Taiwan’s presidential race pitting the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been sharply negative…
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You know what I find troubling with DPP supporters in the US these days? The candidate they support basically told them, and their foreign-residency-status-selves, that they are not loyal to Taiwan. Against the spirit of ROC, which embraces overseas Chinese. That they are traitors to Taiwan for residing abroad in the US and becoming fluent in English.
Hsieh has forwarded this argument over and over again. That he, a once Japan residing student fluent in Japanese, is loyal to Taiwan. And Ma, a once US residing student fluent in English, is disloyal to Taiwan.
What I find even more ironic is that a US residing Taiwanese not only supports a candidate that considers them traitors, but that they are using an argument of fear, which the public in the US and Taiwan are already desensitized to, in order to promote their candidate.
I’ve been discussing this of late. You know, I despise Chen Shui Bian, but perhaps not for the reasons you suspect. When Chen was running for president, he was able to capture the middle ground, light blue supporters believed the promises he told. To be fair, hes very charismatic, to a certain extent I can still see him on TV at a new years bash, and think hes got what it takes.
I actually had high hopes for Chen, had I been allowed to vote, both times he would have got my vote.
Is Hsieh aiming for the middle ground? One might have thought so at the beginning of his campaign when he was talking about opening links with China, a much more moderate approach , but was it alienating the deep greens? So recently, hes back with the ethnic issues, yet alienating the middle ground. So now it seems hes out to boost up the deep green base support.
So that’s it Ac, my opinion is Hsieh is digging deep to bring out the greens and has given up on the middle ground.
You never know what a politicican will do of course, so you always take a chance. But you will find less regret if you look carefully at the record, and look at character. It’s kind of like dating. As for campaign speeches and rhetorical flourishes, you just have to discount that, as hard and “heartless” as it is to do. Maybe that’s why a lot of people end up with great romances but failed marriages.