A few days ago, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said that “gambling is a new vacation concept for the whole family.” When an anti-gambling organization issued a recorded video rebuttal, Hu obstinately stuck to his guns, saying that “gambling is still common in our society, but if we bring it into the area of normal and legally regulated activities, we generally refer to it as ‘gaming.’”
To publicly endorse casino gambling in the run-up to a July 7 referendum in Matsu on whether to allow casinos there seems to be an ill-intended attempt to turn Taiwan into an offshore money laundering center for China.
To support his point of view, Hu used Las Vegas as an example, saying that the US city cleaned up its casinos and turned the place into a family holiday resort during the 1990s. However, the MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park, which represented the biggest investment, was in trouble after only nine months.
In 2009, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) promoted a referendum on gambling in Penghu on the condition that gambling would not be legalized on Taiwan proper under Ma’s watch. Hu, however, thinks that “we should not look upon ‘gaming’ as some kind of ‘compensation’ and only allow the establishment of special zones in more slowly developing areas,” and is thus promoting the establishment of a special gambling district in Greater Taichung. The intent behind the text which would allow gambling in the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例) is finally revealed.
Due to its own incompetence, the KMT-run central government hopes a benevolent China will come to its rescue, and in the same way, because it is unwilling to improve transportation on Matsu, it now hopes big business will do so as part of their casino developments.
In terms of controlling law and order at casinos, Hu, who lacks all ability to maintain law and order in his city, is the least qualified of all mayors to promote casinos. The lethal shooting of alleged gang leader Weng Chi-nan (翁奇楠) in 2010 seemed to involve top city government officials and the case still has not been solved satisfactorily.
The publication of a survey into government efficiency revealed that Greater Taichung ranked lowest in terms of law and order, fire prevention and transportation, and fourth from the bottom in education. Netizens joke about a Greater Taichung hotel that opened a school by calling it “vertical integration.” One can only wonder if Hu’s single-minded push to allow gambling is also an attempt at “vertical integration” by creating a positive effect for the peripheral businesses surrounding the gambling industry.
The popular movement against gambling managed to win the battle in the Penghu gambling referendum three years ago and it embarrassed Ma, who has never dared to broach the subject since. However, the Matsu gambling referendum next month will see the gambling industry sink its teeth into local councils with councilors broaching the subject during interpellations and mayors responding by giving their support to gambling initiatives. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) had barely stepped down from her post as interim Democratic Progressive Party chairperson before she announced her support for developing a gambling tourism industry. Is this the policy direction of the nation’s biggest opposition party?
One can only wonder if Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) will remain true to the anti-gambling stance he took as a lawmaker. At this crucial moment in time, voters will pay close attention to whether their politicians back the right side.
Pan Han-shen is the spokesman for the Green Party Taiwan.
Translated by Perry Svensson
As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reach the point of confidence that they can start and win a war to destroy the democratic culture on Taiwan, any future decision to do so may likely be directly affected by the CCP’s ability to promote wars on the Korean Peninsula, in Europe, or, as most recently, on the Indian subcontinent. It stands to reason that the Trump Administration’s success early on May 10 to convince India and Pakistan to deescalate their four-day conventional military conflict, assessed to be close to a nuclear weapons exchange, also served to
The recent aerial clash between Pakistan and India offers a glimpse of how China is narrowing the gap in military airpower with the US. It is a warning not just for Washington, but for Taipei, too. Claims from both sides remain contested, but a broader picture is emerging among experts who track China’s air force and fighter jet development: Beijing’s defense systems are growing increasingly credible. Pakistan said its deployment of Chinese-manufactured J-10C fighters downed multiple Indian aircraft, although New Delhi denies this. There are caveats: Even if Islamabad’s claims are accurate, Beijing’s equipment does not offer a direct comparison
After India’s punitive precision strikes targeting what New Delhi called nine terrorist sites inside Pakistan, reactions poured in from governments around the world. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) issued a statement on May 10, opposing terrorism and expressing concern about the growing tensions between India and Pakistan. The statement noticeably expressed support for the Indian government’s right to maintain its national security and act against terrorists. The ministry said that it “works closely with democratic partners worldwide in staunch opposition to international terrorism” and expressed “firm support for all legitimate and necessary actions taken by the government of India
Taiwan aims to elevate its strategic position in supply chains by becoming an artificial intelligence (AI) hub for Nvidia Corp, providing everything from advanced chips and components to servers, in an attempt to edge out its closest rival in the region, South Korea. Taiwan’s importance in the AI ecosystem was clearly reflected in three major announcements Nvidia made during this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei. First, the US company’s number of partners in Taiwan would surge to 122 this year, from 34 last year, according to a slide shown during CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech on Monday last week.