Alternatives to babies
Last Saturday, the health minister told the United Daily News that Taiwan has the world’s lowest birthrate, at 1.07 per woman. This is even lower than Japan’s. A birthrate of more than 2.0 is needed for a population to replenish itself, but from the experience of Taiwan and other countries it is clear that Taiwan will not be able to raise its birthrate above that in the medium or even the long term. Therefore, Taiwan must adjust its immigration policies to sustain its population.
To attract qualified immigrants with skills and capital, more incentives will have to be introduced. For example, the government should consider exempting first-generation male immigrants who are naturalized as Taiwanese citizens from military service. Singapore grants a similar exemption to its first-generation permanent residents. As the government has already announced plans to end military conscription, such an exemption would not significantly detract from Taiwan’s defense needs.
SEAN KWAN
Kaohsiung
A new car for Ma?
In response to your headline piece on Tuesday (“DPP slams Ma’s campaigning expenses,” page 1), I have a suggestion: Why doesn’t President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) set a green example and demand that he be driven around in a cute little Toyota Prius? Or is it that only the lives of everyday people must be turned upside down to save the planet?
MICHAEL FAGAN
Tainan
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing, most headlines referred to her as the leader of the opposition in Taiwan. Is she really, though? Being the chairwoman of the KMT does not automatically translate into being the leader of the opposition in the sense that most foreign readers would understand it. “Leader of the opposition” is a very British term. It applies to the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, and to some extent, to other democracies. If you look at the UK right now, Conservative Party head Kemi Badenoch is
From the Iran war and nuclear weapons to tariffs and artificial intelligence, the agenda for this week’s Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is packed. Xi would almost certainly bring up Taiwan, if only to demonstrate his inflexibility on the matter. However, no one needs to meet with Xi face-to-face to understand his stance. A visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing — in particular, the “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibition, which chronicles the rise and rule of the Chinese Communist Party — might be even more revealing. Xi took the members
A Pale View of Hills, a movie released last year, follows the story of a Japanese woman from Nagasaki who moved to Britain in the 1950s with her British husband and daughter from a previous marriage. The daughter was born at a time when memories of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II and anxiety over the effects of nuclear radiation still haunted the community. It is a reflection on the legacy of the local and national trauma of the bombing that ended the period of Japanese militarism. A central theme of the movie is the need, at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Friday used their legislative majority to push their version of a special defense budget bill to fund the purchase of US military equipment, with the combined spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.78 billion). The bill, which fell short of the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion request, was passed by a 59-0 margin with 48 abstentions in the 113-seat legislature. KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), who reportedly met with TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for a private meeting before holding a joint post-vote news conference, was said to have mobilized her
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