Words and Deeds of Su Tseng-chang’s Governance Are Filled with Contradictions and Bias

 Words and Deeds of Su Tseng-chang’s Governance Are Filled with Contradictions and Bias

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

July 17, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Premier Su Tseng-chang has recently continued to write on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, bragging about the performance of Taiwan's agricultural exports. First, he boasted that the value of fruit exports in the first half of this year reached NT$4.23 billion, surpassing pro rata the total export value of NT$4 billion last year. H followed by bragging that the total value of agricultural exports in the first half of this year reached NT$85.5 billion, creating a 27-year new high, becoming one of the countries with the fastest growth rates along with Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. Premier Su deliberately stressed that good things should be shared with good friends-- selling agricultural products "needed not to sacrifice sovereignty." Aside from pompous embellishments, Su Tseng-chang’s remarks were also filled with contradictions and bias.

In the first half of this year, the production value of fruits reached NT$4.23 billion, exceeding pro rata the export value for all of last year; however, among the NT$4.23 billion, exports to Mainland China accounted for NT$3.587 billion, or as high as 85 percent of the total. This fact, he deliberately omitted in his remarks. Laughably, at the same time, Su Tseng-chang was bragging about the outstanding performance of our agricultural exports, he deliberately enumerated the "growth rates" of countries with relatively late market expansion, saying that the top five were respectively Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. However, Su Tseng-chang emphasized that this performance "did not sacrifice sovereignty," instead being able to diversify risks. In fact, the following is the reality underneath the boastful remarks by Premier Su: the export values of the top five fastest growing export countries combined represent only 7% of the total value of Taiwan's agricultural exports, being dismal in proportion. As to the top five export destinations for Taiwan's agricultural products, they are respectively Mainland China, Japan, the US, Vietnam and Hong Kong, among which the Mainland accounted for 24%; Premier Su, however, omitted this fact, while speaking loudly, stressing that "we did not sacrifice sovereignty."

These words and deeds fully reflect Su Tseng-chang's contradictions and bias. His contradictions are: whether in the export of fruits or agricultural products, Mainland China is Taiwan's largest market, yet he deliberately covered up the true picture, even shouting loudly, "not needing to sacrifice sovereignty." His bias, however, is: Since time immemorial, trade has always been bartering with what is abundant and what is lacking among various localities, with each enjoying the benefits; the exports of agricultural products to the Mainland are obviously something beneficial to farmers, while Su Tseng-chang, nevertheless, entangled the political colors of whether or not "sacrificing sovereignty." Viewed from this logic, could the farmers and exporters selling agricultural products to the Mainland possibly be "unmindful of dignity" and "selling out sovereignty" in the eyes of the DPP?

The contradictions and bias in the words and deeds of Su’s governance abound, causing impacts and undermining Taiwan’s democratic rule of law and even the social environment. For instance, the amendment bill to the Plebiscite Act introduced by the Su Cabinet uses date restrictions and delinking plebiscites from general elections to send plebiscites into an iron cage; these are all his “brilliant achievements.” Among them, the stringent provision that endorsements must include photocopies of national ID cards, even the DPP legislators did not want to support. In addition, the amendment bill to the "Factory Management and Guidance Act" submitted by the Cabinet in one stroke would legalize on the spot over 40,000 factories unlawfully built on farmland; after relentless protests and fighting by environmental groups, legislators finally decided to set a 20-year "sunset clause." Su Tseng-chang, as a loser in last year’s local elections, was catapulted to the exalted premiership; nevertheless, he abused the executive power in his hands without restraints; the audacity of his approach has frightened many. We don't know where Su will be 20 years on, and by that time, how is he going to take responsibility for the consequences of his governance?

What is worrisome is that amid the gun smoke of the 2020 general elections, all these moves of systemic undermining implemented because of selfish partisanship, or those subsidies wantonly disbursed for winning ballots by deception, and more bias as well as one-sided information fabricated to fool the voters, all attack the spiritual fortress of civil society. The more Su uses pompous rhetoric, the more he harms the people’s wisdom.

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