Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday questioned what they said could be the unjust distribution of the wealth and benefits the government has been promoting under the cross-strait service trade agreement.
KMT Legislator Chiang Nai-shin (蔣乃辛), during a question-and-answer session with Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) on the legislative floor, urged the administration to explain to the public “how they can win in a free market” instead of repeatedly asking them “not to be afraid of losing in the competition.”
Jiang responded that seclusion would only hurt the nation’s competitiveness, repeating that Taiwan is “fairly strong in the service industry and should not be afraid of liberalization.”
Chiang said the distribution of the benefits of the service pact touted by the government does not favor the general public.
“The administration keeps saying that there are more upsides than downsides, but all the public can see is the benefits being raked in by big enterprises,” he said.
“It is only when the government is recognized by the people as having the ability to redistribute those benefits, can the public believe that the upsides [of the pact] are greater than the downsides,” he said.
KMT Legislator Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正) also criticized the government over the unjust distribution of wealth in the country.
While in the past 15 years the country’s average GDP growth was in good shape at 3.87 percent, higher than the world’s average of 2.77 percent, “the growth in real wages has halted and even been reversed,” Lin said, adding that this was what had driven the student protest movement.
“Young people can only see a bleak future, with more than 1 million young people currently paying off their tuition loans,” he said.
“According to official statistics, the average monthly salary of those aged 25 to 29, several years after graduating, was NT$31,000 last year. Yet the monthly wage of as many as 51 percent fell short of that amount; 83 percent of them earned less than NT$40,000 per month,” he added.
“House price to income ratio in the country as a whole has risen to 8.2 last year from 3.91 in 2002. In Taipei, the figure is 15.01 and it was 5.4 in 2002,” Lin said.
“President Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九)] and the government are still trapped by the myth of GDP growth when the young are suffering, unlike their counterparts in other Asian tigers, from stagnant wage growth and an inability to buy their own houses,” he said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
RSS