Tsai's Biggest Accomplishments Thus Far

Lowered economic dependence on China without any negative side effects. Especially in tourism, it was all doom and gloom when China wanted to limit incoming tourists.
Pension reforms. It had to happen sooner or later. It took a lot of guts to do that. She did that because she knew it was for the good of the country, even though it cost a lot politically.

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Good points ! Fortunately the 18%ers were never going to vote dpp I think. They sure made a lot of noise.

The govt finances are in excellent shape I believeā€¦The income tax cuts really helped me also. When I earned 32k per month in my first job I had to pay tax on that, it was really unfair I felt.

Looks like a new deduction available also.

Seriously itā€™s hard to leave Taiwan with all these tax deductions can save a lot more here (while drinking my two bucks coffee) ! :sunglasses:

Families of four with two children under the age of five will be exempt from tax if their annual income is less than NT$1,232,000.

In addition, Tsai said that the four standard deductions have been increased. Starting this year, the standard deduction has increased from NT$90,000 to NT$120,000. The special deduction has been increased from NT$128,000 to NT$200,000.

The amount for the pre-school deduction has been increased from NT$25,000 to NT$120,000, and the special deduction for physical and mental disabilities has been increased from NT$128,000 to NT$200,000.

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Impressive !
Iā€™d rather they spent some of the money cleaning the place up but heyā€¦Taiwan. itā€™s getting there in its own good timeā€¦

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I donā€™t want to side track the discussion, which is rolling nicely here. But I do wish to point out as an asideā€”if only for @Brianjonesā€”that Taiwan currently has a curious ā€œdual trackā€ transitional justice process underway: one committee dealing with the damage done during the KMT dictatorship (aka White Terror), and another dealing with (or not, depending on who you ask) Indigenous historical and transitional justice. Canadaā€™s Indian Residential Schools TRC is relevant to the second track, as was Ry Moranā€™s visit earlier this year.

Now back on topic!

Guy

I was under the impression most of the roads are the responsibility of the city and municipal governments, and only highways and express ways are the responsibility of the central government? Is this not the case?

Traffic, laws, punishment, etc ā€¦

Have you got the stones to debate my huge giant awesome brain? That is the question

Isnā€™t a lot of that local still?

Just compare enforcement in Taipei to what you see in e.g. Hualien.

She got to rule the rooster

I am not sure how familiar you are with the taiwanese system of governance, but they have local elections here as well in which city residents choose their mayor, city council etc.

The municipal authorities get their mandate from the city residents, not from Tsai, so it would be seen as interfering with local autonomy for Tsai to tell the e.g. Kaohsiung mayor how to deal with some bad traffic

And besides, road conditons really the first thing that comes to your mind when commenting on how to judge the president?

Are drunk driving laws, imprisonment, police enforcement, licensing, traffic rules, traffic signs, federally mandated driving education, etc different in each county?

Yes top 3 maybe the top issue in my life.

The rest is fairly easy going in Taiwan.

Oh jobs would be nice. That and better TV. Yes good roads good jobs and good TV and Iā€™m happy.

For me, Tsaiā€™s accomplishments can be broken down in to 5 categories.

  1. Social Equality
    a. Marriage equality. First in Asia
    b. National Language Development Act
    c. Pension reform
    d. Seizure of illegal party assets
    e. Compensation for Aboriginal Traditional Areas under environmental protection
    f. The Indigenous Peoples Basic Law
    g. Aboriginal Peoples Autonomy Act on its way

  2. Renewable Energy
    a. First off-shore wind farm will be operational next year
    b. Multiple solar energy farms along the west coast, aiming for 3.7GW by 2021, including Changbinā€™s 100MW solar farm which is already operational
    c. Solar-Aquaculture projects (Aquavoltaics, backed by Google)
    d. Updated laws to encourage geo-thermal energy
    e. Continued Kuroshio surface generator R&D efforts

  3. National Security
    a. Taiwan constructed naval submarines
    b. Purchased 66 upgraded F16-V
    c. Foreign Agents Registration Act (Anti-infiltration) to be passed this December
    d. Five national security related laws already passed. Including increased penalty for being a spy
    e. Stripping pension for officials or military officers who cooperates with China
    f. Ensure treaties with China must past through the legislative yuan in a proper manner and pass a referendum before being enacted
    g. Internet espionage now considered as treason
    h. New Taiwan built fighter trainer

  4. Economy
    a. Tax cuts for the middle class and minimum wage laborers
    b. Labor reforms, including multiple minimum wage increases
    c. Longest over 10K streak for the Taiwan Stock Exchange Weighted Index
    d. Highest GDP ever
    e. National debt to GDP ratio decreased by 3%
    f. Lower housing prices. Public housing projects has created over 40K new homes. The target is 200K over 8 years
    g. Highest amount of tourists ever
    h. Decade high foreign investment in Taiwan. Including companies such as facebook, google, microsoft, and apple to increase investments

  5. Healthcare
    a. Updated Long-term Care policies 2.0 with 5,483 LTC centers
    b. Improved food safety by establishing the toxicity management framework., improved produce resume system to meet international standards, increased penalty for manufacturers who knowingly introduced toxic chemicals into food products.

I mean there are so many things that the Tsai government accomplished. Someone please help me list them allā€¦

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Wow! Thatā€™s some really good research! Very good!

Now do one for Han Kuo Yu as mayor of Kaohsiung :rofl:

For four years in a row.

Good list, although I wouldnā€™t consider highest GDP ever an accomplishment. GDPā€™s supposed to grow every year.

If Tsai gets a second term, we will be self-sufficient in defense, and able to export. And if we get lucky, spin off some private-sector technologies.

Letā€™s get more submarines ! 66 upgraded F16s is impressive letā€™s add more subs. :sunglasses:

I tried to find a more solid source for FDI in Taiwan.

The leading foreign investor in Taiwan is the Netherlands. I know that Philips owned 20% stake in TSMC.

Turns out, some Dutch company named ASML is an semiconductor manufacturing equipment is responsible.

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Marriage equality has nothing to do with Transitional Justice.

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my reaction as well.