During the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, held as a virtual meeting, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday last week once again criticized China for the spread of COVID-19 and called on the UN to “hold China accountable for their actions.” French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed concerns over the persecution of Uighurs in Xinjiang and asked for “an international mission under the auspices of the UN to be able to visit Xinjiang in order to address the concerns that we share.” Under the authoritarian rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), China’s image has severely deteriorated, and its great cause of reinvigorating ethnic Chinese (zhonghua minzu, 中華民族) has evolved into a global threat. At a global forum such as the UN General Assembly, Xi’s continuous efforts to infiltrate other nations with vast sums of money and financial subsidies only spark suspicions. Time magazine on Tuesday last week unveiled this year’s list of the 100 most influential people, with Xi being included for the 10th consecutive year. The magazine’s introduction on Xi, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Amanda Bennett, reads: “His authoritarian moves rival the world’s most extreme: corralling ethnic Uighurs into camps, suppressing violent anti-China protests in Hong Kong and ushering in powerful social-monitoring technology. Completing the look is the Mao Zedong-like cult of personality Xi allows or encourages — including his own Little Red Book. The result: a foreign policy and economic juggernaut expanding around the world.” The introduction continues: “Still, just as the sudden fall of the Soviet Union exposed previously unseen cracks,” Xi is facing “[China’s] shrinking and aging workforce, the cost of the global Belt and Road Initiative (built on debt, not cash) and internal griping — or worse — from victims of a slowing economy exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.” Bennent concludes the introduction,
After the US Department of State in August labeled the Confucius Institutes, which China has been actively promoting around the world, as “foreign missions,” US Secretary of State Mike early last month said that he hoped all these institutes on US campuses would be closed by the end of the year. This policy is gradually influencing the US and other Western countries. In the US, four schools — the University of Denver, the University of Oklahoma, the University of North Carolina and Emory University — have announced that they would follow the government’s policy and close the Confucius Institutes on their campuses. Many universities in Germany, including the University of Hamburg, have already stated that they would close their on-campus Confucius Institutes, and the German opposition Free Democratic Party is drafting a bill that would require all universities to terminate their collaborations with the institutes. The Australian government has begun investigations into the sources and uses of funds for the institutes. There has always been opposition to the establishment of Confucius Institutes on university campuses in the West. Many objected to the institutes because: their textbooks and teachers need to be reviewed and approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education, which is a breach of academic freedom; they often try to intervene in other academic activities on campus; they monitor overseas Chinese students on behalf of Beijing; steal academic research; try to bribe university administrators to avoid scrutiny; and conduct propaganda for the Chinese government. Given the scale of controversy surrounding the Confucius Institutes, why has the US government only now started regulating them? The main reason is that, with China’s rise, demand for Chinese learning has soared in Western countries. Unable to compete with the institutes, which are heavily funded by the Chinese government, many university or privately funded Chinese teaching institutes
Aboriginal culture The Golden Bell Awards is an annual celebration for the television industry. Unfortunately, certain individuals were clearly put out by the traditional costumes of Aborigines receiving awards at Saturday’s awards ceremony, and the on-screen titles by certain media outlets were out-and-out discrimination. As an Aborigine myself, I was both saddened and angered by those responses. I recall that, when I was growing up, I would often be asked whether we Aborigines ever washed, or about how much we liked booze or how lazy we were. People would make comments about how we spoke with a strange accent, or about how our grades were bumped up because we were not Han Chinese. As an adult, more aware of how the world worked, I realized this was because we Aborigines had been labeled, and this made me see red. Over the course of Taiwan’s recent history, we Aborigines have found ourselves at the mercy of dominant ethnic powers, and our culture and livelihoods have constantly been subjected to suppression and humiliation. We have sustained historical wounds, caused by the accumulation of prejudice as a result of long-term colonization. These wounds have contributed to the perception of Aborigines in Taiwan’s modern-day society, a perception riddled with misunderstanding and prejudice. Even though there have been gradual improvements in the public understanding of Aborigines in the past few years, there remain real gaps in awareness and frequent misunderstandings when it comes to our culture and lifestyles, and this has led to a lack of respect, and indeed bias, in the way others treat us and speak about us. In my life, and in my workplace, I encounter many people who look askance at the culture and history of the Bunan Aborigine people, to which I belong, and apply labels to it, and this makes me
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A prominent member of Japan’s ruling party last week described the country’s politics as “democracy without women,” days after new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga appointed just two female members to his Cabinet. Former Japanese minister of defense Tomomi Inada from the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) added her voice to criticism of Japan’s poor record on gender equality, directing most of her anger at her own party. “Women make up half of Japan’s population and 40 percent of the LDP grassroots membership,” she said. “If women do not have a place to discuss policies they want enacted, Japan’s democracy cannot help but be biased.” During the campaign for leader of the LDP — who is practically assured of becoming prime minister due to its dominance in parliament — a group of female legislators submitted recommendations to Suga, the eventual winner, and his two male rivals on female representation in the Cabinet and the party’s executive. “But looking at the result, with just two women in the Cabinet, it looks like our proposals were not taken that seriously,” Inada said. “I am not saying this just for the sake of women: To enhance Japanese democracy and ensure it has a bright future, I want to create a society in which women have more of a voice in politics. I want to realize a more free, democratic and diverse political landscape, so that even in Japan women aim to become prime minister and girls aim to become politicians.” Inada, a nationalist who has visited the Yasukuni Shrine, a controversial war memorial, and cast doubt on claims that the Japanese military forced Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II, said that the LDP should look to France, Germany and other countries with a better record on female representation in politics. So far, the only woman to
Africa’s overburdened public health systems, dearth of testing facilities and overcrowded slums had experts predicting a disaster when COVID-19 hit the continent in February. The novel coronavirus was already wreaking havoc in wealthy Asian and European nations, and a UN agency in April said that even with social distancing measures, COVID-19 could kill 300,000 Africans this year. In May, the WHO warned that 190,000 people on the continent could die if containment measures failed. Yet as the world marks 1 million COVID-19 deaths, Africa is doing much better than expected, with a lower percentage of deaths than other continents. The continent’s case fatality count stands at 2.4 percent, with roughly 35,000 deaths among the more than 1.4 million people reported infected with COVID-19, Reuters data showed. In North America, it is 2.9 percent and 4.5 percent in Europe. Hard-hit states such as Italy and the UK have recorded fatality counts of 11.6 percent and 9.0 percent respectively, compared with 1.6 percent for Ethiopia, 1.9 percent for Nigeria and 2.4 percent for South Africa, the continent’s worst affected country. Hospitals in many African nations say that COVID-19 admission rates are falling. “Based on what we have seen so far, it is unlikely that we are going to see anything at the scale that we are seeing in Europe — both in terms of infections and mortality,” said Rashida Ferrand, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who works with the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in the Zimbabwean capital Harare. Experts say that some COVID-19 deaths in Africa are probably being missed. Testing rates in the continent of about 1.3 billion people are among the lowest in the world, and many deaths of all types go unrecorded. South Africa recorded about 17,000 extra deaths from natural causes between early May and the middle of July,
It is sad that there seems to be no end to societal discrimination against the nation’s Aborigines, despite numerous widely publicized incidents in the past few months that have sparked discussion. The most recent happened when Pangoyod, a Tao actor and TV host, and Buya, an Atayal, wore their traditional attire when accepting their awards at Saturday’s Golden Bell Awards. The local Chinese-language media jumped on their outfits — especially Pangoyod’s loincloth, using culturally disrespectful terms such as “extremely revealing,” “baring his entire ass,” and “the hottest/sexiest outfit on stage.” Some of the comments on the event’s livestream were even more brutal, and need not be reproduced here. After centuries of colonization and cultural suppression of his people, Pangoyod wore his outfit with pride, saying: “I never dared to imagine being able to wear my ethnic attire [on stage] before.” “No, we need to be confident,” Buya added. “We should be able to do so because we Aborigines are part of Taiwan.” Decades have passed since the Aboriginal awakening movements of the 1980s, yet it is telling that even today the two young men still have to discuss daring to wear the costumes of their people loudly and proudly. Unfortunately, the truth is that as much as Taiwan likes to tout its diversity and inclusiveness, its own people still feel reservations toward wearing their traditional attire on national television. Presidential Office spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka, an Amis, said that not even adult Aborigines would have the courage to wear the attire. People should pause and ask themselves why this is still the case, while they no longer bat an eye at some of the more eye-catching fashionistas roaming the trendy streets of Taipei. The uncouth headlines further trampled on what was supposed to be a touching moment of embracing cultural diversity and
Industries hit by the COVID-19 pandemic have been forced to take certain measures that affect employees and such cases are becoming increasingly common. As most flights have been canceled, some flight attendants are working part-time at convenience stores to make a living. Meanwhile, middle-aged and older workers are being pressured to retire early or change jobs. Under such circumstances, the issue of the “working poor” has again come under the spotlight, a key social issue that must not be overlooked during the pandemic. The so-called working poor, also known as the “new poor,” are in contrast to the “old poor.” Traditionally, the old poor exist in an industrial society with a relatively stable employment structure and many full-time jobs. Relief for the old poor focuses on monetary aid, and the goal is to deal with social risks such as short-term unemployment, retirement and disability. However, issues from Taiwan’s unstable job market and rising service industry to the increase in employment of “atypical workers” enabling employers to keep costs down have worsened the phenomenon of working people falling into poverty. What is worrying is the imputed income limit, which was created using old-poor thinking in the Public Assistance Act (社會救助法). It is difficult for working people with low incomes to receive monetary aid. Even if such workers can barely scratch out a living, they are still excluded from the social welfare system. Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics data show that as many as 819,000 Taiwanese last year worked as atypical workers and could potentially fall in the working poor category — the most in a decade. Many travel agencies, restaurants and airlines have been facing an operational crisis, while may people have been forced to leave their familiar workplaces and find other ways of making a living. Changing professions is never an easy task.
It has been three months since China imposed the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30. Authorizing the police force to trump human rights and civil liberties in the name of defending national security, the emergency measures have provoked widespread international condemnation and prompted demands that China withdraw the legislation. Depending on one’s point of view, such controversial policies are either desperately needed measures in times of existential crises, or dictatorial manoeuvrings designed to accomplish the takeover of a dynamic civil society decades in the making. Whatever the political considerations, China’s decision reveals an obsession with potential threats, both real and imagined, to the mighty single-party state. Much of the pro-democracy struggle in Hong Kong concentrates on taking ownership of the political narrative. A great deal of media attention has been given to admirable individuals and the political choices they have made amid a worsening situation, but little emphasis has been given to how these choices can reshape the larger scheme of things. At least two seemingly unrelated trends are under way to transform Hong Kong’s political landscape. The first is the globalization of the “Hong Kong question.” The sudden imposition of the Chinese control has led to a deeper commitment to democratic localism among Hong Kongers of different ideological stripes. Frustrated with China’s autocratic rule, many Hong Kongers want to do something about the futureless society that they see around them. Such widespread grievances have generated new activist energy at home and abroad, unifying democracy advocates and like-minded people. Thanks to a long history of transnational migrations, the advocates are making use of human connections to coordinate their global lobbying efforts. Deeply shocked by the scenes of police violence against peaceful demonstrators, Hong Kongers and their overseas supporters strive to do something to ameliorate the crisis. The proliferation of social media provides an invisible highway for
During his visit to Taiwan from Sept. 17 to 19, US Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Keith Krach participated in, but did not preside over, high-level Taiwan-US economic and trade talks. Some media claimed that this meant that the negotiations had “failed.” However, this conclusion is unfair, as the negotiations are ongoing. Any bilateral or multilateral dialogue has models and protocols to follow. The vice-ministerial or even ministerial level of negotiation takes place only after several consultations. Krach is indeed the highest-level official from the US to visit since the severance of diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, but many issues are still in the communication and consultation stage before they can be finalized in a Taiwan-US trade agreement, so it makes no sense to conclude that “the high-level Taiwan-US economic and trade dialogue had failed.” It is advantageous for undersecretary-level officials to exchange views with Taiwan about the format and schedule of a trade agreement, so that the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiation and the Office of the United States Trade Representative have a better chance of building a consensus. Krach’s visit was not only a milestone in the development of high-level economic and trade dialogue, but also shows that Washington attaches great importance to a bilateral trade agreement or a free-trade deal. The US is an important ally for Taiwan, and any deepening of bilateral relations would help the nation. For example, US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft this month met with Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York Director-General James Lee (李光章) for a luncheon to discuss the advocacy of Taiwan’s return to the UN — an important, historical achievement. However, Taiwan cannot indulge itself in euphoria. With the US gradually withdrawing from multilateral organizations, leaving China to have a greater say in them, the
Older drivers The news of yet another traffic accident caused by an elderly driver, in which one person was killed and four were injured, is extremely saddening. Hazardous driving by older people seems to have become a frequent cause of traffic accidents lately. In this case, the elderly driver is 83 years old, and he was driving despite his driving license having been revoked, resulting in casualties, and injuring himself. One wonders if the government has any effective measure to stop such dangerous driving from happening again. An octogenarian has much less awareness and slower responses than young people. To make matters worse, many older people have to take sleeping pills and sedatives to help them sleep. The medication’s side effects can severely affect their ability to operate machinery properly and, by extension, their driving safety. In a car accident, when a perpetrator is older than 75 and does not hold a valid license, the victims are not able to claim compensation through compulsory automobile liability insurance. One wonders what victims can do to receive adequate compensation and what countermeasures the government has to help curtail such incidents. I often see older drivers contravening traffic rules on my way to work and back home between two townships. Most of the time, elderly people in the countryside drive on the wrong side of the road to “save time” and for the sheer sake of “convenience,” without paying attention to the oncoming traffic. I see this kind of dangerous driving as many as two to three times a day. Apparently, Taiwan has failed to implement proper traffic rule re-education for older people. As the Taiwanese population is aging rapidly, government agencies should pay attention and provide assistance to ensure older people’s traffic and driving safety in addition to their medical care. Lin Yi-hsin Taipei
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There is a huge, looming, unanswerable question that overshadows our cities, like an elephant squatting in the central square. Will a COVID-19 vaccine or herd immunity return us to “normal,” or will we need to redesign our cities to accommodate a world in which close proximity to other people can kill you? After an anxious summer in the northern hemisphere, during which those of us who were able to safely do so mimicked a kind of normality with limited socializing on patios and in gardens, winter is coming — and it will test the limits of our urban design. Regardless of whether we “solve” this latest coronavirus, humanity now knows how vulnerable it is to pandemics. Can we mitigate the effects of the next great disease before it happens? Has the colossal disruption to the way we work and travel created a renewed impetus to organize cities in a more sustainable, more pleasant way? We asked four architecture firms to share their visions of what cities should do, now, to better design everything from offices to streets to transport — and we have analyzed each one — to help inoculate our cities against a disease that is proving so difficult to inoculate against in our bodies. BIKE SUPERHIGHWAYS The idea from SOM In our pandemic summer of 2020, cities exploded with bicycles as millions of people avoided public transport and took advantage of the sunny days to get around on two wheels. The expansion of cycling infrastructure in car-centric cities from Moscow to Mexico City to Mumbai — and the corresponding pedestrianization of space by closing streets to motor vehicles — has been one of the great global urban success stories of the 21st century, and architecture practice SOM proposes extending these measures. The firm envisions a “comprehensive reshaping” of city streets and the construction
Faced with a growing brain drain triggered by the US-China trade and technology disputes, Taiwanese high-tech companies this year have stepped up efforts to broaden the nation’s talent pool by forming deeper partnerships with universities and even high schools, and offering incentives and programs to those studying artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G technologies. A shortage of qualified engineers and other professionals has been a long-standing problem for local companies. In the early 2000s, their allocation of production to developing countries with cheaper labor costs, primarily China, helped spur an outflow of talent, one that grows more acute each year, given Taiwan’s rapidly graying population. Geopolitical tensions have compounded the issue, such as the US slapping new export restrictions on China’s biggest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. Such restrictions are also serving to spur China’s efforts to reduce its reliance on imported semiconductors and equipment and become more self-sufficient. Beijing has set an ambitious goal of having 70 percent of chip manufacturing equipment produced by Chinese companies, which means that it will need a lot of professionals and experts from other nations to reach that goal. Poaching talent from Taiwan is the easiest and most convenient solution, and is something Chinese companies have been doing for years by offering to pay triple or quadruple the salaries electrical engineers and computer talent can earn in Taiwan. However, Taiwanese companies are beginning to fight back by working together to develop a better-educated talent pool and halt the loss of employees to their cross-strait rivals. SEMI Taiwan, an industry association, last week inked a memorandum of understanding with 104 Corp, which operates the nation’s largest online human resources agency, to cooperate in organizing job fairs and talent matchmaking conferences. The agency receives about 20,000 job listings from Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers each month, but can barely fill the demand,
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently declared that aggression and expansionism have never been in the Chinese nation’s “genes.” It is almost astonishing that he managed to say it with a straight face. Aggression and expansionism obviously are not genetic traits, but they have defined Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) tenure. Xi, who in some ways has taken up the expansionist mantle of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), is attempting to implement a modern version of the tributary system that Chinese emperors used to establish authority over vassal states: submit to the emperor, and reap the benefits of peace and trade with the empire. For Xi, the COVID-19 pandemic — which has preoccupied the world’s governments for months — seemed like an ideal opportunity to make quick progress on his agenda. So, in April and May, he directed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to launch furtive incursions into the icy borderlands of India’s Ladakh region, where it proceeded to establish heavily fortified encampments. It was not nearly as clever a plan as Xi probably thought. Far from entrenching China’s regional pre-eminence, it has intensified the pushback by Indo-Pacific powers, which have deepened their security cooperation. This includes China’s most powerful competitor, the US, thereby escalating a bilateral strategic confrontation that has technological, economic, diplomatic and military dimensions. The specter of international isolation and supply disruptions now looms over China, spurring Xi to announce plans to hoard mammoth quantities of mineral resources and agricultural products, but his real miscalculation on the Himalayan border was vis-a-vis India, which has now abandoned its appeasement policy toward China. Not surprisingly, China remains committed to the PLA’s incursions, which it continues to portray as defensive: Late last month, Xi told senior officials to “solidify border defenses” and “ensure frontier security” in the Himalayan region. However, India is ready
During US Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Keith Krach’s visit to Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration exchanged opinions with the US side on issues such as the 5G Clean Network program, global industrial supply chain realignment, the Indo-Pacific Strategy, the New Southbound Policy, new energy and investment review. To tackle the structural change of globalization in the post-COVID-19 era, they laid a foundation for building a Taiwan-US economic strategic alliance. Over the past three decades of globalization, the magnetic effect of the Chinese market has gutted Taiwanese industry, which has been badly hit by a talent drain, and this has caused difficulties in industrial structural transformation. The lower and middle classes have largely found it difficult to mobilize, while many in the younger generation are finding it hard to enhance their professional knowledge and skills. As a result, Taiwan’s income and generation gaps have continued to widen. However, the US-China trade dispute and the COVID-19 pandemic have seriously hurt China’s economy and international image. As the global supply chain breaks down, many Taiwanese and foreign companies are withdrawing from China, either repatriating operations or moving them elsewhere. As global political and economic structural changes are being made for the post-COVID-19 era, Taiwan should adjust its economic structure and stop relying on cross-strait business. It should push for industrial transformation and seize the opportunity to promote sectors such as information and communication technology, 5G digital development, biomedical technology and green energy. Taiwan should improve the quality of its vocational school and university education, and build a cooperation platform for industry, government and academia. It could learn from nations such as Switzerland and Finland by developing strategic industries that are not confined by globalization factors, are independent, expandable and exportable, and command strategic heights in the industry. It
Denounce the quislings The annual Straits Forum in Xiamen, China, long ago earned itself the moniker “United Front Forum.” This year, a China Central Television program claimed that former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) planned Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation to the forum was to “sue for peace.” Having been trampled over by Beijing, the KMT announced that it would boycott the forum. However, the People First Party (PFP) and New Party still planned to attend. What is wrong with these people? PFP adviser Li Jian-nan (黎建南) even engaged in shameless braggadocio, lauding Chinese fighter jets’ regular encirclements of Taiwan for frightening off the “American dogs.” PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) abandoned the KMT to create his own party. In the early days, it performed well in legislative and local elections, while its core value of being a party that was “close to the people” resonated with voters. However, by attending the “United Front Forum” and acting as the enemy’s mouthpiece, the PFP has turned itself into the “close to China” party. China is run by a totalitarian regime that aggressively threatens Taiwan’s population with its military, suppresses Tibetans, erects concentration camps in Xinjiang, turns young protesters in Hong Kong into floating corpses and forces a program of Sinicization upon the people of Inner Mongolia. How can such a country seem attractive to anyone on this side of the Taiwan Strait? Their fawning at the feet of China’s leaders is sickening. One of these raving lunatics even defended Beijing’s provocative military exercises during recent visits to Taiwan by foreign dignitaries, saying: “China was upholding its dignity and preventing others from interfering in its internal affairs.” One wonders if it has even crossed these clowns’ minds that if Taiwan one day did become “unified” with China, they would have no more forums to attend and no stage
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Art Sullivan is considered something of a political heretic by other coal miners in southwestern Pennsylvania, where a wave of support for then-Republican candidate Donald Trump based upon his flamboyant promises of a resurgence in coal helped propel the Republican to the US presidency. “Many of my coal miner friends voted for him,” said Sullivan, who has spent 54 years as a coal miner and, more latterly, consultant to a struggling industry. “They were deceived. Trump had no plan, no concept of how to resurrect the coal industry. My friends were lied to.” Sullivan’s friends might disagree with this assessment, but the coal comeback promised by Trump in the 2016 election campaign has failed to materialize, with his first term studded with bankruptcies and closures of mines and coal-fired power plants. There are now about 5,000 fewer miners than when Trump strode into the White House. The COVID-19 pandemic has turbo-charged the decline — so far this year US coal production has collapsed by more than 25 percent compared with the same period last year. It has been a bruising few years rather than the glorious new dawn promised when Trump donned a miner’s helmet, mimed digging coal and excoriated then-US president Barack Obama’s “war on coal” on the campaign trail four years ago. One of Trump’s first executive orders removed a ban on coal mining on federal land and dumped Obama’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Come on, fellas,” Trump said at the order’s signing, where he was surrounded by beaming miners. “Basically, you know what this is? You know what it says, right? You’re going back to work.” Such assurances were eagerly accepted by coal-mining communities in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky who backed Trump and prepared for salvation. “When he came into office, it was like someone pulled their finger out
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