As you read this, 85-year-old Chiang Bei-bei’s (蔣伯伯) ramshackle house in Taipei’s Huaguang Community (華光社區) will have been pulverized by bulldozers sent by the central government. Like many other residents of the community, Chiang barely ekes out a living and the government’s decision to raze the community to erect a glitzy neighborhood condemns him to destitution. While business tycoons and the central government pour millions of dollars into China’s Sichuan Province following Saturday’s earthquake, the fate of Chiang and others is ignored.
No sooner had the magnitude 6.6 quake hit Yaan City than the Executive Yuan, along with tycoons like Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Want Want China Times Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), announced they would make donations to help with relief efforts and reconstruction. Gou and Tsai alone donated more than US$10.5 million, with actors, singers and other business leaders also making contributions.
While this outpouring of generosity is commendable, it raises serious questions about those people’s priorities. Just as with the 2008 quake in Sichuan, what the Chinese government needs is emergency aid in the form of food, medicine and expert medical teams — not money, which it has plenty of.
Even more disturbing is that not a single one of those donors has bothered to say anything about, let alone provide just a fraction of the money they are sending to China, to help destitute people in Taiwan. The destruction of Huaguang, the forced relocation of its predominantly elderly residents, the lack of proper assistance from the government and the fines that this same government has imposed on those people, is just one among many examples in Taiwan of situations where desperate people should receive help.
Many of the residents, including Chiang, are not entitled to social assistance and are being forced to move into social housing in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港). In most cases, their meager earnings are insufficient to cover the NT$13,000 rent, while the small businesses that they operated are now uprooted.
For the rich and powerful, the residents of Huaguang are nothing. In fact, their presence on this prime plot of land in the heart of Taipei stands in the way of further riches. Those who have extended a helping hand are mostly students, social organizations and private individuals.
While the wealthy donate to China, it is artists like film director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), who last week donated his NT$1 million (US$33,520) in prize money from the National Cultural Award to help finance reconstruction of the partially demolished Losheng (Happy Life) Sanatorium in New Taipei City (新北市), who man the front lines in the local war between the haves and the have-nots.
Of course, the large donations to China have a self-serving component, as it ingratiates the tycoons with the Chinese authorities and opens the door to large investments in future. Which is why the wealthy cannot be bothered with the fate of Taiwan’s own poor.
This is shameful. Taiwan is, by any metric, a modern and wealthy country, and the refusal by the government and the more fortunate to help those in need flies in the face of the very values that underpin society. One-tenth — one-hundredth — of the money generously donated to Sichuan to help its people recover from a natural catastrophe would go a long way in helping people like the displaced residents of Huaguang, the victims of human agency, live their last few years in dignity rather than destitution.
Gou and Tsai, whose interests in China are well known, are not alone in this. There are plenty of extraordinarily rich people in Taiwan who could make a difference, but who are not lifting a finger.
Many local news media over the past week have reported on Internet personality Holger Chen’s (陳之漢) first visit to China between Tuesday last week and yesterday, as remarks he made during a live stream have sparked wide discussions and strong criticism across the Taiwan Strait. Chen, better known as Kuan Chang (館長), is a former gang member turned fitness celebrity and businessman. He is known for his live streams, which are full of foul-mouthed and hypermasculine commentary. He had previously spoken out against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and criticized Taiwanese who “enjoy the freedom in Taiwan, but want China’s money”
A high-school student surnamed Yang (楊) gained admissions to several prestigious medical schools recently. However, when Yang shared his “learning portfolio” on social media, he was caught exaggerating and even falsifying content, and his admissions were revoked. Now he has to take the “advanced subjects test” scheduled for next month. With his outstanding performance in the general scholastic ability test (GSAT), Yang successfully gained admissions to five prestigious medical schools. However, his university dreams have now been frustrated by the “flaws” in his learning portfolio. This is a wake-up call not only for students, but also teachers. Yang did make a big
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) concludes his fourth visit to China since leaving office, Taiwan finds itself once again trapped in a familiar cycle of political theater. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has criticized Ma’s participation in the Straits Forum as “dancing with Beijing,” while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) defends it as an act of constitutional diplomacy. Both sides miss a crucial point: The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world. The disagreement reduces Taiwan’s
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is visiting China, where he is addressed in a few ways, but never as a former president. On Sunday, he attended the Straits Forum in Xiamen, not as a former president of Taiwan, but as a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman. There, he met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Presumably, Wang at least would have been aware that Ma had once been president, and yet he did not mention that fact, referring to him only as “Mr Ma Ying-jeou.” Perhaps the apparent oversight was not intended to convey a lack of
RSS