President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration justifies its obstinate pursuit of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China by saying the Chinese market will be a gateway for Taiwanese manufacturers to global markets. One is reminded of Naomi Klein’s writings about how “disaster capitalism” has established itself through global free trade.
It is ironic that China’s economy has grown to its current size on the back of disaster capitalism, particularly since the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.
Although the Tiananmen crackdown was widely condemned by the western world, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) used the state of shock in its aftermath to deepen the process of economic liberalization and open the door to foreign investment. With its favorable tariffs and cheap labor, China became the sweatshop of the world and a favorite target for Western investors.
Once its economic clout reached a certain level, China began plundering resources around the world in the name of trade liberalization. In Africa, China has taken advantage of political instability and poverty and fostered dictatorships to promote its interests — all in the name of “economic aid.”
Taiwan has been hit hard by the global financial crisis and our leaders will stick to their China-friendly policies come what may. In so doing, they have fallen into China’s disaster capitalism trap.
Since the advent of Chinese tourist groups, the tourism industry has been making more money. Yet the government failed to take into account the Chinese tourism sector’s integrated operations, in which one operator handles everything, from transport to food and accommodation. The turnover of any one Chinese travel agency is bigger than that of many Taiwanese agencies put together.
Taiwanese travel agencies gain limited benefits from Chinese tourists.
Moreover, China has tight control on the number of tourists coming over, which it can use as a bargaining chip.
Chinese investment is moving into the domestic tourism sector. For example, the online booking service ezTravel (易遊網) has seen the majority of its ownership bought by its biggest Chinese counterpart, Ctrip (攜程).
Chinese-owned firms could some day have a monopoly on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.
Although the proposed Taiwan-China memorandum of understanding (MOU) on financial supervision will advance the establishment of a cross-strait currency clearance mechanism and promote liberalization and transparency of financial transactions, the sheer size of China’s banks is overwhelming compared with Taiwan’s handful of financial holdings companies.
If financial markets are deregulated without supplementary measures, even the domestic life and property insurance sectors may be bought out. For example, Taiwan’s Nan Shan Life (南山人壽) could fall into the hands of China’s Primus Financial Holdings (博智).
If this happens, China will have a grip on all of the nation’s financial lifelines.
Meanwhile, makers of display panels and semiconductor wafers, which the government has promoted as key industries, have been moving facilities to China. This is likely to lead not just to capital outflows and higher unemployment, but to the transfer of core technologies. In the end, Taiwan’s high-tech industries will be undermined.
If an ECFA is signed, the result will follow the trend of the powerful gaining more power and the rich-poor gap widening. The end result of free trade is, Klein says, an even greater disaster for the public.
Wang Shih-wei is secretary-general of the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
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
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS