Houston Community News >> Taiwan Election Brings Hope and Change
3/24/2008 (New America Media)-- Taiwan
sees new hope from its Saturday presidential election in which the
Chinese Nationalist Party candidate Ying-jeou Ma beat his opponent by a
17 percent margin. It’s another landslide victory against the Democratic
Progress Party after Taiwan’s parliamentary election in January, in a
time that Taiwanese are looking for change.
Ma got 2.2 million more votes than the Democratic Progress Party candidate Changting Xie in the election. In a speech immediately after the election result, Ma expressed his gratefulness to the Taiwanese people in Mandarin as well as Minnan and Hakka, two languages spoken in Taiwan and the southeast of Mainland China.
“It (the election) is a victory of all the Taiwanese people, who are looking for new opportunities, change and a whole new era!” Ma said. “Taiwanese people want peace among all (Chinese) ethnic group; don’t want split and war between the (Taiwan) Strait. We want political stability; don’t want internal conflicts and economic recession,” he added.
Ma’s detailed economic policies drew him tremendous support in a time that recession shadows the world. He pointed out that “there are more and more homeless people while peoples' living standard gets lower and lower year after year” in Taiwan.
To give Taiwan economics a boost, Ma set up his economic development goals as “6-3-3.” It means a six percent annual GDP growth, lowering the 3.7 percent unemployment rate to below three percent until 2012, and increasing the per capita income of Taiwan to $30,000 U.S. dollars by the year of 2016.
In Ma’s 16 new economic policies, more than half are Mainland China-related, such as increased flights connecting the two ends of the Taiwan Strait; drawing more tourists from Mainland China; canceling the limitation on Taiwan's financial companies to do business there; and open Taiwan's door to mainland real estate investors.
Economist Zhuyuan Zheng at Ball State University, Indiana noted that for Taiwan to work with mainland China is the only way through which it can rise out of its recession. He pointed to Hong Kong as an example. Hong Kong had not experienced a satisfactory economic growth for years before and after the 1997 transition until a closer economic connection with mainland China was set up in 2004. That year, Hong Kong’s GDP growth reached eight percent.
Denghui Li, Taiwan’s former president said he believes the new president could turn the economy around, “instead of only focusing on the economic growth in his own family,” mocking the current President Shuibian Chen and his family's taking of bribes.
Asked whether he voted yes or no on the referendum for Taiwan to join the United Nations, a top issue in the president election initiated by Chen, Li said, “I forgot that ticket.”
The ticket of the referendum got 35.8 percent of voters supporting it, less than the required majority to pass in the election. The Chinese government said the number proved that Taiwan’s independence doesn’t appeal to people’s hearts.
Hong Kong based media Phoenix TV reported the failure of the referendum shows that Beijing’s pressure on the United States to in turn pressure Taiwan against the idea of gaining independence worked. It will change the triangle relationship between the two points across the Strait with the United States, and U.S. foreign policy toward China.
Richard Bush, former director of the American Institute in Taiwan, a Washington-based organization responsible for managing U.S. relations with Taiwan, said the election result shows Taiwanese people’s disappointment with the current situations, especially the economy, according to the Central News Agency in Taiwan. Bush pointed out that the presidential election as well as the parliamentary election gave Ma and the Kuomintang opportunities to fix many problems in Taiwan, including its relationships with Mainland China and the United States.
However, Ma said in an interview with Taiwan’s United Daily News that the Taiwan Strait issue is supposed to be resolved exclusively by Taiwan and the Mainland China government, without the United States’ involvement. He said the best choice for Taiwan is “not to get independent, not to be united, and not to use military.”
“The United States doesn’t want to be involved either. Because it will not get any benefit from the Taiwan issue, but be criticized by people,” Ma added.
Taiwanese supporting Ma flew back from the United States, Brazil, Hong Kong and other parts of the world overnight to vote for him.
An expectant mom in Taipei planned to vote before her C-section scheduled on the Election Day. But unexpected life-threatening medical situations sent her to the emergency room. However, immediately after her surgery, she asked for a two-hour leave from the hospital to vote for Ma. “It has been quite chaotic in the (past) four years, such as the terrible economy,” she said, “No matter what, I must vote.”
In the week before the election, an elderly cancer patient had been worried of dying before the voting date. But last Saturday a caregiver pushed him on a wheelchair into a voting station. With trembling hand, the cancer patient voted for Taiwan’s new hope.
Ma got 2.2 million more votes than the Democratic Progress Party candidate Changting Xie in the election. In a speech immediately after the election result, Ma expressed his gratefulness to the Taiwanese people in Mandarin as well as Minnan and Hakka, two languages spoken in Taiwan and the southeast of Mainland China.
“It (the election) is a victory of all the Taiwanese people, who are looking for new opportunities, change and a whole new era!” Ma said. “Taiwanese people want peace among all (Chinese) ethnic group; don’t want split and war between the (Taiwan) Strait. We want political stability; don’t want internal conflicts and economic recession,” he added.
Ma’s detailed economic policies drew him tremendous support in a time that recession shadows the world. He pointed out that “there are more and more homeless people while peoples' living standard gets lower and lower year after year” in Taiwan.
To give Taiwan economics a boost, Ma set up his economic development goals as “6-3-3.” It means a six percent annual GDP growth, lowering the 3.7 percent unemployment rate to below three percent until 2012, and increasing the per capita income of Taiwan to $30,000 U.S. dollars by the year of 2016.
In Ma’s 16 new economic policies, more than half are Mainland China-related, such as increased flights connecting the two ends of the Taiwan Strait; drawing more tourists from Mainland China; canceling the limitation on Taiwan's financial companies to do business there; and open Taiwan's door to mainland real estate investors.
Economist Zhuyuan Zheng at Ball State University, Indiana noted that for Taiwan to work with mainland China is the only way through which it can rise out of its recession. He pointed to Hong Kong as an example. Hong Kong had not experienced a satisfactory economic growth for years before and after the 1997 transition until a closer economic connection with mainland China was set up in 2004. That year, Hong Kong’s GDP growth reached eight percent.
Denghui Li, Taiwan’s former president said he believes the new president could turn the economy around, “instead of only focusing on the economic growth in his own family,” mocking the current President Shuibian Chen and his family's taking of bribes.
Asked whether he voted yes or no on the referendum for Taiwan to join the United Nations, a top issue in the president election initiated by Chen, Li said, “I forgot that ticket.”
The ticket of the referendum got 35.8 percent of voters supporting it, less than the required majority to pass in the election. The Chinese government said the number proved that Taiwan’s independence doesn’t appeal to people’s hearts.
Hong Kong based media Phoenix TV reported the failure of the referendum shows that Beijing’s pressure on the United States to in turn pressure Taiwan against the idea of gaining independence worked. It will change the triangle relationship between the two points across the Strait with the United States, and U.S. foreign policy toward China.
Richard Bush, former director of the American Institute in Taiwan, a Washington-based organization responsible for managing U.S. relations with Taiwan, said the election result shows Taiwanese people’s disappointment with the current situations, especially the economy, according to the Central News Agency in Taiwan. Bush pointed out that the presidential election as well as the parliamentary election gave Ma and the Kuomintang opportunities to fix many problems in Taiwan, including its relationships with Mainland China and the United States.
However, Ma said in an interview with Taiwan’s United Daily News that the Taiwan Strait issue is supposed to be resolved exclusively by Taiwan and the Mainland China government, without the United States’ involvement. He said the best choice for Taiwan is “not to get independent, not to be united, and not to use military.”
“The United States doesn’t want to be involved either. Because it will not get any benefit from the Taiwan issue, but be criticized by people,” Ma added.
Taiwanese supporting Ma flew back from the United States, Brazil, Hong Kong and other parts of the world overnight to vote for him.
An expectant mom in Taipei planned to vote before her C-section scheduled on the Election Day. But unexpected life-threatening medical situations sent her to the emergency room. However, immediately after her surgery, she asked for a two-hour leave from the hospital to vote for Ma. “It has been quite chaotic in the (past) four years, such as the terrible economy,” she said, “No matter what, I must vote.”
In the week before the election, an elderly cancer patient had been worried of dying before the voting date. But last Saturday a caregiver pushed him on a wheelchair into a voting station. With trembling hand, the cancer patient voted for Taiwan’s new hope.
(Contributed by New America Media)