A commentator urged Taiwanese to understand the basic philosophy of US president-elect Donald Trump, saying billionaire real-estate mogul benefited from then-US president Ronald Reagan’s economic policy in the 1980s and became a believer in “Reaganomics.”
Investment Media and Wealth Magazine chairman Hsieh Chin-ho (謝金河) spoke about his view on why Trump took a telephone call from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Friday last week and the effects the 10-minute call could have.
China was initially relieved — and even happy — that Trump won the US presidential election, believing he would be “easier to deal with” than former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hsieh said on Facebook on Sunday.
Photo: CNA
However, Beijing remains highly uncertain as to what Trump’s policies will be, he said.
To better understand Trump as he heads to the White House, Hsieh said that much can be learned from recalling that in 1980 the US was reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam War and “stagflation,” resulting in a basic interest rate of 20 percent.
When then-Republican candidate Reagan hit the campaign trail, his slogan of “Let’s make America great again” resonated well with voters, Hsieh said, adding that then-US president Jimmy Carter sustained a resounding defeat at the polls.
After taking office, Reagan immediately cut taxes, increased government spending and undertook wide-reaching deregulation to free up the economy, helping the US weather the downturn of 1981-1982, said Hsieh, who also hosts a TV program on finance and economy.
It was Reagan’s tough defense policy, boosted by an uptick in military spending, that forced then-superpower Soviet Union to back down and laid the groundwork for the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet collapse in 1989 and 1991 respectively.
Reagan’s two-term presidency ended in 1988.
Trump has modeled his economic policy on Reagan’s — from his main slogan to tax cuts, deregulation and boosting infrastructure spending, Hsieh said, adding that Trump made his fortune in the 1980s through real-estate investments, making him a beneficiary of Reaganomics.
Reaganomics prevailed during the Cold War and now Trump is trying to “make America great again” before China surges ahead economically to become a superpower, he said, adding that world affairs will be dominated by that contest over the next 10 years.
In the face of rapid and huge changes, nations are seeking to be strong economically and if Taiwan continues to allow the pursuit of “justice and fairness” to blunt its economic competitiveness, “it might not have a future.”
Hsieh’s comments drew some criticism from netizens, with one asking: “What’s wrong with seeking social justice and fairness?”
“Does our current economic system, which features an unfair tax system — placing too heavy a burden on the salaried class — not favor the capitalists enough?” the netizen said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS