Ma Ying-jeou's FIT Program not Open to All Chinese Subjects (Dalai Lama and Ai Weiwei Take Notice)

Saturday October 29, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

As Ma tried to salvage his infamous and mis-calculated 6-3-3 promise, one of the methods he used was to open Taiwan up to visitors from China. That was supposedly going to contribute great dollars to Taiwan's income, but even before it happened those that did the math realized that the monetary gain even at the full amount of visitors would still be minimal. Well the full amount of visitors from China never materialized and the monetary gain for Taiwan, despite Ma's great hype, was even less than minimal.

Still despearate, Ma then opened the floodgates by not only allowing tours from China but also allowing free independent travelers (FITs). This has created different problems for the phony pony. One obvious one was the fact that Ma did not want to let the Dalai Lama visit Taiwan. This was supposedly "not appropriate" even though the Dalai Lama visited most any other country in the world. You see the Dalai Lama is allegedly a Chinese citizen, but he is not the politically correct type of citizen that Ma Ying-jeou could handle. (Another reason why citizens call Ma, Ma Ying-joke.)

Now however, another challenge is also testing Ma. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum is hosting an art show by the dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Taiwan citizens are asking, why does not Ma give Ai Weiwei a formal invitation, especially since Ma is so fond of stressing the Chinese side of Taiwan's heritage? So far nothing from the silent Ma. The art show is in the meantime being called "Ai Weiwei Absent."

Ai's wife, Lu Qing is due to visit Taiwan later during the show. Big question?? Will she get a visa, and will she then be under a gag rule for the press? Stay tuned to see how the phony pony handles this one.