One year ago, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was elected president with 58 percent of the vote. Two months later, his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) took over the reins of government from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan’s second democratic transfer of power. At the time, Ma enjoyed approval rates of more than 70 percent. The figures today look rather different. An opinion poll conducted by Global Views magazine found that only 29 percent of respondents were satisfied with the performance of the Ma administration, while 58 percent were dissatisfied. It is high time the Ma government reviewed its policies.
During his campaign, Ma made his “6-3-3” promise — 6 percent annual economic growth, annual per capita income of US$30,000 by 2016 and unemployment below 3 percent. None of these promises looks remotely achievable. The nation is suffering a severe economic downturn, unemployment is climbing and many workers have been forced to take leave without pay. Despite this huge discrepancy between vision and reality, however, not a word of apology has been heard from Ma, his administration or the KMT.
The US financial storm has swept across the world over the past year, bringing economic turbulence and threatening a repeat of the 1930s Great Depression. People in Europe and the US are spending less, which has had a serious impact on Taiwan’s export-oriented economy. The global nature of the crisis is plain for all to see. However, Taiwan’s performance has been the worst of the four Asian “tiger” economies. This is why people have criticized the government’s competence.
Most of the measures the government has come up with in response to the crisis have been quick fixes, not long-term solutions: consumer vouchers, the Ministry of the Interior’s income support scheme for near-poor families, the Council of Labor Affairs’ “immediate back-to-work scheme,” the free school lunches for all elementary and junior-high school students and so on.
There is the rather belated plan to invest NT$500 billion (US$14.8 billion) in various projects, but the way the government has chosen to allocate this money makes it appear to be a case of subsidizing towns and counties under KMT control, while those ruled by the opposition complain they have been left out.
The government is also too reliant upon China’s goodwill. A year ago, Ma made great promises about how opening direct cross-strait transport links and allowing more Chinese tourists to visit would bring great benefits to Taiwan. However, few if any such benefits have been seen.
Ma called a diplomatic truce with China, but diplomatic relations with allies Paraguay, Panama and El Salvador are hanging by a thread. Then there is the matter of the World Health Assembly (WHA) scheduled for May in Geneva. The government has not announced whether Taiwan will apply to join the WHA as an associate member, as it has in past years, or apply to participate as an observer.
Nevertheless, the biggest failure of the Ma administration is not its China obsession. It is its failure to inform and consult the public. Not once since he came to office has Ma had a face-to-face exchange of views with opposition leaders. He plans to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement with China, but the public has little idea what such a pact would entail. Businesspeople and the public are tired of being left in the dark. Nobody really knows what Ma is trying to do. That is the real reason why his government is so unpopular.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017