On Dec. 31, the Chosun Ilbo — the largest South Korean newspaper in terms of circulation — published an article titled “Taiwan’s economic growth is world’s highest without relying on China,” which compared Taiwan’s economy to South Korea’s in recent years.
The report made particular mention of how Taiwan has outperformed South Korea in terms of economic growth for three consecutive years, and that Taiwan’s economic growth last year was the highest in the world, surpassing China for the first time in 29 years.
Chosun Ilbo thinks that the difference between Taiwan’s and South Korea’s economic performance in recent years comes down to the two governments’ differing attitudes toward China.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan’s economic performance could remain unharmed thanks to the government’s energetic preparation and the public’s compliance with disease prevention measures.
Taiwan was the only nation to cut off direct flights from China at the beginning of last year and to issue a prompt ban on mask exports.
At the time, many pan-blue politicians said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration broke off cross-strait exchanges for political reasons, and a Taiwanese singer even called Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) a gou guan (狗官; literally, a “dog official”) due to his mask export ban.
The view that assisting China is acceptable even if it means sacrificing Taiwanese was the spell that previously haunted Taiwan. Reconsidering last year’s events, it is questionable whether Taiwan would enjoy today’s normalcy if the DPP administration had not chosen to first protect the health and lives of Taiwanese.
It was not the first time that people equated China with the world and badmouthed Taiwan.
Two years ago, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said in an interview that Taiwan was a part of China’s “red supply chain,” adding that if China was determined to exclude Taiwan from its supply chain, Taiwan would lose its annual trade surplus of more than US$83 billion with China.
Long before Ko made that comment, some local media ran articles titled “Admit it! Taiwan’s economy is dependent on the Mainland” and “Taiwan’s economy more dependent on Mainland despite Tsai administration’s anti-China policy,” giving the impression that Taiwan is incapable of surviving without China.
At the Dec. 9 Cross-Strait CEO Summit, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Liu Jieyi (劉結一) bolstered this stance, saying: “It would be difficult for Taiwan to maintain positive economic growth without the motherland’s development serving as the driving force in the background.”
Local media reports and politicians’ statements promoted the view that Taiwan’s only choice is to rely on China, which is a complete misinterpretation of the economic data.
Taiwan’s exports to China last year set new highs because of a strict US ban on technology exports to China and the relocation of the Chinese supply chain as a result of US-China trade tensions.
As a result, China had to purchase high-tech items such as semiconductors and electronic components from Taiwan during this period. In other words, the numbers show that it is China that needs Taiwan, not the other way around.
Chosun Ilbo’s article about Taiwan’s economic achievements last year should boost Taiwanese’s confidence in their nation’s prospects in the new year.
Liou Je-wei is a student at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Political Science.
Translated by Eddy Chang
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS