Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Chia-yu’s (高嘉瑜) domestic abuse case allegedly involving her ex-boyfriend has caused an uproar in the media. To add fuel to the fire, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Committee member Huang Chin-wei (黃覲偉) posted scornful remarks on social media, saying that Kao was “a bitch” and “totally deserves a whipping,” causing further criticism and controversy. Senior KMT members have denounced Huang’s behavior and plan to mete out punishment. Even though Huang posted an apology on Tuesday last week, saying that “he will bear the whole responsibility for his personal, indiscreet remark,” there is no going back now that damage on both sides has been done. Huang’s deplorable behavior did not actually stop there, for Kao was not his only victim of verbal abuse. In his post, he had said: “Another woman, whose surname is Tsai (蔡), has never been beaten by a man. As a woman that no man wants, she has no place to speak up for her. This is absolutely revolting.” The target of these words is no secret. Huang’s chauvinism and misogynistic view toward unmarried women makes him even more atrocious and venomous than Kao’s abusive ex-boyfriend. It is a mystery how he was elected as a Central Committee member in the first place. After being voted out of office, the KMT has been running around as if it were some kind of headless chicken. As we see with the young members in this case, so are its highest-ranking senior legislators-at-large. The KMT is turning a blind eye to its members’ trash-talking, self-indulgence and buffoonery, without any sign of castigation or admonition, while the KMT fat cats continue to waste taxpayers’ money. A bunch of talentless wastrels: This is the current state of the KMT. Fang Fu-chuan is an international trader. Translated by Rita Wang
Maternity and paternity subsidies provided by the Changhua County Government are the most generous among the local governments. The parents of every child born in the county are entitled to a NT$30,000 (US$1,080) subsidy. In the past six years, the county government has paid out NT$20 billion in maternity and paternity subsidies. Last year, the county’s birthrate was the highest in the nation. However, as many as 20 percent of families moved away from Changhua County after pocketing the subsidy, government data showed. That equates to an outflow of 32,000 people from the county in the past six years. To be clear: the Changhua County Government should be commended for providing generous subsidies to encourage couples to start a family and attempting to alleviate the problem of Taiwan’s rapidly declining birthrate. However, despite good intentions, the data showed that a significant number of families are changing their household registration immediately after receiving the subsidy. Clearly, the policy needs to be reassessed and revised. First, Changhua County is a rural area, which means that the local government’s budget is limited. As such, it is questionable whether Changhua should be trying to outdo other counties by providing the highest subsidy in the nation, a large proportion of which flows out of the county. This is akin to burning money and ultimately does nothing to stem the county’s population outflow to other areas. Second, since the Constitution protects the right of Taiwanese to relocate, the Changhua County Government cannot restrict people from moving to another area after receiving their subsidy. However, it could consider adjusting the criteria required to receive the subsidy. For example, as the rules stand, to be eligible for the subsidy, at least one parent must have been living in the county for at least one year. The government could require that
On Saturday next week, Taiwanese are to vote in four referendums whose implications for Taiwan’s development make them of great concern to everyone. At the same time, Taiwan and China have applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which has important implications for Taiwan’s international status, so Taiwanese living overseas are watching the developments closely. Joining the CPTPP requires the consent of its 11 member countries, one of which is Australia. Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said during a parliamentary committee hearing on Sept. 30 that he was “strongly in favor” of Taiwan’s inclusion in the CPTPP, and in early October he paid a visit to Taiwan, during which he had a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Taiwan’s referendums might seem unrelated to its application to join the CPTPP, but they are connected. If voters approve the referendum proposal to ban imports of pork that contains traces of the feed additive ractopamine, it would mean that Taiwan does not abide by international norms and standards, which would count against it when it applies to join international organizations. On Nov. 22, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus held a news conference at which KMT Legislator Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞) accused Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) Minister Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) of breaching administrative neutrality because, during a Nov. 20 video conference with the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce to discuss Taiwan’s application to join the CPTPP, he said that the referendum against ractopamine would affect Taiwan’s prospects of joining international organizations. This is a ridiculous accusation, because a referendum is supposed to be a mechanism for the public to review government policies, so it is perfectly normal for members of the government to defend its policies. It would be strange if it did not do so. Explaining policies
The Ministry of Education on Nov. 25 unveiled a four-year comprehensive project to promote digital learning for elementary and junior-high school students, starting from next year. In the first year, it plans to invest in hardware, aiming to spend NT$20 billion (US$720.18 million) on 610,000 tablet computers, so that every student has one and every classroom has Internet access by September next year. Is digital learning a panacea for education? Does using tablets make students learn more efficiently? Education policymakers should first take a look at the real digital learning situation in countries that lead in digital technology. First, look at the US, where digital learning has been widely implemented for more than a year due to COVID-19. Research has found that for children from kindergarten to grade 12, online learning is far less effective than face-to-face learning in the classroom. Implementing online education requires teacher training, cost management of online education, a system to ensure fairness and the understanding of what an effective online course is. All these must be reinforced; it is never enough just to have laptops and Internet access. If the government is to invest such a huge amount, lessons should first be learned from the US. Second, look at Nordic countries where the governments underscore digital learning and claim to run a system that ensures each student has a tablet to learn on. Yet how effective is it? According to frank accounts from two Swedish teachers who visited me about two years ago, the learning outcome of “every student has a tablet” is that “you have no idea at all what students have learned.” The claim that using tablets will engage students in learning actively and independently is an overestimation of human nature and the appeal of online teaching videos to students. The Swedish teachers were very
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The WTO was supposed to meet this week to consider a proposal that has been languishing for the past year: a temporary waiver of pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow poor countries to make many of the same tests, treatments and vaccines that rich countries have had throughout the pandemic. Yet, in a cruel reminder of the urgency of the problem, the WTO meeting was postponed, owing to the emergence of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV2, detected by scientists in South Africa, although precisely where it originated remains unclear. There is near-unanimous agreement that vaccinating the entire world is the only way to end the pandemic. The higher the vaccination rate, the fewer chances the virus would have to acquire dangerous mutations. Before quickly becoming the leading global variant, Delta was first detected in India, where fewer than 3 percent of the population had been vaccinated. Today, Africa has the world’s lowest vaccination rates, with only 7 percent of Africans having been fully vaccinated. There is a simple reason why poorer countries do not have enough vaccines: There are not enough doses to go around. Donations have not solved the problem, because no country has surplus vaccines in the multiple billions that are needed. Philanthropy, too, has fallen short. The COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility, an international consortium that promised to send 2 billion vaccine doses to poor countries by the end of this year, has shipped only 25 percent of that amount. The world is not making as many vaccines as it could. Every firm in every country that has the capacity to make vaccines should be doing so. Yet after paying Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer/BioNTech to develop their vaccines, the US and German governments are unwilling to require these companies to
Online platforms made Mimi Striplin’s dream of selling handmade jewelry possible. Initially selling her earrings and purses on Etsy Inc, Striplin built enough of a customer base to quit her day job, market her wares on Facebook and eventually open a shop on Spring Street in Charleston, South Carolina, where new customers and devoted fans find her on Google Maps. Earlier this year, she spoke with the offices of her South Carolina senators to warn that antitrust bills introduced in the US Congress risked complicating the online tools she uses not just to reach customers, but also to organize her team, inventory and shipping. Her argument was not just on her own behalf. She was part of an accelerating campaign by giant technology platforms to use small business owners to lobby against a series of antitrust bills aimed at Alphabet Inc’s Google, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook and Apple Inc. To build a chorus of popular opposition to this legislation, Google posted alarming alerts to the millions of marketers and business owners who use the company’s tool for buying ads and promoting themselves in search. A message at the top of Google’s online dashboards now warns these customers that “proposed legislation could make it harder to find your business online.” OPPOSITE CLAIMS However, big tech companies are not the only ones tugging on congressional heartstrings with stories from Main Street. A network of anti-monopoly and civil society groups are also using small businesses to make the exact opposite claim — that big tech preys on the little guys and makes it impossible for them to operate without relying on Internet monopolies. “Their argument is basically explaining why they need to be broken up and regulated,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance codirector Stacy Mitchell said. “These companies have cornered the online market,
Not one, but three cheating scandals have come to light over the past few weeks at three Taipei universities. Reactions have ranged from threats to shrugs, with some students writing online that it is a “common occurrence.” A trend this clear is indeed indicative of a greater problem, but much of the commentary swirling in its wake has missed the point. In the most hotly discussed case, an anonymous student at National Taiwan University on Nov. 26 posted a photograph on the popular online forum Dcard showing a group of students. The poster said the image, which has since been deleted, shows classmates sharing answers during a midterm exam, and promised to report them to the school if the teacher did not punish them. Some commenters responded with threats of violence or claims that they were only going along with their friends, with one even offering up to NT$1 million (US$36,048) in “hush money.” A case at Taipei Medical University on Nov. 19 similarly involved allegations of students sharing answers during a midterm. As the large class was reportedly separated into four rooms to take the exam, the teacher was only monitoring one room, while student teaching assistants supervised the other three. The case at the University of Taipei was the most absurd. While taking a midterm exam, a student posted a video on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, showing students steaming a bowl of instant noodles and classmates around them using their cellphones. They even joked that the “closed-book exam” instructions written on the chalkboard said nothing about using cellphones. Considering the details of each of the incidents, it is disingenuous to simply blame the students by calling them “cheating scandals.” It might instead be more accurate to call them “educational failures,” as teachers and universities deserve equal responsibility. The solution is not
Taiwan is not an orphan nation in need of someone to adopt it. Taiwan is not a foundling nation wandering the streets of the world looking for a home. It is not even a poor waif of a nation unable to take care of itself in that same big, bad world. Finally, Taiwan is certainly not terra nullius, a nationless land that is open and waiting to be explored and possessed by those who dare. Taiwan is a mid-sized, democratic nation that by GDP, profitability, location and even microchip production punches far above its weight in its region and in international commerce. It is that simple. To be sure, Taiwan was not always that way. It has a long documented history of colonization and exploitation by many nations before its independence. Battles were fought on and for it. While the only colonizer to control the whole island has been Japan, it did eventually surrender its sovereignty over Taiwan in the San Francisco Peace Treaty. That was in 1952 and it officially ended World War II. Neither the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) nor the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were invited. Later, because of the Cold War and China’s intervention in Korea, Taiwan remained occupied by the KMT in exile. Yet, after enduring decades of that occupation, Taiwanese finally broke free and forged the vibrant democracy that exists today. That is Taiwan. So what is the problem? The problem comes from outside Taiwan. Across the Taiwan Strait is China, a different nation run as one-party state. The CCP is in the process of trying to rewrite not only the narrative of its “heroic role” in China, but also in East Asia. Naturally, it is doing this for its own benefit and glorification. Other nations are finally beginning to grasp the direction of this manipulation; they now also understand the
As the national referendum on Saturday next week approaches, posts about the four referendum questions have been popping up all over social media, with a handful of them being image macros and memes appealing to emotions, serving no purpose in understanding the issues at hand. These are obviously gimmicks from different parties to keep their voters in line. If people cannot help but give their two cents on social media, they would find it the best filter for finding like-minded friends on Facebook. Friends who were once affable and congenial became touchy as hell, which is mentally exhausting. Talking politics with someone who has a different political view is itself frustrating enough. On Nov. 23, Pew Research Center published a poll conducted in September, which found that when having political conversations with those they disagree with, 59 percent of Americans felt stressed and frustrated. That was up by 9 percentage points from a similar poll conducted in 2019, and by 13 percentage points from a 2016 poll. For Democrats, Republicans and independent voters who support each party, there were not obvious differences. Among the Americans who feel stressed and frustrated, liberal Democrats and independent voters, at 66 percent, made up a larger percentage than the moderate, conservative Democrats — 55 percent — while conservative Republicans and independent voters — 61 percent — made up a larger percentage than the liberal, moderate Republicans at 53 percent. The results suggest two conclusions: First, that no matter what your political view, it is getting more difficult to communicate with someone who holds a different perspective. Second, the stronger their stance, the harder it is to communicate. This is hardly a surprise. Political polarization caused by the emergence of social media is nothing new, and ways of spreading propaganda have been evolving with the manipulation of social communities. From simple,
Education’s challenges The article by Wu Po-hsuan and Kayleigh Madjar (“Educators urge paradigm shift on tackling cheating,” Dec. 2, page 2) highlights one serious challenge that university professors face: The inclination of some — not all, I hasten to emphasize — students to “take the easy way out” by cheating on exams and other assignments. I have never, as a college professor, emphasized rote memorization as the way to “learn” a subject. Rather, I focus on understanding, and challenge my students to give their interpretation of a topic, as I emphasize: “I want your thoughts, not someone else’s.” I also make it a point to do a quick database search when I suspect that a student has “borrowed” someone else’s words. Again, I emphasize to my students: “I know how you write. If what you hand in as a completed assignment doesn’t ‘feel’ right, I will check it out.” College is truly a challenge for any person, and I believe it is incumbent on the professor — and the student’s faculty adviser — to pay attention and be proactive in offering guidance and reassurance. Students more often than not feel pressured to “make all As” in their work. While that is, indeed, a noble goal, we are not all Albert Einstein, who, by the way, did not do well in other areas of his studies. Kirk Hazlett adjunct professor, University of Tampa
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The suspension of all Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) tournaments in China over concerns about the safety of Peng Shuai (彭帥), a Grand Slam doubles champion who accused a former Chinese government official of sexual assault, could result in cancelations of those events beyond next year, the head of the women’s professional tennis tour said on Wednesday. “We’re hopeful we get to the right place, but we are prepared, if it continues as it is — which hasn’t been productive to date — that we will not be operating in the region,” WTA president and CEO Steve Simon said in a video call from California. “This is an organizational effort that is really addressing something that’s about what’s right and wrong.” He said the move to put a halt to the tour’s play in China, including Hong Kong, came with the backing of the WTA’s board of directors, players, tournaments and sponsors. It is the strongest public stand against China taken by a sports body — and one that could cost the WTA millions of dollars. Peng dropped out of public view after raising allegations about former Chinese vice premier Zhang Gaoli (張高麗) in a Nov. 2 social media posting that was quickly taken down by Chinese authorities. In the month since, Simon has made repeated calls for China to carry out an inquiry into the 35-year-old Peng’s accusations and to allow the WTA to communicate directly with the former world No. 1 doubles player and owner of titles at Wimbledon and the French Open. “Our approach to this and our request to the authorities are consistent and they’ll stay there. We definitely would like to have our own discussion with Peng and be comfortable that she’s truly safe and free and has not been censored, intimidated or anything like that,” Simon said. “We still haven’t
Leaders of the world’s largest economies hailed a recent agreement to overhaul global corporate tax rules as key to ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share of tax. The October deal established a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent aimed at curtailing profit-shifting to lower-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland, where many large international firms have their European headquarters. “It will eliminate incentives to shift jobs and profits abroad,” US President Joe Biden said in early October. Some companies could still use Ireland to reduce their tax bills even after the agreement takes effect, according to tax specialists and corporate filings. That is because the new agreement would not stop companies benefiting from a strategy widely implemented in the past few years that reduces taxes over a period of up to a decade or more. Ireland’s relatively generous tax allowances permit multinationals with a presence in the country to sell intellectual property, such as patents and brands, from one subsidiary to another to generate deductions that can be used to shield future profits from tax. Companies that have generated deductions to reduce their taxable income by more than US$10 billion each in the past few years through this tax-minimizing strategy include US technology companies Adobe and Oracle, corporate filings show. Business-software provider Oracle declined to comment and Adobe, creator of software such as Acrobat PDF-maker, did not respond to requests for comment. Both companies have said they conform to relevant tax laws. The agreement, brokered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is due to take effect in 2023. It was signed by more than 130 jurisdictions, including Ireland. The Irish Department of Finance said Ireland’s tax treatment of intellectual property transactions is in line with other OECD countries. The OECD acknowledged that companies could continue to benefit from profit-shifting strategies already in place, but that
Taiwan has for many years worked toward the “industrial upgrading” of its economy, with the government encouraging local manufacturers to increase their value-added ratio, and boost real output and tax revenue, while improving people’s livelihoods. Coupled with US-China trade tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have realigned global supply chains and prompted the return of high-margin industries from abroad, the value-added ratio of Taiwanese industries has risen over the past few years. The value-added ratio is the ratio of added value to total production value, and it has great relevance to a nation’s industrial development. In the past, local industries were often criticized for not generating high added value as their fixed-asset investments tended to focus on construction, transportation and manufacturing equipment rather than intellectual property. National Development Council data show that local industries had seen their ratio of intellectual property to fixed-asset investment increase significantly from 24.3 percent in 2011 to 29.6 percent in 2019. As for information and communications technology (ICT) suppliers, a major economic pillar, their ratio also grew from 29.6 percent to 35.6 percent over the period, indicating robust potential in industrial upgrading and product innovation. Based on Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) data released on Nov. 26, the overall value-added ratio of Taiwanese industries, including manufacturing and service industries, climbed to 48.45 percent last year, a record high in the past 19 years, and the manufacturing industry — which includes many segments such as machine tools, textiles, petrochemicals and auto parts — also reported a record ratio of 32.28 percent. The ICT suppliers’ ratio was 42.97 percent, while the figure was 42.24 percent for power and gas companies and 31.19 percent for construction firms. Even though manufacturers spend a lot on raw materials and other intermediate goods, which affects their value-added ratio, most have reported significant progress
Do you remember where you were last year at this time? Do you remember what it was like? Here in the leafy suburbs of Washington, D.C., we were in lock-down mode. The streets were bleak and empty. Schools, offices, malls, theaters, churches … all were closed. The essentials were in short supply. Grocery stores rationed the good stuff. Signs read: “One jumbo pack of toilet paper, two cartoons of eggs per family please!” Some days those signs mocked us from barren shelves. It was a lonely and anti-social time. Families and friends had to weigh the rewards of gathering together to celebrate Christmas against the risks that doing so might put loved ones in the grave by Valentine’s Day. The pandemic was out of control. Unhappy news was everywhere. We were all in the presence of an invisible, lethal, confounding enemy. At times, it seemed like there was no end in sight. But, of course, that was a false impression. Look at where we are this year. A new and wonderful scene has emerged. We now have a virtually limitless supply of safe, effective, and free vaccines in the United States. We even have a massive surplus. This allows us to send hundreds of millions of free shots to our friends around the world, with no political strings attached. Schools are open again. Movie theaters are back. Christmas party invites are hitting our inboxes. Month-by-month, life is steadily returning to normal. The story of this year is the story of a deepening global appreciation for public health. It’s also the story of a renewal of friendships between fellow democracies. And, miraculously, it’s the story of a blossoming relationship between the US and Taiwan. We have come far. There was a time not long ago when vanishingly few Americans had ever even heard of Taiwan. No one could find
The Legislative Yuan on Nov. 23 approved a bill authorizing the government to draft a special budget of up to NT$240 billion (US$8.66 billion) for arms procurements through the end of 2026. The law allows the government to tap into a special budget to fund increased production of a range of important indigenous military armaments, including Hsiung Feng III (“Brave Wind”) supersonic anti-ship missiles, Tien Kung (“Sky Bow”) air-defense missiles and the Hsiung Feng IIE cruise missile, which possesses a medium-range ground attack capability. The government’s 2026 target to reinforce and re-equip Taiwan’s military dovetails neatly with an assessment made in March by US Navy Admiral Philip Davidson, who was commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command from May 2018 to April, that Taiwan could face an attack by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) within the next six years, or before 2027. That year — 2027 — happens to mark the 100th anniversary of the PLA’s founding. There are two other anniversaries of significance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP): This year, which marks the 100th anniversary of the CCP’s founding, is when Chinese officials consistently said they would achieve a “moderately prosperous” society, and 2049, which would mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, by when the party plans to have turned China into a “powerful modern socialist country.” These two major milestones are abbreviated as the “two 100s” by the party, but there is now one more. To realize Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “dream of strong armed forces,” the party at the end of last year announced the goal of achieving a “comprehensive improvement of training and war preparations, and improve the military’s strategic ability to safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.” The year set to achieve the goal is the 100th anniversary of the
Since its inception in 1995, the National Health Insurance (NHI) system has been a major help to everyone in Taiwan. Before it was introduced, being diagnosed with chronic diseases such as uremia, for example, could have led a vulnerable family to financial ruin due to the huge medical bills that its treatment requires. The implementation of the NHI system was a major step forward for society and a boon for the masses. Several days ago, a report in the media said that the Ministry of Health and Welfare would raise NHI premiums next year, passing on the cost burden to those seeking treatment. This is the right course of action. It is consistent with the point of view expressed by NHI officials in the past, and with the direction that National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) has been taking, to reduce the number of unnecessary visits to hospitals and clinics, and referrals for tests that are simply not needed. However, following through on this idea, some thought should be given to the size of the one-off payments of individual visits. Currently, there is a ceiling of NT$200 for medication, and each visit for rehabilitation treatments is set at NT$50. The NHIA has some ideas in this regard that it is thinking of pursuing, such as charging NT$200 for repeat prescriptions even for chronic diseases, and a further NT$300 for any related tests that are needed. In terms of staving off bankruptcy of the NHI fund, this would provide some help, but it will not be enough, and does not align with the core value of the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法). The solution has always been there, residing in Article 43 of the act, in the graded medical costs system that the government should have implemented more than 20 years ago. Under such a system,
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