Article in Mercury on Taiwanese Election
Please email jboudreau@mercurynews.com if this article annoys you - Taiwanese in Bay Area return to island for closely fought presidential election
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Dear Mr. Boudreau,
I was excited to see that SJ Mercury covering the Taiwanese elections in a couple of articles this morning. I was raised in the US from a Taiwanese immigrant family, and only recently have tried to understand the Taiwanese political situation, but even to me, your description of the candidate positions underneath the candidate photos are politically biased
Under Ma Ying-Jeau, the positional description you wrote was:
“Wants closer ties with China in hopes of economic growth and possible reunification.”
Reunification with China is definitely NOT one of his position statements. The official endorsement of Chinese reunification with the Taiwanese citizenship is akin to political suicide; by printing this, you are misrepresenting his position and aiding the DPP rhetoric against him.
Under Frank Hsieh, the positional description you wrote was:
“Wants closer ties with China but sees a danger in becoming too economically dependant on the mainland.”
Although this may be his public statement, the DPP positions on restricting chinese imports, limiting business investments by Taiwanese in the Chinese marketplace, even the issue of allowing Chinese students to attend Taiwanese universities, their actions are consistently highly protectionist and cannot be reconciled with the statement “wants closer ties with China”.
I feel that you should either be consistent in writing the official party statement, however misleading, for both candidates, or write the worst arguments against each candidate. The issue is consistency.
Regards,
Harrison Hung