Lunar

Happy Lunar New Year!

Remember to use the words "Lunar" New Year in your greeting instead of "Chinese" New Year -- since this lunar new year is celebrated in many nations outside of China including Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Heritage Foundation busts myths of China's economy on the world stage

Take a look, here.

Formosa Betrayed -- Movie Schedule in the U.S.A., looking for distributor in Taiwan.

formosathemovie.com

2/26 - 2/28
New York Metro
Los Angeles
Orange County
Bay Area / East Bay and Peninsula
San Jose
Boston

3/5 – 3/7
Chicago
Philadelphia
Washington DC and Metro
San Diego

3/12 - 3/14
Houston
Dallas
Austin
Toronto
Vancouver

3/19 - 3/21
Seattle
Atlanta
Miami
St. Louis
Kansas City

3/26 - 3/28
Honolulu
Columbus, OH
Detroit/Ann Arbor
Raleigh/Durham

Engage the Foundation for Defense of Democracies

We've come across a relatively new organization in the United States with whom Taiwan democracy supporters should begin to network: Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Currently, it looks like more of their focus is to work against terrorism, but the stated founding principles of the organization would naturally lead to an active support of Taiwan's democracy.

"The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is the only nonpartisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that threaten democracy."

As many of you who have time should write the fondation to request an expansion of their further statement of purpose beyond what is currently written -- "to support the defense of democratic societies under assault by terrorism and militant Islamism."

Contact them and ask them if they are willing to add "to support the defense of democratic societies under assault by authoritarian and communist regimes..."

There is a link. Authoritarian regimes like China work to prop up rogue regimes like Iran. China does not care about terrorism if it is not directed specifically at their own country. In contrast, democratic nations in the Middle East do not tend to support terrorism. Authoritarian regimes like China tend to support anti-democratic regimes around the world.

Basically, in our defense of Taiwan, we cannot afford to leave any front uncontested. We must fight on every level -- the NGO, the news media, the government, the individual.

We can be creative and make the most of every opportunity.

Don't open factories in China

If you move your companies or open up factories in China, be prepared for your entire business to be stolen, its intellectual property, everything. China is a communist dictatorship. To keep its hold on power, China's government has created an environment of extreme nationalism -- almost racism -- and, in a sense, might-makes-right fascism. Such an authoritarian system is arbitrary. The agenda is to steal intellectual capital and knowhow and transfer technology from foreign companies to local Chinese companies.

I've read about many of these cases over the years. One Taiwanese man built a huge orchid nursery, but all his know-how and intellectual capital -- the way to design everything, and even his entire factory was eventually stolen.

Basically -- there is no ethical or moral restraint -- whatever the Chinese authoritarian government perceives they can get away with on the world stage, they will do.

So also, you have extremely cheap labor -- and factories with terrible working conditions.

You have toxic chemicals in milk, in baby toys with lead paint, in children's jewelry with cadmium, it keeps going. You have crabs raised in lakes in China with toxic levels of heavy metals, etc. that were exported to Taiwan.

Truly, if at all possible, if it is made in China, avoid it.

- JL

• See article in investors.com.
• Share this in Mandarin with your Taiwanese friends.
• In the Washington Post
• In the Wall Street Journal

Encouragement

src: Tim Maddog

Comments from Tim Maddog:
-----------------------

Note that BS-TV's numbers (Hey, that's my screenshot!) are -- with the exception of the Taitung numbers -- different from info I downloaded from the Central Election Commission web site [MS Word .doc file, percentage calculations mine]:
- - -
Taoyuan: DPP = 53,633 (58.05%) / KMT = 36,989 (40.01%)
Taichung: DPP = 63,335 (55.02%) / KMT = 51,776 (44.98%)
Taitung: DPP = 23,190 (49.46%) / KMT = 21,215 (45.25%)
- - -

That might be the result of invalid ballots being figured into the CEC's numbers -- I didn't check.

I'm looking forward to the February 27, 2010 by-election.

Tim Maddog

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-----------------------

Some analysis from Vive Le Taiwan:

台中: DPP: 63,335 (up from 61,927 in 2008, 多 1,408 票)

KMT 51,776 (down from 75,563 in 2008, 跌: 23,787 票)

"中間選民"幾乎全部失蹤.



桃園: DPP: 53,633 (down from 58,577 in 2008, 跌 4,944 票)

KMT: 36,989 (down from 71,174 in 2008, 跌 34,185 票)

DPP 選票減少, "中間選民"幾乎全部失蹤.



台東: DPP: 23,190 (up from 21,080(無黨籍許志雄), 多 2,110 票)

KMT: 21,215 (down from 34,794 in 2008, 跌 13,579 票)

無: 2,482 (深藍)

Note: (KMT+無) = 23,697 > 23,190 (DPP) 藍仍然大於綠

"中間選民"幾乎全部失蹤.

In response to the Vive Le Taiwan someone shared:

"Compared with the 2008 elections, the voters were different as a result of, e.g., lower turnouts, emergence of new voters, and deaths of previous voters. So were the candidates. In local elections, relationships/affinities a candidate has with voters has a huge impact on the results. "

His point seems to be that this 2010 election is not completely comparable to the 2008 election. So to calculate number changes does not really give us a complete understanding of the voter makeup.

Lin Yi-hsiung speaks on New Year