Although cross straight is certainly an important issue, it seems to me more people care about work (conditions, pay, holidays etc), cleaner air, less good scandals, cleaner (or not) energy sources etc. They care about these a lot more than chi.a in a political sense. Ironically, in reality they they care far more about supporting China (ie. Cheaper iPhones) and less about pollution (convenience rules) and higher pay (quitting culture).
a funny world. If anything most countries have in common its a lazy, entitled unintelligent population base, hence why we get played like pawns day in day out. All talk, no action.
Ma was bad for the economy too. It’s kind of a long-term trend. The country needs to do better at innovating and creating global brands, not just keep shipping its labor-intensive industries to other countries, whether it be China or SEA.
Tsai is doing way better in the the overall economic trend. Although that probably won’t last because the US is probably headed for another financial collapse.
The lack of brand building or being innovative with user centric business here in Taiwan isn’t just a hurdle for the government to overcome. The older generation with the majority of the wealth is clinging on to what worked for them in the past, and refusing to acknowledge that the world has passed on by.
As for getting people to invest in new technology, Tsai or any future administrations would have tackle land reform first. What’s the use of investing in risky start ups when you can just horde a bunch of real estate without paying penalty and make 10% or more down the road, risk-free?
There are lots of systematic issues with Taiwan that are left to us as “legacy” of the KMT’s authoritarian regime. Anyone who dares to make changes would face immense backlash. Just look at the retirement reform. Since KMT created these issues, they are the ideal candidates for admitting the need for reforms and make changes when they have total control.
Of course, we aren’t lucky enough to have such an mature KMT party, and it’s left to the DPP or any other opposition parties to make such changes. So it is almost no surprise they would see their approval rating plummet.
The DPP or any other pro-independence party in the future would always face the same impossible situation. Their supporters want to see changes immediately, and when those changes happen slowly, as things do in a democratic process, they lose approval rating. Their oppositions want to see them achieve nothing, so when they push for any kind of reform, they lose approval rating. Essentially all KMT and other CCP puppets have to do is to stall the reforms, and the DPP or any other reform oriented party would be torn apart by their own supporters.
Agree, but you are letting the DPP off the hook. They have been useless independent of the KMT. Cutting national holidays and the new labour laws are completely their own decisions.
Do you guys not feel the dpp related economic “success” is due to both Chi a getting stricter on environment and corruption and Taiwan doing exactly not that.
I hate kmt, nearly as much as I hate xi and his cronies, but the cop is shit through and through. Tsai was myYlast little hope. Sadly the only guy that did shit in the cop was arrested and imprisoned. As shottyYas he was too, he DID things for Taiwan (and himself/family/friends). This birch is that without the hardcore do itFor Fuck off attitude. Maybe Ke P will be next? Seems to me both dpp and kmt can go the way of the opium genocide that got Taiwan rich… Wink wink. Sigh.
It will be the people and the businesses that decide Taiwan’s fate, government had their chance and doesn’t look bright. Taiwan could so easily be a greeny environmental miracle that goes unbiased and basically pull an Asian Switzerland and save its international ass, but there seems no hope. From up top or down on The ground.
Best hope for Taiwan is people with passion open up companies here and grow big and gain influence. The long term change.
What’s the catalyst that will allow this to happen (or at least to a greater extent than before)? If you don’t think it has happened in the last 30-40 years or so.
Ive been working in private high tech industry for.thr gits of.twenty years here.
The real problem is the isolation of Taiwan. You can’t be a global trade center and innovator and be as isolated as Taiwan is now.
You need skilled immigrants to connect with the world.
Also lack of international connections and organisations is painful.
That’s interesting. I thought the global IT supply chain still has very deep links with Taiwan companies, at least with firms headquartered in Taiwan although a big and growing part of their operations may be in China & elsewhere. As for skilled immigrants, it seems Taiwan’s government has never welcomed skilled immigrants with open arms regardless of which party is in power.
It’s hard not to be isolated when you live on a frickin’ island.
Taiwan needs to make some noise and draw attention to itself. How? By almost any conceivable means possible. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you say or what you do unless you’ve got eyeballs turned your way.
Some jingoism might help. If expats in the US all put big ROC flags on their houses and cars and businesses, that would be a reminder that Taiwan exists.
The only thing I know is that the turnaround won’t come from the government. Outside of changing policy on immigration and visa laws, they should stay far awwwwaaaayyy from the private sector.
Every government scheme, every hub, every program etc is absolutely terrible and a waste of public funds. This includes the Go South policy Any change here will not come from Top Down Policy.
Labor reform was a good example of them trying to get things done, and got it done, and then faced immense push backs from all sides. They couldn’t raise the minimum wage along with the first reform, and tried to have some balance by giving some flexibility to both the employers and the laborers.
But in the end, the employers simply stops doing business beyond 8 hours, which would be great if the wages isn’t so low that the laborers couldn’t survive on a 8 hour salary…
So the DPP got both small business owners and labors upset at them, even though the system laid out in the first labor reform was sound. Those also happened to be the majority of DPP supporters.
I’d like to see who can get the minimum wage raised, they can also change the labor reform back to the first version.
Aside from that, the DPP has pushed through many important legislations. They might not have an immediate effect, but is critical in the long run, especially in terms of Aboriginal rights.
There are two things they need to get done before Tsai’s term is up though. 1. Land reform. We need to have a meaningful property tax for people owning more than one house, and put an end to housing price speculation. 2. Referendum act reform. It’s the only weapon Taiwan can arm itself to make the intentional community hear what Taiwan really wants.
Not really. At least not from the view of the tech industry. For officials to be corrupt, the common scheme involves real estates, but even though Taiwan hasn’t really fixed those loop holes, the news about pending reforms has driven real estate values down. So this round of economy bloom isn’t driving by the housing market.
If the DPP can’t get their acts together, then that would probably happen though.
I think your assessment is pretty good as to.hoe the reforms were rolled out. This country has a negative attacking streak and a lot of businesses are very happy with the way things are. Same with many of the pensioners and governing class.
But economy blooming?
Is the economy doing well here?
Because I’d hate to see it do badly then!
I work in the solid core banking and financial district in Taipei, there is absolutely no buzz and almost no foreign investment whatsoever.
Most of Taipei looks really run down and that’s the land under heaven. As for the rest of the country. Urrgghh.
Local noodle shops have to keep cutting the ingredients as folks don’t have money to pay for proper food.
BrianJones, I thought you said you worked in the tech industry? But speaking of finance, when was the last time Taiwan had a high-profile IPO that garnered global attention? I recall a few years back there was hype that Taiwan would have a few bio-tech companies that would IPO and dominate the world in bio-tech, are there any? Taiwan still has lots of well-known IT/tech companies deeply embedded in the global IT supply chain but these companies were all founded in the 1990s/1980s or earlier.
I work in med bio related industries. Taiwan does pretty well but the wealth doesn’t really trickle down and there’s no scale. They never join together and compete at the serious global level except maybe as OEM vendors.
For instance most of the world’s glucose biosensors are made in Taiwan by up to 30 local companies but not one company is a global name. Their patents and expertise resides in cost down and rapid response times.
The owners do well from those businesses but the staff aren’t well paid. They have a stable job, get paid on time mostly, but little to no benefits and stock sharing and bonuses are almost non existent for most.
