Dr. Foun-Chung Fan: The Quest to Get Out the Vote for Lai Ching-te for the Taiwan Presidential Election 2024 Ep 265

January 13, 2024 is not just the date of the Taiwan presidential election; seats for the Legislative Yuan will also be elected on that day.

My guest on this episode of Talking Taiwan is Dr. Fan, the Coordinator of the Overseas William Lai (Lai Ching-te) for President Committee.

We talked about why he’s supporting Lai Ching-te and two grassroots efforts that are being organized get out the vote for Lai Ching-te and his vice presidential running mate Bi-khim Hsiao. The DPP has had a history of coming up with creative, innovative, grassroots campaign tactics for its presidential candidates. Dr. Fan also shared his perspective on the other two presidential candidates and why the election for the Legislative Yuan is just as important as the presidential election.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• Dr. Fan’s background and how he got interested and involved in Taiwan’s political situation
• How the Kaohsiung incident happened not long after Dr. Fan had gone to the United States
• How he met Trong Chai and  Peng Ming-min and came to understand more about Taiwan’s situation
• How Dr. Fan started meeting with U.S. senators and congressmen and tried to put pressure on Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo to give the people of Taiwan the right to assemble and to remove the black list
• The presidential election in Taiwan is especially important since China’s President, Xi Jinping, is no longer subject to any term limits
• That Taiwan should not fall into the hands of a party friendly with China
• How the Kuomintang (during the presidency of Ma Ying-jeou) advocated for Chinese students to be allowed to come to work in Taiwan, to shorten military service from one year to four months
• How if a comparison of Ma Ying-jeou’s presidency with Tsai Ing-wen’s, will show that the  tock market, economy and national GDP improved under Tsai Ing-wen
• How China is using the 1992 Consensus as the basis for its One China Policy
• How Xi Jinping has said that Taiwan will be unified with China
• Whether called Republic of China, or Taiwan, Xi Jinping considers it Taiwan independence
• Dr. Fan’s opinions of William Lai (Lai Ching-te) and Bi-khim Hsiao
• Why Dr. Fan is supporting William Lai (Lai Ching-te) and Bi-khim Hsiao
• How Lai Ching-te served as the mayor of Tainan and got re-elected with 70 percent vote
• The qualifications of William Lai (Lai Ching-te) and Bi-khim Hsiao
• Dr. Fan’s thoughts on TTP presidential candidate Ko Wen-je and KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi:
• How the KMT could support the legislator Ma Wen-chun who leaked national security information related to Taiwan’s development of submarines
• Two events being organized to encourage people to get out and vote for Lai Ching-te and Bi-khim Hsiao
• On December 13 an event is being organized for people in the U.S.  to make phone calls back to Taiwan urging people to vote on January 13
• How the January 13 election is not only for Taiwan’s President but also for the Legislative Yuan
• The importance of the election for the Legislative Yuan
• How in 2006 the KMT blocked passage of budget for the sale of submarines from the U.S. to Taiwan
• How people can participate in the phone call effort privately on their own by calling people within their own personal circles
• How the DPP has used creative, grassroots campaign to promote their candidates
• The merchandise created for the DPP presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian and Tsai Ing-wen to fundraise
• The 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally that helped Chen Shui-bian get elected in 2004
• Team Taiwan theme songs and merchandise
• The slogans used for the Lai-Hsiao ticket
• Overseas voters and supporters of Lai and Hsiao are encouraged to participate in the January 8^th event at National Taiwan University which will involve a press conference to showcase overseas support for Lai and Hsiao
• The overseas voters include people from the east and west coast of the US, Taiwanese associations, and groups from Thailand, Japan, East Asia, West Europe, East Europe, and South America, and a Hakka group
• The January 8^th event aims to encourage people to get out and vote
• How people can do their part to get out the vote even after December 13 by calling and asking others to vote on January 13
  

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Related Links:

The official website for DPP presidential candidate Lai Ching-te and vice presidential candidate Bi-khim Hsiao: https://taiwan2024.tw/

https://portaly.cc/teamtaiwan

William Lai (Lai Ching-te): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lai_Ching-te

Bi-khim Hsiao: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsiao_Bi-khim

The “Kaohsiung Incident” of 1979 (an article from Taiwan Communique): https://www.taiwandc.org/hst-1979.htm

Formosa Incident (an article from OFT- Outreach for Taiwan): https://oftaiwan.org/history/white-terror/formosa-incident/

Reports on the Kaohsiung Incident

Contemporary reports from 20 years ago shed light on the attitude of the authorities to the Incident’s aftermath (an article from the Taipei Times published in 1999): https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/local/archives/1999/12/10/0000014313

Trong Chai (aka Chai Trong-rong): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chai_Trong-rong

Peng Ming-min: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peng_Ming-min

Chiang Kai-shek: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek

Chiang Ching-kuo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Ching-kuo

Kuomintang (KMT): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang

Lee Teng-hui: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Teng-hui

Xi Jinping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping

China Removes Presidential Term Limits, Enabling Xi Jinping To Rule Indefinitely: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/11/592694991/china-removes-presidential-term-limits-enabling-xi-jinping-to-rule-indefinitely

Adolf Hitler: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler

Sunflower Movement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_Student_Movement

Ma Ying-jeou: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Ying-jeou

Tsai Ing-wen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsai_Ing-wen

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Progressive_Party

The 1992 Consensus is fake and Terry Gou sucks: https://laorencha.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-1992-consensus-is-fake-and-terry.html?fbclid=IwAR31OIuRIC-wfQoo78bQuKYXkyYaOMY4SfeWiO1Ot4izOG1rS1GI63k7B0I

The 1992 Consensus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Consensus

The 1992 Consensus: Why It Worked and Why It Fell Apart (an article from The Diplomat): https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/the-1992-consensus-why-it-worked-and-why-it-fell-apart/

Ko Wen-je: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko_Wen-je

Taiwan People’s Party (TPP): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_People%27s_Party

Hou You-yi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hou_Yu-ih

Taiwan premier confirms investigation into leak of sub secrets: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/5014979

Ma Wen-chun accusations outlined: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2023/10/06/2003807293

KMT’s Hou and newly named running mate Jaw Shau-kong register candidacy: https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202311240014

U.S. President George W. Bush: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush

Legislative Yuan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislative_Yuan

Lien Chan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lien_Chan

James Soong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Soong

Chen Shui-bian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Shui-bian

Taiwan 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally: https://archive.org/details/taiwan

Human chain protest spans Taiwan (an article from CNN): http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/02/28/taiwan.protest.reut/

The 228 massacre: https://228massacre.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_28_incident

https://www.taiwandc.org/228-intr.htm

On the trail of compaign paraphernalia: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2004/02/29/2003100635

KAWAII IN TAIWAN POLITICS: https://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/YinCChuang-KawaiiTaiwanPolitics.pdf

Taiwan’s Vibrant Election Culture: https://taiwantoday.tw/print.php?unit=4&post=4332

2012 elections: Tsai Ing-wen ahead | Homecoming of the piggybanks:

https://www.taiwandc.org/twcom/tc134-int.pdf

Bilingual Lai-Hsiao ‘Made in Taiwan’ meme goes viral: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/5045588

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