Pension reform in Taiwan is undoubtedly a sensitive and complex issue. Since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016 and promoted the reform, there have been a series of vehement protests and debates over the issue.
The road to pension reform is a thorny one, yet it is vital to protect the nation’s social fairness, justice and long-term fiscal health.
The latest figures show that among Taiwan’s public finance expenditures, the proportion of pension payments for civil servants is rising every year and has become a great source of concern for the nation’s fiscal health. Each political party has expressed the importance of reviewing the pension system regarding this emerging reality, but there are branching opinions on the concrete solutions and paths forward.
In the near term, as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in this year’s legislative election won a slim majority in the legislature, it has proposed a bill to stop cuts to civil servant pensions, sparking broad concern and debate in society. New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), who ran in this year’s presidential election as the KMT’s candidate, vowed to conduct a comprehensive review of the retirement compensation system, marking a new high point in the issue.
However, in doing so, this promise and the bill have been viewed as a kind of “anti-reform” signal, undoubtedly giving Taiwanese pause to consider the issue more deeply. Taiwan’s fiscal policy situation must be carefully reviewed. People must also conservatively use realistic data to support their positions. Taiwan’s fiscal policy structure cannot withstand a retreat from pension reform.
Taiwan’s fiscal debt has already surpassed an astonishing amount, the latest Ministry of Finance report shows. Disbursements for civil servant pensions are a heavy burden to public expenditure. A look back at the system’s unfair and unreasonable state prior to 2016 shows that pensions were nothing but a massive millstone around the necks of younger generations and social groups.
Although pension reform is a difficult process, it must be done to protect the continuity of the nation’s fiscal policy, social fairness and justice.
Any measures that attempt to stop or reverse pension reform are utterly irresponsible.
Taiwan’s pension fund would face insolvency within about a decade if no reforms are made, Ministry of Finance data showed.
Reversing the reform would not only impact retired civil servants and educators receiving payments today, but would also create enormous economic pressure on younger generations.
In the international community, many countries face similar pension reform challenges. Several countries — from Japan to South Korea to many European countries — are striving to find a path between balancing pension payments and national fiscal health. Taiwan cannot falter from this path, much less retreat from it due to shortsighted political calculations.
As such, Taiwan’s political parties and legislators should stand up for the nation’s long-term benefits and put a high level of consideration into this problem.
Pension reform is not only about the continuity of fiscal policy. It is about the implementation of social fairness and generational justice. There is no path of retreat for Taiwan on this issue.
Anyone who tries to turn the clock back on pension reform would be seen as a betrayer of Taiwan’s future.
The nation’s pension reform must be carried out to the very end, for everyone’s welfare and for Taiwan’s tomorrow.
Fang Kai-hung is an assistant professor at Taipei University of Maritime Technology
Translated by Tim Smith
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS