Kleenex for what?
KMT people will vote KMT no matter what. They can put Hitler on the ballot and my dad will vote him no matter what… it’s what happens with civil servants (like my dad).
I do not know myself. I can’t take Korea fish seriously but I can’t say I like DPP either. So I really don’t know if I even want to go vote.
//\ that is why korea will win. Kmt base is pretty loyal and many dpp/other people are lazy/annoyed/whatever and dont vote. This is reason to be worried folks.
Dpp is corrupt as shit. So is kmt. Foeget that discussion. Need to think who is knocking on our doorstep in a scarier way than we have seen in a while…China seems more unstable, more powerful and taiwan is getting really complacent. With everything going on internationally i dare say i am all for Tsai this time. And i really dont like the DPP.
Not as far as I know. Time was limited and it might not have been prudent to respond to all of Han’s nonsense.
A hilarious postmortem on the “debate” posted by C Donovan Smith at Ketagalan Media. You will not regret reading this. : D
Guy
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Taiwan politics is not the same as the US. You don’t have to vote for the lesser evil forever. Parties have a viable path to relevancy here. Vote for your favorite party in the legislative yuan, if they do a good enough job they will become relevant.
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This doesn’t mean anything…Just some stat he pulled out of his ass.
The part that always concerns is the FTA , Taiwan needs to keep pushing for US FTA and others.
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Right but he posed it on the national debate stage. . .
I would hope there would be a decent counter to it than ‘Han is crazy’ otherwise you’re going to see another result of the usa 16’ election coming our way. If not this election then in the near future.
Good point. Thank you.
True. Also the format of this ‘debate’ (hardly a debate really) was rather disappointing.
They are putting free buses on for students from the south who are now studying in Taipei and can’t afford to travel back to vote. Therefore it looks like there is no complacency for this one which is good.
That stat is kind of suspect, maybe it was one particular company and other buses are still running. Has anyone looked into those figures ?
These numbers are thrown out there as sound bites, they are there to focus attention on an issue not to be correct.
In the second debate, Tsai responded to some of Fishy’s charges in the first. Lots and lots of detail, a feast for the policy wonk. For this report, I will basically just paraphrase them, and add my own comments in brackets.
First Round: Tsai
- Taiwan is the world’s 21st largest economy, and the 18th largest trading nation.
- We are the base of the core of the world’s semiconductor industry.
- The Economist magazine rated us among the Top 4 creative countries, and #1 in economic stability.
- Han is sitting in a sink and thinking there’s a big ocean [big fish in a little pond?]
- [Responding to Han’s charge in the first debate about the plight of those under thirty]: Their lowest point was under KMT rule. When you account for higher incomes and lower taxes, those under thirty are better off according to a twenty-year standard.
- The US-China trade war affected everyone, but we are able to withstand the pressure the best among the Tigers. November exports are up 3.3% [year-on-year?], and the third-quarter economic growth, 2.99% [probably year-on-year], is already higher than Korea, Singapore, Macao, the US, and Japan, and projected to be higher.
- Export performance will fuel investment by Taiwanese and foreign businesses.
- Since 2016 we’ve had 14 straight quarters of growth. We were last among the Tigers, and now we’re No. 1.
- [Regarding Han’s comments about the RCEP/CPTPP in the first debate]: China has obstructed our participation in regional organizations. Even if we accepted the '92 Consensus, they still would’ve done the same thing. “Let’s not be naiive.” We’ve never given up trying to join the CPTPP, and given Taiwan’s high degree of economic freedom, we should be able to participate in the second round of talks.
- Han thinks that no participation in international organizations means no future. WRONG. Our leading exports are information and communications products. We are members of the WTO and signatories to the ITA [don’t know what that is]. Our IT products all go duty free. 70% of our products go into RCEP countries duty free, 80% of our products into TPP nations go in duty free. “A presidential candidate needs to have this basic understanding.”
- Because of political reasons, we can’t join regional organizations.
- Our economic performance under the trade war has exceeded that of countries that do have FTAs. Comparisons with North Korea are incorrect [I assume Han made such a comparison in the first debate, but I don’t remember it.]
- We also need to strength economic and trade relations with other countries. We have new investment pacts with the two largest New Southbound Policy countries, India and Vietnam.
- Hopefully, in the near future we can negotiate bilateral US-Taiwan trade. [Pork? Beef?? Also needs to mention that we can sign FTAs with others if the USA signs one.]
- Our 2016 New Economic Growth Plan had six parts:
(1) Strengthen AIOT [Artificial Intelligence of Things], IOT, AI, and wuji [?] use, so we can become Asia’s Higher-order Manufacturing and R&D center.
(2) With full force, become Asian’s Green energy leader.
(3) Financial Regulatory Reform, train financial professionals, so we can attract more investment capital and become Asia’s financial center. [I really don’t care about this one. Furthermore,
]
(4) [Didn’t understand what she was saying here.]
(5) Attract more domestic and foreign talent for our needs.
(6) As our economy grows, we need to couple it with justice. In addition to earning money, we should strength how we take care of our society.
First Round: Han
- Merry Christmas.
- Su Zhen-chang didn’t 報案 (wasn’t held accountable). Some guy over at the High Speed Rail didn’t 報案 (wasn’t held accountable).
- Mrs. Tsai Ing-wen is fine. Eat French food with her and hang out with her pets. President Tsai Ingwen is a crisis. She is 無能架空 [in over her head?]
- William Lai had to run for president because he sensed Taiwan was falling behind, and was huanluan 換亂(messy).
- Abian said the DPPis messed up, Annette Lu said the DPP has fallen.
- I don’t doubt Tsai is pure. But Tsai’s entire team is all 大貪特貪 (General Embezzlement and Special Embezzlement). It’s all out of control, and her attitude has been, “See no evil, hear no evil.”
- When someone almost murdered an ROC diplomat, Tsai said nothing.
- [Repeating what he said in the first debate] The words Taiwanese used to describe the years under her term are kumangfanluan [bitter, busy, inverted, chaotic].
- Merry Christmas.
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That’s a mighty long post!
Yeah, there were duplicates for some reason.
Nice post! Tsai looks she nailed him good.
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This one really stands out. To KMT: You guys put him in jail for corruption. You guys did all that preinvestigation to try to give to justice authorities. You guys successfully put him in Jail.
Everyone recognises that he is a criminal…yet now his opinion has weight?
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I may have gotten Macao mixed up with Oman or EU. #fuzzyMandarin
Since we’re getting into the subsequent debates, I’ve changed the title of this thread to make it accurate.
Guy
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It’s all in the delivery:
Tsai Ing-wen delivers dispassionate, logical points, backed by actual facts.
Han Guo-yu, relies on melodramatic facial expressions, postures, and gestures; while ranting and gesticulating, and making wild claims and speculations on what he may do if elected.
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My wife comes from a family of civil servants who are blue to the bone. She has never been political, she pays attention, but it’s just not something she’s concerned herself with until recently. She’s 100% Taiwanese though and very much loves her homeland and her family.
Anyway, last night I almost fell out of bed when she was looking at something on her phone, scoffed, and muttered under her breath, “if he wins we are moving to America”.
I guess she was reading about the debate… I’m not sure I’m ready to leave or ever really want to, so please Dr. Tsai, don’t eff this up.
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