[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Lifei] Editor's note: The latest poll on the island shows that up to 46% of the people surveyed are dissatisfied with Tsai Ing-wen's eight-year policy performance. The three most dissatisfied are judicial reform, economic development and Cross-strait relations were described by Taiwanese media as the three "hot potatoes" she left to her successor, Lai Ching-te. On the 20th, Tsai Ing-wen will step down.
8 years of reforms were mostly "empty slogans"
When Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, she claimed that the public generally believed that "the judiciary has lost its function as the last line of defense for justice." Therefore, she made a big move to convene a "judicial reform conference" with hundreds of "members" "Hundreds of resolutions were made in intensive meetings that lasted for more than half a year. In August 2023, Taiwan's "Civil Supervision and Implementation of the Resolutions of the Department of Justice Reform Conference" gathered 21 representatives from various fields to take stock of the implementation of the 326 resolutions one by one. They believe that the authorities have been unable to produce any concrete results after years of deliberation, which has slowed down the pace of overall judicial reform and cast doubt on the authorities' determination to promote judicial reform.
What is most criticized on the island is that Taiwan has become an "island of fraud." "China Times" stated on May 5 that fraud is rampant on the island. From senior officials and celebrities on the island to traffickers and lackeys, they are suffering everywhere, and there are various deception techniques. "The Democratic Progressive Party has been fighting and preventing fraud for many years since it came to power, but the fraud has The more you fight, the more you level up.” Kuomintang "legislator" Wang Hongwei recently gave an example: In June 2019, someone received a fraudulent call pretending to be a debt notice, and the other party used various excuses to trick the victim into handing over NT$3.58 million in cash in person. What is unbelievable is that the victim in this case is Weng Baizhong, who is about to take over as chairman of Taiwan's "Communications and Communications Commission". Taking Tainan, where Lai Qingde made his fortune, as an example, the Tainan City Police Department reported a total of 2,861 fraud cases from August last year to February this year, an increase of 910 cases over the same period last year, an increase of 46.64%.
What also deeply abhors Taiwanese people is the authorities' "selective law enforcement." Taiwan's "United Daily News" ridiculed on May 1 that the Tainan District Court pursued "judicial reform" to protect the human rights of "specific groups" and acquitted the green camp Tainan Speaker Qiu Lili and others in all cases of intimidation and bribery, on the grounds that there was evidence of guilt. insufficient. As soon as the verdict came out, some people immediately compared the case of former Tainan Speaker Li Quanjiao. Back then, there was also no evidence, but Li was convicted of "preparatory bribery," and was sent to jail without even appealing. The article bluntly stated that the judiciary has "declared that Tainan Green Camp is a place outside the law." Nowadays, Tainan has become a place where optoelectronics companies are digging for gold, public servants enjoy sexual entertainment, gangsters shoot people in the streets, and politicians buy votes. Some "legislators" of the Kuomintang cited that during the DPP's administration, there were numerous incidents of escapes of foreign service prisoners, people on the island were abducted to Cambodia, where they were imprisoned, tortured, and resold, and the Tainan City Speaker election was shadowed, not only involving vote bribery. , and there are also issues such as the Tainan 88 shooting and the interests of optoelectronics. According to statistics from Taiwan's Independent Commission Against Corruption, the prosecutor's office investigated and prosecuted 1,237 people in corruption cases in 2022, setting a new high, 24% higher and 997 more people than the next highest year in 2016. The amount of corruption also hit a new high in 2022, reaching NT$1.83 billion that year, an increase of more than 7.44 times from NT$245 million in 2016. "With so many corruption cases, will anyone from the authorities take responsibility? Is this still possible?" Dare you talk to the people about judicial reform?"
The judicial circles on the island are also filled with complaints. In April this year, a judge at the Shilin District Court fell to his death, leaving behind the last words "I am very tired." This revealed the truth about the overwork of grassroots judges caused by judicial reform on the island. According to statistics, each judge in Taiwan hears an average of 2,420 cases every year, an average of 6 cases a day. Many judges question that it is precisely because Taiwan's "Judicial Yuan" failed to solve the problem of judge overwork that the tragedy occurred. "Lianhe Daily" published an editorial saying that Tsai Ing-wen shouted "judicial reform" when she took office, but now it has been proven that the eight years of reforms are mostly "empty slogans" that are pragmatic. Ultimately, Tsai Ing-wen is very happy with her achievements but uses them inhumanely. "President of the Judiciary" Xu Zongli is greedy for power but lacks the ability to execute, leaving only a pile of bitter consequences for the island's society. Taiwan's United News Network said that the judge's suicide was "undoubtedly the biggest irony to the Tsai administration, and it also means that Tsai Ing-wen got a failing report card."
Poor economic performance, prices of everything are rising
Economically, Tsai Ing-wen has repeatedly boasted that Taiwan's economy was at the top of the "Four Asian Tigers" during her tenure.Taiwan's "Central Bank" recently released a report stating that Taiwan's economy performed steadily from 2015 to 2023, with an average economic growth rate of 3%, higher than that of the United States, Japan and South Korea. But in fact, the data speaks for itself. The Kuomintang camp cited data from the "General Accounting Office" of Taiwan's administrative department to counter that Taiwan's economic growth rate in 2023 was 1.42%, a new low since the 2008 financial tsunami; the people's life misery index (inflation rate plus unemployment rate) once exceeded 7%, a 10-year high. As for the DPP’s claim that it “has been in power for more than 7 years (2016 to 2023), the average economic growth rate exceeded 3%, and the economic growth rate ranked first in the world in 2020”, actual data proves that this statement cannot be tested. Relevant records from the imf (International Monetary Fund) database show that 10 countries and regions had higher economic growth rates than Taiwan that year. In the following two years, Taiwan's economy worsened, ranking 74th in 2021, and falling to 74th in 2022. 166 people, an avalanche-like decline. "Can such economic performance be said to be good?"
Taiwan's "Wang Bao" said that according to statistics, the contribution rates of exports and investment to Taiwan's economic growth in 2023 were negative 2.63% and negative 2.63% respectively. Negative 2.14%. If consumption and imports were not barely supporting it, Taiwan's economy might not be able to escape negative growth. Why did exports decline severely? The key is that the deterioration of cross-strait relations has led to a sharp decline in Taiwan's exports to the mainland. From January to November 2023, Taiwan's exports to the mainland and Hong Kong were 19.1% less than the same period in 2022. The article also mentioned that the mainland announced the results of its trade barrier investigation, confirming that Taiwan violated the World Trade Organization's non-discrimination and other related principles, and subsequently canceled the tariff concessions for 12 petrochemical products in the early harvest list of the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ecfa). It is difficult to guarantee that the mainland will not launch more economic and trade countermeasures, or even directly suspend ECFA. "The mainland is Taiwan's largest trading partner and source of surplus, and there is no substitute for it in the short term. If it insists on decoupling from the other side, Taiwan may pay a heavy economic price." .
Taiwan's "Foresight" magazine previously stated that Taiwan's total hidden debt has reached NT$25.6 trillion, and the average debt of each Taiwanese citizen is as high as NT$1.09 million. "This is no longer a debt passed down to descendants, but a debt passed down to great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren." ". The Ma Ying-jeou Foundation once pointed out that Tsai Ing-wen's "special budget" in eight years was far larger than the combined total of Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou's 16 years in power. Such uncontrolled borrowing is one of the important reasons for the inflated GDP growth in Taiwan. The Democratic Progressive Party has obtained good economic data, but the actual life of the people is still stuck in the "boring economy" for a long time.
Indeed, most people on the island are really indifferent to Tsai Ing-wen’s remarks. In the past few years, the island has been short of water, electricity, and vaccines, and has experienced toilet paper shortages, egg shortages, etc. According to statistics from Taiwan's Accounting and Accounting Office, the consumer price index during the Ma Ying-jeou period was 1.08%, and it reached 1.37% during the Tsai Ing-wen period. In other words, the Tsai administration not only has poor economic performance, but also increases the prices of everything. A netizen shared on social media that one of his friends received his first salary of NT$23,000 when he was employed 30 years ago; when his friend's son was employed 30 years later, his first salary was still NT$23,000. The netizen lamented, where has Taiwan been in the past 30 years? Tsai Ing-wen boasts that Taiwan's economy has "entered its best period," but people's income and real wages have been stagnant or even regressing.
During the "egg shortage" on the island last year, egg prices continued to rise and eggs were hard to find. Many Taiwanese people lined up at 6 a.m. to wait in stores to grab eggs. (Lianhe News Network)
In April this year, electricity prices on the island began a new round of rise. "China Times" reported on May 8 that the annual growth rate of the island's consumer price index in April was 1.95%. Although it was slightly lower than the 2% inflation warning line, Yin Naiping, a professor at the Department of Finance at National Chengchi University, warned that electricity consumption The big summer is coming, and people will be very sensitive to the price increase when they receive their electricity bills in June. The inflationary pressure in the second half of the year cannot be ignored. Taiwan's "Economic Daily" stated that relevant Taiwanese agencies recently conducted an online poll on "the impact of rising electricity prices on housing prices." As of April 28, about 80% of the people believed that housing prices and rents would rise accordingly, of which 33.4% believed that housing prices would rise accordingly. will rise by more than 10%, and people's willingness to buy houses will decline by 17 percentage points.Some media asked, in the past, it was said that prices in Taiwan are much lower than in other regions, and people can live well with low wages. But inflation has caused prices to continue to rise, and wages are so low, can people really live well?
"You must oppose China whenever you encounter China" has led to cross-strait tensions
People from all walks of life on the island believe that Tsai Ing-wen's poor economy in the past eight years is closely related to her "anti-China" campaign. Since Tsai Ing-wen came to power, she has refused to recognize the one-China principle and the "1992 Consensus" and has pursued the so-called "flexible Taiwan independence" route as the main means and achieved "peaceful Taiwan independence" as the ultimate goal. The political foundation of cross-Strait relations has been destroyed, resulting in the suspension of cross-Strait communication mechanisms and a sharp regression in cross-Strait relations. After Taiwan’s election in January this year, Tsai Ing-wen’s authorities have intensified their efforts in handling cross-strait affairs and frequently provoked: Regarding cross-strait tourism, the DPP authorities completely ignored the interests of the island’s tourism industry and forced travel agencies to suspend organizing tour groups to the mainland. This move is said to be in retaliation for "the mainland's change of the location of the M503 route." However, the mainland's tourism market is huge, and the suspension of Taiwanese tour groups to the mainland has little impact on the mainland's tourism industry. The most serious casualties are those mainly in the mainland's tourism business. Taiwan tourism. In the vicious ship collision in Kinmen on "2·14", a Taiwan Coast Guard vessel overturned a mainland fishing boat, causing casualties. However, the DPP authorities refused to admit their mistakes out of the abnormal thinking of "rebelling whenever China meets China", which seriously harmed both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Compatriot feelings have heightened cross-strait tensions.
According to a report by Lianhe News Network on May 2, the Mainland Affairs Council announced at the beginning of this year that it would "amend the announcement prohibiting Taiwanese people from holding positions in the Chinese Communist Party, government and military positions" and further expand the scope to include the Mainland Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, the All-China Taiwan Federation, the Confucius Institute and other groups. The amendment will be officially released and effective on the 2nd. When the opposition party's "legislators" visited the mainland, the mainland showed goodwill, allowing Fujian residents to visit Matsu, and lifting the ban on the sale of some Taiwanese agricultural products to the mainland. However, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council still responded negatively and was unwilling to take credit for the improvement in cross-strait relations. to the opposition party. Some Taiwanese media mentioned that since 2016, due to the deterioration of cross-strait relations, 10 countries have severed so-called "diplomatic relations" with the Taiwan authorities. This shows that the tacit cross-strait "diplomatic truce" during the Ma Ying-jeou period no longer exists. A survey by the "Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation" shows that as many as 48% of the island's people are dissatisfied with Tsai Ing-wen's performance in handling cross-strait relations over the past eight years. On May 9, People's Party Chairman Ke Wenzhe criticized that the "parliamentary reform" and "judicial reform" promised by Tsai Ing-wen over the past eight years have all failed to vote. He called on all friends who support and agree with the reform to take to the streets together regardless of party affiliation on the 19th. Go to the Democratic Progressive Party Central Committee to "show the power of the grassroots." He said, "We are not against hope and vision, but we are against fraud and bounced votes."
Taiwan's "Economic Daily" editorial on the 9th stated that if the Lai authorities continue to adopt a two-faced approach in the future, and even frequently accuse Taiwanese people who come to the mainland for exchanges, the cross-strait deadlock will not be resolved.
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