Ma, Mafia, and the KMT

Developing --- Present and recent past evidence show links with president Ma Ying-jeou, the KMT and organized crime.

Most recent: Bamboo United gang members meet and escort anti-Taiwan racist and former GIO member Kuo Kuan-ying
(More from: The View from Taiwan)

Earlier this year: on the same week as the legislature passed laws allowing for gambling casinos in Penghu, President Ma met with the "civic organization" wing of Chinese mafia in the U.S. -- "Hip-Sing Association". He did not only meet them, but actually welcomed them into the presidential office. (For perspective: what U.S. president would dare to welcome mob bosses into the White House?). Of course correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but if the Penghu Casino's are allowed by residents, you can be certain that they will not benefit much, but rather the money will go to the mafia and other investors. You can also be certain that the mafia will organize prostitution and drugs and other associated activities as well as extortion, racketeering and other applications of force to keep its control over the gambling industry money there. (A January 9, 2009 Taipei Times article quotes comments made when Ma was hosting the U.S. Chinatown Mafia's association in the presidential office.)

CNA photo -- Ma greeting members of the Hip Sing Association

In prior years: before death of exiled notorious mob boss and assassin of Taiwanese professor in the U.S., Ma Ying-jeou's older sister visited him to pay him respects. Later when his body was brought back to Taiwan and a funeral held, his funeral was like a funeral for a head of state with many KMT politicians and many in the media visiting to honor him. (It is also true a few DPP politicians went, but the vast majority were the KMT elite.) I

And more and more questionable and shady deals will go on. As long as KMT elites are in power -- those who do not love Taiwan -- Taiwan will be treated as a place for exploitation, corruption, and making one's fortune before some glamorous retirement in China.

For a crash course on the myriad ties of corrupt politicians and the mafia, Dr. Ko-lin Chin's book, Heijin, is a must read.


Chin, Ko-lin
Heijin : organized crime, business and politics in Taiwan
(An East Gate Book)
© 2003 by M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
ISBN 0-7656-1219-4 (cloth)
ISBN 0-7656-1220-8 (paper)

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UPDATE 1: More evidence of KMT-Mafia connections -- reported by Taiwan Matters

Take a look at the police allowing mafia thugs to harass students participating in a legal protest at an event when president Ma was giving a speech. How high up did the order come from to the police that they must not interfere with the thugs? Were the thugs actually planted there by the KMT party or Ma himself? If President Ma Ying-jeou is not party to it, he should be outraged that police behaved this way in his country.







UPDATE 2: More on the abuse of student's rights in Tainan by police and unidentified thugs.