In Taiwan there is a saying, kenan (克難), which means “to overcome adversity.” The saying entered the Taiwanese lexicon following the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) retreat to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War and referred to the KMT’s aim to “reconquer the mainland.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had a similar saying: jianku doumen (“arduous struggle,” 艱苦奮鬥), which was initially adopted as a revolutionary slogan. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the CCP continued to promote the glory of the “arduous struggle” to the masses.
Today, Taiwanese still struggle to “overcome adversity.” Meanwhile, corporations that enjoy special privileges continue to covertly squander money and fleece the public. This is something that should not be allowed to happen in a democracy.
Many Taiwanese talk of an “organic independence,” referring to the natural emergence, through the passage of time and emergence of new generations, of an identification with Taiwan, not with China. While there is nothing wrong with the idea of an “organic independence” per se, what Taiwan really needs is to become a fully-fledged independent nation.
Independence does not grow on trees, nor will it fall from the sky into Taiwanese’s laps; they must fight for it.
The nation has to build up its strength, fend off the threat of annexation by China, while avoiding becoming dragged into a three-way conflict between Washington and Beijing. The whole nation must come together to “overcome adversity.”
After the KMT came to Taiwan, it continued to preach to the public a message of overcoming adversity. However, once the party gave up on its dream of “retaking the mainland” it switched its message and downgraded its goal to simply “maintaining sovereignty” (pianan, 偏安) over Taiwan.
Now, though, the conditions both domestically and internationally have moved in Taiwan’s favor so that Taiwanese are presented with a golden opportunity to display resilience in the face of adversity and build a new nation that can proudly hold its head up high.
Needless to say, in Taiwan there is a select group of people who were exempted from the need to “overcome adversity” and were free to enjoy the good life.
During the party-state era of KMT rule, to consolidate their position in their new home, the party gave, through legislation, party members a monopoly over the nation’s wealth. This legislation not only exacerbated the wealth gap between rich and poor, but also gutted the nation’s resources.
Their actions have risked pushing Taiwan the way of Greece, leaving the nation facing the prospect of bankruptcy and robbing the younger generation of a means of survival.
Now that Taiwan is a democracy, its has a duty to fully investigate and enact reforms to deal with the legacy of the KMT’s autocratic system of government — policies and legislation that violated the public interest and prevented the nation from developing along a sustainable path.
As for those who will be affected by the coming reforms, they will have to get used to living on a reduced income. They will probably see this as overcoming adversity, yet their “adversity” is rather different from the everyday struggle for survival experienced by the average Taiwanese worker.
When these privileged people complain that they “won’t be able to survive” and go on hunger strike, it is difficult to know whether to laugh or to cry.
If, once a portion of their generous income is cut, they really will be unable to make ends meet, how on earth have ordinary Taiwanese workers been able to survive for all these years? By their logic, surely half of the population should already have been pushed into starvation.
These privileged few, who are resisting reform to protect their vested self-interests, appear ignorant of the public’s resilience in the face of adversity all those years ago. It is a supreme display of the selfishness that some of humankind is capable of.
The high-sounding language trumpeted by these individuals beggars belief. What of former president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) forgotten New Life Movement with its promotion of traditional moral values, such as propriety, justice, honesty and honor?
In 1993, I visited China’s Sichuan Province with Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman and the former dean of Hong Kong University’s School of Economics and Finance — now amalgamated into the Faculty of Business and Economics — Steven Cheung (張五常).
During the visit, Friedman spoke with then-governor of Sichuan Province Xiao Yang (蕭秧) about economic reform.
Friedman compared the implementation of financial reform to the docking of a cow’s tail: It has to be done in one clean cut to prevent pain.
Xiao replied that Chinese prefer to advance cautiously, little by little, rather than taking a giant leap into the unknown.
Looking back 30 years later, having approached reform in a piecemeal fashion, China’s economy is starting to come off the rails. One look at the endemic problems of official corruption and social chaos in China says it all.
In Taiwan, pension reform is proving painful, but rather than suffer years of drawn-out agony, the government should make a clean break of it and perform a short, sharp amputation on Taiwan’s unjust pension system.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Edward Jones
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
RSS