Two months ago, Ma Ying-jeou beat Wang Jin-pyng to become the new chairman of the KMT. This weekend there’s an interesting contrast of news articles on the two men involved in that race. On Friday evening, Yahoo! Taiwan released a story on their website that (election winner) Ma Ying-jeou had been assassinated – which came as a bit of a surprise to the man himself:

The general manager of the Internet company, who was in the U.S. when the incident occurred, telephoned Ma to present the company’s deepest apologies.

The company promised to strengthen its internal management in order to avoid similar episode from occurring again in the future.

Ma stated that, since the company has taken steps to announce that it was at fault, he will not pursue the matter further. Ma expressed that the mistake did not cause him any inconvenience. “My mother did not even notice it,” he joked, adding that his bodyguards might have been troubled by it.

Meanwhile, loser Wang Jin-pyng has been the recipient of the sort of puff-piece in the Taipei Times usually reserved for the Greenest of independence supporters:

In addition to calligraphy, Wang is a talented athlete.

He was a senior-high-school champion in the long jump, triple jump, shot put and tennis. He was also captain of his university’s tennis team and won a bronze medal in inter-collegiate tennis competitions when he was in his senior year.

No matter how hectic or onerous things are at the legislature, Wang usually looks serene and calm. He attributes his serenity to inborn temperament.

Fake assassination stories and gratuitous praise for an election loser – who’d expect that in Taiwan?