Tsai Ing-wen wins big in Taiwan -- thanks in no small part to Carrie "We Connect" Lam!

 

I know she's waving but doesn't it look like Tsai Ing-wen

is making the "Five demands" gesture? ;b (Pic from here)

A cartoon that's making the Twitter rounds tonight  (Taiwan's cat lady 
thanking Piglet Carrie while Xinnie the Pooh looks on unhappily) :D

 
Is Carrie Lam a secret/double agent for anti-Beijing forces?  As improbable as this may seem, this possibility has been the subject of discussion for some time now in Hong Kong.  Granted that it's not all serious but it really can boggle the mind how, in less than a year, Hong Kong's most unpopular Chief Executive ever -- and that's saying quite a bit since the three others have included "Old Dumb Tung", a man jailed for corruption after leaving office and the much despised politician known as "the wolf" -- has caused so much chaos and unhappiness in Hong Kong and, in the process, contributed so much to making (Communist) China so hated and distrusted by much of the world! 

A case can be made for the suspension, then withdrawal, of the extradition bill Carrie Lam tried to foist upon Hong Kong as representing Beijing's biggest political retreat of President Xi Jinping's reign to date. The anti-extradition bill/pro-democracy protests that she sparked here in Hong Kong led to Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress uniting to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.  

This past November, thanks in no large part to widespread anger at -- and dissatisfaction with -- her government, the pro-democracy camp won big at Hong Kong's only completely democratic elections.  And just a few days into 2020, Wang Zhimin lost his position as head of the Liason Office and was demoted to a library job in a move that is a clear indicator that Beijing has realized that things have gone badly wrong in Hong Kong.

Over in Taiwan, things have not been going the way Beijing wants either.  Today has seen Tsai Ing-wen securing a second term as President of Taiwan with a record number of votes -- thanks in no small part to what's been happening in Hong Kong showing people in Taiwan that "One country, two systems" is not working and, more positively, how important it is to have democracy.  

In her victory speech, President Tsai stated that "With each presidential election, Taiwan is showing the world how much we cherish our free, democratic way of life".  And in a sign of great solidarity between Taiwan's ruling party and Hong Kong's pro-democracy protestors, from the stage of her political party's election night rally rang the proclamation, "Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times"!  (In turn, many Hong Kongers are celebrating Tsai Ing-wen's victory too!)         

More than once over the past seven months or so, Hong Kongers have noted that Carrie Lam's campaign slogan was "We connect".  While marching with thousands, even millions, of fellow protestors, we've said to one another: "She really connected -- us, that is!"  And now we can say that she's not only connected Hong Kongers but also connected Democrats and Republicans in the USA and, now, Taiwanese citizens with one another, and with Hong Kongers too!