On Thursday last week, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics released this year’s figures on average real wages for the period January through June. These showed that the real wage level has reverted to what it was 16 years ago.
The unemployment rate is up 0.11 percentage points from last month, to 4.25 percent. This is higher than the unemployment rates in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore by 0.35 percent, 0.95 percent, 1.05 percent and 2.15 percent respectively.
In terms of the poverty gap in this country, as calculated with the quintile multiplier method, disposable income for the top-earning 20 percent of households last year was 6.13 times higher than that of the lowest-earning 20 percent.
While this multiplier figure is actually 0.04 lower than the 2011 figure, it remains considerably higher than the 5.98 multiplier figure of 2007. Furthermore, looking over the figures for the past 12 years, three of the five years with the highest poverty gap multiplier figures have been when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been in power.
A comparison of annual GDP per capita figures reveals that, in 2008, Taiwan lagged behind South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore by US$1,754, US$13,435 and US$22,552 respectively, but after four years of efforts from the KMT government, this gap had been extended to US$2,656, US$16,192 and US$32,230 last year.
This shows that the KMT has emerged the loser among the governments of these countries, all of whom have been in the same boat, in how it has dealt with the shockwaves from the US sub-prime mortgage financial crisis and the sovereign debt crises in several European nations.
Finally, in terms of attracting foreign investment, Taiwan was ranked second from last in the world by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, ahead only of Angola in Africa, a new record low.
Taiwan also has the questionable honor of having had net outflows for 12 quarters in a row.
This amounts to an accumulated net outflow of as much as US$91.3 billion, almost equivalent to the total budget for the central government for one-and-a-half years.
This means that, under the KMT government, the nation’s investment environment has gone consistently from bad to worse.
The KMT government has failed dramatically in its efforts to deliver an improved economy, so it is not just that foreign investment is no longer coming in. For example, the “6-3-3” plan — achieving a 6 percent economic growth rate, less than 3 percent unemployment and per capita income of over US$30,000 under the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — has failed miserably.
The proof is in the pudding and the public is on the receiving end of this government’s efforts. A monkey in silk is a still a monkey. The KMT cannot cover up its incompetence without eventually being shown for what it is.
Huang Tzu-wei is a researcher at the Taiwan Thinktank.
Translated by Paul Cooper
Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) led a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan in late February. During their various meetings with Taiwan’s leaders, this delegation never missed an opportunity to emphasize the strength of their cross-party consensus on issues relating to Taiwan and China. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi are leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Their instruction upon taking the reins of the committee was to preserve China issues as a last bastion of bipartisanship in an otherwise deeply divided Washington. They have largely upheld their pledge. But in doing so, they have performed the
It is well known that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) ambition is to rejuvenate the Chinese nation by unification of Taiwan, either peacefully or by force. The peaceful option has virtually gone out of the window with the last presidential elections in Taiwan. Taiwanese, especially the youth, are resolved not to be part of China. With time, this resolve has grown politically stronger. It leaves China with reunification by force as the default option. Everyone tells me how and when mighty China would invade and overpower tiny Taiwan. However, I have rarely been told that Taiwan could be defended to
It should have been Maestro’s night. It is hard to envision a film more Oscar-friendly than Bradley Cooper’s exploration of the life and loves of famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. It was a prestige biopic, a longtime route to acting trophies and more (see Darkest Hour, Lincoln, and Milk). The film was a music biopic, a subgenre with an even richer history of award-winning films such as Ray, Walk the Line and Bohemian Rhapsody. What is more, it was the passion project of cowriter, producer, director and actor Bradley Cooper. That is the kind of multitasking -for-his-art overachievement that Oscar
Chinese villages are being built in the disputed zone between Bhutan and China. Last month, Chinese settlers, holding photographs of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), moved into their new homes on land that was not Xi’s to give. These residents are part of the Chinese government’s resettlement program, relocating Tibetan families into the territory China claims. China shares land borders with 15 countries and sea borders with eight, and is involved in many disputes. Land disputes include the ones with Bhutan (Doklam plateau), India (Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin) and Nepal (near Dolakha and Solukhumbu districts). Maritime disputes in the South China