"While the efforts by Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou to ease tensions with China have won him approval in Washington, they are not so popular with Taiwanese voters who may turf him out of office in January.(1) 台湾总统选战主打两岸和经济议题. VOA Chinese, Oct 24, 2011. http://www.voanews.com/chinese/n ... IGNS-132428953.html
"The non-partisan Apple Daily newspaper predicted that the peace treaty will 'define' the January 14 presidential elections.
"speculation has been ripe that he would enter into more dangerous political territory in a second term as he seeks to establish his legacy, and a peace treaty may be considered the least risky way of doing that.
"Real wage values [in Taiwan] are now four per cent lower than what they were 12 years ago.
My comment:
(a) The two pro-KMT newspapers in Taiwan (United Daily News and China Times) have consistently polled Ma ahead of Tsai--frequently by double digits, whereas DPP-leaning Liberty Times has had both runing neck and neck.
(b) Regarding quotation 1. Who knows? Ma may follow those who earned adulation abroad but was unpopular domestically (think Gorbachev).
(c) Regarding quotation 2. It is not really Ma's fault. US is similar. But KMT and Ma, while in opposition before 2008, atssailed then President Chen Shui-bian for flat wage (after inflation; as opposed to REDUCED wage under Ma's watch). Besides Ma's 2008 campaign platform stipulated "'633 Plan,' which promised economic growth rate of 6%, unemployment rate of less than 3%, and per capita income of more than US$30,000." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Ying-jeou
The promise, impossible at the time, came back to haunt him, in a way similar to George HW Bush's "Read my lips: no new taxes" (uttered "at the 1988 Republican National Convention as he accepted the nomination on August 18"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_my_lips:_no_new_taxes
(d) The report mentions, "Tsai, a law graduate from Cornell University with a PhD from the London School of Economics."
I knew the fact represented in the second clause (but I thought she studied economics in London!), but not the first. (I did not know in what and where she got the bachelor's.)
Just now I googled and Tsai's professional degrees are:
(i) 國立臺灣大學法律系 法學士 bachelor of law (a four-year program, directly after high school without pre-law study as in US), 1978;
(ii) Master of Science in Legal Studies (MSLS; a one-year program), Cornell University Law School, 1980 http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu ... ster-of-science.cfm
; and (iii) PhD law, from Department of Law, London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE), 1984.
* World Leaders; LSE people - alumni and staff. LSE, undated. http://www2.lse.ac.uk/aboutLSE/keyFacts/worldLeaders.aspx
("Tsai Ing-wen (b.1956)
PhD Law 1984
Vice-premier 2006- ")
*It turns out that The Department turns out two handfuls of PhD a year
MPhil/PhD Research Degrees. Department of Law, LSE, undated. http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections ... phd-completions.htm
--a small program, compared with Harvard.
Harvard Law School http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Law_School
("Each class in the three-year J.D. program has approximately 550 students")