President Ma made some remarks yesterday about the state of Taiwan's economy, the report on which can be read
here. This quote caught my eye:
“It’s not possible for us to change the economy, [which is] based on exports, but we could diversify the export market, not focusing entirely on the United States or Europe,” Ma said. “Actually, the largest export destination is mainland China, but many of the goods with mainland China are reprocessed to be re-exported to the US and Europe, so we will modify that policy so that mainland China is no longer treated only as a factory, but rather as a market.”
Instantly, some questions popped to mind. If anyone fancies answering any in the comments please be my guest.
- Is it really not possible to change the economy?
- When he says 'based on exports' does Ma mean the economy is designed to be sustainable as long as other countries, including China, are buying?
- How does one diversify the market by looking to sell products to China instead of the US and Europe? What guarantee is there that 'diversification' will nor entail a zero sum balancing of trade away from the US and Europe towards China?
- Taiwan treats China like a factory. What an admission! How do we treat Taiwan then, like a disposable package holiday?
