Taiwan Quick Take: Baby Race to the Bottom
Of all the presidential races in Taiwan’s history, this one has had by far the most absurd moments. Obviously, the absurdity isn’t on the part of President Tsai Ing-wen: It would be tough to find anyone with more discipline in word choices and in action, making even the famously unflappable US President “no drama” Obama […]
Ketagalan Media: Where is the DPP Concentrating Its Firepower?
With the 2020 Taiwan presidential race now an all-but-foregone conclusion, attention is now focussed on the legislative races being held concurrently. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is angling to keep their legislative majority, which they may or may not keep. The party knows from hard experience during the presidency of their own Chen Shui-bian, when […]
Ketagalan Media: How Was Taiwan’s Presidential Debate? Sorry I Fell Asleep
Two nights ago, Taiwan held the first of what people are erroneously referring to as a presidential “debate”. A debate might have actually held out the possibility of being interesting, but this was a rotating set of three rounds of inaction-packed canned presentations by each of the three candidates. For those of you who were […]
Taiwan Quick Take: You might think women would have more of a problem with the KMT. They don’t.
From the Taipei Times: Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday defended calling President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) an “ill-starred woman” (衰尾查某, literally “droopy-tailed woman”) on Tuesday, despite criticism from politicians across party lines. Wu made the remark in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) during a rally for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) That […]
Taiwan Quick Take: A coming rematch between Wu Den-yih and Han Kuo-yu for KMT chair?
As those of you who follow Current Affairs Taiwan (CAT) or have been reading posts here on Taiwan Report know, KMT chair Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) tenure has been a disaster on almost all fronts. In spite of his term officially ending in May of 2021, the local press has been openly speculating on which KMT […]
EBC News: Tainan billboard hidden message mocks Han Kuo-yu
A bill board in Tainan, featuring the KMT emblem, features a poem touting typical KMT presidential candidates themes, such as “if elected everyone will become wealthy”…but only when read from left to right. If read from top to bottom, the first line reads “hoping (or praying) straw bag (ie, idiot) Han Kuo-yu loses the election”. […]
Taiwan Quick Take: Wu’s woes: Han promises to reform “out of touch” KMT, candidates dodge party list
KMT Chair Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) woes are compounding, and even the man he bent over backwards to put forward as the party’s presidential nominee (over his own ambitions) has knives out gunning for his job. In theory, Wu has until (if I recall correctly off the top of my head) May 2021 left on his […]
Local Taiwan media: Poll shows Su Tseng-chang’s cabinet hits new highs, Lin Chia-lung sweeps tops spots
A Taiwan Brain Trust (新台灣國策智庫) poll, reported in various local media, shows that the Tsai administration’s Executive Yuan cabinet headed by Su Tseng-chang (行政院長蘇貞昌) has hit a new high in popularity, with 48.7% expressing satisfaction and 35.5% dissatisfied. Of his various ministers, Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and his Ministry of Transportation came out tops in all […]
Taiwan Quick Take: Han says outsiders not allowed in Kaohsiung recall march (update)
UPDATE: It turns out that the two march routes are perpendicular to each other, and at one point their paths will cross. Hundreds of police are being mobilized to avert trouble. Dueling Kaohsiung marches on December 21 will be widely viewed as a test of strength. On the one hand is a march in support […]
Quick Take on Taiwan: Putting on a brave face, or is KMT candidate Han Kuo-yu’s team in denial?
It is normal in elections, regardless of how bad the polls look, to put on a brave face and express confidence. That certainly isn’t specific to Taiwan. In spite of how the polls look, one would expect the Han camp to pooh-pooh how bad the situation is. This quote in the Taipei Times is the […]