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24 Comments
- iDoraemon, on 07/20/2009, -1/+6I studied abroad in Taipei for 2 years. It's pretty much the most underrated and under-appreciated city in East Asia. It's a fun place to visit, but it's a totally awesome place to settle down. And the country's pretty much the most Americanized place in the world where the official language is Chinese.
Screw Tokyo and its expensive lifestyle and uber-small housing. Taipei's the place to be. When Taiwan reboots its economy, it'll be an even more awesome place to be at. - morningmatters, on 07/20/2009, -0/+4Reading the comments I feel like most have not read the article. Anyhow, the article spoke of two interesting items:
1) The fear from the Koreans that China and Taiwan will merge, creating an entity Chiwan which can certainly challenge Korean's electronic industry.
2) The future areas of investment for Taiwan: biotech, health care, high-end agriculture, tourism, green energy, and entertainment.
I think the article is missing one crucial item: In order reboot Taiwan economy, as Taiwan's largest importer of goods China will need to reboot its economy as well. - sofakinglazy, on 07/20/2009, -0/+3When Taiwan reboots its economy is also the time when the cost of living starts catching up to Tokyo. The economy's been stagnant for a decade (Taiwan's own lost decade anyone?) which is the main contributing factor to cheaper costs of goods (compared to Europe or Japan).
- diggdong, on 07/20/2009, -1/+4Hook some jumper cables up to the nips.
- Tyrghast, on 07/20/2009, -2/+4The problem comes when China decides they still feel wronged over Chiang Kai-shek. I know the Chinese Communist party is slowly growing more tolerant after the Cold War, but all it takes is one outraged leader and Taiwan is toast.
That said, Taiwan is a beautiful island. - Perogy79, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2Hong Kong is not leased by Britain anymore. That ended in 1997. Now its a Special Administrative Region of China so it does still operate by its own system but it ultimately answers to China.
Almost everything else you said seems accurate. Lots of rights and freedoms, good cell phone network and payment plans, excellent public transit but it wouldn't be right to say there are free elections. Hong Kong does not have universal suffrage yet. They're still working on that. The taxes are incredibly low and the market is probably the freest in the world. There is air conditioning everywhere but in many public buildings and malls its WAY TOO HIGH. Electricity is quite cheap in Hong Kong. Its true that immigration formalities are simple but I can't recall ever having the retinal scan. - morningmatters, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2LOL I think Singapore is more like American than England..
Let's be honest, all the people there do is work like workaholics, sleep, and then go shopping in one of these super large malls. Then there is the diversity. Nowhere else in Asia are you going to find such an integrated population from all over the place, and they can all speak English! - Y0tsuya, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2Singapore is also very westernized but has a British feel to it. If it isn't for the awful hot weather I'd consider it a great place to live.
- TroyPDX, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2All this talk of rebooting this or that is such *****. The world is awash in unserviceable debt and the days of endlessly increasing supplies of cheap energy in the form of hydrocarbons are over. Even if the economy does start to turn up a bit then oil prices will skyrocket again and kill any recovery. We're looking at a complete global economic collapse, not so much as a reboot but a complete hard drive wipe.
- MokaPot, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1That wasn't as funny as I expected.
- monkeyrun, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1How to reboot a dragon?
Get projects from Europe and America, use cheap labor from mainland China.
There really isn't anything you don't already know. - Sideshowslob, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Money talks.
- zeth006, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1That still doesn't destroy the basic fundamental business model, which presupposes the need to search for new engines of growth. You are right. The awareness of the need to cut back on hydrocarbon-creating manufacturing probably has the Taiwanese govt on its toes looking for other areas where its people could start new businesses.
In the US, the big hype is all about green tech. Renewable energies. Only question is, how many jobs will this create and how many jobs will it simply replace. - inactive, on 07/21/2009, -0/+1David Caradine tried to do that and just look where it got HIM!
- milkmage, on 07/21/2009, -0/+1and i'm sick of blogspam
buried - uberbeast1054, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Whatever you do....don't chase the dragon.....
- rmxz, on 07/20/2009, -1/+2It's come a long way, but I still feel sorry for what happened the aboriginal people on the island... Seems they were treated at least as poorly as native americans.
http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/fp.asp?xItem=1456&a ...
"In his well-known 1903 book, The Island of Formosa, the American consul, J.W. Davidson, described how the Chinese in Taiwan ate and traded in their aboriginal victims' flesh. "During the outbreak of 1891, savage flesh was brought in, in baskets, the same as pork, and sold like pork in the open markets of Tokoham before the eyes of all."" - amasiancrasian, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Don't forget about British "leased" Hong Kong, where there are no import duties/tariffs, no sales tax, privatised banks issuing currency (HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China, Hang Seng), English Common Law, automated strike-immune transport subway networks fully air-conditioned and 3G networked with platform screen doors, free speech, and free elections. Cell phones cannot be subsidy locked and tied to one network.
Did I mention their income tax is 10% for teachers and doctors, capped to a maximum of 16%? Businesses also pay 16.5%. With taxes like these, it isn't even worth to effort to evade taxes! Income per capita places it in par with Japan, and crime later is lower than Tokyo. Immigration formalities are simple--residents simply slide their ID card and take retina scans without further questioning from inspectors, as if crossing a subway channel. - DatruKatalyst, on 07/21/2009, -0/+1As an ABC with parents from Taiwan and grandparents from China, I think this new development in ties between Mainland and Taiwan is very good.
The two are just brothers who had a really big fight and won't talk to each other. They just gotta forgive and forget. - Y0tsuya, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1Right now you can think of Taiwan as China's currently detached penis. They cut it off as offering to Japan because they lost a war. If they reattach it after destroying the island, China will be known as a country with a mangled wang, just as useless as a country without a wang.
- Y0tsuya, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1It's what they're doing right now and are being hit with a double-whammy because exports from both China and Taiwan are declining.
- s0l0s0ul, on 07/20/2009, -4/+1as in.... bring back opium?
- inactive, on 07/20/2009, -5/+2Taiwan is China's bitch.
- Presbyterian, on 07/20/2009, -4/+1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan
"The Japanese were instrumental in the industrialization of the island; they extended the railroads and other transportation networks, built an extensive sanitation system and revised the public school system. During this period, both rice and sugarcane production greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world"
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