DPP and the Rong Bang Project: Should we trust them?

Politics Taiwan Politics
1

The Rong Bang Project (榮邦專案) ensures US$250 million as a fund helping Taiwanese businessmen investing in Taiwan’s friend countries in Central America.

One of the agencies overseeing this project is Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund.

In my opinion, many of the DPP appointed administrators do not have enough professional or international experience to be carrying out such a complicated project. Furthermore, given that so many of the DPP appointees have strong connections with the crony-filled and corrupt Presidential Office, how do we know that they will appropriate the funds in a proper manner? :smiling_imp:

Take Chou Yen-Shin for example. icdf.org.tw/english/e_about_ … m075_id=34

One of President Chen’s young advisors with lots of connections within the Presidential Office, Mr. Chou went from being a Japanese teacher at Global Village :smiling_imp: to senior positions within the DPP in a matter of a few years – a true apparatchik indeed :smiling_imp: Every single position he has been appointed to has been the result of his political connections.

Based on his limited work experience, average academic background, and cultural relativism (told me you’re in Taiwan now, you have to do things the Taiwanese way), is he really the best candidate for leading Policy and Planning within Taiwan’s international development organization?

I guess working in close proximity to people such as Chen Che-nan and Yu Shyi-kun at the Presidential Office are good enough for such a position in the minds of the DPP :smiling_imp:

Regardless of whether you support the DPP or KMT, I think directors that are partially responsible for administrating a US$250 million project should have a little more experience, don’t you? Most of the non-political people in international development have many, many years of experience in the development, agriculture, and finance sectors. In KMT times, the political appointees also had a lot of experience with organizations such as the World Bank or Asian Development Bank.

In my opinion, this is another example of the cronyism so typical within the DPP. And based on my experience, where I was given excellent performance reviews and was then summarily dismissed, this is another example of how so many people associated with Chen’s inner circle at the Presidential Office have no hesitation in violating the human rights of foreigners. It just makes me cringe that such inexperienced political appointees are at the helm. Surely, the DPP has more seasoned people than this.

The DPP should: 1. Appoint people who treat foreigners fairly
2. Appoint people with work experience outside of the political arena.

2

Instead of a “New DPP” started by Che Guevara Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) … (A revolution in Taipei County? what a joke and embarrassment using a communist/marxist as an election logo). DPP should re-mold itself and try to get people to vote green for the cause not for the people involved. I call it the PNP (Principle Not Persons party). DPP is finished the way its heading now with such weak leadership. DPP HQ may as well as start renting the bottom floor of their offices back to the car washers so they can have some

3

While campaigning last weekend, President Chen also disclosed the amount of money Taiwan spent on maintaining ties with Senegal in the past few years – NT$5 billion.

The president had openly admitted to “diplomacy for suckers” – a reference to the large sums of money Taiwan spends on buying up alliances from impoverished developing countries and has now revealed details of confidential diplomatic budgets.

I am confused here :smiling_imp: Chen appoints novices to international development organizations, calls Taiwan’s international development efforts overseas as “diplomacy for suckers,” discloses how much money was spent on maintaining ties with Senegal for ten years, and proposes spending US$250 million in Latin America. :unamused: :unamused:

chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/deta … B&id=71508

4

Chen is a novice himself, shooting himself in the foot at nearly every opportunity for improvement in international relations.

5

It certainly is looking that way.

You too? Dismissed from where? If you have talked about this on Forumosa, I missed it. Please give us a link or PM me.

6

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Taiwanese business community take the money ear marked for Central America development and invest it in the PRC somehow.

But I’m a cynic by nature.

Chewycorns,

Would you be against the DPP attempt at foriegn policy, if you were “downsized” when the pan-Blue were in office?

7

It doesn’t matter where the investment money goes: either to a backward country like China or a rising region like Central America. In the end, Taiwan will win because there are always payoffs using cheap labor or cheap raw materials.

This is how Hong Kong was successful until it was taken over by the PRC. Chewycorn was most likely fired from his job because he was red flagged at some point for being unprofessional and for lacking enthuasiam in his profession.

Well, that’s life. Just don’t be a sore crybaby like the KMT. Ok?

8

XGDL,

I don’t pretend to understand the first sentence, as your grasp of economics must be from some school of social science unfamiliar to the rest of the educated world.

But we can just skip all that and focus on a different matter.

Could you remind us which east Asian nation trails all others in terms of economic development this year? Is it “unsuccessful” Hong Kong?

9

It’s because of China, Hong Kong is losing.

10

Losing what? It’s independence… :laughing:

11

Heh, I guess you haven’t been keeping up with the press.

Compare Hong Kong and Taiwan’s GDP growth over the past 2 years, and explain to us why Taiwan is “losing”.

12

Am I alone in noting the irony of Xianggangduli’s Union Jack Avatar? But looks like you’re getting a hiding from the pro-China lobby and I’m a sucker for the underdog.

Yes, HK has managed to ride China’s coat tails this past year but that’s by no means anything to do with good management from the pro-Beijing lackey government here . . so what is your point CCTang? Oh I see, a swipe at Taiwan, no?

Be careful about boasting at this point CCT and AC, China’s rise to prosperity is littered with failures. Notice all those ex-PLA soldiers locking in the Mayor of Shenzhen yesterday? Therein lies very frightening potential. Add that to the steep rise in whole villages and townships fighting toe to toe with the authorities and it is starting to look like there’s a hell of a grass root movement against the highly unequal but, yes, rapid economic development.

Since these are not students, I’d suggest the tanks might not prove so effectivve next time around.

HG

13

[quote=“XiangGangDuLi”]Chewycorn was most likely fired from his job because he was red flagged at some point for being unprofessional and for lacking enthuasiam in his profession.

[/quote]

That is funny. :smiling_imp: I was given an official award previously and a 4/5 (offical chop bureaucratic evaluation) on my performance evaluation three months before being dismissed – the same as the DPP director and my managing editor. :smiling_imp: I was fired because I was blunt enought to point out some mistakes that the new appointees were making and for demanding the same basic rights as other employees. In particular they violated the labor law in regards to my contract. I was also particularly critical of one women (my immediate supervisor), who was promoted to the managing editor position even though she had no journalism or editing background. In other words, she was hopelessly mismatched for the position. Privately, many people within the organization told me that she was not very good at her job. Furthermore, she does not know how to handle foreigners. What a horrible environment indeed. Scientists who can’t communicate properly in English have no business being managing editors. I butted heads with her on a few issues. This goes to the heart of what the DPP is against — outsiders. They want conformity – they want everyone to be Hoklo. Throughout my disagreement with her, the new DPP director did nothing. He was a weak eunich.

In today’s Taipei Times, it mentions that 400 employees at the Presidential Office are under investigation for their ties with Chen Che-Nan. This should get interesting :smiling_imp:

AC,

I disagree with a lot of the pro-blue administrators as well. However, even though they probably disagree with my neo-con foreign policy views, they were professional enough to realize I was bloody good at my job. Furthermore, I realize that most of them were very professional and capable administrators. I still keep in contact with lots of them.

Value in diversity.

14

Heh, I guess you haven’t been keeping up with the press.

Compare Hong Kong and Taiwan’s GDP growth over the past 2 years, and explain to us why Taiwan is “losing”.[/quote]

Why do you hate Taiwan? :fume:

15

So Central America is somehow a “rising region,” but mainland China, with 9% GNP growth, is somehow “backward?” Right.

Yes, and I guess everything just went down the toilet the very moment they hoisted up the five stars. :unamused:

This is a bunch of ad hominem bullshit. I guess you could never even accept the possibility that many who owe their jobs to the DPP are either corrupt, incompetent or both.

You’re being rather selective with your time frame, there. If you look back just a bit longer, you’ll see Taiwan recovering much better for a couple of years than HK was. In those couple of years, no small part of HK’s slow or non-existent growth can be attributed to the housing policies of Beijing’s dandy, Tung Chee-hwa. Two years is too short of a time frame to compare the results of economic policies.

16

You’re right about that Turkey, if we looked at the longer term economic picture, then Hong Kong doesn’t quite shine so brightly.

But I don’t buy your explanation that everything can be “attributed to the housing policies” of Tung. He didn’t create the housing market… no more than Alan Greenspan has created the housing market in the United States. The HK property market was due for a major correction, and it was about time it finally happened.

In fact, I’d argue that east Asia in general, and HK in particular, has gone through a pretty awkward period of economic growth since the handover in '97. You start with the economic crisis of '97 (which lingered for a good 3 years), follow it up by HK’s extended property market collapse, and wrap it up with SARS… all of which happens at the same time HK was trying to come to terms with a new level of economic cooperation with the mainland.

But that’s a different discussion.

Staying focused on matters at hand, I’d say the following: the past 2 years has been largely a period of low inflation coupled with uninterrupted economic growth for most. Even Japan has started to come out of its funk. Since the conclusion of SARS, there have been few economic disruptions for east Asia. Even the nations of southeast/south Asia… India, Pakistan, etc… (other than the direct effects of the tsunami)… have done very well the past two years. Taiwan’s weaker economic growth is unique in that light.

First off, “ex-PLA” doesn’t indicate former soldiers by any stretch of the imagination. The PLA (especially the PLA of the '80s) was a huge organizational conglomerate that included workers of every stripe… not the army. The ones involved in Shenzhen were involved in construction and development, and I doubt the vast majority have even fired a weapon.

Second, I was more concerned 6 years ago when tens of millions of industrial workers were being booted from their supposedly secure iron bowl. The potential for social upheaveal today is minor in comparison.

Third, the reports of villages fighting “toe to toe” with the authorities are greatly exaggerated by the Guardian and their ilk. Remember their report that the local legislator was beaten until his neck was broken, and his eye dangled out of its socket…? A few days later, the guy shows up with a fading bruise on his arm. Typical muckraking journalism by the Guardian. There is a political movement by a few activists on the mainland to try to generate grassroots support from the villages.

The fact that they’re in Guangzhou says why they’re destined to fail. These are not farmers fighting for food to feed their starving children; these are farmers fighting for a share of growing profits so that they can finally afford a second home, or an imported car. Fair request or not, the point is there is no fertile ground here for this sort of “uprising” to take hold. This isn’t Yan’an in the '30s.

China has potential for more dramatic failures in the next 10-20 years; there’s no doubt about that. Frankly, if we look at the examples of other larger developing nations that have faced similar challenges before (Brazil, Indonesia, India)… we have to recognize that in the post-colonial world, no nation has successfully grown wealthy while carrying the burden of this much poverty.

Now, let that be a dose of realism (and an indictment of the hypocrisy/selfishness of the developed world).

China has surpassed all expectations for the past 25 years, even those of the Beijing administration. These successes are to be celebrated, and they rightly inspire optimism. You want to talk about development “littered” with failure? Look at the real world. For the vast majority of the world’s population that weren’t fortunate enough to be born in a developed nation, economic growth is failure.

For those who argue that Hong Kong has been “trashed” under Chinese rule, for those who believe Hong Kong can only be properly administered by authoritarian British governship… I feel justified in pushing the statistics in their face. Hong Kong, on the coat-tail of China (right where it should be), is beginning to thrive. Good for Hong Kong, good for China.

17

Heung Gong Duek Lei Man Sui!

18

Go tell it to the marines (the PLA marines).

CCTang, a tad busy just now, but first off you are being a tad sloppy with your truths. Those soldiers were from the engineer corp. While they might not be the SAS, the engineers do neat things like blow shit up, etc, and are trained in basic infantry I don’t want to overplay the risk, in fact I do think it is minimal, nor do I want to see it - a China implosion would be an as yet unheralded global disaster - still, it is best tell it like it is, no?

Agree totally with the regional environment from 1997 and the impact to HK, by the way.

Not just villages, cities. Sorry too busy to hunt them down. By the way, using the Guardian’s one disaster as an example of the total lack of credibility in the coverage of these disputes is disingenius.

HG

19

[quote=“cctang”]
But I don’t buy your explanation that everything can be “attributed to the housing policies” of Tung.[/quote]
Well that’s good that you don’t buy into that, because that’s not what I said. I’ll comment more on Tung’s housing policy when I have some free time.

20

I seriously doubt these members of the engineer corps were trained as “basic infantry”. Until we get more specifics as to the unit involved, there’s no way to know for sure. But again, many of the units nominally involved with the PLA (especially 15 years ago) were anything but military front-line units. And unlike in other armed forces, not all PLA recruits go through a standardized “boot camp” experience. That is to say, many members of the PLA were not even soldiers under a strict interpretation of the phrase.

The odds of a front-line unit with actual military training being decomissioned en masse and assigned over to become members of a construction company are basically nil.

But regardless, the details aren’t really all that significant.

I’ll just assert again that I don’t believe urban protests are getting worse; far from it. Beijing statistics showing growing number of protests just shows a growing willingness to acknowledge them. The tension that existed in Chinese cities 5-8 years ago (when many workers in the prime of their lives weren’t sure they’d be able to feed their families) has faded dramatically.