With flooding caused by Typhoon Morakot wreaking severe damage in southern Taiwan, experts must now consider how such a disaster could have been repeated 50 years after the notorious flooding of Aug. 7, 1959. Over the past two years, Taiwan’s ability to handle disasters has deteriorated. Compared with their disaster response measures last year, the incompetent bureaucrats in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government have made no progress.
First, Ma criticized the Central Weather Bureau for “misleading” the government last year, and he has done so again this time.
Second, flooding caused by heavy rains damaged central and southern Taiwan in late May and early June last year. Ma, however, was busy having a health check, acting like a zhainan (stay-at-home youth) and avoiding the front line. After severe criticism, he finally inspected the disaster area in mid-June.
But to avoid losing face because people might think he was admitting to making a mistake, Ma claimed he was simply visiting old friends.
On the evening that Typhoon Morakot struck, Ma attended the wedding of Taiwanese poet Chan Che (詹澈) and his Chinese wife. Chan was a celebrity among the “red shirts” who protested against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Third, in response to last year’s flooding, Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said total losses were “only” about NT$20 million (US$608,000). Last Saturday, the media reported that former vice premier Chiou I-jen’s (邱義仁) watermelon farm in Kaohsiung County alone suffered losses of about NT$400,000 from Typhoon Morakot. Yet on the same day, the council estimated that losses in all of Taiwan amounted to only about NT$5 million.
Are these figures credible? Although the council’s figure increased to NT$5 billion two days later, the estimate by SinoPac Holdings (永豐金控) was already three times as high.
In China, officials often overestimate the impact of a disaster to attract greater donations. But in Taiwan, officials often underestimate the impact of a disaster to conceal their incompetence. Both breeds excel at what they do.
A look at the human contribution to this disaster reveals both remote and immediate causes. The remote cause is the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, which has always seen itself as temporarily located in Taiwan. Based on this, a short-term approach was used in resource extraction and land management.
More recently, the government’s upgrade of select cities and counties was desgined to attract votes, not improve land management. This is a shortsighted policy that will damage Taiwan’s mountains and rivers.
On Aug. 9, Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) donated NT$1 million to Morakot’s victims. On Aug. 10, a friend called me from Hong Kong, asking how he could make a donation. Some enterprises and individuals have also extended a helping hand.
But the KMT’s heavyweights — both rich and very friendly with the Chinese communists — have been cold toward the victims. People still remember how Ma and first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) personally answered phone calls during a fundraising event for earthquake victims in China’s Sichuan Province last year.
But we have not seen Ma weep for Taiwan’s typhoon victims, who are struggling in a living hell. Instead, we watched him frowning as he met victims. Was this a sign of impatience?
Taiwan has been threatened by typhoons since ancient times. Despite this, we have built today’s Formosa, and we will pass this spirit on for generations to come.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS