Thoughts on China: Elections and a Few Photos.

Taiwan Resident who made me think of Elections

Guess what, America is not the only place that needs a new president. As much as the news wants you to think that Hillary and Obama will either save America or squabble away certain victory, there are other countries that have presidents. Taiwan is one of them.

So allow me to bring you up to speed:

Taiwan bugs China, so China has aimed a whole bunch of missiles at the island.

Missile Defense System

Taiwan likes money, so they are one of the largest direct foreign investors in China (that means Chinese people get more jobs and don’t riot).

The current Taiwan president has spent a lot of time saying Taiwan is its own country. This angers China a lot and that scares a lot of people on the island (remember the missiles). Plus, if China blows this place up, it will be hard to keep making money in China. Not to mention that it would be blown up.

So, they had an election and believe it or not, the guy who keeps angering China and its army, well, his party lost. A guy won who thinks Taiwan should be more friendly with China and its money making opportunities. People like this because they like money and they don’t like being carpet bombed. I heard one guy call it “supply-chain diplomacy”. Anyway, this new guy starts in a couple of months. It might make people ease off on their conspiracy theories that China is going to attack right after the Olympics.

Here are some funny “facts” that are probably close to reality but I don’t care to look up for sure. It was Taiwan’s 4th democratic election. The current president got shot the day before the last election 4 years ago and people honestly think it was staged for the sympathy vote. They had something like 75% turnout this time. People can’t vote by mail-in, so thousands of citizens flew in from other countries to vote. The 75% turnout was lower than last time. I think it is kind of like a new toy; since it is only the 4th time had a democratic election, people are still pumped about voting.

Enough. Since Taiwan people are so passionate about voting, they sometimes riot (and try to assassinate candidates). I was scheduled to go to our office in the south and then do tourism but my co-workers made me wait until after the elections in case of rioting. There was no rioting and I ended up in the south last weekend. I stayed in a Taiwan version of a resort town. Which is a little dirtier, noisier and more crowded than you might like but still warm and fun. It is called Kenting; all the at the southern tip of Taiwan. Enjoy some photos.