I love Taiwan, but…

 But the politicians there are destroying it!

The first time I visited Taiwan was in 1977 – with my wife and my two-year-old son. We joined a tour group the cost of which was paid by a company who wanted to thank me for having their goods released by Malaysian Customs after the court accepted my ‘expert’ testimony in a product classification case. The tour took us to the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. I particularly remember our boat journey in Sun Moon Lake. My son asked if there were sharks in the water!

My 3^rd Brother Yew Sim did his degree at the National Chengchi University in the early 1960s. My parents could not afford for him to go to Nanyang University in Singapore. In those days, tertiary education was virtually free for overseas Chinese students. I remember he survived with a monthly remittance of fifty dollars from home. I loved to collect stamps those days and stamps from Taiwan were beautiful. Yew Sim would send me new issues from there from time to time.

My next visit was made in the late 1980s, when as the head of corporate development in Guthrie, I suggested that the company should go into rubber glove-making since it is a major rubber producer in the country. Three of us – Datuk Sulaiman Sujak who was the director of the commercial division, Ng Chee Tee who looked the machine-making unit, and I – went to Taichung to look for good suppliers of glove-making machinery and equipment. Taiwan was already a leading economic tiger then. Unfortunately, the visit did not achieve anything.

I was back in Genting in the early 1990s. A political crisis was brewing between China and Taiwan then and there was fear that China would cut off water supply to Kinmen, which is only about 10km east of Xiamen. Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong thought he should play Kissinger. He took a couple of us to fly with him to Taiwan. Obviously, the cross-Straits politics there was much more complex for him to be involved in. We had a good porridge meal there and flew back the same day. (The governor of Fujian during those days was Jia Qinling, who had been trying hard to get Tan Sri Lim to invest in two big-ticket projects in the province. And Jia had once brought all the city mayors in Fujian to visit Genting and I was privileged to be assigned to be the lead ‘receptionist’ and look after the mayor of Quanzhou specifically during their entire stay. City’s status in China is high; the area under a mayor’s jurisdiction can be as big as a state in our context.)

My last visit was about a year before Covid, which was also before Hong Kong was besieged by rioters. My son and his partner were both invited to attend a major medical function in Taipei. Two rooms had been booked at the Grand Hyatt for them. They did not need two rooms; he asked us to go with them.

While he was busy with his meetings, out of nostalgia, my wife and I took a train to the Sun Moon Lake area and put up a night there. After that, we also hired a dedicated taxi to take us to some other parts of the island. We had plenty of time to talk with the driver who also doubled as our tour guide. He was pretty knowledgeable, having worked in China before. He said he was comfortable if Taiwan had to return to China’s fold. My grandfather hailed from the prefecture of Jinjiang, which is in Quanzhou. Min-nan is therefore our dialect. We empathized with each other well.

Taiwan’s countryside is beautiful and clean. You see temples everywhere. Judging from the way they hold their religious processions, less-urban Taiwanese are certainly more “deity-fearing” than other Chinese all over the world. Daily scenes are much like what we have in Malaysia.

Taiwan was in the midst of a local election fever. Tsai Ing-wen’s popularity had plummeted and her party – the Democratic Progressive Party – was in deep trouble. And there was a maverick politician called Han Kuo-yu 韓國瑜 from Kuomintang. Han successfully wrestled the “safe” mayoral seat from DPP. Kuomintang won handsomely across the island. But no sooner, evil forces appeared in Hong Kong and caused the young to riot against the SAR government. Thanks to the power of western and pro-west media, sentiments in Taiwan turned against China and all its “One country, two systems” undertakings.  Han was removed under a “recall” referendum. He was deemed to be pro-unification. Taiwan succumbed to “Green” forces again. And Tsai got re-elected. What a twist of fate!

Covid came in and China became a pariah. Taiwanese have never been more anti-unification than ever.

Tsai has been using the tip of her American umbrella to poke China’s eyes. The so-called 92 Consensus is now as good as dead. (The 92 Consensus is a political term referring to the outcome of a meeting in 1992 between the People’s Republic of China and the Kuomintang-led Republic of China whereby it was agreed by both parties that there is only ONE China, which includes Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China is the sole government of China.) Lee Teng-hui denied the existence of the consensus and it has also been rejected by Tsai.

The tide is turning…

Tsai has proven to be an ineffective president, not to mention her questionable London School of Economics PhD. (Several of her proteges or toy-boys had also fallen by the wayside, thanks to their fake degrees.) The presidential election will be held early next year. Tsai cannot stand for re-election. The current Vice President Lai Ching-te will contest instead. 

But the notion that America is their protector is no longer that appealing to Taiwanese. They can see that Biden and his team are just snake oil salesmen. The sufferings of Ukrainians are there for them to see; and now the US is showing its double-standards in the Israeli-Hamas conflict. Taiwan is just a pawn in the chessboard America is playing with China.

Yes, Taiwan had been ruled by Japan for fifty years. Given to the ‘benevolence’ the Japanese occupiers had shown them, many have already been ‘nipponized’ to look up to Japan. But their cultural roots are still very Confucianist-Buddhist-Daoist”. It is time Taiwanese wake up to think they are Chinese. They cannot walk alone to tell the world that they are different – if China is being subdued like before. The British had destroyed much of Chineseness in Hong Kong; the riots were a wake-up call.

Which country has brought hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty? Which country has diligently helped to bring its minorities to be at par with the majority – socially and economically? Which country has tirelessly tried to bring conflicting governments or regimes to reconcile with each other or one another? China is of course the answer. And the West is talking about human rights abuses in China – when their own physical infrastructure and “democratic” fabrics are breaking apart. They realise China’s system – at least as it stands today – is superior to theirs, hence the fear and all the demonising.

Taiwanese should feel proud to be Chinese! Of course, no system is perfect, and nobody should oppose good change as the world evolves. By being a part of China, it can help push China to even greater heights.

DPP has lost much of its support. However, Lai is still leading at 30%, with Taiwan People’s Party’s Ko Wen-je coming in second with 25%, followed Kuomintang’s Hou Yu-ih at 20%. FoxConn’s Terry Gou has about 10% of the electorate’s support. Hou wants to come to terms with Ko to fight Lai, but given the egoism in Ko, this is unlikely going to happen. The trophy is Lai’s to lose.

Why can’t they see the writing on the wall?

Hence the second line of the title of this article.

Taiwan's "Famous Mouths" - China Needs People Like Them

I have never liked Facebook but somehow, I would click on their ‘Video’ component whenever I have time – principally to watch podcasts and information clips. I especially love to hear comments from several Taiwanese commentators on their takes on geopolitics, China-US relations, Taiwan politics and the various regional conflicts. They have been labelled 名嘴 (míng-zuǐ, literally “famous mouths”. I thought the term was quite inappropriate; they deserve better respect.

Five of them appear most regularly – Guo Zheng-Liang (郭正亮), Cai Zheng-Yuan (蔡正元), Lai Yue-Qian (赖岳谦), Jie Wen-Ji (介文汲) and Lei Qian 雷倩.

Guo graduated from the National Taiwan University and earned a PhD in political science from Yale. He has served in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan.

Cai holds a doctorate from Beijing’s Tsinghua. He has also served as a legislator.

 Lai’s PhD is from France’s Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas.

Jieh holds several masters degrees and was a former ambassador to New Zealand.

 

Lei studied at the National Taiwan University before earning a master's degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. She has not been very successful in her political pursuits, despite her credentials.

There are also several others like Li Zheng-Jie (栗正杰) and Huang Zhen-Hui (黄征辉), Yuan Ju-Zheng (苑举正), Shuai Hua-Ming (帅化民), etc, some of whom were once high-ranking officers in Taiwan’s Military.

Typically, they appear in a panel setting, with a host introducing – in pretty good depth – the various subjects displayed on a TV screen before inviting each of the panel members to comment. You see several such programmes every day; the issues are therefore very current. One of them is Xīn-Wén Dà-Bái-Huà (新闻大白话), which can be loosely translated as “News Plainly Expressed”.

Of course, the stage is all well-choreographed; the commentators must have been well-prepared for the subjects. But you cannot help but take your hat off for their ability to throw out facts and figures – on history, economy and the trade wars, geopolitics, cross-Straits tensions, the background of the more recent Israeli-Hamas conflict, and even some good knowledge in microelectronic technology and supply chain issues – without notes or help. Yes, they are all scholars, but their spontaneity is incredible.

They represent the type of Chineseness we want to see – analytical, encyclopedic, philosophical, objective, scholarly yet plain-speaking and full of commonsense! They are usually supportive of China’s stances on global and regional issues, very dismissive about the ability of Joe Biden and his key people, and outright contemptuous of Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te.

To the supporters of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, they must have been ‘paid’ by mainland China!

I do not believe they are hard-core Chinese government sympathizers. Guo was in fact a DPP member until quite recently. But I strongly believe they are proud of being Chinese. And they all know Chinese can walk tall if there is a strong China – in brand but not necessarily in a common ideology.  

Mainland Chinese need much help on this front! Save for a very few – CGTN’s Liu Xin is one – most are ill at ease on stage. There is often one “I think”, “You know”, and “What should I say” too many in the deliveries. 70% of the podcasts from mainland China are utterly rubbish, much of which is self-exultation and carry headlines that do not bear any relationship with the matters that are subsequently presented. Many of the claims are blared out without basis. As for those insights that seem more credible, they were largely read from prepared scripts. None is close to what we see from the “famous mouths” from Taiwan!

Many highly acclaimed intellectuals know what China and Xi are doing is good for the world – Jeffrey Sachs, Kishore Mahbubani, just to name a few. But the collective mind of the world is hijacked by the US’s “Military-Industrial-Media-Jewish Money Complex” – a Deep State of which Biden and his team are a pinion in the rolling mill, or is plodding along like a toad that is being slowly boiled. We all know that the CIA is using NED – National Endowment for Democracy – to destablise governments that are doing the right thing in the China-US relationships, and install or finance instead parties that are prepared to do its biddings, such as Korea, Japan, the Philippines. There are talks that Indonesia, which will be holding a presidential election soon, is already being infiltrated. We all know that NED is anything but democratic!

Readers may already be tired of my constant criticism of China’s lack of mass communications skills. I woke up this morning to read that former premier Li Keqiang had died of a heart attack. Strangely, the official media are quite quiet in their coverage of this sad news. Yes, it had often been rumoured that Xi had not been entirely comfortable with Li. But Confucian ethics necessitate that friends and foes alike lay down their grievances during occasions like this. To do otherwise is simply un-Chinese and we should be worried about China!

I do harbour a simpler explanation. The state media people are incapable of acting on their own. They need to be prompted and all such prompts have to cascade down many layers to reach the editors!

The whereabouts of Qin Gang and Li Shangfu is a case in point. The fates of Qin and Li have finally been sealed. They have been relieved of their political as well as their governmental positions. The former is about moral lapses, but the latter, I believe, is much more  serious, likely to involve huge corruption.

When the news about their ‘problem’ first surfaced, China’s official spokespersons cited “health reasons” for their sudden disappearance. Who would believe them? But they did so regardless. But the western media was certainly less accommodating, and Mao Ning was rendered totally incoherent on the rostrum.

Why couldn’t they just say that China expected its leaders, no matter how high they were or how close they were to Xi, to be impeccable in integrity. These two leaders had simply been suspended pending the outcome of full and fair investigations. Such a degree of transparency will help shape the western media’s respect for the country, instead of using it as a source of conspiracy theory to demonise China. Lapses are common amongst politicians all over the world. Even in the squeakily clean Singapore, two of their leaders had also recently been caught with their pants down. The government lost no time in acting. Qing and Li’s dismissals actually demonstrate China’s determination to weed out leaders with personal failings at all costs. That is good for China!

Acknowledgement

Being a semi-illiterate in Chinese, I always have difficulty in fishing out the right Chinese characters and names from Pinyin apps. This time around I was fortunate enough to be able to count on a good friend out of Julian Tan Ay Peng, who also hails from Muar, Johor, to provide the names of all the "famous mouths" mentioned above in both Chinese and pinyin. 

Thank you, Ay Peng. 

The Unyielding Spirits of Nelson Mandela and Ren Zhengfei - Something Malaysians Can Emulate…

I woke up this morning to see a WhatsApp message from Hussein. He asks if I can write an article that might interest Malaysians in his portal. Some may know that I blog often, but much of what I have written is on geopolitics, especially about the United States’s paranoia against China. I have even released two books on the subject: “China’s Arduous Journey to Earn Its Place - From Mr Q to President Xi Jinping”, and more recently “Knowing Your Roots - In the Wake of the New Xiong-Nus at China’s Gate”.

However, I have hardly written anything substantive about the affairs in Malaysia, because of a simple reason: The 3Rs (Race, Religion and Royalty) are too sensitive for me to handle.  

But I can’t refuse Hussein’s invitation. I do not quite agree with many of the things he has written, however, I salute his guts and feel obliged to accept.

There are many greats whom as a society we can emulate. However, these two names came immediately to my mind when I think about Malaysia: Nelson Mandela and Ren Zhengfei.

Most Malaysians who were adults during the 1980s/1990s would remember Mandela, the South Arican leader who was imprisoned for 27 years by the all-White apartheid government. Upon his release by Frederick de Klerk in 1990, he went on to become the President of South Africa in 1994. He relinquished the position in 1999. Despite having suffered the long incarceration, Mandela dismantled the legacy of apartheid not by witch-hunting the colonial masters but with a spirit of racial reconciliation. Economically, his administration introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty and expand health services.

He published his autobiography – Long Walk to Freedom – in 1994, which is an extraordinary story of his life.

Unfortunately, his successors, starting with Thabo Mbeki, were less enlightened. Some morphed into the type of leaders whom we love to stereotype as “African leaders”. Be that as it may, South Africa remains a highly regarded country in the world today.

The second name is Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei. Everybody knows what has happened to Huawei in the recent years. Ren founded it in 1987. By 2019, it was already a world giant in technology, especially in 5G technology.

Ren’s daughter Meng Wenzhou was detained at Vancouver International Airport upon her arrival on December 1, 2018. She was placed under house arrest and made to wear an electronic shackle on one of her upper ankles. She was not released until September 2021.

The US was determined to kill Huawei. Lesser mortals would have yielded. But not Ren.

Huawei bid its time. On August 29, 2023, it shook the world. Right when Gina Raimondo was visiting China, Huawei released its 60 MatePro smartphone; it was done without much fanfare, but the message is clear. Huawei has returned. I wrote a piece in my blog; I called that day the Day of Breakthrough (yubooklimblogspot.com).

Ren holds less than 1% of Huawei. I consider Ren a sage entrepreneur. How many of our entrepreneurs are in that mould?