Baker-gate scandal highlights the risks all Taiwanese businesspeople take when investing in Communist China
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/15
By: David Spencer, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer
Taiwanese politics has been rocked by a huge scandal this week.
It is not the scurrilous attempts by the former KMT candidate for Mayor of Taipei, Ting
(Photo from Wu Pao Chun’s Facebook www.facebook.com/wupaochun) (By Central News Agency)
Shou-chung (丁守中), to undermine the election of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je to a second term in office.
Instead, the whole country is debating ‘baker-gate.’ This term may not have actually been used yet to describe the political scandal that has engulfed popular Taiwanese baker Wu Pao-chun (吳寶春), but all big political scandals need a ‘-gate’ suffix and ‘baker-gate’ seems the most appropriate one here.
The first thing to say about Wu Pao-chun is that he bakes really good bread. Anyone who has queued up outside his bakery on Sihwei Road in Kaohsiung, or its branches in Taipei or Taichung will attest to the fact that, in a country with no shortage of bakeries at the moment, his products are a cut above the rest.
Until earlier this week, the closest Wu had got to being involved in politics was an off-the-cuff comment back in 2016 that he had no plans to invest in China because, while there are 1.3 billion people in the Chinese market, the rest of the world’s market is more than 5.7 billion. [FULL STORY]
