This is the 21st issue of "Bay Area Lookout".
A televised debate on Taiwan's deputy candidates was held today
The countdown to the 2024 Taiwan leadership election has begun, and the TV debate of the deputy candidate will be held at 2 p.m. on New Year's Day. The debate was divided into four stages, including arguments, questions from the media, cross-examination of candidates and conclusions. According to the advance drawing of lots, the order of speech is Xiao Meiqin, the candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party, Wu Xinying, the candidate of the People's Party, and Zhao Shaokang, the candidate of the Chinese Kuomintang.
Siu Mei-kam (left), Wu Xinying (middle) and Zhao Shaokang (right) pose for a group photo before the debate began
This election, the island's celebrities described it as "relatively boring", because the most eye-catching topic of the three candidates for the main position is their respective properties. In contrast, the deputies with very different identities and backgrounds are more topical, and the three of them met again after the end of last month, and the deputies debate was also more popular than in previous years. In addition, today's debate is also the last time that blue, green and white will share the stage in this election, and it is also considered to be the last "plus" opportunity in the sprint stage.
Xiao Meiqin, who was the first to appear, did not mention Lai Qingde in her speech, and her purpose was very obvious, showing her character as Tsai Ing-wen's "best friend" and "representative in the United States", while beautifying the DPP's eight-year ruling achievements, saying that she would continue to follow Tsai Ing-wen's line, and boasting about the "cooperation agreement" reached with the United States during her tenure. In terms of the exposition of cross-strait relations, Hsiao Meiqin copied Tsai Ing-wen's "Taiwan independence" exposition, falsely claiming that Taiwan's security has a bearing on global security, and generalizing the cross-strait issue, which is China's internal affair, into an international issue.
In the later media question session, Xiao Meiqin did not hide her "Taiwan independence" essence. In the face of a question from the "dark green" media Mintv News, Zhao Shaokang pointed out that the biggest "risk" on both sides of the strait is the DPP itself, and it is the DPP's policies that have put Taiwan's soldiers in danger. Hsiao Meiqin, who answered questions later, said that the "biggest source of risk" was not the DPP but the mainland, and further distorted and smeared the "92 Consensus."
It should be pointed out that in this morning's New Year's talk (1st), Tsai Ing-wen has "warmed up" for Xiao Meiqin's speech in the afternoon, smeared the "92 Consensus", claimed to be "not provocative, not yielding", and hoped that the two sides of the strait would resume healthy and orderly exchanges as soon as possible. In response, Chen Binhua, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, pointed out that the so-called "Tsai Ing-wen line" is the "Taiwan independence" line, confrontation line, and harming Taiwan line, which is the biggest source of chaos that leads to the danger of Taiwan's war, the damage to the interests of the people, and the endangerment of regional stability. Chen Binhua pointed out that Tsai Ing-wen talks about "maintaining the status quo" and hopes for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but in fact she has stepped up "seeking independence by force" and "relying on foreign countries to seek independence", promoted "de-Sinicization", and vigorously engaged in "cultural Taiwan independence" and "decoupling and breaking the chain", which has seriously damaged the interests of Taiwan compatriots and brought great harm to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Chen Binhua said that continuing the "Tsai Ing-wen line," following the evil path of seeking "independence" and provocation, and following the old road of cross-strait confrontation will only make Taiwan farther and farther away from peace and prosperity and closer and closer to war and recession.
In this televised debate, Wu Xinying of the People's Party tried to keep herself from being "marginalized" and gave full play to her expertise in the economic field to propose ways to solve the problems of people's livelihood on the island. In response to Hsiao Meiqin's boast that the DPP is in power, saying that "the DPP is better at taking care of the people and fighting for the economy than the KMT," Wu Xinying said that the ideology of the Green Camp in the past eight years of serving the "anti-mainland" campaign has long disregarded economic development and the livelihood of the people. She used the name of ECFA and the green camp as the vote, deceived the people on the island that if they had the right to work, they would have the right to vote, blocking the cross-strait "trade agreement", resulting in the loss of money-making opportunities and the impact on youth employment. She said that if Taiwan returns to the right track of its economy, it should be less ideological and face economic problems in a rational and pragmatic manner.
Zhao Shaokang, who appeared in the third appearance, continued the topic of the TV political meeting and directly aimed at Lai Qingde's illegal construction. He had called Lai Qingde many times before, and if he demolished the illegal construction of his hometown, he would resign as chairman of Zhongguang. At today's debate, Zhao Shaokang took out the resignation letter of the chairman of the board of directors of China Guangguang at the beginning and signed it on the spot, so as to satirize Lai Qingde's "Lai Piliao" illegal construction has always been delayed. Zhao Shaokang further criticized Lai Qingde, saying that Lai Qingde abused public funds as a deputy, bluntly said that Chen Shui-bian did not have a corruption scandal before he became the leader of the Taiwan region, and ridiculed Lai Qingde as inferior to "Ah Bian."
The election of the people's representative is urgent, and the green camp wants to "resist South Korea"?
Taiwan's election campaign has entered the penultimate two weeks, and in addition to the chief and deputy, blue, green and white are still vying for seats as representatives of the people's will. According to a poll released by the "Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation" on the 29th of last month, in terms of support for political parties, 31.5% of the people support the Kuomintang, 28.7% support the DPP, and 6.9% support the People's Party. This also shows that the people on the island are desperately hoping to avoid the situation of the DPP's one-party dominance again. Even if Lai Qingde can finally be elected as the leader of the Taiwan region, I am afraid that he will be a "lame duck."
Han Kuo-yu Source: Taiwan's "China Times News Network"
Macau's "Xinhua Macao Daily" Fuquan column commented today (1st) that based on a number of polls, among the 63 seats currently held by the DPP, at least 12 regional people's representatives are in danger of losing the election, including "star people's representatives" Gao Jiayu, Lai Pinyu, Lin Jingyi, etc. And Zhao Zhengyu, a non-party member who cooperates with the DPP, may also be chased by Qiu Ruohua, a newcomer to the blue camp. In terms of non-zoning people's representatives, the DPP may also lose one or two seats. According to Fu Quan's analysis, even if the DPP wins the election of the leader of the Taiwan region, the DPP's administrative efficiency may be even worse if the legislature is in the hands of the opposition parties, and the atmosphere of "removing the DPP" will only become stronger in the future.
During the DPP's "nine-in-one" election last year, the whole party Baolin Zhijian was alone, and the latter was finally found to have plagiarized his paper and announced his withdrawal from the election, which not only became the fuse for the DPP's "nine-in-one" defeat, but also made the DPP's "political star" in the local area lose all credit, resulting in little appeal in this election. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is also aware of this problem, watching the poll support of the non-green camp continue to rise, and in the final stage, it is concentrating its firepower to boost the support of the Democratic Representative candidates. Han Kuo-yu, who ranked first in the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic People's Congress, became the primary target of the DPP.
On the 19th of last month, DPP spokesman Zhang Zhihao and Shen Boyang and Guo Yuqing, candidates of the Democratic People's Congress, jointly released a series of TV commercials titled "Vote for Blue and White, Alternate the Future", targeting Han Kuo-yu's controversial remarks in the past, so that voters should not only vote for the leadership election, but also support the DPP, so as to prevent Han Kuo-yu from becoming the head of the legislature and let the "Korean Wave" reappear. In the past few days, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has recently launched a large number of campaign advertisements that "will not allow Han Kuo-yu to be the head of the legislature."
According to Fu Quan's analysis, the People's Party is very likely to reach a "blue and white" agreement with the Kuomintang, that is, the People's Party's Democratic Representative supports Han Kuo-yu's election as head of the legislature in exchange for the Kuomintang's support for Huang Shanshan or Huang Guochang's election as deputy in the legislature. Ke Wenzhe mentioned in Kaohsiung that Han Kuo-yu had the opportunity to become his deputy, and Xu Fu, deputy secretary general of the People's Party, also said that if Han Kuo-yu is nominated as the head of the legislature, the People's Party will definitely support it.
Fuquan's analysis believes that when Han Kuo-yu was a representative of the People's Republic of China, Chen Shui-bian's ruthless image in the legislature made Chen Shui-bian feel uneasy, and Lai Qingde, who was also a representative of the People's Republic of China at that time, was engraved in his heart. It can be said that Han Kuo-yu's appointment as the head of the island's legislature is the real "nightmare" of Lai Qingde and the DPP at present.
Author丨Yang Zhaoyuan, the chief writer of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News