Farming groups recently organized an overnight protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office against land seizures, and a few months ago, the Snails Without Shells movement that 21 years ago protested against soaring housing prices reappeared at the same place. The land situation in Taiwan has deteriorated sharply in the past two decades, bringing hardships to people in cities and the countryside.
The protest by the farmers could be seen as a desperate call as they are pushed to the edge of survival. From a systemic perspective, distorted value and land systems also pose a serious challenge to the public as a whole.
Because land prices in Taiwan are not subject to any restrictions, the cost of the land is generally high. Companies wanting to acquire land for factories cannot afford to do so at market prices. They therefore call such plans “infrastructure investments” to push the government to expropriate the land they need. On the other hand, the government can’t afford to purchase land using public funds and therefore it uses its powers to transform farmland into land for construction in order to attract investors.
In recent years, several cities and counties have obtained land through expropriation or redistricting. This practice has been seen as symbolic because of the government’s ideological pursuit of development. Several cases of successful expropriation have also created countless nouveau riche.
However, not everyone is pleased with what has happened. We never hear about those farmers who do not want the classification of their farmland changed, those who want to continue to till the land. These farmers, however, are in the minority and their values are out of step with mainstream opinion.
Many countries with a free market economy have placed controls on the price of land. Germany is a good example of this. The German government focuses on its citizens’ right to make a living and that is why it has many laws and mechanisms to prevent the government from rashly expropriating land. Instead, it has developed ways to purchase land at the going market rate or to exchange land. Furthermore, because the government has to acquire land at the market price, it is forced to implement policies to control prices.
The outcome of this is that land prices remain reasonable, speculation is not encouraged and people’s rights do not suffer under government infrastructure plans. In addition, the government must explain its construction plans, which serves to improve planning and administrative expertise. This is a reasonable and positive self-reinforcing mechanism.
To bring about long-term improvement, the government must learn from mistakes, reform the land system and lead Taiwan toward reasonable real estate values. The question is whether the farmers can, through their protest on July 17, turn their suffering into a catalyst that will push the rest of us to take action to bring about the land reform. I hope for the sake of all of us that the answer is yes.
Tseng Shu-cheng is dean of the College of Visual Arts at Tainan National University of the Arts.
TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has prioritized modernizing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to rival the US military, with many experts believing he would not act on Taiwan until the PLA is fully prepared to confront US forces. At the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress in 2022, Xi emphasized accelerating this modernization, setting 2027 — the PLA’s centennial — as the new target, replacing the previous 2035 goal. US intelligence agencies said that Xi has directed the PLA to be ready for a potential invasion of Taiwan by 2027, although no decision on launching an attack had been made. Whether
A chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) was found on a Huawei Technologies Co artificial intelligence (AI) processor, indicating a possible breach of US export restrictions that have been in place since 2019 on sensitive tech to the Chinese firm and others. The incident has triggered significant concern in the IT industry, as it appears that proxy buyers are acting on behalf of restricted Chinese companies to bypass the US rules, which are intended to protect its national security. Canada-based research firm TechInsights conducted a die analysis of the Huawei Ascend 910B AI Trainer, releasing its findings on Oct.
In honor of President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, my longtime friend and colleague John Tkacik wrote an excellent op-ed reassessing Carter’s derecognition of Taipei. But I would like to add my own thoughts on this often-misunderstood president. During Carter’s single term as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, despite numerous foreign policy and domestic challenges, he is widely recognized for brokering the historic 1978 Camp David Accords that ended the state of war between Egypt and Israel after more than three decades of hostilities. It is considered one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 20th century.
Pat Gelsinger took the reins as Intel CEO three years ago with hopes of reviving the US industrial icon. He soon made a big mistake. Intel had a sweet deal going with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the giant manufacturer of semiconductors for other companies. TSMC would make chips that Intel designed, but could not produce and was offering deep discounts to Intel, four people with knowledge of the agreement said. Instead of nurturing the relationship, Gelsinger — who hoped to restore Intel’s own manufacturing prowess — offended TSMC by calling out Taiwan’s precarious relations with China. “You don’t want all of