Beijing Never Before So Happy about Democracy

March 25th, 2008 | by This is China! |

The Kuomintang (KMT) won the national election in Taiwan this past Saturday, and I don’t think the powers that be in the Mainland have been this happy since the international travel ban on China was lifted after the SARS outbreak.

My buddy Mark Forman, who’s lived and worked in Taiwan for years, messaged me to say, “very excited about upcoming changes here with new Pres and legislative majority…won by 2.21 million votes out of about 13 million votes cast; both records.”

Mark figures Taiwanese got pretty tired of all the fear-mongering; to wit, if Taiwan doesn’t declare independence it will be attacked - then again, there did seem some possibility of it being attacked just for not declaring who was it’s Daddy. The gloom that had hung over the island these last eight years seems to have lifted: “when I talk to people they have optimistic feeling about boost to local economy thru enhanced China links and particularly here in my town with the available land airport and harbor too attract investment and be option to companies needing a closer china presence,” Mark wrote me.

Now, maybe the Taiwanese will take some of those nasty, polluting companies of theirs back home with them …

Check out Mark’s blog to read more about his take on recent elections as well as a National Public Radio interview with him about possible impact of election results on the Taiwanese economy and relations with the Mainland.

  1. One Response to “Beijing Never Before So Happy about Democracy”

  2. By Mark Forman on Mar 25, 2008 | Reply

    Heh-thanks for the blog love. On the subject of your wry joke about the polluting companies, this reminds me of a business meeting I had here in Taiwan once with a Swede working for a Norwegian company. When I took him to my associate pultrusion factory he kept shaking his head throughout the tour, due too several factors. First and foremost was the strong odor from the resin being used. He said in their home factory-this wouldn’t be tolerated by their EPA…

    This brings me to my point-environmentally-friendly is produced by significant capital intensive expenditures and maybe even more labor intensive processes.Which brings us to the real battle-if there is consumer demand for products but a price ceiling how do we resolve this great conflict?

    Any way looking forward to enhanced connections between the elements and peoples of greater China and the rest of the world.

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