushing a wheelchair could get a job leading a state enterprise.
Otherwise, no surprises, and I can’t imagine any viewer changing his/her mind after seeing those debates.
This is the front page of the China Post. I began laughing when I read that. If Taiwan and China could just sign a peace treaty… It seems so preposterous to me. They started with rhetoric, so I’ll ask some rhetorical questions:
Why on earth didn’t they just sign a peace treaty long ago when Chiang Kai Shek was in power?
Can you sign a peace treaty with a country that doesn’t exist?
etc.
But, my questions got very strange, so I’d like to hear what other people think about this. Is it just empty politicizing?
UDN.com reported that mainland China message boards actually have some threads about Taiwan’s presidential debate. Some Chinese actually said how come Taiwan can have a debate, and when is China going to have its own debate(which is never while the CCP is in power). Its good to see that there are actual Chinese people pondering about democracy instead of just yelling "we must conquer Taiwan! "
They should have debates in mainland China. They call that place a Republic, and that should mean that the people have more say in their government. And unfortunately it’s not the only republic to be a republic in name only.
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