Taiwan’s aging population and declining birthrate have become serious concerns for the nation. The National Development Council forecast that Taiwan would by 2025 be a super-aged society, in which 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older, and that the nation’s “demographic dividend” would end by 2028, and the working-age population — aged 15 to 64 — would for the first time account for less than two-thirds of the population.
An increase in the proportion of elderly people would burden the healthcare system, while the falling share of working-age people would jeopardize Taiwan’s productivity and economic development.
The nation’s demographic structure is changing remarkably fast. Council data show that it took Taiwan only 25 years to move from being an “aging society” in 1993, with 7 percent of the population aged 65 or older, to an “aged society” in 2018, when more than 14 percent were 65 or older. Becoming a “super-aged” society is expected to take only seven years.
In comparison, council data show that it took Germany 75 years to progress from being an aging society to a super-aged society, while it took France 154 years. Canada would undergo the development within 79 years, the US would take 92 years, the UK 97 years and Norway 142 years, the council estimated.
Even in Japan, which has the world’s highest proportion of people aged 65 or older, it took 24 years to shift from an aging society to an aged society, and another 11 years to become a super-aged society, the council said.
With the development being so fast in Taiwan, there is little time for the government to adapt, and its planning and implementation of policies to address the problem seem inadequate. Many candidates for the local elections on Nov. 26 have not only called on the government to address the issue more urgently, but also announced their own plans.
However, most candidates’ plans are focused on raising pensions or allocating more budget for long-term care and other welfare programs. There is little focus on how Taiwan can create opportunities for senior citizens or develop their potential. The mainstream thinking of Taiwanese is that senior citizens are a liability rather than an asset to society, and candidates’ policy plans mostly focus on caring for elderly citizens, instead of enabling them to contribute to society and the economy.
It is unknown how effective a one-off allowance would be to help improve the well-being of older people, but it is certain that such payments would weigh on local governments’ budgets and restrict room for other policies related to senior citizens’ participation in the economy, labor market and society.
Due to their experience, knowledge and skills, senior citizens can play an important role in economic development. Retaining more people aged 65 or older in the workforce might enhance overall labor productivity. Older people can also make key contributions to society through volunteering — a potential that could be unlocked through support programs from public agencies and community-based institutions.
It is key to facilitate older people’s participation in lifelong learning to help them embrace new technology and improve their ability for social adjustment. This would not only delay the pace of population aging and improve quality of life, it would also enable Taiwan to make better use of medical resources and leverage the positive contributions of older people.
Jan. 1 marks a decade since China repealed its one-child policy. Just 10 days before, Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), who long oversaw the often-brutal enforcement of China’s family-planning rules, died at the age of 96, having never been held accountable for her actions. Obituaries praised Peng for being “reform-minded,” even though, in practice, she only perpetuated an utterly inhumane policy, whose consequences have barely begun to materialize. It was Vice Premier Chen Muhua (陳慕華) who first proposed the one-child policy in 1979, with the endorsement of China’s then-top leaders, Chen Yun (陳雲) and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), as a means of avoiding the
The immediate response in Taiwan to the extraction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the US over the weekend was to say that it was an example of violence by a major power against a smaller nation and that, as such, it gave Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) carte blanche to invade Taiwan. That assessment is vastly oversimplistic and, on more sober reflection, likely incorrect. Generally speaking, there are three basic interpretations from commentators in Taiwan. The first is that the US is no longer interested in what is happening beyond its own backyard, and no longer preoccupied with regions in other
The last foreign delegation Nicolas Maduro met before he went to bed Friday night (January 2) was led by China’s top Latin America diplomat. “I had a pleasant meeting with Qiu Xiaoqi (邱小琪), Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Venezuela’s soon-to-be ex-president tweeted on Telegram, “and we reaffirmed our commitment to the strategic relationship that is progressing and strengthening in various areas for building a multipolar world of development and peace.” Judging by how minutely the Central Intelligence Agency was monitoring Maduro’s every move on Friday, President Trump himself was certainly aware of Maduro’s felicitations to his Chinese guest. Just
A recent piece of international news has drawn surprisingly little attention, yet it deserves far closer scrutiny. German industrial heavyweight Siemens Mobility has reportedly outmaneuvered long-entrenched Chinese competitors in Southeast Asian infrastructure to secure a strategic partnership with Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate, Vingroup. The agreement positions Siemens to participate in the construction of a high-speed rail link between Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. German media were blunt in their assessment: This was not merely a commercial win, but has symbolic significance in “reshaping geopolitical influence.” At first glance, this might look like a routine outcome of corporate bidding. However, placed in
RSS