Taiwan vs. China: some facts never mentioned by pro-China forces
Dr. Billy Pan put together some comparisons to highlight the differences between Taiwan and China, which pro-China forces (including the majority of media in Taiwan) would never mention. http://www.wretch.cc/blog/billypan101/11740452
1. The size of population in china is 58 times of that in Taiwan but their total national income is only 10 times greater than Taiwan’s.
2. Taiwan’s GDP per capita is 5 times more than that of China. Even though China’s economy has been growing rapidly, the gap between Taiwan and China has actually remained the same.
3. In terms of PPP, Taiwan ranks 39th in the world whereas China ranks 133rd.
4. China’s infant mortality (21.96/1000 live births) is 4 times of that in Taiwan (5.45).
5. In China, 8% of the population live under the poverty line whereas there’s only 0.95% in Taiwan.
6. The unemployment in Taiwan was 3.9% when the DPP handed it to the KMT and it’s now over 4% after Ma took over but the unemployment in China is estimated to be between 15-20%.
7. On average, each individual in Taiwan have 1.06 mobile phones but those in China only have 0.41. In Taiwan, 57% of population have access and use the internet but there’s only 19% in China.
8. Looking at Gini Index (the level of economic inequality, the greater the figure, the worse the inequality), Taiwan got 33 in 2000 and fell steadily between 2001 and 2006. China got 41 in 2001 and 47 in 2007. Well, inequality in a ‘communist’ regime is greater than a country generally considered ‘capitalist’?
9. Taiwan’s corruption index is 5.7 but China is only 3.5 (worse). Corruption in China seems to be prevalent.
10. Most importantly, Taiwan’s press freedom is 10, which ranks 32nd in the world but China is only 89, which is the 163rd place in the world and only better than 6 other countries. In other words, there’s literally NO press freedom in China!
11. On average, 550,000 Taiwanese share an airport but in China, 2,840,000 people share an airport.
12. The life expectancy in Taiwan is 4.6 years longer than in China.
13. Looking at the Global Competitiveness Index, Taiwan is the 14th worldwide (5.25) and China comes the 34th (4.57).
No matter how much China has improved, Taiwan is still ahead of China on various measures. However much China has improved, it’s still a long way to go to bring China to where Taiwan is. The most important point is that not many Taiwanese consider themselves Chinese nor would Taiwanese accept the human rights abuse in China and let go of the freedom and democracy we have fought hard for. Unfortunately, the majority of press in Taiwan are pro-China or even owned by Chinese business and have been exaggerating China’s progress (which is limited to certain areas and certain social circles) and putting Taiwan down whenever they can.
In my personal opinion, if Taiwan were to unify with China, it would be like a teaspoon of coffee mate going into a big pot of black coffee. I am not convinced that Taiwan would be allowed to follow the HK model because there’s no one else to impress or lure with the HK model after Taiwan is also in their bag. In other words, they don’t have to worry about the image the present to Taiwan or to the world anymore. They can do pretty much anything to anyone especially now the Olympics is out of the way. This notion of ‘constructive engagement’ with China has pretty much failed and worse, it has handed the government the wealth and power to justify dictatorship to their people. Sadly, from my interactions with some highly educated Chinese living in the West, it seems that a lot of them actually buy this argument. Even if Taiwan does follow the HK model, China has broken their promises to HK, which just shows Taiwanese that China cannot be trusted.
As Ma insists on implementing policies that would drain the Taiwanese economy (e.g. encouraging more Taiwanese business to go to China when China’s economy is going downhill; boosting inflation by huge and sudden increases in petrol prices and electricity charges as well as massive government spending on infrastructures or building projects that are clearly not needed), it does make one wonder whether Ma is helping China close the gap between the two countries by dragging Taiwan down and pouring Taiwanese funds into China so that Taiwan can be forced to unify with China. Because democracy has developed for decades in Taiwan, I am worried about the possibility of a massacre in Taiwan if Taiwanese don’t do more right now to stop Ma from handing Taiwan to China.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tw.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/factbook/fields/2172.html
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2007
nice article,
thanks!
(i got redirected from Michael Turton’s blog)
Hi Mash,
Thanks for the compliment. Thanks for your interest in and support for Taiwan. I greatly appreciate it. Michael’s a great blogger. I’ve also been following his blog and learned a lot from him.
Cheers :)
:)
I’ve been interested in Taiwan for about 2 years now. I went there last year as an exchange student….absolutely loved it…didnt want to return home!
I’m going back next month….can’t wait!
Hi Claudia,
I also got redirected from Michael Turton’s blog. Nice post. I’ve been feeling like everything is going China’s way for a decade now, often at the cost of Taiwan’s dignity and sovereignty. This article is just what I needed to hear.
Thanks.
Hi mash,
I’m glad you like Taiwan and hope you have a good time in Taiwan this time.
Hi Richard,
Thanks :) Billy Pan was the one putting together those comparisons and wrote it up in Chinese to raise awaness among Taiwanese. I found the original figures and sources he quoted and follow the way he presented those figures to form the base of my article. Although I wrote about my own thoughts on the comparisons, the credit should really go to Dr. Pan. He’s brilliant at finding and analysing figures. No wonder he’s one of the most respected Taiwanese bloggers.
Looking at the media coverage, I feel that everything is going China’s way as well. I can’t believe how biased media reports (international or Taiwan based) are. This is one of the reasons I started writing about Taiwan. After following blogs like Michael’s and a few others for a while, I decided to give it a go. Even if Taiwan is taken by China eventually (looking at how others have caved in, it’s not entirely impossible), I want more people to know the truth about Taiwan and what Taiwanese really want.
I also got redirected from Michael Turton’s blog
Thank you and dr. Pan for all those great comparisons and very interesting comments !!!
The one thing that i miss here and i think is very important, is the devastated environment, which says a lot about Chicom’s mentality and attitude to their own people. I wonder how much those guys start placing more importance on this issue because they want to look more civilized or because it might lead to massive protests (I do not think they suddenly started caring about the peoples’ wellbeing)
Thanks, richard z.
I’ll work on the environmental issues you mentioned in future. I have seen articles talking about China’s environment before but it seems more difficult to pull comparative figures on this one. I don’t think they care that much about human lives let alone wellbeing. Some Chinese told me that they have too many people in their country for the gov to care too much about human lives. Everything is about maintaining ’stability’ so that they don’t lose power… Very sad. That’s why I’m very worried about how Ma is leading Taiwan into this trap.
Lots of Richards commenting you today, I guess I’ll join in! Thanks for posting this, as you mentioned, a lot of pro-China media bias these days, not only in Taiwan but also in western media. I’m glad you touched on the HK issue, as people don’t realize that Taiwan in all likelihood will not end up like HK. Maybe perhaps at the bargaining table, something like that will be presented, but as we all know, China’s word is worth nothing. They make promises to break them.
Hi Richard L,
Thanks for dropping by :)
I have noticed the bias in western media as well. A lot of them see Taiwan through the CCP or the KMT lenses. What surprises me is that the US media is less critical of China than the UK media. Even though BBC is quite critical of China, they still prefer the KMT to the DPP. When I read the BBC profiles on Ma and Hsieh, I could see the differences.
I agree that China is not to be trusted. HK people didn’t learn from Tibet and now I’m just hoping that Taiwanese know to learn from HK. To be perfectly honest, a lot of people are still unaware of the kind of danger Taiwan is in because they still believe the pro-China media. I was reading George Kerr’s book, Formosa Betrayed and got this feeling that things that happened 60 years are happening again…
Thanks for a great — and necessary — post. I found your blog via View From Taiwan, and I’ll add it to my list of blogs to read regularly! The pro-China bias in international media has been something I’ve been banging on about in my own blog as well; it really is infuriating.
Still, not everyone is lulled by pro-KMT, pro-China media. My extended family both in the US and back in Taiwan (we hail from Taipei and Pingtung) is full of DPP supporters who can’t stand KMT, Ma, or his China policy. We’re concerned, and I think there really is cause to be now.
Thanks Mad Minerva. I’m glad to hear that there are still a lot of pro-Taiwan supporters but at the same time, I’m worried about the level of awareness among Taiwanese. Still a lot of them believe that it’s OK to become another HK…
In my circles, the rallying idea is “We DON’T want to be another HK!” A good friend of mine is from HK, and she’s left to go to Australia.
It’s great that people like you are working hard to make our voice heard! Thank you for your hard work :)
Yes, I do not think that Taiwan can connect with China. However, China has basically all the jobs now and it is growing rapidly as well as losing it’s communism. Lots of Taiwanese people and you support the arguements against China but China status still remains high and I promise you. Whereever you do get your info. Why would China slaughter Taiwan? Taiwan is a weak country so it does need support. I do not get where you get your absurd idea from.
To racketracer,
I don’t think my idea is absurd but yours very naive, if not biased.
Yes, China is losing communism but they are not losing their dictatorship. China may be going strong economically but that doesn’t make it desirable for Taiwanese.
Given the Taiwanese democracy and independence movements (now over 80% of Taiwanese want independence), IF China does take over Taiwan, why wouldn’t they eliminate oppositions and challenges by force like they did to Tibet and East Turkistan? China didn’t do themselves any favor in this regard by those mass murders they committed.
HK is relatively peaceful because HK people don’t have a long history of pro-democracy and pro-independence movements and China has been nice to HK to make it a showcase for Taiwan. Once Taiwan is taken, why would China to be nice to anyone? I don’t trust China as far as I can throw them.
TAIWAN DOES NOT BELONG TO CHINA FULL STOP.
Your site came up as a suggested site (automatically generated) in a post on my Blog. I have added a link under the Good Morning, Taiwan! category of my sidebar.
Keep writing!!
Thanks :) I love the story you wrote about your time in Taiwan!
Take your c*ap elsewhere. China > Taiwan
Right back at you cos this is my blog and I can say what I please/present what I found. Your comment just goes to show how rude Chinese/pro-China people are.