Foxconn's Gou Runs for Taiwan President, Citing Message from Sea Goddess
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
One prong is coopting Taiwanese elites, in parts by allowing them to become very wealthy through China, but only if working in the background for unification. There is no way Foxconn would have been allowed to operate large factories in China, if its founder and chairman (Terry Gou) was pro independence.
This is empire building 101. Romans offered barbarian leaders a luxurious lifestyle with floor heating and access to a wide variety of regional specialties from around the empire in exchange for loyalty to the city. Quite many took that offer, those who didn't were convinced with help of the military.
(Funny considering KMT history, but that's how things played out.)
No, KMT is not pro-unification. When KMT's ex-chairman Hung Hsiu-chu openly supported the unification during her presidential campaign in 2015, 91% of KMT delegates at the party congress voted for replacing her as the KMT presidential candidate.
KMT's plan is always to keep the status quo and use "unification" as a bargaining chip to get more $ from the CCP.
That's a historical constant, nothing funny about it.
I remember Ma Yingjiu (the previous KMT ROC President) asked about 'independence' in 2011. He replied that the Republic of China had been independent since it was founded in 1911. Very good reply that summarises the situation to those who do not know Chinese history.
This position has changed 180 degrees in recent decades. The unification now KMT is promoting is essentially just give up and let CPC take over.
Notice KMT is a foreign political party that originates from mainland China.
Taiwanese people never had a say in that (Taiwanese social elites were slaughtered by KMT) before DPP became a real political party that's born and raised in Taiwan.
Ma Yingjiu's statement was to maintain KMT's legitimacy as a party in Taiwan, that is, through a country named ROC.
However, for Taiwanese. Our country is called Taiwan. And that's how we recognise ourselves long before 1911.
Strange women, lying in ponds, distributing presidential candidacy advice is no basis for a system of government.
On a more serious note, can any readers from ROC or anyone who's more in touch with the situation there give an insight into whether he stands a chance given (a) the sea goddess angle, and (b) the apparently PRC-friendly platform?
She is widely known and revered in all of Taiwan. When you go to a Taiwanese family and say "Mazhu bao yo" (Mazu bless you) - it's generally well received even if the people don't believe in Taoism or natural / personified deities.
The idea that Gou says "Mazu wanted me to do it" is more like saying to a Catholic that Mother Teresa inspired you to visit India and start a non-profit agency to help the people there.
Hopefully the analogy holds for people who are not familiar with the culture there.
However, generally a lack of vocal endorsement of a particular religion is seen as a plus for candidates since it's not directly controversial, except for with religious voters who can't possibly fathom how someone could disagree with them on the topic.
My observation:
1. Mazu is big in Taiwan.
2. DPP didn't have any political achievement in the past three years.
3. Taiwan has been stagnated for the past two decades due to ideology politics.
So yes Guo stands a (big?) chance.
No doubt about (1)
If you disagree, you'd better refute me with facts. Tell us what achievements (political, economical) DPP had in the past three years; show us the growth in the past two decades.
(I learned the term 22k not too long ago)
This is the GDP for Taiwan is recent years, clearly an ascending trend: https://tradingeconomics.com/taiwan/gdp
As for political achievements, things like (1)having a female president (2)openly supports LGBTQ rights (3)Taiwan's recognition from other like-minded democratic counties has never been stronger since 1979. If these are not political achievements, I don't know what is.
As for 22k, low income for young generation is a real (global) issue, which DPP is fighting hard to solve. Having a pro-China, conservation populist figure like Gou is only going the worsen the problem of distribution of wealth.
In your opinion, how much of an advantage is gained from the announcement being clearly aligned with Mazu? Thanks.
On the other hand, candidates don't have to use the same strategy or excuse to gather support.
Also even though Mazu is super big in Taiwan, Taiwanese are generally seeing this only as a political declaration. (Religion in Taiwan is more of a spiritual guidance than an actual superior being that dictates people lives.)
This should be an useful reference: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/04/ta...
Sure, you could naïvely buy into the whole reunification thing, but it’s not like Beijing wouldn’t assert complete control. Just look at Hong Kong, or the fact that the mainland has a couple of orders of magnitude more of... everything.
If Gou has real support from the KMT -- no easy thing, considering he hasn't been heavily active in local politics AFAIK -- he might get some wind in his sails, particularly if he sticks with the practical themes relating to cross-strait trade and economic growth. He understands that very, very well.
If he doesn't have the right political network in place, though, he's going to piss off a lot of KMT people and likely to relegated to the margins -- or siphon off a lot of blue supporters for an indie run, which will lead to the same type of situation the U.S. Republican party had back in the 90s with Ross Perot.
I could have lived the rest of my life in blissful ignorance of that possibility. Just gets my blood back up over how much Walker and his cronies let those guys fleece us for.
Our fault.
We didn't have to elect the guy.
Still... it stings.
> We didn't have to elect the guy.
Nope, nope, nope... politicians do not get to pass off responsibility for their actions simply because a plurality of denizens in a geographic area voted them into office.
Then going to be a weird amalgam of R&D / engineering offices spread out across Wisconsin for no reason.
And now ... back to some sort of manufacturing like ... thing ... maybe.
Arguably, possibly, yes?
Once you get past the fictional nature of the deities themselves, what you're left with is the cult, the physical and financial network of the religion and its dogma. Those can be inconsequential in the greater political and cultural narrative, or a powerful force to shape politics and culture to its own ends.
I had hung on to the notion that there should be some restraint and decorum associated with it for quite a while. That ship, though, has sailed.
There was another more famous leader that thought of himself as talented at multiple things: like painting... and architecture/construction. And, in a quirk of fate, being bad at the latter actually saved his life once (unfortunately).
(...and yeah, I just fulfilled Godwin's law.)
But of course, it looks F* *KING RIDICULOUS to younger generations.