- Frozen Garlic really is a blog that will open your eyes to Taiwanese politics. Written by a Phd Research Associate at Academia Sinica, these three posts on the CEC's redistricting plan for the upcoming municipal elections provide more well researched information than probably nearly all of my previous 500 odd posts combined. They are a must read. Here are links to the plans for Tainan, Kaohsiung and Taichung and more here.
- Retired Taiwanese military personnel are flocking to China for hobnobbing and golf with the PRC adversaries. Except that I'm sure golf is not going to be the only thing on the discussion lists. The Taiwanese government's response? "the Ministry of National Defense (MND) noted yesterday that the government hopes these retirees can restrain themselves for security concerns despite their civilian status." - sigh
- Finally, a legislative Committee grows a pair to prevent Chinese companies bidding on Government sponsored BOT public works projects. Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted anyone?
- Fear-mongers attempt to sway the Referendum Committee against allowing the ECFA referendum on purely spurious grounds. "Prominent lawyer C.V. Chen, head of Taiwan’s Red Cross Society and a former secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation ... said that if the referendum failed to pass, the TSU would claim the public did not support ECFA so the deal should be rejected. Approving the party’s request for a plebiscite could end with a crisis of democracy, he said." - Public rejects casinos on Penghu = no crisis of democracy. Public rejects ECFA = the sky falling down on our heads. Could it be to do with that unrealistic 50% of ALL voters threshold as set out in the Referendum Law? My guess is that the chicks at the RRC will likely reject the referendum for fear it won't pass and the implications of this for Ma's flagship proto-unification policy if it happens.
- Taiwan News editorial on the social costs of Taiwanese sweatshops in China that help make largely western consumers feel all 'icool', 'i-up-to-date' and i-with-it'. Good work by Chinese sociologists on pointing out what needs to be said.
- Finally, for those who bought the Ma-Siew ticket in 2008, this editorial implores them to open their eyes to the China-centric President who says clearly racist things like the following:
Ma told Taiwan citizens that "my objective is to strive for enough time and enough historical phases to allow the people on the two sides, who are both descendants of the Yan and Yellow Emperors, to find a method to resolve the cross-strait problem through the guidance of the wisdom of the Chinese nation-race."The president's statement marked a public return to his advocation expressed and quickly downplayed in 2006 that "the Taiwan question should be decided together by the people of both sides of the Taiwan Strait."
