The Tsai Gov’t Must Pay Great Attention to Int’l Competition and Not Squabble with Local Gov’ts

The Tsai Gov’t Must Pay Great Attention to Int’l Competition and Not Squabble with Local Gov’ts

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 13, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

Taiwan has had no confirmed domestic cases of COVID-19 pneumonia for a month, showing that this wave of pandemic is gradually petering out. The Tsai government ought to seize this advantage for a bigger picture, accelerating the advance deployment for the regrouping of the global post-pandemic economic order, seeking the best opportunity for a "V-shaped rebound" of our economy. Regrettably, the government is nevertheless procrastinating and not moving forward; the bailout programs led to wide-spread popular grievances at the grassroots level. Discount coupons have yet to be issued, and the government could not make up its mind as to how and when to lift the bans on social activities, while frequently squabbling with local governments.

The central and local governments hold different views, sometimes it is the central lambasting the local, and other times the local bombarding the central. This phenomenon of singing different tunes, besides leading to schizophrenia on the part of the populace, it also exposes that the central command system's thinking and orders do not have well-rounded considerations, causing difficulties in implementation for local governments and dissatisfaction and displeasure on the part of the public.

Recently, Mainland China and South Korea have jointly announced the establishment of an "express corridor for entry", facilitating exchanges between businessmen of these two countries, allowing businessmen of the two countries to engage in necessary interchanges under appropriate norms and trust. The purpose is to snatch the first opportunity for economic reorganization in the post-pandemic Asia-Pacific area, allowing operations of the stagnant industrial and business circles to be restored.

Looking back at Taiwan, although it has been relatively successful in containing the pandemic, it nevertheless procrastinates in reconstruction because of complacency, thus losing the economic competition in the future.

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