I got an American vibe from the Wu woman just looking at her. Haven’t watched this yet.
Wu is from an incredibly wealthy background. She has also seemed defensive in some interactions with reporters. The results have not been great in terms of early December approval / disapproval polling:
You can see Wu is not quite as disliked as Jaw but also does not have an iron base of support (Jaw has that with the roughly 30% of deep blue ROC enthusiasts currently in Taiwan).
Source: https://twitter.com/DemesDavid/status/1738349876180848840
Guy
Btw, the KMT has reportedly been hammering away on this point at rallies, not about Wu but about Hsiao, with the obvious implication that she is not adequately or properly Chinese to govern this place. If any forumosans out there are wondering why the KMT is not especially popular among many of us in the foreign community in Taiwan, that kind of ethnonationalism (where Chinese “race” is more important than, say, governing ability or the ability to represent us to much of the wider world) is a good example why.
Guy
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Hsiao Bi-khim lived in my apartment building and I spoke with her a few times. Pretty sure she doesn’t like foreigners – at all.
Did you test out her Japanese?
Guy
Wu did not do well. She prattled about sovereign wealth funds and digital health care like a high school student reading a presentation. She is clearly a native speaker of Mandarin but it was obvious that she was not educated in the Taiwanese school system. Not at all ready for prime time. Jaw and Hsiao basically ignored her.
I thought Hsiao turned in a disciplined performance against the very dangerous Jaw although I did not quite understand the risky move at the end when she said that some people in the DPP had strayed from the path. As I recall, Lai said something similar so maybe this was a tactical move by the campaign to try to show that they know there are concerns.
Jaw’s first ten minutes were weak despite his flashy Taiwanese opening. He warmed in the second ten minutes and was on fire in his last ten minutes. Of course he made a pretty funny gaffe when he said that Lai was his boss but I don’t think it detracted much from his performance. In the end though, I think people like Jaw and admire his gift of the gab but his ideas turn off many voters. He was pretty moderate by his standards this time.
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It’s good that Hsiao gets tested against tricky rivals. If elected, she’ll be dealing with Xi and (I feel like vomiting when I type this) possibly Trump. These continue to be dangerous times, and under these geohistorical circumstances I’d go for “disciplined” (as @foc wrote) and tough over a friendly Hey! in the apartment stairwell (something I imagine Obama would have excelled at, being a nice guy and all).
Guy
I thought this yesterday when I was watching her talk about Johnnie Walkie oh the news. Her inclusion of an English word or phrase every couple of sentences is particularly annoying. I don’t see at all how she could appeal to the average person. She doesn’t even really sound Taiwanese when she talks, she speaks Chinese like an ABC.
She’s getting a lot of criticism for her code switching. It may be more acceptable when foreigners do it, but it does really annoy some people. I find it increasingly annoying myself and I am not a native speaker.
It was very noticeable that Hsiao avoided using English at all. I suspect she learned this lesson a long time ago. It is just one indication of how well prepared and discplined she was.
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Wu switched the wrong codes! Hou, as you know, has been code switching all the time with Taiwanese and Taiwan Mandarin.
Guy
I wonder if all those years she spend on the ground in Hualien helped? I’d like to see her crack out some Amis!
Guy
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I’m guessing it did. Of course you are correct that code switching between Mandarin and Taiwanese is perfectly fine and even very effective in this largely bilingual society. Dropping in gratuitous English is not. Many foreigners would do well to eliminate ‘OK’ from their Chinese as an example even though it is universally understood and many Taiwanese will say it to you. Context matters a lot though.
In professional contexts, it can be fine to use a technical term in English if you don’t know the Chinese or if there is not a good/stable translation. For example, I think ‘due diligence’ is OK in sophisticated business contexts since the Chinese translation is not entirely stable. ‘Accountability’ used to be like this too.
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Wu:
- As a new mom and and international professional, I’m happy to be the VP candidate for the TSP.
- Taiwan’s peace is connected to its prosperity.
- In order to prosper, we must get businesses to invest in Taiwan.
- We need to
- I grew up in Taiwan, went abroad for education. Came back to my hometown.
- Prosperity needs global connections. We can solve half of Taiwan’s problems with global connections.
- I’m the first to represent Taiwan-EU legislative council.
- EU has now become Taiwan’s biggest investor.
- Europe can’t lag behind the US and Canada
- How can enterprises create a more prosperous future?
- Taiwan’s investment in human capital has lagged behind the other three tigers, even China and Vietnam.
- We needs to give people enough money to go on vacation after paying their bills.
- Old industries need transformation.
- Taiwan must undertake the two biggest areas of the 21st century: green transformation, digital transformation.
- I went to a lot of meetings.
- Government needs to listen to people and to businesses.
- TSP has the means to create a more prosperous future for
- When people think Taiwan they think of semiconductors. But semiconductors are only 3% of economy. Most people work in services. People who don’t work in semiconductors aren’t sharing in the prosperity.
- GDP grows every year, incomes don’t go up.
- We’re 30 years behind in something.
- Government used to lead. Today, the government doesn’t need to choose industries. Just create the environment for prosperity.
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Jaw:
- Something about Lai’s land and real estate. [This is a policy discussion you idiot]
- Lai’s 3 lies.
- Blah blah blah
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This could, perhaps, turn into an own goal, as it draws attention to Lai’s extremely modest upbringing (poor would probably be more accurate) as opposed to the guys with properties all over the place and more than 70 million NTD in the bank (declared that is).
Guy
Hsiao:
- A year ago, I was ambassador to the US.
- Hualien is a voice for learning.
- In these 10 years, I’ve learned what the city-country gap is.
- My opponent is attacking my citizenship and
- My father is a Taiwanese with ROC citizenship.
- My mother is American, so I have American citizenship.
- I gave up my American citizenship and kept my ROC citizenship which I’ve had from the beginning.
- Elections are for national improvement, not division.
- ROC flag is raised daily at the presidential palace.
- Why support DPP? Hou and Ko. We haven’t seen anything but attacking the DPP. Haven’t seen our policy positions.
- I’ve see Ko’s policy prescriptions. Some are things the DPP are already doing.
- Ko wants to help young people, and tax reform. These are things the DPP is already doing.
- Just let the DPP do it, we have experience and the competency.
- GDP from 17 NT grew to 23 NT.
- Exports up 70%
- Exports to EU 50% up, New Southbound Policy countries 60%, Japan 70%, USA 120%, proves that the DPP knows economics better than the KMT.
- What if we return to white/blue, what will happen: Return to the days when China is the only market. Today, everyone is diversifying risk.
- China’s unemployment rate is up. You want to hitch yourself on that wagon. Put more eggs in that basket?
- Will we stop public nursery?
- Do we want to let the world know we rely only on China?
- Geopolitics is
- Worldwide supply chain reorganization is being implemented.
- Digital transformation is changing the world.
- Lai & Hsiao have more experience.
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Thank you @OysterOmelet for your summaries as you saw them.
The awesome C Donovan Smith writing at Taiwan news took a similar approach, but in his case he focused on demeanor, body language, and the like—not to score points, but to describe what he saw by focusing on these parts of their presentations. It’s a very interesting read, if also nicer to the outclassed candidate than I would have been.
Guy
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I am shocked…the Taiwan News prefers the DPP candidate…absolutely shocked I tell you. 
To me, Hsiao came across like a preachy feminist on crack cocaine. 
I think most observers, including this one, agreed:
Guy
I’m impressed with Wu so far. Brings up important policies.