Taiwan’s independence supporters must tell US economist Paul Krugman about tomorrow’s protest and why they will be taking to the streets.
Krugman, who won the Nobel Prize for economics, was in China before arriving in Taiwan on Thursday. He is expected to stay in Taiwan for three days.
Krugman has international influence. If he knew that tomorrow’s demonstration is being held to show how unhappy Taiwanese are about the pro-China policies of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government, he might mention the issue in his column in the New York Times. This would give the Taiwanese public more of a chance to stop Ma’s “democratic dictatorship” and block his goal of unification with China.
I earnestly hope that senior pro-independence figures, English media outlets who care about Taiwan and academics and other experts who write in English will take advantage of this opportunity to let him hear the true voices of the Taiwanese public, perhaps by making contributions to Krugman’s blog.
Every extra influential friend Taiwan has in the international community gives us an extra chance to work our way out of the current troubles.
A few years ago, Krugman praised Taiwan’s health insurance system, which was initiated and realized by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). In Beijing on Monday, Krugman said — straight out — that China’s huge trade surplus was the result of government interference and that there was no way the world could continue to accept this situation.
Krugman also said that the yuan would not become an international currency in our lifetime because China lacks a solid bond market.
Taiwan’s pro-unification media will not highlight such comments, and may not even report them. These outlets, which view China as the mother country, will only give space to material such as China and the US being dubbed as the “G2.” They could twist Krugman’s statement that he knew nothing about the mooted economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) into making him sound as if he supports an ECFA and that it would be good for both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwanese media outlets are, after all, brainwashing readers into thinking that relying on China is the only way to save the economy.
We must remind Krugman that Taiwan is facing a grave threat to its democracy. We must tell him that Taiwan has a minority of “high-class Mainlanders” whose fathers gained privileges through bloody, totalitarian rule and that this minority is now using its inherited privileges to control the media and the judiciary to manipulate the Hoklo and Hakka ethnic groups that make up the majority of the population.
We need to let Krugman know about the deal that the KMT has with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to allow the latter to take over Taiwan.
Krugman once warned the world that economic development will not decrease military conflict. Meanwhile, China has warned us of seven circumstances or “red lines” that, if crossed, will result in China taking military action against Taiwan — even as our professional student of a president runs around pinning Taiwan’s hope on Chinese goodwill.
Krugman once said about trade with China: “They give us poisoned products, we give them worthless paper.” He also opposed a Chinese buyout of major US petroleum explorer and marketer Unocal for strategic reasons.
I believe he will listen to the Taiwanese public and I would implore the leaders of pro-Taiwan media outlets to make good use of this opportunity.
Lin Chih-hung is a political commentator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
Why is Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not a “happy camper” these days regarding Taiwan? Taiwanese have not become more “CCP friendly” in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) use of spies and graft by the United Front Work Department, intimidation conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Armed Police/Coast Guard, and endless subversive political warfare measures, including cyber-attacks, economic coercion, and diplomatic isolation. The percentage of Taiwanese that prefer the status quo or prefer moving towards independence continues to rise — 76 percent as of December last year. According to National Chengchi University (NCCU) polling, the Taiwanese
It would be absurd to claim to see a silver lining behind every US President Donald Trump cloud. Those clouds are too many, too dark and too dangerous. All the same, viewed from a domestic political perspective, there is a clear emerging UK upside to Trump’s efforts at crashing the post-Cold War order. It might even get a boost from Thursday’s Washington visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In July last year, when Starmer became prime minister, the Labour Party was rigidly on the defensive about Europe. Brexit was seen as an electorally unstable issue for a party whose priority
US President Donald Trump is systematically dismantling the network of multilateral institutions, organizations and agreements that have helped prevent a third world war for more than 70 years. Yet many governments are twisting themselves into knots trying to downplay his actions, insisting that things are not as they seem and that even if they are, confronting the menace in the White House simply is not an option. Disagreement must be carefully disguised to avoid provoking his wrath. For the British political establishment, the convenient excuse is the need to preserve the UK’s “special relationship” with the US. Following their White House
US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought renewed scrutiny to the Taiwan-US semiconductor relationship with his claim that Taiwan “stole” the US chip business and threats of 100 percent tariffs on foreign-made processors. For Taiwanese and industry leaders, understanding those developments in their full context is crucial while maintaining a clear vision of Taiwan’s role in the global technology ecosystem. The assertion that Taiwan “stole” the US’ semiconductor industry fundamentally misunderstands the evolution of global technology manufacturing. Over the past four decades, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), has grown through legitimate means
RSS