The long-term survival of Taiwan depends on our ability to sustain the island environment in which we live. In determining a future path, it is important that politicians grasp the implications of this basic truth.
The recent controversy over Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology’s plan to build a naphtha cracker on the coast of Changhua County, and other environmental conflicts, show that the current government has a very poor understanding of what makes Taiwan special.
The location chosen for the Kuokuang plant is unsafe. The main reason for choosing that location was the cheapness of the land. Little if any consideration has been given to available water resources, coastline stability, the productivity of the surrounding sea or the capacity of nearby land and water sources to bear the burden of such a development.
Going ahead with the project would turn the area’s natural resources into wealth to be exploited for the benefit of a few capitalists at the cost of poisoning the soil, harming the health of local residents and destroying their way of life. This kind of development, robbing the poor to pay the rich, is unjust.
The island of Taiwan rose out of the sea 6 million years ago, formed from sediment eroded from the eastern part of the Eurasian continental plate, and it is still rising now. It came, you could say, out of nowhere, and is not part of any continent. Coastal wetlands act as carbon sinks, collecting and accumulating many carbon-containing substances, and they are extremely fertile.
Once the island of Taiwan was formed, plants and animals (such as the Chinese white dolphin) migrated here, as did humans. Among them, lowland peoples such as the Pingpu and Amis Aborigines lived mostly from the sea, while highlanders like the Bunun and Atayal Aborigines gathered their food from the mountainside. Taiwan, with its complex and endlessly changing geology, supports a great variety of life and its people found many ways to live off the land. For a long time, they managed to live in harmony with the environment.
Over the last four centuries, colonists from across the seas have come to Taiwan and opened the land up for unrestrained exploitation. As time went by they brought in industrial capital. Some Taiwanese made money alongside the newcomers, and a lifestyle that wastes natural resources became the norm.
People in Taiwan and around the world have become economic animals enslaved by material things, a mode of development that has led to the threat of global warming. Taiwan’s natural environment has been badly exploited and damaged, revealing the nightmarish nature of unsustainable development.
Industrial capitalism only started about 200 years ago — a very short period relative to the time humans have been on Earth. It is a new stage of experience and now that we can see its faults, we should change direction. People today have too long been estranged from nature and have gradually lost touch with its ways and its laws. Now our very survival is in question.
People need to be taught more about the environment to rebuild the vitality of Taiwan. We need to coax the ecosystem into providing us with the things we need to live in a sustainable way. Above all, we need to raise our civilization to a new level that respects life, and we need to debate the future of Taiwan. We cannot do it alone, only by working together with China and other countries.
When a government’s policies provoke popular resentment, it is just like a driver who has strayed from the route the passengers wish to take. It is time for the government to apologize and get back on the right path as soon as possible.
Chen Chang-po is a research fellow in the Biodiversity Center at Academia Sinica.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
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
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were born under the sign of Gemini. Geminis are known for their intelligence, creativity, adaptability and flexibility. It is unlikely, then, that the trade conflict between the US and China would escalate into a catastrophic collision. It is more probable that both sides would seek a way to de-escalate, paving the way for a Trump-Xi summit that allows the global economy some breathing room. Practically speaking, China and the US have vulnerabilities, and a prolonged trade war would be damaging for both. In the US, the electoral system means that public opinion
RSS