It’s hard to tell which is more embarrassing — that hundreds of Taiwanese would prostrate themselves before a wealthy Chinese tycoon so they could receive a “red envelope” from his hand, or the fact that after two-and-a-half years in office, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has failed to look after the economic well-being of its own people.
A visit to Taiwan this week by Chinese recycling magnate Chen Guangbiao (陳光標), ostensibly on a “thanksgiving” tour to hand out an estimated NT$500 million (US$17.2 million) to Taiwan’s poor, initially sparked controversy when it was revealed that said envelopes were embossed with the inscription “the Chinese race is one family (中華民族一家親).”
Whether this was intentional or not, this gratuitous inscription raised the twin specters of “Han” chauvinism and the Chinese Communist Party’s united-front tactics, this time not by throwing money at Taiwanese corporations, but rather at its underprivileged.
To be fair, once we look past his proclivity for ostentation, Chen has already donated millions of dollars to China’s destitute, which is a testament to his generosity. That said, despite a relative shift in wealth across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s GDP per capita is still five times higher than that of China and the latter has hundreds of millions of people who have yet to be lifted out of poverty.
A survey by Allianz Group in October showed that at the end of 2009, the average Taiwanese household had about NT$2.2 million in financial assets, the third-highest in Asia after Japan and Singapore, and 18th globally, with close to 40 percent of the population (or more than 9 million people) belonging to the wealthy middle class.
As such, it is hard to discount altogether the possibility that, to some extent, Chen’s goodwill has a political — namely “one China” — element to it. Otherwise, if he felt the need to help people outside China, why not give that money to the countless destitute in Cambodia or North Korea?
Chinese nationalism masking as philanthropy aside, Chen’s visit sheds light on a far more immediate problem, one that is purely domestic in nature. As a modern, developed and wealthy nation, there is no reason why hundreds of Taiwanese should have to rely on foreign largesse to make ends meet. Try as it might to blame the global financial crisis to justify budget cuts, the Ma administration’s justifications sound hollow when we take into account its profligate spending on such projects as the Taipei 101 New Year’s Eve fireworks, which cost NT$60 million, and this year’s Republic of China centennial celebrations, of which the total cost is estimated at NT$3.2 billion, or more than six times what Chen is expected to dole out during his visit.
This is not to say that fireworks and celebrations should be canceled altogether, but simply to point out that a nation that can afford to spend such amounts of money on visual extravaganzas does not — should not — have to depend on external generosity to address the basic needs of its citizens. If assistance from the wealthy class were needed to help the poor, surely finding willing donors in Taiwan shouldn’t be that difficult, as Taiwan has more than its share of those.
In its Global Wealth 2010 Report, the Boston Consulting Group put Taiwan at No. 10 in the number of millionaire households as a percentage of total households, with about 230,000, or 3 percent, in 2009. (To put things in perspective, the World Wealth Report 2010 by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth and Capgemini SA estimated that in 2009, China, with 1.3 billion people, had 477,000 millionaires).
Large purchases of Taiwanese electronics by Chinese delegations in the past two years, added to rising export figures to China and the region, have failed to be accompanied by wage improvements in the middle and lower classes. The benefits of rapid economic growth in the wake of the global crisis have not trickled down and have largely remained in the hands of the wealthy few, a phenomenon not unlike that observed in Hong Kong and which could become even more pronounced as a result of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed between Taiwan and China in June. The Boston Consulting Group report also showed that the number of millionaire households in Taiwan in 2009 rose 22.1 percent from the previous year, at the height of the global financial crisis, a trend that is expected to accelerate following the entry into force of the ECFA.
No outsider should be responsible for mitigating the effects of an increasingly inequitable society, as wealth distribution, especially in a rich country like Taiwan, is solely the remit of the government.
In the end, Taiwanese have every right to interpret Chen’s largesse with skepticism, if not rancor, especially if it is part of a political scheme. However, even more aggravating is that in allowing this individual to embark on his “thanksgiving” tour, the Ma administration doesn’t seem to realize that such benevolence should not be necessary in the first place. Why hundreds of destitute families in Taiwan have to rely on a Chinese tycoon is a question Ma and his entourage should seriously ponder.
J. Michael Cole is deputy news editor at the Taipei Times.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) has repeatedly voiced concern over the weakening cost competitiveness of its US fabs and challenged the US’ “on-shore” policy of building domestic semiconductor capacity. Yet not once has the government said anything, even though the economy is highly dependent on the chip industry. In the US, the cost of operating a semiconductor factory is at least twice the amount required to operate one in Taiwan, rather than the 50 percent he had previously calculated, Chang said on Thursday last week at a forum arranged by CommonWealth Magazine. He said that he had
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), also a former chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), has said that he plans to travel to China from Monday next week to April 7 to pay his respects to his ancestors in Hunan Province. The trip would mark the first cross-strait visit by a former president of the Republic of China (ROC) since its government’s retreat to Taiwan in 1949. Ma’s trip comes amid China’s increasing air and naval incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, and at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) continues to seek to annex Taiwan. Ma’s trip could be
The International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued on Friday last week for Russian President Vladimir Putin delighted Uighurs, as Putin’s today signals Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) tomorrow. The crimes committed by Xi are many times more serious than what Putin has been accused of. Putin has caused more than 8 million people to flee Ukraine. By imprisoning more than 3 million Uighurs in concentration camps and restricting the movement of more than 10 million Uighurs, Xi has not only denied them the opportunity to live humanely, but also the opportunity to escape oppression. The 8 million Ukrainians who fled
Disruption is coming to the agriculture sector. Around the world, livestock farmers are leaving the land, policymakers are targeting the harmful environmental and social effects of industrial meat production, and consumers are shifting away from meat to embrace healthier, more sustainable alternatives. With the sector approaching a crossroads, decisionmakers in government, industry and civil society need to heed the lessons gained from major transitions in other industries and start preparing. Preparation requires a careful inventory of farmers, workers and consumers’ needs. While farmers are growing older and leaving the land for other pursuits or retirement, the agriculture sector is struggling to