Universities and colleges are bearing the brunt of Taiwan’s falling birthrate. Many schools have already closed down, while lower-ranking institutions find themselves in a precarious position. The Ministry of Education has said that more than 40 private senior-high schools, universities and colleges are already in a critical situation. When schools are forced to close, the impact is felt not just by students, who can easily transfer to other schools, but even more so by teachers and other staff, for whom it is hard to change track in the middle of their careers. A Cabinet meeting on Nov. 19 approved a draft law on the disbandment of private schools at the senior-high school level and above. The law would establish norms for the rights and interests of the staff and students of such schools if they close down. It would establish a closing-down fund to subsidize students’ remedial instruction, accommodation and transport expenses, as well as bridge the gap for staff salaries, insurance and other expenses. However, the ministry, in response to the industrial trends resulting from the restructuring of the US’ technology supply chain, is moving ahead with plans to establish colleges of semiconductor technology at four public schools: National Taiwan University, National Chiao Tung University, National Tsing Hua University and National Cheng Kung University. By helping public universities attract more students while the shortage of students is pushing private schools into crisis, the ministry is kicking a person when they are down and further degrading private schools’ image in the eyes of the public. To get through these difficult times, private schools are without exception trying to increase their revenue and cut their spending. In the past, China and other countries provided supplementary sources of students, but the supply has since been cut off by worsening cross-strait relations and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that US president-elect Joe Biden is preparing to take the reins of a new administration, the question written across everyone’s fevered brow is what stance will he take with China. Given that the US’ previous Indo-Pacific strategy was devised during a Democratic administration prior to Biden’s presidency, and now that the “War on Terror” has been put to bed and the US is pursuing a shift back to Asia and strengthening its relations with allies, it is going to lock horns with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the process of ensconcing itself in regional alliances. This is going to be the main fulcrum of the US’ China policy. As many countries in the Indo-Pacific region rely heavily on China economically, even though they have close relations with the US for military security, they are still reluctant to distance themselves from China too much, by words or actions. As a result, the world would continue to see tensions played out on the international stage between the US and China in terms of competition and decoupling of the semiconductor supply chain. Many countries in the Indo-Pacific region, which have opted for free trade, would maintain a high degree of flexibility, and would try to mediate between the two sides, with their different systems and different leaders. Even if the US remains central to their way forward, they would still, to one degree or another, also need to keep one eye on China’s rise. The CCP’s strategy for turning China into a global power follows three strands: It wants to see the country become a technology powerhouse, a maritime power and a major trading nation. It already ranks No. 1 in the world in the output of more than 220 kinds of industrial products. With China continuing to rise, the US, out of
US president-elect Joe Biden has pledged to push for scientific measures against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, hoping that all Americans develop a habit of wearing masks. His push has become a hot topic in the US. However, the Republican governors of 16 states threaten to boycott a mandatory mask policy, saying that whether to wear a mask is a personal choice, and people should not be forced to do so even during a pandemic. Some of the governors emphasized that whether to wear a mask is a matter of personal freedom and cannot be a legal obligation. As some Americans stretch the understanding of “freedom” infinitely, no wonder the pandemic situation in the US continues to worsen. What is freedom? English sociologist Herbert Spencer in the 19th century defined it, saying: “Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.” Our schools also teach us that freedom is based on the premise of not infringing upon that of others. However, the definition of freedom is not the point. What should be denounced is when people, in the name of upholding freedom, pose risks to others. You do not need to be very knowledgeable or have studied the US constitution to know this simple “code of conduct,” which is comprehensible with a little empathy that was learned in elementary school: While the pandemic is out of control in the US, those who are unwilling to wear masks are obviously misjudging the nature of freedom. As Asians, it might be difficult for us to comprehend the thoughts of some Europeans and Americans. However, in our globalized world, perhaps Europeans and Americans can take a look at the preventive measures Asian countries have taken. Studies have shown that COVID-19 is
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Unless you have been on a silent retreat for the past year, you will have almost certainly heard the rumors — that the COVID-19 pandemic is an elaborate hoax, or that the novel coronavirus was created as a Chinese weapon, or that dangerous elites are trying to kill off elderly people and to establish a new world order, or that the symptoms are caused by 5G. It is troubling enough to see these ideas on social media. However, when you are hearing them from your family, your friends, or a casual acquaintance, it is even harder to know how to respond. You are going to struggle to convince the most committed believers, of course, but what about people who are only flirting with the ideas? These difficult conversations are only set to increase now that a COVID-19 vaccine is on the horizon. Certain niches of Internet are already rife with the “ plandemic “theory, which alleges that the spread of the virus has been designed to create big bucks for pharmaceutical companies and the philanthropist Bill Gates, whose charity is funding many of the efforts. The idea has been debunked numerous times, whereas there is good evidence that conspiracy theorists, such as David Icke, are themselves reaping huge profits from spreading misinformation. The danger, of course, is that their ideas will discourage people from taking the vaccine, leaving them vulnerable to the actual disease. Since many conspiracy theories arise from feelings of uncertainty and fear, an angry debate would only cement the ideas, and open ridicule is even less constructive. Instead, research shows that you should try to focus on the rhetorical devices and tricks of persuasion that have been used to spread the ideas in the first instance. “People seem receptive to you exposing the ways in which they may have been
Aborigines in Katatipul village yesterday received good news regarding their fight against a proposed solar energy farm being built on their land, with the High Administrative Court’s Taipei branch ordering that construction be temporarily halted. In January 2018, the Taitung County Government launched the bidding process for the 226 hectare “special area for solar power facilities and education demonstration,” which would become the nation’s largest solar farm if completed, but the Puyuma people say that they were not involved in the planning process as required by Article 21 of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法). As a protester said last year, the problem was not “about supporting or opposing green energy development, but about consulting Aborigines before exploiting their land.” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) made development of renewable energy sources a key policy initiative after she took power in 2016, with the goal of having 20 percent of the nation’s power supplied by them by 2025. It is a worthy and important goal, and there should be little reasonable opposition to renewable energy itself, but the issue of where the facilities should be built continues to pose a problem. Last month, about 100 residents from Tainan’s Lujhugou Village (蘆竹溝) traveled to the city to protest the construction of a solar farm near their land, demanding that it be halted immediately. Aside from concerns about the facility’s potential impact on the environment and the community’s oyster farms, the residents cited the same problem that those from Katatipul had: The developers failed to negotiate and communicate with them beforehand. This is not the first fight that Katatipul residents have had with the government. From 2010 to 2018 they battled against the forced relocation of an ancestral graveyard, and finally reached an agreement after 11 administrative court proceedings. Their resistance against the solar farm
One of my former superiors recently told me that his father had tripped and fallen at home, and started bleeding from the head. When the family called to ask my ex-colleague — a doctor — for help, he told them that it was probably only a flesh wound and asked them to stop the bleeding and then take his father to hospital. After the wound had been stitched up, he said he would be fine after some rest at home. While he was happy that his family had someone to call for help, someone else would have had to call 119, and use emergency health insurance resources. If the National Health Insurance Administration’s (NHIA) Integrated Family Physician Project was perfect and a call center was set up for each healthcare group, the local call center could be called in case of an emergency and the center could determine the situation and give instructions on how to handle it at home. If assistance by a doctor was required, a doctor from a clinic could be sent over to provide treatment, and if hospital care was required, the doctor could see to it that the patient was taken to a cooperating hospital. This would minimize the waste of resources. In 2003, the NHIA launched a trial National Health Insurance integrated family physician care system. In the current family physician plan, five or more appointed Western medicine clinics make up one unit in an area, and one or two appointed hospitals make up one community healthcare group. They have a system for referrals and cooperation, creating a community-wide care network. However, payments are too low, as the administrative fee paid to participating clinics by the NHIA per individual patient is only NT$250 per year, although clinics are required to establish and upload patient journals, arrange referrals, provide
The result of the US presidential election is not yet official, and US President Donald Trump is pursuing litigation, hoping to take it to the US Supreme Court, but even without a second term for Trump, Trumpism has taken a foothold. Even the Western leaders first to congratulate US president-elect Joe Biden were anxious to see whether Trumpism would continue into the new administration: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was concerned about Biden’s policy toward Huawei Technologies Co and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was worried about his attitude toward the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan. The leaders of Russia and China, which Biden considers adversaries, have made it clear they will wait for the outcome or the “confirmation” of the judicial proceedings. Enemies tend to be more alert than allies, as their overall destiny depends on it. [Editor’s note: Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday last week sent a congratulatory message to Biden.] Since the US presidency was established in 1789, 44 men have served as US president, but few saw their policy become a “doctrine.” The most famous example was former US president James Monroe’s “Monroe Doctrine” — “America for the Americans”— advocating isolationism. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initially misjudged Trump, thinking that he, too, would be isolationist. Xi thought that US isolationism would create a great opportunity for China to thrive, but he did not expect that Trump’s “America first” would actually place the CCP in its sights. What is Trumpism, the doctrine established but not completed by Trump over the past four years? According to a nearly 8,000-word interview by Voice of America in mid-November with Miles Yu (余茂春), US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s principal China policy adviser, it is focused on politics and diplomacy. Yu characterizes Trumpism as “America first,” principled realism and
Several days ago, a mother brought her elementary-school-age son to the clinic. Over the course of our conversation I discovered that she and her two sons had only recently returned from the US for the children to start school here in Taiwan. The first surprise was the complete lack of accent in the little boy’s Chinese, even though the family had moved to the US shortly after he was born. His elder brother was even able to understand a little conversational Taiwanese. The mother told me she had insisted that from an early age the children use only Chinese when speaking to each other at home. This shows quite some persistence on the her part. Among my family living in the US, either the parents speak English with the children or the parents speak Chinese between themselves while the children converse in English with each other. The mother told me that her children had protested and asked why they had to speak only in Chinese, but they are beginning to realize their parents’ wisdom now that they have returned to live in Taiwan. I learned that the family had returned in March this year and I was curious about why they had made that decision. Were US schools not offering online courses? The mother just gave a wry grin and said that the online courses were not compulsory, which essentially meant that students were not doing them. Also, teenagers being what they are, they needed to get outdoors and socialize with people their own age: It is not normal for them to be stuck indoors all the time. I asked whether the two boys, having grown up going to school in the US, would find it difficult to adjust to the school system in Taiwan. The mother told me that the younger brother was really happy, because
Thank you, Taiwan I am American who has lived in Taiwan for 20 years, and has essentially relocated here. Life has long been good here, but this year something extraordinary happened, something excellent during what was surely one of the most distressing years in my life. Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I have given thanks for the incredible good fortune of finding myself in Taiwan, a nation that has protected the lives of its citizens and visitors with amazing alacrity, and handled itself brilliantly during the coronavirus disaster. I probably do not need to state that Taiwan has received global recognition for its efforts in combating the coronavirus. From necessary contact tracing and quarantine measures, to travel, tourism and border controls, to effective testing mechanisms, to excellent production and distribution of surgical masks (which the population widely wore), to exceptional communication with the public via the nation’s Central Epidemic Command Center led by the very able Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), Taiwan has made wise moves at every level to counter the disease. Fortune magazine wrote on Oct. 31 how “Taiwan’s COVID response became the world’s envy.” I have been the recipient of this excellent service and capability, and to be sure my health could not be better, with no trace of infection anywhere near me or my family. My own mother traveled for Thanksgiving with her family this year in the US, and she fully recognized the imminent dangers in the air, and that she would be having Thanksgiving dinner outside, with masks in place, and social distancing preventing anything like a truly close encounter with her siblings and their children. I meanwhile had a delicious dinner at a local hotel, in a packed room with no danger in sight. So, I have lived out
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Nearly a year after doctors identified the first cases of a worrying new disease in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the country appears to be stepping up a campaign to question the origins of the global COVID-19 pandemic. State media has been reporting intensively on coronavirus discovered on packaging of frozen food imports, not considered a significant vector of infection elsewhere, and research into possible cases of the disease found outside China’s borders before December last year. The official People’s Daily newspaper on Wednesday last week wrote on Facebook that “all available evidence suggests that the coronavirus ... did not start in central China’s Wuhan.” “Wuhan was where the coronavirus was first detected but it was not where it originated,” it quoted Zeng Guang (曾光), former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying. Asked about state media reports that the virus originated outside China, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) said only that it was important to distinguish between where COVID-19 was first detected and where it crossed the species barrier to infect humans. “Although China was the first to report cases, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the virus originated in China,” Zhao told a briefing. “Origin tracing is an ongoing process that may involve multiple countries and regions.” Chinese scientists have even submitted a paper for publication to The Lancet — although it has not yet been peer-reviewed — that claims “Wuhan is not the place where human-to-human SARS-CoV-2 transmission first happened,” suggesting instead that the first case might have been in the “Indian subcontinent.” Claims that the virus had origins outside China are given little credence by Western scientists. Michael Ryan, director of the health emergencies program at the WHO, said last week that it would be “highly speculative” to argue that the disease did
The COVID-19 crisis has presented Europe with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to launch a new era of economic growth. If the private sector and governments across the EU work together on bold, innovative policies in the near term, they can address not only this crisis, but also foster steady business investment and the creation of good jobs well into the future. The EU is moving forward with 750 billion euros (US$897 billion) of new stimulus spending as part of its Next Generation EU initiative, more than one-third of which is earmarked for projects related to climate change, including research into low-carbon solutions. As this funding makes its way into the real economy, it is likely to broaden understanding of how climate-related investments can positively affect communities and businesses. To ensure maximum impact, Capgemini Invent recently released “Fit for Net-Zero,” a first-of-its-kind economic analysis of the investment opportunities on offer at present. Commissioned by Breakthrough Energy, a network of climate-oriented entities and initiatives backed by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, the report identifies 55 low-carbon, real-world projects across Europe that are ripe for investment. Each project is geared toward scaling up new technologies and business models that would help Europe achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and all sit within one of five crucial sectors: energy, industry, buildings, transport and agriculture. Moreover, each project is at a different level of maturity, representing the full spectrum of the innovation cycle, from early-stage demonstration to late-stage deployment, which helps diversify risk. Together, these projects have the potential to reinvigorate and transform Europe’s economy. According to our report, developing and deploying these projects can create a 12.9 trillion euro market opportunity, support 12.7 million jobs and help the EU achieve its ambitious emissions-reduction goals by the middle of this century. To have such an outsize effect, each
A struggling single mother was sentenced to death for the murder of her children and attempted suicide on Wednesday last week. The 30-year-old woman surnamed Wu (吳) had divorced her husband seven years ago, and was raising her two young children alone. She moved in with her brother and his wife last year after losing her job, the latest in a series of challenges she had holding down steady work. On Feb. 13, after an argument with her brother and sister-in-law, she took her daughter and son to a motel in New Taipei City’s Wugu District (五股), where she tried to suffocate them with pillows, but failed. Two days later, she gave them sleeping pills before strangling them with a rope. She texted her ex-husband that she was “going to be with the kids or they will feel lonely,” before taking a combination of sleeping pills, antidepressants and alcohol in an attempt to take her own life. Her ex-husband found her in time to rush her to a hospital, but the children were already dead. Wu in court said that she had been “looked down on, left to face the pressure of public opinion and all sorts of dirty looks.” “It has only been me caring for them 24 hours a day, without any kind of freedom for myself,” she said. The New Taipei City District Court seemed not to consider any of these extenuating circumstances, instead calling Wu “cold-blooded” and “extremely arrogant, selfish and ignorant.” To justify the death penalty, it pointed to her apparent lack of remorse, and said that she would be “hard to rehabilitate.” In a stroke of irony, it also cited the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, saying that it has a responsibility to uphold every child’s “inherent right to life,” seemingly disregarding that the UN Office of the
I was probably the first professor in Taiwan to teach a university-level food safety class and a postgraduate food toxicology course. During the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), I participated in discussions to allow imports of US beef containing traces of ractopamine, and was part of the decision to permit imports of US pork containing the leanness-enhancing additive. I am not an expert on ractopamine, as I have never done any research on the drug, but I have taught classes about the health dangers of foods containing traces of harmful substances. When US beef imports were about to be allowed, then-minister of health and welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達), whose expertise is in neurosurgery, invited me to join him in a televised interview. I told him that as the issue had already been politicized, I would be criticized regardless of what I said. In the US, some farms start adding 10 parts per million (ppm) to 25ppm of ractopamine to animal feed about six weeks before the animal is to be slaughtered. After five weeks, they are again fed the additive for a week. For pigs, 5ppm to 10ppm of ractopamine is added to the feed three to four weeks before slaughter to increase the proportion of lean meat. Doing so also accelerates growth slightly. Studies have shown that the half-life of ractopamine in humans and animals is about four hours, meaning that only half of the original ractopamine traces remain after that period. Compared with remaining traces of most other harmful substances, ractopamine excretion is faster. There is a common saying in food toxicology: “Any substance could be toxic, but would it be harmful to the body? That depends on the total remaining trace amount.” For example, if a person drinks more water than they discharge, the amount of water in their body would at
Several university students have committed suicide lately. These sad incidents make us all feel grief and sorrow. Some student counseling centers have said they are sometimes unable to help students in urgent need due to a shortage of staff. Furthermore, despite the homeroom teacher system at most Taiwanese universities, lecturers are often too busy to offer assistance at critical moments. These cases show that none of the students’ “tangible” significant others — such as lecturers, schoolmates, family members and close friends — were able to provide timely assistance. Under such circumstances, perhaps we can turn to “intangible” significant others, such as mentors or counselors, to help to save young people suffering from emotional disturbances. Such intangible spiritual teachers live in publications such as novels, illustrated books and self-help books, as well as audio and video resources such as music and movies. The characters in such materials can serve as intangible counseling staff for university students, helping them to come back from the low points in their lives, and regain the inner power that they need to deal with a difficult situation. This use of reading materials as assistance in emotional healing and the enhancement of mental health is called “bibliotherapy” or “healing reading.” The concept that reading can soothe people’s mind goes far back in time, and the approach has been popular overseas for many years. For example, in May, the BBC’s 6 Minute English ran an episode titled “The soothing power of books,” introducing the concept of bibliotherapy. Why can reading soothe our mind? There is nothing new under the sun: Many people have lived through similar hardships and suffering in the long history of human civilization. People of former times recorded their stories by putting them into words, music and songs. Through interaction with such materials, readers can come to understand that they are not the only
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Young African farmers Mavis Gofa and Andrew Goodman had a vastly different upbringing — Gofa grew up on a one hectare farm and could not afford to finish high school, while Goodman’s family cultivated 275 hectares and educated him in Britain. However, they share the same big dream. Both want a better life for the families who run the world’s half a billion small farms, many of whom remain steeped in poverty despite producing about 80 percent of food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UN. It is a tough ask as climate change makes life even harder for millions of small-scale farmers — with scientists predicting more frequent and intense floods, droughts and storms. In Mutoko in northeast Zimbabwe, Gofa, 25, is seeing yields from her rain-fed maize dwindle, as the start of the planting season is delayed from mid-October to late December. In 2016, her farm produced about 700kg of maize, but this year she only got 500 kg, she said. Goodman, 24, is also struggling at his family farm outside Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, which grows seeds for crops such as corn, soybeans and groundnuts, and works closely with about 5,000 small farmers every season. The beginning of the rainy season has shifted from October to mid-November, older farmers told Goodman. When showers do come, they often turn heavy, destroying crops and eroding the soil’s fertile layer, Goodman said, adding that this forces farmers to buy more inputs such as fertilizers to keep yields up, but the higher costs then push them back into poverty. A recent study led by University College London (UCL) showed that such experiences could become widespread as the planet warms, with significant implications for hunger and inequality. It looked at 18 crops — including those grown mainly in developing nations, such as cassava, groundnut and rapeseed — representing 70 percent
A damning report by three Israeli human rights groups has condemned the military’s widespread practice of entering Palestinian homes in the occupied territories, often in the middle of the night. The report, which includes testimonies of soldiers, doctors and Palestinian families, says that Israeli troops enter homes on average more than 250 times every month to conduct arrests, but also for other purposes including “mapping” houses, to use roofs for observation posts, to search for money or weapons, or for intelligence purposes. Soldiers interviewed for the report, including several who spoke to the Observer, said they believed that an important function of many raids was intimidatory — a claim denied by the Israeli military. The product of two years of research by the groups Breaking the Silence, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the report details the severe psychological effect on individuals, families and wider Palestinian society of raids usually accompanied by no paperwork and whose arbitrary nature, the authors said, might be in breach of international law. Describing the process, the report says: “In the absence of an obligation, under military law, to obtain judicial warrants approving the intrusion into the private domain, soldiers do not present family members with any warrant or other document as to why they are invading the home or who approved the invasion.” Breaking the Silence executive director Avner Gvaryahu, who himself conducted home invasions while a sergeant in a sniper unit, described the report as exposing part of the occupation more often hidden from wider public view. “Like checkpoints and the separation barrier it is part of the DNA of the occupation. For soldiers like myself it ended when we walked back to the jeep and went back to camp to sleep, but for Palestinians it is a long-term trauma. What it means is that you cannot
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