Comments on: The Taiwanese economy is not doing well : Really?

By: The Buzz About Chinese Tourists’ Direct Flights to Taiwan from China | The Real Taiwan

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:12:10 +0000

[...] the Taiwanese economy to be in terrible shape (check out these articles speaking of the opposite by Fili and Michael Turton on the Taiwanese stock market) and slammed the DPP and economy repeatedly. This [...]

By: fiLi

fiLi — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:41:08 +0000

Ah-Ben : That sounds interesting, I would be happy for a copy of the paper once you’re done writing it. It is a very interesting phenomenon, and the suggestion that this is global makes sense. Yet, I think the parties play fair in the democratic game - they do what they were elected to do and promote the ideas that they should promote, but it’s the media and the common people that are failing to balance this out. Whenever you see the media in a democratic country wholeheartedly supporting one notion without any sound of controversy, then it means something isn’t functioning right. Since we’re talking about the economy, about policies, about stats, which are never absolute truth and are always arguable if not questionable we should always expect a discussion on what’s going on rather than silent agreement.

The KMT has done an unbelievably good job in promoting the following ideas - one, the Taiwanese economy isn’t doing as well as it should, two, it’s the DPP president’s fault rather than the KMT legislative yuan, and last, that the KMT president will do a much better job. The failure to publicly discuss those ideas, I’m afraid, is shared with the DPP and the public media.

By: Forbes’ Top Countries for Business 2008 : Asia | Fili's world

Forbes’ Top Countries for Business 2008 : Asia | Fili's world — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:49:37 +0000

[...] up on the previous discussion in “The Taiwanese economy is not doing well : Really?” is seems Taiwan is doing quite well, even going up the world rankings in recent years: Taiwan [...]

By: Ah-Ben

Ah-Ben — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:17:08 +0000

Very interesting. I am currently writing a paper too at NCCU on a similar theme …’the myth of taiwan’s economic downturn’. Complaining about the economy, especially in the martial law period, was almost a substitute for political criticism, it was far safer to do anyway. So i feel it was a basic campaigning strategy by a party in a democracy to both misrepresent the achievements and failures of the incumbent party and present themselves as the solution. I think the main problem comes when many people don’t question the accuracy of such accusations and claims, perhaps because they are reified throughout the media. In a socially conscious culture like Taiwan, with the encouragement of key ‘influencial figures’ many people can be convinced in a short time that a ‘truth’ presented to them is actually ‘common sense’. What am I saying? Democracy does not ensure that parties play fair or honorably, it just functions better when they do and then you tend to avoid situations where an electorate wakes up one day to a Government that is ignoring them, patronising them or completely unashamedly reneging on its manifesto and election pledges. The UK had Blair, the US Bush and now Taiwan has Mr Ma, elected on a hope …

By: McPholia

McPholia — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:36:06 +0000

intersting view. keep up good work.

By: fiLi

fiLi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:13:35 +0000

cat - thanks for raising up important points and starting a discussion. It’s great that other Israelis take part in this.

This is exactly the point I was making in this article. First - can statistics tell the truth? if they can - which truth? if not - how can you decide?
The next point - if those 8 years were so horrible, was it because of the DPP presidential policy or the KMT legislative yuan policy who fought with the DPP president the whole way? which one should be changed?

The Taiwanese have clearly voiced their opinions, even in DPP land, but what I suggested is that they’re confused as I am. Political trends especially when it comes to the economy are very problematic, yet the Taiwanese decided they wish to do better and they decided it was the DPP president’s fault. I support if maybe not understand their decision which is exactly why I raise this now, 2-3 months after the elections, when they are even more worried as stock prices go down and oil prices keep coming up regardless of election campaign promises.

Another post with comparisons about East-Asia business within two days. Taiwan is not behind South-Korea. Some South-Koreans and not happy with their economy, even considering the stats you mentioned, even considering the fact their world political status is set and clear.

Due to China - sure, this is the growth engine of the whole world, but businesses continue even within Taiwan, businesses are set in Vietnam (Koreans) and Thailand (Japanese), so China isn’t the whole story.

and, BTW - I’m back in Israel for a month. Would be happy to talk to you more about this in one of the HUJI courses.

By: cat

cat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:30:36 +0000

In the last a few years, the south east Asia’s growth has generally favoured from the booming economy of mainland China; this is especially the case of South Korea and Taiwan. Unfortunately, however, due to the “no haste, be patient” policy held by the DPP, Taiwan failed to take advantage of this good chance while at the same time the South Korea did, and the result is that Taiwan’s GDP per cap. is now only a bit more than $16,000 in comparison to SK’s $20,200, though ten years ago Taiwan was in advance to SK on this figure. On the other hand, in the last eight years the DPP government has done almost nothing for Taiwan’s economy growth but just operate on the political conflict between the so-called “greens” and “blues”. This is also one of the reasons that the DPP has been criticized.

Incidentally, statistics cannot tell all the truth, Fili, if you are now in Taiwan, just ask people around you how they think of their lives in the last eight years.