According to Taiwanese financial expert Hsieh Chin-ho (
However, it was exactly during those times -- when then president Lee Teng-hui (
With severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) wreaking havoc across China, Beijing's habit of covering up reality is finally evident to the entire global community. International pressure has forced Beijing to announce daily updates of its SARS figures. The Chinese Communist Party leaders have contributed to more than 500 deaths around the world, and tens of thousands of people being quarantined. And the epidemic continues to spread. The impact on Taiwan is also yet to peak.
On the one hand, the economic losses incurred by SARS are so large that it is difficult to estimate. International airlines and tourism businesses are bearing the brunt of it. The gravity of this impact may even exceed that of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US. No matter how the SARS tempest ends, it will surely be a serious loss of face for China in the international community.
The epidemic will inevitably damage the credibility of the Chinese Communist Party in the eyes of the Chinese people. It is hard to predict how strong the public resentment will be, but such factors will seriously erode the foundations of communist rule in China and create political instability. Beijing's credibility is bankrupt both at home and abroad, its reputation on a nose dive.
Many Taiwanese businessespeople, who have put all their eggs in the China basket in recent years, should now be wondering how long their businesses will last? Given that the lives of Taiwanese businesspeople in China are in danger and their business future is in jeopardy, we believe now is the time to attract them back home.
At such a crucial juncture, the government should quickly face up to the factors that caused those businesses to leave in the first place -- an unreasonable taxation system, for example, including inheritance taxes that can amount to more than 50 percent.
The government should also demonstrate efficient administration and create a better investment environment. For example, it should formulate a set of policies to actively help returning businesses find land for their factories, upgrade their technologies and increase their competitiveness. This may help change the nation's economic prospects after the SARS outbreak is over.
The key is in whether the government can demonstrate the drive and determination needed to create new prospects for the country.
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers