Pension reform in Taiwan is undoubtedly a sensitive and complex issue. Since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016 and promoted the reform, there have been a series of vehement protests and debates over the issue.
The road to pension reform is a thorny one, yet it is vital to protect the nation’s social fairness, justice and long-term fiscal health.
The latest figures show that among Taiwan’s public finance expenditures, the proportion of pension payments for civil servants is rising every year and has become a great source of concern for the nation’s fiscal health. Each political party has expressed the importance of reviewing the pension system regarding this emerging reality, but there are branching opinions on the concrete solutions and paths forward.
In the near term, as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in this year’s legislative election won a slim majority in the legislature, it has proposed a bill to stop cuts to civil servant pensions, sparking broad concern and debate in society. New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), who ran in this year’s presidential election as the KMT’s candidate, vowed to conduct a comprehensive review of the retirement compensation system, marking a new high point in the issue.
However, in doing so, this promise and the bill have been viewed as a kind of “anti-reform” signal, undoubtedly giving Taiwanese pause to consider the issue more deeply. Taiwan’s fiscal policy situation must be carefully reviewed. People must also conservatively use realistic data to support their positions. Taiwan’s fiscal policy structure cannot withstand a retreat from pension reform.
Taiwan’s fiscal debt has already surpassed an astonishing amount, the latest Ministry of Finance report shows. Disbursements for civil servant pensions are a heavy burden to public expenditure. A look back at the system’s unfair and unreasonable state prior to 2016 shows that pensions were nothing but a massive millstone around the necks of younger generations and social groups.
Although pension reform is a difficult process, it must be done to protect the continuity of the nation’s fiscal policy, social fairness and justice.
Any measures that attempt to stop or reverse pension reform are utterly irresponsible.
Taiwan’s pension fund would face insolvency within about a decade if no reforms are made, Ministry of Finance data showed.
Reversing the reform would not only impact retired civil servants and educators receiving payments today, but would also create enormous economic pressure on younger generations.
In the international community, many countries face similar pension reform challenges. Several countries — from Japan to South Korea to many European countries — are striving to find a path between balancing pension payments and national fiscal health. Taiwan cannot falter from this path, much less retreat from it due to shortsighted political calculations.
As such, Taiwan’s political parties and legislators should stand up for the nation’s long-term benefits and put a high level of consideration into this problem.
Pension reform is not only about the continuity of fiscal policy. It is about the implementation of social fairness and generational justice. There is no path of retreat for Taiwan on this issue.
Anyone who tries to turn the clock back on pension reform would be seen as a betrayer of Taiwan’s future.
The nation’s pension reform must be carried out to the very end, for everyone’s welfare and for Taiwan’s tomorrow.
Fang Kai-hung is an assistant professor at Taipei University of Maritime Technology
Translated by Tim Smith
Taiwan stands at the epicenter of a seismic shift that will determine the Indo-Pacific’s future security architecture. Whether deterrence prevails or collapses will reverberate far beyond the Taiwan Strait, fundamentally reshaping global power dynamics. The stakes could not be higher. Today, Taipei confronts an unprecedented convergence of threats from an increasingly muscular China that has intensified its multidimensional pressure campaign. Beijing’s strategy is comprehensive: military intimidation, diplomatic isolation, economic coercion, and sophisticated influence operations designed to fracture Taiwan’s democratic society from within. This challenge is magnified by Taiwan’s internal political divisions, which extend to fundamental questions about the island’s identity and future
The narrative surrounding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attendance at last week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit — where he held hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and chatted amiably with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — was widely framed as a signal of Modi distancing himself from the US and edging closer to regional autocrats. It was depicted as Modi reacting to the levying of high US tariffs, burying the hatchet over border disputes with China, and heralding less engagement with the Quadrilateral Security dialogue (Quad) composed of the US, India, Japan and Australia. With Modi in China for the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has postponed its chairperson candidate registration for two weeks, and so far, nine people have announced their intention to run for chairperson, the most on record, with more expected to announce their campaign in the final days. On the evening of Aug. 23, shortly after seven KMT lawmakers survived recall votes, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) announced he would step down and urged Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) to step in and lead the party back to power. Lu immediately ruled herself out the following day, leaving the subject in question. In the days that followed, several
The Jamestown Foundation last week published an article exposing Beijing’s oil rigs and other potential dual-use platforms in waters near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島). China’s activities there resembled what they did in the East China Sea, inside the exclusive economic zones of Japan and South Korea, as well as with other South China Sea claimants. However, the most surprising element of the report was that the authors’ government contacts and Jamestown’s own evinced little awareness of China’s activities. That Beijing’s testing of Taiwanese (and its allies) situational awareness seemingly went unnoticed strongly suggests the need for more intelligence. Taiwan’s naval
RSS