Taichung’s population has grown to 2,778,200 people, which means the city has officially surpassed Kaohsiung as the nation’s second-largest city. The turnaround in the city’s fortunes will no doubt delight Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), as it will win him additional kudos within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over his rival, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), and it will also be advantageous to his winning a second term in next year’s mayoral election.
Two months ago, it was a very different story. In just under two years, the Taichung City Government has increased borrowing by NT$30 billion (US$988 million), yet the budget for its Department of Economic Development was reduced this year.
As for investment into Taichung, Lin has only been able to attract a NT$2.5 billion investment from a Japanese shopping mall chain, Mitsui Outlet Park.
Even more depressing for Taichung residents, according to Ministry of Labor statistics on employee pension contributions for last year, the average salary in Taichung is NT$30,771. This is not just lower than Kaohsiung, it also ranks as the lowest among the six special municipalities, and is even lower than Miaoli County (NT$35,766) and Yunlin County (NT$34,217).
Furthermore, according to a 2015 report on household incomes by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, average disposable income per capita is NT$426,633 for Taipei, NT$319,904 for Kaohsiung — and a slightly more respectable third place for Taichung, at NT$311,948.
However, this is still almost NT$8,000 less than in Kaohsiung. Has Taichung really triumphed over Kaohsiung?
Taiwan is not a “least developed country” and should therefore long ago have dispensed with the notion that “bigger populations are better” — an idea that belongs in agrarian societies.
Here are some further thoughts on Taichung:
First, there is the so-called “Taipei effect.”
Kaohsiung is constantly locked in competition with Tainan, the south’s other major city. Tainan is home to the Southern Technology Park, which means that there is no pressing need for Tainan residents to move to Kaohsiung to develop their businesses and aside from Pingtung County, Kaohsiung finds it difficult to attract talent from other areas.
Taichung is different. The neighboring counties of Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou — and even Chiayi and Yunlin — do not have the resources, commercial opportunities and business potential of Taichung. If the residents of neighboring cities and counties do not want to move all the way to Taipei, they will naturally gravitate toward Taichung.
However, the farther away a city is from Taipei, the easier it is for it to become marginalized.
After the High Speed Rail (HSR) started operating, this further exacerbated the problem. Once it became possible to commute daily between Taichung and Taipei, the convenience of the HSR allowed Taichung’s economy to develop at a much faster pace relative to Kaohsiung.
This is the reason behind Taichung’s population growth. Lin cannot take credit for his city’s unique geographical advantage.
Second, salaries are crucial to individuals’ happiness and well-being. However, the residents of Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung all suffer from low salaries. Paradoxically, those who suffer the most from this situation are the younger Democratic Progressive Party supporters who helped bring the party into government in last year’s elections.
Given the current dire situation, how can Lin and Chen, and Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德), feel worthy of the support they received from young voters? After all, did not each of the mayors make raising salaries a key plank of their electoral campaigns?
While the cost of everything in Taiwan continues to increase, salaries have stagnated in the long term. This is not — as is commonly assumed — due to the inability of the so-called strawberry generation to withstand the pressure of working life. Quite the reverse: Frozen salaries are caused by avaricious domestic employers who have relentlessly squeezed every last drop of juice from this bruised generation.
Employers in the middle and south of the country also clearly have a problem adhering to the Labor Standards Act (勞基法), as evidenced by the intense pressure lawmakers in these areas have come under to revise the government’s recent amendments to the act.
Third, public security and air pollution. Under Lin’s leadership, the public security situation in Taichung has worsened. Public security is all about perception. No massaging of the statistics by the police can hide the fact that the security situation in the city has deteriorated.
The girlfriend of a student from Tunghai University was recently abducted from her apartment in Taichung’s Longjing District (龍井) by a 29-year-old man, while a landlady was last week stabbed to death by a 23-year-old man who was viewing the property in Taiping District (太平).
In one in a series of drugs raids, NT$200 million worth of the illegal narcotic ketamine was intercepted in Taichung.
Taichung’s 7th Redevelopment Zone is a hotbed of fraudsters and drug peddlers. How many of the expensive cars that line the streets of the zone are actually owned by criminals? And how many television news reports do you see with the strap line “Made in Taichung”?
As to air pollution, this only became a problem after Lin took office. Taichung residents who exercise outside or commute to work on a scooter feel it the most. The solution to the problem is for Lin’s government to proactively locate and deal with the source of the pollution.
When discussing Taichung, we should be focusing on the happiness and well-being of its residents, not talking about population size or construction.
Taichung is sorely lacking in culture, yet the city government is obsessed with vanity construction projects. Taichung may possess a massive, flashy new opera house, but it is otherwise a city empty and devoid of substance.
Albert Shihyi Chiu is an associate professor of political science at Tunghai University.
Translated by Edward Jones
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