The National Development Council’s Population Projections for the ROC (Taiwan): 2020-2070, released late last month, officially recognizes that from this year, Taiwan is to have negative population growth, and that the demographic dividend — the economic growth that comes from a change in the age structure of a nation — is to end in 2028. The news made many people worry — and wonder what is in store for Taiwan.
From a more objective perspective, moderate negative population growth is not necessarily bad. It could offer Taiwan a great opportunity to alleviate the pressures of overpopulation, improve quality of life and allow the natural environment to recover.
Taiwan proper has an area of less than 36,000km2, but excluding the mountainous areas, its 23.6 million people live on only one-third of this area, making it the world’s most densely populated nation. In short, Taiwan is overcrowded.
The problems of overpopulation are self-evident. First, it destroys the living environment, cities become overcrowded, the many vehicles cause traffic congestion and alarmingly frequent accidents, sewers are blocked, and emissions are polluting the air and rivers.
Overpopulation and limited land availability cause people to move to the mountains to grow vegetables and fruit, and build factories. Over time, once beautiful mountains and forests are left with bald patches on their hillsides due to logging. This in turn causes landslides during the typhoon season, destroying houses, roads and bridges, and posing great danger to people’s lives and property.
Production and consumption by humans, as well as their vehicles and machines, release huge amounts of carbon dioxide.
One example of the irreversible damage that overpopulation does to nature is rising sea levels. Greenhouse gases produced by human activities cause global warming that melts the ice caps, leading to rising sea levels, which even put inland areas at risk of being submerged by flooding.
The sea levels around Taiwan have risen at about 1.5 to two times faster than the average global rate. Perhaps this is why a report released late last month by Greenpeace specifically mentioned that if Taiwan fails to curb its carbon dioxide emissions, 1,398km2 of land would be submerged by rising seawater by 2040, affecting 1.2 million people.
More aggressive measures for reducing carbon emissions and the population are needed if this disaster is to be avoided.
The National Development Council estimated that by 2050, Taiwan would have a population of about 20.4 million people, which is still a big number.
Many people worry that a population decrease would lead to labor shortages, but at least 40 percent of the labor force would be replaced by robots, based on predictions made a decade ago by artificial intelligence and robotics experts — and this is how things have been developing.
An increasing population would cause unemployment to worsen, so why are people worrying about depopulation?
The government could also tax industries that use automation — thereby making a profit without wages or labor and health insurance needing to be paid, such as how the government ensures that it functions properly by levying higher business taxes on the hotel, restaurant, finance, retail, manufacturing and warehousing sectors.
A moderate decline in population has many benefits. Hopefully, Taiwan’s future will be as a small, beautiful and progressive country with well-educated and happy citizens who do not need to fear having their homes flooded by rising sea levels.
Eric Wang is an adjunct university professor.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
There are moments in history when America has turned its back on its principles and withdrawn from past commitments in service of higher goals. For example, US-Soviet Cold War competition compelled America to make a range of deals with unsavory and undemocratic figures across Latin America and Africa in service of geostrategic aims. The United States overlooked mass atrocities against the Bengali population in modern-day Bangladesh in the early 1970s in service of its tilt toward Pakistan, a relationship the Nixon administration deemed critical to its larger aims in developing relations with China. Then, of course, America switched diplomatic recognition
The international women’s soccer match between Taiwan and New Zealand at the Kaohsiung Nanzih Football Stadium, scheduled for Tuesday last week, was canceled at the last minute amid safety concerns over poor field conditions raised by the visiting team. The Football Ferns, as New Zealand’s women’s soccer team are known, had arrived in Taiwan one week earlier to prepare and soon raised their concerns. Efforts were made to improve the field, but the replacement patches of grass could not grow fast enough. The Football Ferns canceled the closed-door training match and then days later, the main event against Team Taiwan. The safety
The Chinese government on March 29 sent shock waves through the Tibetan Buddhist community by announcing the untimely death of one of its most revered spiritual figures, Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche. His sudden passing in Vietnam raised widespread suspicion and concern among his followers, who demanded an investigation. International human rights organization Human Rights Watch joined their call and urged a thorough investigation into his death, highlighting the potential involvement of the Chinese government. At just 56 years old, Rinpoche was influential not only as a spiritual leader, but also for his steadfast efforts to preserve and promote Tibetan identity and cultural
Strategic thinker Carl von Clausewitz has said that “war is politics by other means,” while investment guru Warren Buffett has said that “tariffs are an act of war.” Both aphorisms apply to China, which has long been engaged in a multifront political, economic and informational war against the US and the rest of the West. Kinetically also, China has launched the early stages of actual global conflict with its threats and aggressive moves against Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan, and its support for North Korea’s reckless actions against South Korea that could reignite the Korean War. Former US presidents Barack Obama
RSS