Radio Free Taiwan

Click the photo to see more pictures.

I just got around to uploading some old photos of the Hand-in-Hand rally to protest China’s passing of an “anti-seccession law.” It was March 23, 2004. The Taiwan election was coming. This event proved to be a key factor helping Chen gain a second victory. The plan was to form a chain of people holding hands from one end of the island to the other. The actual link-up didn’t go off too well, as no one seemed to be looking after the synchronization issue. But hold hands we did, for a good minute or two when it became obvious the time had arrived. The whole event was very pleasant and peaceful. It seemed to mean a lot to all who participated, and even many of those just driving by. As a response to the negative election campaigning by the KMT and PFP parties, it was perfect. I think we need to do it again next year.

Click the graphic to visit the Web site.

This is pretty self-explanitory. Visit the site for an inspiring look at Taiwan’s trail system. It’s in English!

I won’t try to add much here. This Liberty Times (pro-green) editorial states that foreign money is pouring into Taiwan despite the fact that most Taiwanese feel their stock market is the pits. The problem is that too many locals impatiently expected huge, fast profits from investing in companies that jumped on the China bandwagon. When this impatient rush led to losses, everyone blamed Chen Shui-bian’s government for their own poor judgement. This is the stock market folks. Play at your own risk.

China investment restrictions work

THE LIBERTY TIMES EDITORIAL
Sunday, Nov 27, 2005,Page 8

Since early this year, foreign investors have poured more money into Taiwan’s stock market than any other stock market in Asia, with the exception of Japan’s. As of this month, foreign investors have contributed over NT$400 billion (US$11.9 billion) to the nation’s stock market. This month alone, the influx of foreign capital into the market has reached more than NT$140 billion, a record high for a single month.
…
These statistics indicate that although the media believes the nation’s economic outlook is dismal, Taiwan is still a top investment target for foreign investors. Evidently, the pro-China media outlets were ignoring the facts and pursuing their own interests when quoting some foreign investors’ criticisms of Taiwan’s China policy.

If we analyze the portfolios of foreign investors we find that last year they invested NT$283.9 billion in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC, 台積電), China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (華映). This month, foreign investors have also focused on buying shares of TMSC, AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). It seems that when looking for companies to invest in, foreign investors still prefer Taiwanese firms that are based in Taiwan.

This is the link to the story.

And a related article here.

This frank article in the Defense Industry Daily makes several references to the Taipei Times and infers the DPP’s fortunes may improve as some dark mud finally starts sticking to the KMT. Interestingly, the pan-blues won’t be able to say this one is a DPP plot. The impetus to accellerate the French frigate scandal investigation comes from Switzerland who promises to return the money to the middleman if Taiwan doesn’t make some kind of formal move by the middle of December.

Here is a link to all the DID stories on Taiwan.

And here is a very recent article from the BBC giving a good rundown on the whole scandal.

Book delves into frigate scandal

By Hugh Schofield
In Paris

It has been one of France’s biggest political and financial scandals of the last generation. It has left a trail of eight unexplained deaths, nearly half a billion dollars in missing cash and troubling allegations of government complicity. And yet 10 years after it first broke, the story of the “frigates-to-Taiwan” scandal has yet to be told in full.

And the greens lost badly in the election today. Rats. I posted about it here and here.

I like this story in the Taipei Times. Chen hs launched on a tirade of calling the oppositions bluff totally. I think it’s about time. Those wannabe emperors have been wearing no clothes for a long time. Chen is now getting vocal about his belief that the PFP is holding the KMT to blocking the arms bill by threatening to let the party assets bill pass if the KMT lets the arms bill pass.

KMT has `evil’ intentions, Chen says
PARCEL OF ROGUES: President Chen Shui-bian yesterday said that the KMT’s election campaign conceals its evil intentions, while the PFP is the `most loathsome’ of the two
BY JEWEL HUANG
STAFF REPORTER , IN TAICHUNG COUNTY
Monday, Oct 24, 2005,Page 3

“The PFP is the most loathsome. If they really love the country, why did they obstruct the arms sale bill?”

President Chen Shui-bian
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) campaign theme titled “winning Taiwan back” concealed evil intentions, which revealed the KMT’s attempts to sell its stolen party assets for less than their true value, abandon Taiwan to China and restore its “black gold” politics.

Chen made the statement yesterday evening at a campaign rally in Taichung County, which was the fourth stop on his campaign-truck tour.

Chen asked voters to support his six reform goals and vote for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) so that the three scenarios can be prevented from happening.

“I believe that everyone knows clearly that Taiwan never loses. How come the KMT said that Taiwan failed?” Chen said.

He pointed out that Taiwan has been ranked tops in the Global E-government evaluation conducted by Brown University for three consec-utive years and that the nation ran-ked among the top five in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum this year.

That’s what I keep saying! The lack of economic growth is due to overinvestment in China for cripe’s sake. Anyway, here’s some more of the article:

Chen said that Soong not only opposed the passage of the arms-procurement bill but also threatened Ma not to allow the KMT lawmakers to support the bill, otherwise he would let the proposed statute on the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties (政黨不當取得財產處理條例) pass the legislature.

“As a result, Ma was scared to death. The KMT only cares about its party assets stolen from the people of Taiwan and ignore national security,” Chen said.

“The PFP is the most loathsome. If they really love the country, why did they obstruct the arms sale bills?” he said.

Chen said that the arms bill is aimed at enhancing the nation’s self-defense abilities and forcing China to consider the costs of attacking Taiwan, and it was never part of an arms race.

Caption:

Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus whip William Lai, center, yesterday appears to look on helplessly as the pan-blue legislators in the legislative procedure committee reject placing the arms procurement bill on the legislative agenda for the 33rd time.
PHOTO: LUO PEI-TEH, TAIPEI TIMES

Priceless. I just had an idea on how to break the legisltive impasse. I’m sure that some of the blue-siders who are so eager to sell out to China could be bought. N’est pas vrai? The DPP should just reach into its coffers and try to bribe some of them into switching sides. Since all they care about is money, I don’t much problem with doing this.

++++++++++

in other news…

Here is an email I just sent to the better part of my address book. Sometimes I write emails like this to compensate for the fact that nobody reads my blog.

Hello friends,

I was moved to send another mass emailing to most of the people in my
address book that I can still remember. (Don’t you feel special?) Why?
Well, it’s this pesky issue again of the most evil thing ever dreamed
up by architects of death. Depleted uranium is something most people
would think only the most vile of Hitler’s henchmen could ever
endorse. Really. No kidding. It is ridiculously awful stuff. And the
US military happily exposes its fodder, burp, soldiers to it. There is
no mystery to Gulf War syndrome. The only mystery is the way the media
tends to cover the story. Not! Just try a search on Google News. You
will find that not one major media source covers this story even
though it is most certainly real. Well, it came up in a Harold Pinter
quote a few times. I guess the journalists didn’t know what it meant.

Here’s the link. If you are feeling unsure of your ability to cope
with the dark truth that is the present reality of Bush, America, and
the N.W.O., then I advise you, DO NOT READ THIS LINK! You have been
warned.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/samples3.html

To read other great rants by Sheila Samples, change the digit 3 in the
above link to 1,2,4,5,6 or 7. It’s all good reading. She is a
sharp-tongued Bush scorner.

Here’s a good DU link from Japan.
If you want to
learn more about this issue, (and who does?) this is a good place to
start. It’s a whole book on the subject, in English and well organized
for browsing.

We should coin new terms like the pentagone does. How about WSD -
weapon of slow destruction?

Please pass this email along. Strip the headers if you know how, and
be sure to put all the recipients but one into the BCC field. If you
voted for Bush, you should add a single line to the email saying, “I’m
sorry.”

–
Best regards,
Peter mailto:dearpeter@gmail dot com

Here is a letter to the Taipei Times that insists treason is afoot in Taiwan right now - tht it is clearly out in the open, and that it is bizarre the population accepts it, blithely reasoning that the ugly side of dictatorship could never reoccur in a consumeristic socitey like this one.

The letter is quite long, and I recommend reading it. Here is a short quotation from it:

There is no depth to which the pan-blues will not sink to defeat democracy and freedom in Taiwan.

If you doubt this is the case, you can start with the pan-blues’ refusal to consider buying weapons to defend Taiwan against China. This single action should alone be a sufficient wake-up call to the people of Taiwan to understand the true purpose of the pan-blues in Taiwan’s politics today.

That purpose, as per an agreement with the CCP, is to emasculate Taiwan and to bring it to its knees so that the pan-blues can take over.

With that, democracy as we know it would quickly disappear, and the country would rapidly be plunged once again into a period of “White Terror.” We would see “purges” of “splittists,” the passage of laws eroding political and personal freedoms and perhaps even martial law.

The pan-blues would never want to hand the reins of power back to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The way to do that would be to outlaw the DPP. As incapable as the DPP has been in dealing with the KMT’s ruthless treason, that is how ruthless the KMT will be when it arrests the leadership of the DPP and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU).

You doubt this? The KMT has brazenly identified itself as the servant of the CCP in Taiwan. The CCP has conducted purges during its history that have eradicated all freedoms for all people, except for cronies and high officials.