A few days ago, Hon Hai Group chief financial officer Huang Chiu-lien (黃秋蓮) conveyed a statement from company president Terry Gou (郭台銘), who said he was very disappointed by criticism from Taiwan accusing the company of running sweatshops and calling it “the shame of Taiwan.” Gou said he was re-evaluating Hon Hai’s investments in the country. He also asked rhetorically if Taiwan was trying to push the company out of the country.
Whether this negative criticism is well founded or not depends on your point of view and Kuo is of course entitled to feel both disappointed and unhappy, but why doesn’t Hon Hai direct its ire at the Chinese government and Western media outlets?
When the government in Beijing demands wage increases and changes to labor standards, Hon Hai complies without daring to protest at being treated unfairly. Moreover, the description of Hon Hai as a sweatshop didn’t originate in Taiwan, but in Chinese and Western media. Did Gou dare say anything then? No, he kept silent, took journalists on tours of the factory concerned and gave press conferences.
The fact is that for the duration of its three-decade long success story, Hon Hai has benefited not only from Gou’s vision and managerial skills, but also from government largesse in the form of land, financing and other inducements from the Taiwanese government, at both central and local level, whether led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the Democratic Progressive Party.
Leaving historical examples aside, the land expropriation scandal in Dapu (大埔), Miaoli County, is all about land that a highly cooperative county government wants to give to Innolux Display Corp, a company in the Hon Hai Group. This, Gou seems to think, is as it should be, because everyone is begging him to invest in Taiwan, create more jobs and boost local economic development.
Gou is, clearly not very happy to have been asked to invest only to find his actions subject to public criticism by a free press.
As expected, Gou’s press conference was quickly followed by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) speaking out in defense of Hon Hai and affirming the company’s many contributions to the economy.
This state of affairs makes one wonder whether there is any kind of preferential treatment that will not be given to Hon Hai.
Put bluntly, businesspeople care only about business, and no matter how much the government begs them to invest, they will only agree to do so when there is profit to be made.
It is true that we should work toward creating a positive investment environment and encourage companies to keep their research and development and manufacturing operations in Taiwan, but that does not mean we should attend only to superficial trivialities and neglect fundamental problems by keeping quiet and avoiding criticism, just because we’re afraid of displeasing a certain company.
To do that would be to undermine the hard won freedom and democracy that so many have fought to bring to Taiwan.
Gou can rest assured that the Taiwanese public is well aware of Hon Hai’s contribution to national development.
If only Gou would display a little bit more corporate social responsibility toward the country that helped nurture his business kingdom, more people would be willing to defend him and the criticism would slowly fade into the background.
Leou Chia-feng is a senior researcher at Taiwan Thinktank.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry