一
現在「華爾街日報」擔任記者的Ms. Jenny W. Hsu (她以前好像是在英文「台北時報」擔任記者)從台北發出一項有關
11/27/2014 4:30PM (「台灣的選舉獲得中國與美國的關注」)。
緊跟著video ，有一段說明文字:”As Taiwan gets ready to vote for a fresh crop of local leaders this Saturday, the world’s two major powers are watching the outcome closely. The WSJ’s Taipei political correspondent Jenny W. Hsu explains why. “[台灣即將在星期六舉辦選舉，世界兩大國都正在密切觀察它的結
二
全美各地的台美人領袖與菁英當然都非常關注台灣這次的選舉，在東
//
公孫長老沒有公開指明他希望台灣的選民投票給什麼政黨的候選人，
三
我在1980-1990年代，由於從事國際貿易與行銷工作，所以
由於Julian學有專精，所以他有時也會與若干知名的學者聯名
關於台灣這次規模甚大的地方選舉，我前後已讀了一些西方媒體的報
四
“Taiwan election: Wild, wooly, and partly a referendum on China”
By Julian Baum, Correspondent
The Christian Science Monitor
NOVEMBER 26, 2014
---The Taipei mayor's race is the most watched, but there are 10,000 offices to fill on Nov. 29. The races are marked by mud-slinging and new debates over Chinese nationalism and Taiwanese identity.
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Taiwan’s young democracy puts down deeper roots with every election cycle, and the island holds an important vote this weekend with 20,000 candidates for more than 10,000 offices.
The most watched election is for mayor of Taipei, where candidate Ko Wen-je is causing panic in Taiwan's ruling party and making Chinese leaders in Beijing nervous.[柯文哲參選台北市長，讓中國國民黨驚恐，也讓
A newcomer to politics, Mr. Ko has become a lighting rod for debates over national identity and traditional values in Taiwan. The independent candidate is receiving prominent media coverage, which he has been using to step outside mainstream politics and challenge the establishment.
The quirky medical doctor has stayed comfortably on top of opinion polls while surviving a barrage of accusations and crude smears – such as charges that family loyalty to Japan several generations ago makes him unfit to be mayor -- that have questioned his character and career as one of the island's leading surgeons.
Meanwhile, Ko's opponent, Sean Lien, may be fumbling what once looked like a sure bet for the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Fighting to retain control of a city long a bastion of loyalists for his party, Mr. Lien has run a high-profile campaign with a long to-do list. But emotional and sometimes divisive interventions from KMT elders, including his own father, have revived partisan conflicts over how Taiwanese identify their state and society. [國民黨那些老傢伙，包括連戰在內，為(台奸連戰的兒子)連勝文
Taiwan's vote on Nov. 29 has consequences far beyond the boundaries of local government, and is more significant than local elections often seem in other democracies. [11/29/
For example, it will be the first opportunity since mass street protests earlier this year for Taiwan’s 18 million voters to register their judgment on the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou and his China-friendly policies. Observers predict a high turnout, approaching those of presidential elections, which exceed 70 percent. [這次選舉將是
「太陽花學運」以來，台灣一千八百萬選民檢驗馬英
These polls have unprecedented scale. Voters will choose across nine levels of government for almost very popularly elected official on the island except for the president and legislature – from thousands of village and neighborhood chiefs to county magistrates and big city mayors.
In the six largest municipalities, which encompass more than 60 percent of the population, the races will foreshadow the presidential contest barely a year away and gauge the strength of support for the two main political parties.
If Taiwan's democracy puts down deeper roots in this election, analysts say, it could be seen in a shift in power from the central government -- to key city and county offices and possibly into “green” or opposition hands.
Such a re-alignment in favor of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its allies would send a message to Beijing and beyond that Taiwanese are determined to shape their own future and not drift into economic and political integration with China. [若這次選舉所造成的政治版圖重整對DPP與其盟友有利，這將給
Yet the core issues for Nov. 29 are sometimes less about local government and more about how to interpret Taiwan's modern political history, including its conflicting views of national identity and the personalities of the candidates.[這次雖為地方選舉，但它的核心議題卻是
Once again, elections are raising old conflicts between an imported Chinese nationalism and an indigenous Taiwanese identity that was suppressed by the Chinese Nationalists who fled here after China’s mid-century civil war. [台灣這次選舉再一次地攪起「被輸入的中國民族主義」與「本土自
Usually, these are the kind of questions candidates prefer to avoid: they are divisive and cannot be resolved by local government. But for a democracy struggling to survive in China's shadow, they often seem unavoidable in the heat of the campaign. [這類意見分歧的議題並不是地方政府的官員或民意代表所能處理或
This is especially so in Taipei, the capital of the Republic of China and rival to the People's Republic of China in Beijing.
With approval ratings hovering near record lows, President Ma's administration has all but lost public trust on matters ranging from protection of the nation's food supply to unaffordable property prices, falling incomes, and a policy of building relations with China through a series of compromises and agreements.
Not all the links with China are seen as overtly harmful to Taiwan's interests, but they are perceived as failing to bring promised economic and political benefits.
The marquee race on Nov. 29 is for Taipei mayor, an office widely viewed as a stepping stone to the presidency. Ma himself was mayor of Taipei. Only once has a non-KMT candidate won the capital since elections for mayor resumed 20 years ago. That was Chen Shui-bian, who faced two candidates from a divided KMT who split the party's vote. Chen went on to become president six years later.
While both leading candidates in Taipei are political novices, the similarities end there. Voters have a distinct choice.
Ko is the sometimes unpredictable and unconventional surgeon from a humble background, running nominally as a non-partisan candidate, but with the quiet backing of the DPP.
Lien is the young, establishment figure with a US law degree and international business experience. But his background of wealth and privilege evokes fears that he will perpetuate the rule of a rapacious, China-friendly oligarchy that is the object of much popular resentment. [連家的權勢、特權、權貴、財富與親中的背景引發一種恐懼:他的
Unlike his opponent, Ko has purchased no media advertisements and spent less money than any previous major candidate. Yet he attracts media attention and receives much of his financing from individual contributions over the Internet.
Win or lose, Ko's supporters say he has broken the mold in leading a non-partisan “opposition alliance” of both 'blue' or KMT, and 'green' or opposition supporters, as well as a younger generation of activists who keep their distance from these two established political camps.
Notable among these new activists are supporters of the Sunflower movement, a group of mostly student protesters who took over the legislature for 24 days earlier this year to block a trade deal with China and who coalesced popular discontent outside the usual partisan lines.
DPP leaders say they hoped to out-maneuver the KMT by not entering their own candidate in Taipei and lowering their party profile at a time when voters have lost patience with partisan politics.
Ko is “smart enough to realize that the national mood has changed,” wrote Liu Shih-chung of the pro-opposition Taiwan Brain Trust in the Taipei Times. “Exhausted by partisan disputes and extremism regarding the unification or independence dichotomy and ethnic division; the country wants its politicians to work together and compromise.”
五
建州運動希望台灣每個不同的地方選舉的選區的多數選民能讓綠營或
建州運動的大戰略與策略是: 在「台灣公投加入美國」之前，協助綠營長期執政。在美國的默許、
所以，建州運動在現階段支持台派或綠營的黨派或政團參加台灣的各
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)
==============================
附錄一
“Taiwan press freedoms are eroding, critics say”
By Julian Baum
The Christian Science Monitor
01/04/11
TAIPEI, Taiwan — When veteran journalist Huang Je-bing resigned in protest from one of Taiwan’s leading newspapers, he says he did not expect it would stir up such a storm. In a blistering blog post titled “Leaving the China Times on a Jet Plane,” Mr. Huang deplored the erosion of journalism ethics that sacrifices independent news for cozy relations with government officials - relations that are greased by a flow of advertising dollars.
“As a result, reporters have become advertising salesmen, public relations companies and advertisers have become news writers, and the hand of government and big business intervenes directly into editing content. This is an immoral masquerade,” Huang wrote, comparing the practice to Communist propaganda.
Freedom of speech and press are among the most lauded achievements of Taiwan’s democratic transition since martial law was lifted more than two decades ago. Yet many observers say that the glitter of the island republic’s free press has been overrated, especially in a highly commercialized news culture that is both deeply partisan and prey to political favors. For the past two years Freedom House has downgraded Taiwan’s rating in its annual report on global press freedom.
President Ma Ying-jeou promised to end the practice of embedded advertising by the government three years ago. But Huang and others say it has actually become more widespread. Independent observers say the news media is in a state of crisis over assaults to its independence from government and the corporate sector.
“In general, we’ve made progress in human rights,” says lawyer and former political prisoner Yao Chia-wen, who is a senior adviser to the opposition Democratic Progressive Party. But recently, Yao says, freedom of the press is one of the civic rights that are eroding.
Beyond propaganda as news
The placement of advertising as news is only the “tip of the iceberg,” says a report by Taiwan Media Watch, an independent group that monitors press freedom and journalism practices. Media Watch chairman Guang Chung-hsiang worries that, after two decades of democracy, the government’s “soft control” of the news media has replaced the direct control of the martial law era, although criticism of government has hardly abated.
So Huang’s protest struck a nerve. It caused waves of hand wringing in a society that is distrustful toward government and sensitized to the politics of nearly everything. Huang was reassured by the response. “So many colleagues have rallied to support me, and many journalism professors, too,” he told the Monitor two weeks after his resignation in mid December. One example of that support was a petition signed by more than 130 journalism and communications teachers from dozens of universities calling on the government to restore integrity and end the practice of “buying news” through “advertorials” or advertising copy disguised as news reports.
Taiwan’s premier, Wu Dun-yi, said on Dec. 29 that he would “reflect deeply” on the government’s failure to end this practice. He and other senior leaders acknowledged that their public relations methods were “wrong” and legislators said they were considering statutory prohibitions as a remedy.
The politics of regulation
Still there's concern over the politicization of licensing by the National Communications Commission, which regulates the air waves.
Recently, Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media mogul who owns Taiwan’s largest newspaper, the Apple Daily, has complained that his company, Next Media, has been waiting for over a year for a license to operate a cable television network on the island. In a recent commentary for the Wall Street Journal, Lai blasted the government for the delay and for tightening control on Taiwan’s press.
One example of creeping government influence is the media's minimization of criticism of government policies and exaggeration of its achievements, says Guang, who teaches journalism at National Chung Cheng University. Examples include millions of tax dollars spent on "advertising" to promote an extravagant project, Taipei’s international floral exhibition, now attracting tens of thousands of tourists daily. More consequential was the historic Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), signed with Beijing last summer. The agreement received much positive publicity from a compliant news media as part of a political marketing campaign to inflate the promised benefits from China and belittle any critics.
“Taiwan’s news media are not yet independent,” says Guang. “Can the public really accept this?”
Self-censorship on China
That question is especially serious amid the backdrop of the changing ties with China. As the Nationalist-led government reconciles with China in closed-door talks and multiple agreements that have opened up commerce, investment, and transportation across the Taiwan Strait, it's the manipulation of China-related news and deals like the ECFA that he says most worry the public.
“In the past, criticizing China was not something we avoided,” Yao said. “Now there are many things that can’t be said. So many Chinese delegations and VIPs are arriving, so many agreements have been signed, and certain topics are no longer discussed.”
Nearly all the Taiwanese media practice self-censorship in reporting about China, agrees Chuang Feng-chia, senior editor at the independent website newtalk.tw and a past president of the Association of Taiwan Journalists.
Meanwhile, former China Times reporter Huang is hopeful that the revulsion he ignited over “buying” positive news coverage will stiffen the resolve of news professionals and the government to clean up their act. “I hope that in the future this will reform our media culture and end this practice,” he said.
Sam Lang contributed to this report.
附錄二
"Getting to know Taiwan"
New geography and history for Taiwan's students
Taipei, 24 August 1997
On 14 August 1997, the Far Eastern Economic Review published an excellent article, titled "Schools of Thought" by its Taiwan reporter Julian Baum about the issue of textbooks in Taiwan secondary schools. The report focused on the fact that under the Kuomintang government, Taiwan's students have had to memorize quaint facts about China's geography and history, while they learned very little about Taiwan itself.
Finally, the Ministry of Education in Taipei decided to correct the situation, and had a series of textbooks written, titled "Getting to Know Taiwan", which is being introduced in Taiwan's junior high school classrooms in September 1997.
The new texts cover many sensitive and once-forbidden topics, such as an account of early aboriginal settlement of the island, the killing of tens of thousands of Taiwanese by Chiang Kai-shek's troops in 1947, the "white terror" -- the Kuomintang's repressive intimidation campaign in the 1950s and '60s, and the "Kaohsiung Incident" of 1979, a turning point in Taiwan's modern history. The text also refers to the people on the island as Taiwan ren or "Taiwanese" rather than Zhongguo ren or "Chinese" -- a major step forward.
Some examples of what Taiwanese students until now did and didn't know:
Students taking high school entrance exams must know ancient capitals of imperial China, but not the capitals of Taiwan's counties.
They have to learn the reign titles of the emperors of old Chinese dynasties, but are not taught the names of Taiwan's aboriginal tribes.
Geography tests require students to identify China's rivers and major mountain ranges, but not those of Taiwan. Maps on the school walls show an anachronistic "Republic of China" which -- among other anomalies -- embraces all of Mongolia, a chunk of modern-day Burma, Tibet, and numerous Chinese provinces which no longer exist.
History lessons cover extensively the atrocities committed by Japan during World War II in China, but give scant attention to the massacre by mainland Chinese of 20-28,000 Taiwanese in 1947, and totally ignore the political repression that followed.
Students must study quaint intellectual movements preceding the Nationalist overthrow of the Chinese imperial dynasty in 1911, but not the Taiwanese self-rule movement under the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945).
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