Tsai’s defeat beyond belief
I went back to Taiwan to vote in the Jan. 14 presidential election. Frankly, I feel surprised and puzzled that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was defeated.
Two weeks before the elections, polls showed this would be a tight race. Many polls showed Tsai had a commanding lead after out-performing the other candidates in three debates. Throughout the campaign, Tsai seemed to be very popular and enjoy a lot of support from voters.
On the other hand, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in the last week of his campaign, together with his wife, carried out only a few activities, such as canvasing streets and receiving symbolic gifts, which are normally restricted to the start of a campaign. In other words, his campaign lacked momentum and he was keeping a low profile. Apparently he was losing voter support.
During my stay in Taiwan, most people I was in contact with had the optimistic expectation that Tsai would win the election.
During a bus tour with 26 relatives, we had a poll that showed Tsai receiving 17 votes, Ma three votes and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) three votes. Probably the results were like this because we are all Hoklo and my relatives are all upper middle-class, with five teachers among them.
Anyway, Tsai lost the election. Besides the inherent unfairness and the abuse of the government apparatus, China, business tycoons and the US — especially former director of the American Institute in Taiwan Douglas Paal — did irreparable damage to Tsai’s campaign.
Still, a big question is what was the scale of abuse from the government apparatus. Especially, whether the technicalities of vote counting and tallying were transparent, fair and impartial, or had been tampered with.
Ma could not arouse support before the election, but he won big. This is really fishy.
Yang Ji-charng
Columbus, Ohio
Doing a job on Jobs
Recently there has been a lot of TV airplay for Action Electronics’ ad campaign for the Action Pad tablet. The ad features a Steve Jobs impersonator, which is in very poor taste (“Android maker uses fake ‘Steve Jobs’ to plug device,” Feb. 3, page 2).
This campaign does not just cross the line of common business courtesy, respect and decorum, but completely ignores and leaps over it. The commercial and campaign, with its similar-style press conferences, are receiving some pretty harsh criticism worldwide.
Every person that I have spoken with in Taiwan and elsewhere over the past few days regarding this campaign finds it wholly in bad taste.
What is more troubling is that some of the more uninformed criticism from around the world is directed at Taiwan as a nation, and not at Action Electronics, which duly deserves it.
As businesspeople, investors and consumers, we must sometimes stand up for what is right, or we risk heading into a terrible downward spiral.
Personally, I am not a Jobs fanatic: I still use a Windows-based PC and a Blackberry, but I do believe respect and common courtesy should be exercised within business and marketing. Further, I do realize that Jobs is being portrayed in the ad as an angel, but he is also being impersonated as when he was in his most unhealthy state, a man battling with terminal cancer.
This campaign is not only offensive to Jobs’ family, friends, fans and colleagues, but really to anyone who has had or is battling cancer, or who knows someone who has or has had cancer — a large percentage of the population.
As a financial analyst and investment manager and a capitalist at heart, I believe in the free market and that the best product at the best price should always prevail.
However, the tactics to market and sell one’s product should never border on the unethical and show such a complete disregard of common courtesy.
For example, HTC, Samsung and other Android-based tablets and smartphones have taken a major market share without resorting to such disrespectful sales tactics, and that is the main point — if your product is good, which the Action Pad actually appears to be, based on reviews — it will sell, and there is no need for such tasteless ad campaigns.
I fully understand that “all publicity is good publicity,” but where should the line be drawn?
This marketing campaign should be re-evaluated as I believe that it may do more harm than good to Action Electronics’ investors and the good reputation of this fine company.
It is disappointing, as one would expect more considered business decisions from such a highly respected company and team of executives.
Chen Jia Fong
Linkou, New Taipei City
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS