After eight long years of traffic disruptions and the budget for the project being increased five times, the Taipei MRT Xinyi Line is finally up and running.
Media outlets fell over themselves in reporting how several of the stations on this line had specially designed landscapes outside them, with every report detailing how great the design was and that these must be the most beautiful MRT stations in the nation. However, the media showed almost no concern for the fact that the project cost for this short line of only 6.5km was NT$39 billion (US$1.3 billion) — or NT$6 billion per kilometer.
It is a good thing that the Xinyi Line is operational and that the stations have been designed tastefully, and can thus be used as spaces for the display of public art. However, spending an average of NT$4.197 billion per kilometer on construction work alone is far too much and very wasteful. It is also unreasonable that the budget for the project was increased five times. Can the government assure the public that this new line will not be plagued by the same problems caused by ill advice, just like the Wenshan Line between Muzha and Neihu? It is strange that the media outlets have not shown any interest in such issues.
A friend from overseas who has worked in Taiwan for many years once asked a question that is very pertinent to Taiwanese society. My friend asked why the Taiwanese government builds a whole heap of very expensive things with questionable quality. People in the know are well aware that this is related to the complex relationship between business and government.
Government debt, both central and local, is increasing rapidly, while ordinary people are having a hard time getting by because of the abysmal economy. However, there are still political hacks out there who have not yet changed their ways and continue to crave notoriety while wasting public funds and treating infrastructure like it is something ripe for their picking. They are still in the habit of spending large sums of money in an attempt to show off what they view as “political achievements.”
During the speech President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) gave at the opening of the Xinyi Line, he did not forget to take credit for developments, by telling everyone not to forget that the new line was something he made happen during his time as Taipei mayor. In all honesty, there is really nothing worth bragging about when an MRT line only a little more than 6km long cost almost NT$40 billion in taxpayers’ hard-earned money to build. Instead, what Ma should have done was express shame for wasting so much money.
If a few hundred million could have been saved for each kilometer of the Xinyi Line, not only could the government have solved the transportation problems faced by ill, elderly people in remote areas, but disadvantaged students around the nation could also have received the help they need in paying for their school lunches. Unfortunately, however, political hacks who are merely concerned with their own image and interests will never be able to see what is really of the most substantial benefit to Taiwanese.
Hsu Yu-fang is a professor in the department of Sinophone literatures at National Dong Hwa University.
Translated by Drew Cameron
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to bully Taiwan by conducting military drills extremely close to Taiwan in late May 2024 and announcing a legal opinion in June on how they would treat “Taiwan Independence diehards” according to the PRC’s Criminal Code. This article will describe how China’s Anaconda Strategy of psychological and legal asphyxiation is employed. The CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) conducted a “punishment military exercise” against Taiwan called “Joint Sword 2024A” from 23-24 May 2024, just three days after President William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was sworn in and
Former US president Donald Trump’s comments that Taiwan hollowed out the US semiconductor industry are incorrect. That misunderstanding could impact the future of one of the world’s most important relationships and end up aiding China at a time it is working hard to push its own tech sector to catch up. “Taiwan took our chip business from us,” the returnee US presidential contender told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview published this week. The remarks came after the Republican nominee was asked whether he would defend Taiwan against China. It is not the first time he has said this about the nation’s
The Yomiuri Shimbun, the newspaper with the largest daily circulation in Japan, on Thursday last week published an article saying that an unidentified high-ranking Japanese official openly spoke of an analysis that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) needs less than a week, not a month, to invade Taiwan with its amphibious forces. Reportedly, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has already been advised of the analysis, which was based on the PLA’s military exercises last summer. A Yomiuri analysis of unclassified satellite photographs confirmed that the PLA has already begun necessary base repairs and maintenance, and is conducting amphibious operation exercises
The first session of the 11th Legislative Yuan’s four-year term ended on Tuesday, and 55 bills were passed in the session, which is the fewest bills passed in one session in 12 years. However, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said the session delivered a “very good result,” despite there being fights and arguments in this break-in session for many newly elected legislators. In the last two days of the session, lawmakers rushed to pass a slew of resolutions and bills, mainly proposed by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators, who have a combined majority in the