Saturday’s presidential election went the way of the incumbent. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won his second term, albeit with fewer votes than in 2008. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) conducted a good campaign throughout and she retains honor in defeat. The gap between the opposition and majority in the legislature has also narrowed. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) still has a legislative majority, but of reduced size.
Many factors contributed to the election results, including the individual candidates’ personal qualities, strengths and integrity. There were also three major policy themes at play: China, the economy and social justice. The first two are intimately linked and lie at the core of national identification, Taiwan’s future and the independence/unification debate.
Many of the key topics during the election, such as a possible peace agreement, the so-called “1992 consensus,” Tsai’s “Taiwan consensus,” Ma’s assurance of “no unification, no independence and no use of force,” peace dividends, the erosion of Taiwan’s independence and the Taiwan/Republic of China (ROC) debate, have a common source in these core themes.
The Taiwanese economy did not escape the 2008 global financial crisis unscathed. Reliant on exports, it benefited from other countries’ attempts to stimulate domestic demand through the relaxation of their monetary policies and managed to return to growth. However, it was still plagued with outflows of capital, reduced foreign investment and excessive reliance on the China market, resulting in little actual domestic economic growth and a floundering jobs market.
Monetary policies, such as low interest rates, and international currency speculation have caused securities and real estate prices to skyrocket, especially for land in the Taipei area.
People’s salaries have stagnated, in some cases even falling, while unemployment remains stubbornly high. Young people face an uncertain future, with the prospect of owning property becoming increasingly unlikely for most. The past three years have seen the income distribution gap widening and an M-shaped society is becoming more conspicuous, with the middle class disappearing and more people becoming downwardly mobile, contributing to a proportionately larger lower class. Increasing numbers of people are having to accept welfare benefits and salaries of ordinary people have actually fallen to the level they were 13 years ago.
Industry needs to be revamped. We are being overtaken in sectors we were once global leaders, such as LCDs and DRAM, by South Korea. The Taiwanese economy is being battered as the EU grapples with the debt crisis, the US struggles to get its own economy back on track and China follows a policy of restricting money supply. The leading economic indicators have flashed blue for the first time in 29 months, signaling a move into recession, and the export volume growth rate is at its lowest for 25 months. Industrial indicators tell a similar story and consumer confidence continues to slide.
The global economy is faltering and Taiwan is inextricably tied to it. Growth and distribution are the two main axes of economic development, distribution and social justice being two sides of the same coin: In the absence of growth, there is nothing to distribute. Government financial and monetary instruments, as well as social welfare policy, promote this growth and distribution.
Social justice essentially means being fair and reasonable in all aspects of life, be it economic, political or social, in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, level of education and region. Government policy cannot simply target growth and the wisdom of the governing party is sorely tested when growth proves difficult to achieve.
Now that Ma has secured his second term he needs to get his nose to the grind stone for the next four years and deal with the issues facing the country. The government needs to come up with a fresh approach to put an end to internal tensions.
The election result revealed the will of the electorate and showed how it feels about these three burning issues. These issues need to be dealt with in their own ways and the winner of the election is duty-bound to develop suitable policies to address each one, for the sake of the country.
Lin Chia-cheng is a professor at Soochow University.
Translated by Paul Cooper
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday last week held a debate over the constitutionality of the death penalty. The issue of the retention or abolition of the death penalty often involves the conceptual aspects of social values and even religious philosophies. As it is written in The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, the government’s policy is often a choice between the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods, and it is impossible to be perfect. Today’s controversy over the retention or abolition of the death penalty can be viewed in the same way. UNACCEPTABLE Viewing the
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural exports and tourism, upon receiving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁). This demonstrates the two-faced gimmick of China’s “united front” strategy. Despite the strongest earthquake to hit the nation in 25 years striking Hualien on April 3, which caused