Taiwan's Ma wins poll

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's main opposition Nationalist Party declared victory in presidential elections on Saturday, heralding improved ties with giant neighbor China which claims the self-ruled island as its own.

Nationalist, or Kuomintang (KMT), candidate Ma Ying-jeou had won more than 7 million votes, the party said, more than half the total 13 million people who cast their ballot.

The Central Election Commission said that Ma had 58 percent of the vote, while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's candidate Frank Hsieh had 42 percent, with counting almost complete.

"This has brought us a different tomorrow. The election result has really given us a new environment, new hope and a new future," the party's honorary chairman, Lien Chan, told a cheering crowd in downtown Taipei.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSPEK33204820080322

[ohio2007]

1. Taiwan: Voters to decide UN membership

Rome, 21 March (AKI) - Taiwanese voters will decide whether the island should join the United Nations in referendums being held this weekend.

Aside from the presidential elections on Saturday, voters will be asked to vote in two referenda, one from each of the two main parties, on Taiwan should be a member of the international organisation.

Taiwan currently has no seat at the UN, having lost it to China in 1971. Its many subsequent attempts to regain membership have also been blocked by China.

snip
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.1996884591

This ought to irritate China into opening up another front......

[FarCenter]

2. The UN Membership resolution failed

From the Reuters article:

The election has drawn keen international attention, with the United States, Russia and Britain all criticizing referenda on U.N. membership, which were held alongside the vote and failed for lack of turnout.

But the foreign ministry said Taiwan was still "fully qualified" for a UN seat and that most citizens surveyed support joining the global body.

"While this marks Taiwan's third time to hold a referendum, the process is still new to the majority of the Taiwanese people, who still need to learn to take advantage of such opportunities to voice their opinions," the ministry said in a statement.

But U.N. membership is out of the question with just 23 countries recognizing Taiwan, and with China, recognized by 170 countries, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council.

[ohio2007]

7. Then China needs only crush the voices in their western provinces screaming for independent

snip
Disillusioned, angry



This is causing many Uighurs to feel disillusioned, angry and afraid of losing their distinctive culture says Dwyer, and as a result many, especially Uighur youths, are becoming more religious than their parents and a growing trend to study Arabic.



Dwyer does not believe claims from some Chinese officials that there is any connection with a radical Islamist movement.



Instead she sees such moves as "a statement of Uighur identity, to say 'we are fundamentally different from the Han Chinese'".
For Urumqi resident Hislat, religion is the root of her dissimilarities with the Han. "We are very different from Han people," she says. "They don't believe in anything, they have no religion. We only eat Halal foods, but they don't worry about that, they can eat anything. Also they don't pray, they don't know how. They don't believe."


snip

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5FAE9CCA-59AC-4A39-8E32-2A273DB0CD58.htm

China wants those pipelines to go through that area without a hitch and no middlemen screaming for a slice of the petro pie

[jordi_fanclub]

3. President: opposition won by a landslide (58/42); Referendum UN membership: rejected (less than 50%)

Official results put Mr Ma, of the Kuomintang party, nearly 17 percentage points ahead of Frank Hsieh of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

Both candidates advocated closer economic ties with China, but differed over the pace and degree of change.

Mr Ma pledged to strengthen commercial ties more quickly than Mr Hsieh, who took a more cautious approach.

He will succeed arch-nationalist Chen Shui-bian, who steps down in May.

...

"People want a clean a government instead of a corrupt one," said Mr Ma, quoted by AP news agency.

"They want a good economy, not a sluggish one. They don't want political feuding. They want peace across the Taiwan Strait. No war."

...

Both referendums on whether Taiwan should join the United Nations failed.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7309113.stm

[ohio2007]

8. " Far too few voters participated in the referendum to validate the results "

Far too few voters participated in the referendum to validate the results - as at least 50% of eligible voters were needed.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7309113.stm

People chose not to choose or
was it not on all ballots cast ?

[tom_paine]

4. Question, is a Taiwanese election more believable than American or Chinese "election "?

I mean, if they are like American and China and Mexico, can we not read this "victory" as the Chinese doing in Taiwan what our own Empire did in Mexico?

This is not to casat apsersions on Taiwan. For all I know they have elections that are run by trustworthy systems with checks and balances, unlike America, Russia, China, the Phillipines, and so many others. But if not, it wouldn't surprise me than China is now taking a more and obvious puppet-hand. Like Amerika to Mexico and to a lesser extent, Canada.

It would merely be the trend of the world, and that all nations are taking...to the New BushPutinist Totalitarianism that keeps much of the window-dressing of democratic representation but is in reality a tightly controlled and predictable process.

Again, I do not know about Taiwan, so this is speculation. One prays for them that what is happening over there is not the same as what is happening over here.

[Doctor Cynic]

5. Voters were just sick of this government.

There's a good reason why voters decided on an opposition candidate who wanted closer ties with Beijing:

1) The current government is corrupt and uses wedge issues to distract from economic problems (just like Chimpy), and they have low teens approval ratings.
2) Taiwan is becoming more and more dependent on the mainland for trade and investment. There are 200,000 Taiwanese in Shanghai alone. Many computer-making companies are based in Taiwan and have factories in Shanghai or elsewhere. The last thing they need are politicians who piss off Beijing bureaucrats.
3) The vast majority of Taiwanese oppose independence just yet, and they also oppose being reincorporated into Beijing's dictatorship just yet. That's why they abstained from the UN Membership vote.
4) Beijing will clearly be more friendly with this new government and allow scheduled direct flights, allow its tourists to visit, and so forth.
5) The ruling party offers nothing other than empty promises.

So it was logical from the start who would win, the government earned the fate they deserved, and the voters got the government they deserved.

[roamer65]

6. Taiwan probably realizes that US power is waning.

It would be best for them to be on good terms with Beijing in the future, as we may not be able to defend them in the event of war.