Self-inflated intellectuals
While I was waiting for Lady D to get ready to go to Grandma Nitti's for breakfast -- well brunch, since we didn't get out of bed until 11.30 this morning -- I flipped through the Chinese-language news channels, and saw Li Ao deliver another groundbreaking wonder of intellectual might during his hugely overrated tour of China.
First, he showed his total lack of anything even resembling a grip on reality by saying that "there is no Taiwan independence problem, there is only a US-China problem." I wonder where he spent the last 25-30 years. You may not support de jure Taiwan indpendence (important distinction, since Taiwan has been a de facto independent country since the Japanese left after WWII) for Taiwan, which is fine, but no one with his head screwed on right can deny that there is a Taiwan independence issue. Oh, I forgot, that's exactly what the PRC's foreign ministry spokesman said. Well, that explains it, then.
He then continued to show what is either ignorance of, or contempt for, democracy by trying to prove that the calls for independence (which, of course, he had just said is a non-issue) are in fact empty, and said that this is proven by the fact that the DPP now has both the presidency and the premiership, but Taiwan still hasn't declared its independence or changed the Constitution. That could have been done under the authoritarian dictatorship if the Chiangs wanted it for this personal possession of theirs called Taiwan. Under a democratic government, however, public support is needed as well as a qualified legislative majority.
When I first came here in the late 1980s, this Li guy had a show on TV where he did nothing but whine about his divorce and talk about all the lawsuits he had brought against his ex-wife. He got elected in the last legislative election by a few thousand votes thanks to Taiwan's now obsolete multi-member district electoral system by attracting enough crackpots to wiggle his way in. He'll be out by the next election, and that's a good thing. Having clowns like this participating in the lawmaking process would spell doom for older democracies than Taiwan. But then, I don't particularly care for this guy and his antics.