In a speech on Tuesday last week, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that during his presidency the Sunflower movement had hindered Taiwan’s economy. He also said that electric power supply problems had led Facebook to locate its first Asia data center in Singapore instead of Taiwan. He pilloried the administration of his successor, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), for hindering the economy, but are his claims in tune with the facts?
Statistics published on the Web site of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission show that between 2000 and last year, the years in which foreign investment in Taiwan — including investment by overseas Chinese — was at its lowest, fell within the eight years of Ma’s two-term presidency, and those figures were much lower than for the three years of Tsai’s presidency.
Overseas investment — including those from the Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions — during Tsai’s administration has reached the highest levels since the government began compiling these figures in 1952.
As to Ma’s claim that Facebook decided not to build its data center in Taiwan because of power supply concerns, the US company said at the time that it had chosen Singapore because the city-state could supply 100 percent renewable energy, so it had nothing to do with inadequate power supply.
Ma seems to have forgotten that when he was president, his administration did nothing about developing green energy.
It was only when Tsai took over that the government started promoting energy transition. Since then, the proportion of electric power generated from renewable sources has risen.
Furthermore, under the Tsai administration, Microsoft, IBM and Google have all announced that they are expanding their investments in Taiwan.
As for Ma’s criticisms of the Sunflower movement, the student-led movement that took place during March and April of 2014, perhaps he could explain who or what was to blame for the poor performance of his administration during the previous six years of his presidency, when there were no student movements?
Why is this former head of state using false information to defame the present government?
Ma made all these statements at a symposium organized by his Ma Ying-jeou Foundation on the theme of “breaking out of difficulties and meeting challenges to make Taiwan competitive again.”
An online search shows that in July last year, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) announced a pledge of 850,000 Hon Hai shares to help Ma establish his foundation.
Based on Hon Hai’s closing price of NT$80.5 on July 6 last year, 850,000 Hon Hai shares were worth NT$68.425 million (US$2.21 million at the current exchange rate).
This makes one wonder what the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation has to do with the presidential bid of Gou, who once said: “You cannot eat democracy.”
Liou Je-wei is a graduate student of political science at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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