Double Ten Day: Ma's speech =UPDATED=

UPDATED: Jon Sullivan has a great analysis of this speech

Quote from the snoozefest of speakery today:

"My fellow citizens: The people of both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese by ethnicity. Cross-strait relations are not international relations."

This is the same language that Ma used in his 2008 inaugural address where he not only brought out the ethnic links but also said sovereignty was not important in cross-strait issues. As I noted:

...the English text says "our common Chinese heritage" but the Chinese is explicit -- the people on the two sides of the Strait both belong to the Chinese race" (兩岸人民同屬中華民族).The second translation issue is even more interesting. Entirely dropped from the English text is the very next sentence, which says 中華民族智慧之高 which translates "the great intelligence/wisdom" of the Chinese race." 

It seems impossible to me that there could be anyone following events here who sees Ma as other than the ideologue he truly is, but humanity's capacity for self-delusion does seem rather infinite.

Far more interesting than Ma's ideological fantasies is his review of the New Economic Order:

In addition, the free economic pilot zones (FEPZs) have already entered the launch phase. The Executive Yuan has relaxed 12 regulations to dramatically streamline customs procedures applying to pilot zone firms when they outsource processing operations, so that new operating models based on smart logistics can be gradually established in these zones. The Shanghai Free Trade Zone officially opened recently, giving us yet another competitor. Therefore, we must step up efforts to open up our market. The Executive Yuan is actively deliberating on whether to allow other industrial activities in the FEPZs, such as the financial sector’s wealth and asset management services. This is the right direction. We should expand the scope of liberalization for both domestic and international financial and economic activities. This will help Taiwan to advance more quickly toward the goal of becoming a “free economic island.” We hope these liberalization measures, along with other industrial development plans, will generate at least NT$300 billion worth of private-sector investment and create more than 45,000 jobs in the next two years.

The bolded sentence is worth considering. Ma is essentially arguing that the financial industry come under the same rules and regs regarding taxation and labor as manufacturing firms in these 1960s style labor intensive industrial zones. As I have noted innumerable times, Ma was put into office with the backing of the financial industry (anyone noticed the housing bubble? Verily, the purpose of housing bubbles is to skim off middle class wealth) and I'm feeling a payback moment here in the President's assertion that such firms should have special exemptions from regulations....
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