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Why Did Taichung Mayor Lin Believe in Myth of "Marine Alchemy"?

icon2018/03/19
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  Why Did Taichung Mayor Lin Believe in Myth of "Marine Alchemy"?

 

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 16, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

 

Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung last week held a high-profile press conference, announcing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation with a German company, which would invest NT$100 billion (approx. US$3.77 billion) to establish the world’s first “multiple plan for marine mining” with an air of great satisfaction and elation. Who knows, less than a week later, the media exposed that the German company was a "one-man corporation," not to mention its business record or technology. Lin Chia-lung then immediately admitted that City Hall did not grasp adequate information and that soul-searching was warranted.

 

Lin Chia-lung's superficial, boastful, and cavalier attitude could not be excused in this case, while the City Hall team’s dereliction of duty in staff work could not be forgiven, either. Lin Chia-lung said that the German businessman was introduced to him by Lee Tian-chi, the former president of the Association of Taiwanese Businessmen in Asia; because he was a "long-time friend," he neglected to do vetting. Lee Tian-chi said, however, that Huffman was a "friend of his son-in-law," and he only wanted to help, adding that MOUs were signed everywhere, and signing an MOA would incur "no loss to Taiwan." Thus, the big dream of "marine alchemy" was entirely erected on two chains of connections, "friend of son-in-law" and "long-time friend"; without a safety value of professionalism, even without a vetting of facts, a hundred billion NT dollar plan, dubbed "the world's first,” was thus built up.

 

The incident of "marine alchemy" this time is in actuality only the tip of the iceberg. What is even more worrisome is that in the Tsai government’s four-year, four hundred billion NT dollar forward-looking construction plan, and in other plans, such as the “Energy Source Transformation Plan,” which has been pushed with great fanfare, as well as in the “government development assistance plan (ODA)” that the new southward policy proclaimed to push for with every effort, will all be filled with similar investment plans, grandiose in structure, scanty in content, and cavalier in reviews. This will massively suck Taiwan's capital, and in the end leave behind an endgame difficult to wind down.  

 

Take for example the ODA plan in the new southward policy. The Tsai government earmarked US$3.5 billion for the initial stage, hoping to help countries in the new southward policy plan to push for cooperation in public construction. This move is tantamount to taking the old path of "checkbook diplomacy," which could lead Taiwan businessmen and financing banks to high risks, resulting in the end with a total loss, leaving the country with a fiscal black hole. Lee Tian-chi, who introduced Hoffmann to Taiwan, is a Taiwan businessman active in Vietnam and countries covered by the new southward policy; through his Green political and business connections, he brokers here and there, and eventually convinced Lin Chia-lung to believe in his myth of “marine alchemy.” Won’t this kind of thing happen to other people?

 

As a rising star of the DPP, Lin Chia-lung, to the surprise of many, cavalierly believed in the myth of “marine alchemy,” causing himself to trip and fall. Besides greed for accomplishments overshadowing rationality, and because he has been blessed with fair winds too often, surprisingly Lin Chia-lung did not even know that these easy-to-come-by political and business connections were extremely dangerous.

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