“Lee Myung-bak Fervor” Sweeping Hong Kong, Taiwan

In Hong Kong and Taiwan, people are trying to benchmark Korea’s President-elect Lee Myung-bak. Lee is described in Hong Kong as “a statesman who is capable of reading the zeitgeist,” while in Taiwan he is depicted as “a politician who can turn the economy around.”

Hong Kong Media, “From Construction Site Manager to Environmental Manager”-

Hong Kong’s English daily South China Morning Post wrote in a column yesterday, “A Korean Model,” that Donald Chang, the Chief Executive (CE) of Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, should learn to read the zeitgeist from Lee.

The paper also said, “A former CEO of a construction company that built bridges, roads and houses, changed the development focus of Seoul from civil engineering to quality-of-life.”

Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly), another Hong Kong weekly, wrote on the same day, “Lee set a precedent of becoming a CEO turned head-of-state.” It added that Lee taking office has “damaged the traditional political model shaped by petty politicians” and has ended an era of “ideological idealism.”

Presidential Candidates Benchmarking Lee’s Pledges-

In Taiwan, which will hold its presidential election on March 22, 2008, followed by a general election on January 12, presidential candidates are trying to learn from Lee even more ardently.

Presidential candidates from both ruling and opposition parties who launched presidential campaigns on December 23 are busy calling themselves “Taiwan’s Lee Myung-bak,” to let voters know they will revive the economy of their country.

Su Tseng Chang, the Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate and former Kaohsiung mayor, said in a TV commercial that he is Taiwan’s Lee Myung-bak in that he was instrumental in cleaning up the polluted waters of “Love River.”

Ma Ying-jeou, a Taiwanese presidential-hopeful from the People’s First Party, criticized poor economic policies during the reign of the incumbent President Chen Shui-bian and introduced his “623 project,” a Taiwanese version of Lee’s “747 project.”

Under this project, he will help raise Taiwan’s GDP per capita to $20,000 by 2011 and achieve an unemployment rate of three per cent or under, which is similar to Lee promising to raise Korea’s GDP per capita to $40,000, or 7% per annum, to make Korea the world’s 7th largest economy. In Taiwan, too, revitalizing the economy is the first campaign priority as its economic growth rate has dropped to an annual 4% range since the Democratic Progressive Party took office.

orionha@donga.com