一
美國的平面媒體今天有出報，我首先閱讀「華爾街日報」，我翻遍它
但其他一、兩家主流媒體沒有忽略或漏掉台灣選舉這個重要的事件與
二
我們先來讀「紐約時報」的報導，如同往昔，我們只做重點翻譯或意
“Mayor’s Race Could Alter Balance of Political Power in Taiwan”
By AUSTIN RAMZY
The New York Times
NOV. 28, 2014
TAIPEI, Taiwan — A doctor and political novice is favored to win Taipei’s mayoral election on Saturday, one of many races in which Taiwan’s governing party faces the prospect of its most serious setback in years.
A victory for the blunt-talking, 55-year-old physician, Ko Wen-je, would be a sharp defeat for the governing party in a city long considered its stronghold, and in a job that often becomes a springboard to the presidency.
The local elections come halfway through President Ma Ying-jeou’s final term as president, during a year in which his governing Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalist Party, has faced large-scale protests over its pursuit of closer ties with China, and food-safety scandals that have inflamed antigovernment anger.
In the race for Taipei mayor, the governing party’s candidate is Sean Lien, a 44-year-old former investment banker whose father, Lien Chan, served as Taiwan’s premier and vice president. While his connections helped him win the party’s nomination, they have done little to bolster his standing against Mr. Ko.
Mr. Ko is running as an independent, though his political views generally align with the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, the main opposition party. The D.P.P. is not fielding a candidate in the race and has thrown its support behind him. His campaign has focused on encouraging civic participation and trying to transcend the divide between the Kuomintang and those who favor closer ties with China, and the D.P.P. and others who support an independent Taiwan.
Accentuating his image as an outsider, Mr. Ko eschews a suit and tie for a collared shirt in most campaign appearances. His inexperience in government led many to believe that his lead in opinion polls would eventually evaporate in the face of the Kuomintang’s well-developed party apparatus.
But Mr. Lien, who also lacks government experience, has failed to capitalize on his opponent’s weaknesses, despite his political pedigree.
He has emphasized economic themes, touting his investment experience and work as chairman of the company that manages Taipei’s smartcard system for public transit and other services. But his family connections and personal wealth have hurt him at a time when the public is increasingly concerned about the gap between rich and poor, said Lin Jih-wen, a political scientist at Academia Sinica, a state-funded research institute in Taipei. [(台奸連戰的兒子)連勝文的權貴子弟背景，雖然讓他贏得中國國
“He’s too young, too inexperienced and doesn’t seem to understand the ordinary lives of people in Taipei,” Mr. Lin said. [(這個台奸的兒子)太年輕，太欠缺經驗與閱歷，也不知民間疾苦
Elections in Taiwan can be difficult to predict, with opinion polls sometimes overstating the support for the D.P.P. and other pro-independence parties. Nonetheless, Mr. Ko has consistently maintained a double-digit lead.
The race has implications beyond Taipei, Taiwan’s capital and largest city. Each of the last three presidents has previously served as mayor of Taipei, and the election has included national concerns, especially Taiwan’s relationship with China, which claims Taiwan as its own.
This spring, demonstrators opposed to the Kuomintang’s support of a free-trade deal with China, which critics said would have given China greater influence over Taiwan’s economy, took to the streets and occupied the national legislature for more than three weeks.
Mr. Lien, who met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing last year, has been attacked by the opposition for favoring stronger ties with China. [連某在去年春，還在北京見了習某，反對陣營一直因連某贊成與中
“Lien is simply unable to convince that he is anything but what he is, a privileged princeling from one of Taiwan’s richest and politically powerful families,” said Jonathan Sullivan, a China scholar at the University of Nottingham. “Lien’s halfhearted attempts to appear down to earth have been followed by gaffes revealing his status and thinking.”
After coming under repeated attack for his family’s wealth, Mr. Lien responded in a campaign brochure that the Buddha “was a prince who enlightened people.” While his point was that family background did not predetermine policy, his comparing himself to the Buddha was seen as grandiose.
Mr. Ko is not immune to similar criticism. As chairman of National Taiwan University Hospital’s traumatology department, he too is a member of Taiwan’s elite. And he has been gaffe-prone in campaign appearances, notably when he said one young female candidate’s appearance made her better suited to working as a receptionist. He later apologized for the comment.
“Although he is not a seasoned politician, Ko has deftly rolled with the punches and has shown an innate skill in turning Lien’s attacks against himself,” Mr. Sullivan said.
During a televised debate, when asked whether a candidate who had pro-independence leanings could serve as a high-level state official, Mr. Ko responded that it was the “cross-strait compradors,” the Kuomintang officials pursuing closer ties with China, whose patriotism should be questioned. [在一場電視辯論中，當被對手質疑傾獨的候選人是否能擔任高階官
三
接下來建州運動請鄉親們閱讀洛杉磯時報的一篇報導:
“Taiwan’s ruling party faces major test”
By RALPH JENNINGS
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
11/28/2014
---The elections in Taiwan this Saturday are only local races, but China is watching them nervously, analysts say
Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party will test its popularity in midterm elections Saturday after six years of leading the island to landmark deals with longtime adversary China.
Losses for the Nationalists, or Kuomintang, would indicate dwindling support for the central government led by President Ma Ying-jeou and weaken the party's 2016 presidential bid. The Nationalists are campaigning against an opposition party that advocates a more guarded approach to China, which has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since Chiang Kai-shek's forces retreated from the mainland in 1949. [在這次選舉中，中國國民黨的主要對手是
一個主張要對中國採取一
Beijing sees the trade, transit and investment deals signed under Ma's party as steps toward unification. Taiwan looks to them as boosters for its export-driven, half-trillion-dollar economy. [北京把它與馬(賣台)政權所簽署的貿易、三通與投資的協議視為
If the opposition Democratic Progressive Party sweeps the weekend races or takes the presidency in 2016, relations with China could spin into reverse, with probable economic repercussions.
"If Beijing takes this weekend's results to mean the opposition party is likely to return to power in 2016, it will hold back on any more goodies or sweeteners for Taipei during President Ma Ying-jeou's final 18 months in office," said Sean King, senior vice president at consulting firm Park Strategies in New York and Taipei. "That's because a future opposition government would inherit these wins, and Beijing would then be in a position of having to reverse or revoke them."
Ma took office in 2008 and was reelected in 2012 on pledges to stoke the economy through deals with China. He contends that 21 agreements to date have added jobs and increased trade while giving Taiwan more space to pursue economic deals with other governments after decades of isolation imposed by China before the two sides began talking.
Ruling party popularity tumbled in March when university students led a 24-day occupation of parliament to stop ratification of a service trade liberalization deal, the farthest-reaching agreement so far between China and Taiwan. The protest group calling itself the Sunflower Movement swelled outside parliament as tens of thousands questioned the idea of signing deals with the rival of 65 years.
China has remained neutral on Saturday's vote, but analysts say the communist government is nervous about the results.
Campaigning is reaching a peak this week as 19,762 candidates vie for offices from mayor of Taiwan's 2.6-million-person capital, Taipei, down to the heads of boroughs of less than a square mile.
Nationalists acknowledge struggles to keep seats in Taipei, the northern port city of Keelung and the major central city of Taichung, but they call those battles local matters, which are not about the presidency and relations with Beijing.
"Election situations in three cities we could say are in a state of crisis, but that's not because of the direction of central government policies, [but] rather due to the special characters of the candidates," party spokesman Charles Chen said.
(Jennings is a special correspondent.)
四
「台奸的兒子」連某不可能勝選，但不管結果如何，他與他身邊的人
台灣建州運動發起人周威霖
David C. Chou
Founder, Formosa Statehood Movement
(an organization devoted in current stage to making Taiwan a territorial commonwealth of the United States)
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