President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) posted a message on his Facebook page several days ago, discussing Taiwan’s competitiveness and posing three questions, which the media have taken to calling “Ma’s three conundrums.” He asked why Taiwan trails other countries in the speed of completion of public construction projects, questioned the nation’s English language abilities and promoted trade liberalization, saying these issues were holding Taiwan back. Well, Taiwanese would also like to know the answers to these conundrums.
It has been several days since Ma posted his queries, but we have seen no sign of a response from the government. It is OK, Ma, we understand: the answer is blowing in the wind.
The president correctly identified the problems, but he seems to be confused about who should be asking the questions and who should be finding the answers. If Ma were a football coach, and government officials the players, it would be like his team losing a stretch of games and, rather than looking for the root of the problem or discussing new tactics with his team, and Ma turning to the crowd and saying: “What’s going on?”
Ma has been in power for five years. If public construction projects are completed slower than in other countries, he should be asking the premier to sit down with departments heads, such as officials from the Public Construction Commission, and getting them to hammer out a solution.
Figuring out how to reduce red tape and corruption would be good places to start. The key to improving efficiency in this sector lies in the hands of Ma and his premier: If they screw up, who else is there to blame?
On trade liberalization, Ma lamented that over the past decade South Korea has signed more free-trade agreements (FTAs) than Taiwan has. Three years ago, when he signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, Ma waxed lyrical about how the pact would make it easier for Taiwan to sign FTAs. Three years on, the public would like to ask Ma what else he has accomplished.
Is it that he was taken for a ride and China has no intention of allowing Taiwan to sign FTAs? Or has he been dragging his feet and not trying to get other countries to sign agreements with Taiwan?
Ma’s administration has been overly pro-China, ignoring the rest of the world. Taiwanese have been swarming to China, with fewer people going to the West to study or to do business. Students and working people alike have less of a sense of the importance, or desirability, of an international outlook. Taiwan lacks English-speaking environments and there is often little need for English in schools, homes or workplaces.
With a lack of pressure to learn to speak English in the education system, it is not surprising that the overall standard of the nation’s English lags behind other countries.
Ma’s “three conundrums” are much like Premier Jiang Yi-huah’s (江宜樺) comments about the moribund economy. The government is both the problem and the solution. Broken campaign promises are either blamed on the previous government or on the difficult global situation, otherwise they are just forgotten.
All talk and no action, government officials appear oblivious to the fact that they are responsible for governing the country. When the initial clamor dies down, the media will move on to the next hot issue and the problems are temporarily forgotten.
Ma controls the state and Taiwan’s competitiveness is in the government’s hands. If a nation is not competitive, the fault lies not with the population, but with the government’s inability to do its job properly.
If this point is lost on Ma, then he well deserves The Economist’s label of “ineffectual bumbler.”
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, people have been asking if Taiwan is the next Ukraine. At a G7 meeting of national leaders in January, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Taiwan “could be the next Ukraine” if Chinese aggression is not checked. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that if Russia is not defeated, then “today, it’s Ukraine, tomorrow it can be Taiwan.” China does not like this rhetoric. Its diplomats ask people to stop saying “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.” However, the rhetoric and stated ambition of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Taiwan shows strong parallels with