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

Dec 14, 2023

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January 13, 2024 is not just the date of Taiwan’s 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 13an 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 8th 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 8th 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