Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that national security concerns and economic competitiveness have smothered globalization as the US-China trade dispute pans out.
Chang made the remark during a speech on globalization at the Taipei-based Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce.
“The world has redefined globalization as allowing domestic companies to make profits abroad, and allowing foreign industries and services to enter the home country without harming its national security and [its] current or future technological and economic leadership,” Chang said, asking the audience if globalization can stay alive under the circumstances.
Photo: CNA
The 91-year-old industry veteran had earlier pronounced globalization “dead” amid the US-China technology competition.
Chang defined globalization as a period when countries endeavored to pursue profit and undertook commercial risks, regardless of borders.
Experts and academics at the time viewed the world as “flat” and the trend reached the optimal state in 2010, still far from the peak, Chang said.
Globalization had positive influences — such as lifting billions of people out of poverty and improving the average standard of living in almost every country, Chang said.
However, it also had negative effects, such as worsening the imbalanced distribution of wealth, he said.
Decades ago, a CEO at his former employer Texas Instruments could receive US$16 million upon retirement, but today CEOs earn more than that in a single month, widening the income gap among ranks, Chang said.
At the same time, globalization weakened the middle class in many countries by eliminating jobs, he said, adding that US steel, auto and garment makers moved their manufacturing facilities overseas, leaving many unable to share the benefits of globalization.
Globalization has led to a Thucydides trap, an apparent tendency toward war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as a regional or international hegemon, Chang said, referring to China and the US.
The US has introduced trade restrictions against China to secure its own military and economic leadership, while seeking to weaken its rivals’ competitiveness, which is at odds with globalization, he said.
Globalization is built on the foundation of the division of labor in line with comparative advantages among players who cooperate, but national security and economic and technology leadership have taken precedence over other concerns, Chang said.
That explains why the US and China have assigned more importance to competition than cooperation, he said.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS