In the movie The Great Rock `n' Roll Swindle the impresario Malcolm McLaren tells of how he made piles of cash from promoting the talent-free punk band The Sex Pistols as music's next big thing. One of the most memorable lines comes from McLaren explaining the way hype works, in which after using various dark arts to create a wave of publicity for the band he adds: "For God's sake, don't let anyone hear them play." The idea, of course, was to overpromote their talent and then make sure nobody got to see the discordant reality.
How interesting to see that the KMT is using exactly the same strategy as that used to sell the artistes responsible for Friggin' in the Rigging to jaded British youth. We have been told by the KMT that only it can save the economy. For this reason the party has demanded the posts of premier and vice premier, as well as the right to provide the heads of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, central bank, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) and Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, as the price of its cooperation in a coalition government.
The message in the party's recent campaign ads is that only the KMT can bring the good economic times back. But, and here is pure McLaren, there hasn't been a whisper as to how this is actually to be achieved. Instead there is only the likes of Chiang Pin-kun (
At the very least this attitude suggests a McLaren-esque cynicism towards Taiwan's voters in which empty hype is seen as more important and effective than substance. It also suggests either that the KMT doesn't really have a plan, or perhaps that its plan is not so very different from what the DPP government is trying to do.
Whenever the KMT has felt the economy slipping before -- 1997-8, for example -- its usual solution has been the standard fare of an infrastructure-related stimulus package and lower interest rates. This hardly seems to be the stuff of economic visionaries. The DPP has tried to do the same thing: interest rates are at their lowest for years while a stimulus package has been announced, although it is restricted by the fact that the government has already reached its legal debt ceiling, which precludes more deficit spending.
This paper has said before that there is little the government can do to persuade US consumers to buy more information technology (IT) -- the root cause of the collapse of Taiwan's exports and therefore its economic contraction. So if the KMT has a master plan to turn this around then it should say what it is.
There is no point in the party pointing to its track record, because that record is one of how to manage a generation-long boom -- itself the product of forces outside the government's control. We have never seen any of the KMT's current economic team manage a recession. Why should anyone think they would be less fumbling than the DPP?
What we have seen is the KMT's decision to bet Taiwan's economic growth on the eternal expansion of US IT demand -- the consequences of which we are now suffering, the KMT's cronies loot Taiwan's banks and the party ramp the stock market. More of this? Let's hope not.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations