The Taipei International Flora Expo is finally open, at a cost to the city of NT$14 billion (US$455 million). Local and central government chiefs have been seen posing proudly among the flowerbeds and the expo was launched with a fireworks display over the Tamsui River that cost over NT$20 million.
Were it not for the feeling that the purpose of these festivities is, at least in part, to garner popularity for incumbent Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians in the upcoming special municipality elections, one would think that Taiwan was in the midst of an age of peace and tranquility, with stable politics and a contented population.
It so happens that during the past few days, just as the expo was starting up, I accompanied an official from the French Ministry of Health and Sports on a visit to research why the death rate for newborn babies in Taiwan remains rather high and what measures our government is taking to deal with the problem.
As a specialist in public health, I was of course pleased to welcome this European health official and had been hoping to point out some areas in which we Taiwanese are justifiably proud of our public health services.
I arranged for the visiting official to meet with some pediatricians from major hospitals in Taiwan and to attend an international health conference held by the Department of Health, where she met several senior department officials and exchanged views with them. I was expecting to further demonstrate to her the excellent quality of Taiwan’s healthcare system, demonstrating how it was as good as those in developed countries.
Our French guest then visited National Taiwan University College of Medicine professor and eminent pediatrician Lue Hung-chi (呂鴻基). Their conversation turned to the topic of Taiwan’s birthrate, which has fallen continuously every year since 1960, and since 2000 has vied with Hong Kong and Singapore for bottom place in the world.
It was also mentioned that Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) had admitted at the international health conference a few days earlier that Taiwan’s birthrate had fallen to 1.03 per female — the lowest in the world.
That figure is much lower than the 1.95 for France and 2.03 for the US. As a result of this trend, Taiwan will soon experience negative population growth.
Some people may say that it is a woman’s choice to have or not have children, so the government cannot exert much influence.
However, there is another problem. Over the past decade and more in Taiwan, the mortality rate for infants under the age of one, which is seen in international health circles as a direct indicator of whether a government’s health and welfare policies are fully comprehensive, has been markedly higher than that in Japan, Singapore, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
When comparisons are made for age groups one to four, five to 14 and even 15 to 24 years, the mortality rate for young people in Taiwan is also significantly higher than that of their peers in these other countries.
These statistics reveal a very serious phenomenon: Not only do we have fewer babies per couple than any other country, but more of the children that are born here die before reaching adulthood than in many other developed countries.
Our visitor said that many of the Taiwanese experts and officials she had met did not seem to think that this was a very serious issue. When she asked Lue what he thought, the silver-haired and usually mild-mannered professor got quite worked up, saying that he had exhausted himself repeatedly raising the matter with heads of related government departments, but that at most they had responded by saying, “We are very worried, too.”
Lue quoted figures to show that the amount of money spent by our government on research into child health has fallen more sharply over the past two years than ever before. He said that the fact the amount of funding allocated by the government to childcare is actually falling, creates the impression that officials in Taiwan do not care about the issue and that maybe we need to invite foreign experts to drive home how serious this situation is.
Once again, election season is upon us. Every candidate claims to be a warrior who can get things done and take responsibility. We have seen politicians posing at the flora expo, but rare is the candidate who is concerned enough about our country’s future to spare a thought for the shrinking future generation.
If just a little of the money spent on some of these other things could be used to nurture and care for children, there might just be enough people in the next generation to give our country hope for the future.
Peter Chang is a professor at the Taipei Medical University’s College of Public Health and Nutrition.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
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