Some DPP supporters say what's the point of talking about Taiwan's low wages or high housing prices if DPP loses & Taiwan becomes closer to China. But this is fear-based rhetoric that seeks to threaten others, instead of seek to understand why other youths do not align with DPP. Surveys show that youths who do not support DPP do also identify as Taiwanese but they do not think DPP is willing to address their other needs, like Taiwan's low wages and high housing prices. Instead of mocking them, DPP supporters should instead demand DPP respond adequately.

To me, Taiwan losing its tourism appeal is a reflection of its economic stagnation and unbridled capitalism taken to extremes. Many of Taiwan's tourist attractions are not well-maintained & its hotel prices are raised too high for the value Taiwan offers.

focustaiwan.tw/society/202310… Compared with South Korea which was poorer than Taiwan prior to the mid-2000s, South Korea today 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 far more developed while Taiwan, as many locals also say, still 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 like a developing country. But Taiwan's cost of living is comparable to developed countries.

In the 2nd part, I use data to show that due to Taiwan's over-focus on low cost manufacturing, this has led to it being technologically less innovative. Countries with higher wages tend to be more innovative, and thus Taiwan needs to raise wages faster.

international.thenewslens.com/article/186433 @michaelturton I think a large part of the reason is because from 2000, Korea rapidly increased wages so firms are forced to upscale. But Taiwan's wages stopped growing and stagnated, giving firms little incentive to upscale. So they just kept producing low-cost and slowed down transforming.

The people in China are so, so brave. Protesting in China can have severe outcomes but the people have still done so. Worried for them, but at the same time, in admiration.

https://twitter.com/JimMillward/status/1596596673957875712

Also, while it might seem the Chinese are less concerned about what's happening in Xinjiang, these protests indicate that the Chinese do care. We might not be able to extrapolate the reasons as to why, but there is solidarity.

Just realized that at Taiwan's local election yesterday, the percentage of votes won by @NPPTaiwan (in yellow) is actually relatively good:

Miaoli County: 13.47%
Keelung City: 6.56%
Pingtung County: 4.32%

thenewslens.com/article/176992…

cw.com.tw/graphics/2022-… Other than Hsinchu City, @NPPTaiwan's vote share is actually similar to TPP (blue-green):

Yilan County: 6.98%
Taoyuan City: 5.12%

thenewslens.com/amparticle/176…

udn.com/vote2022/open#…

Given that I'm against CCP's authoritarianism, I'm surrounded by Taiwanese who are green/deep green. It feels there's denial among green supporters about the DPP's loss at this local election—the current reaction seems to be blaming KMT's control of media and the dirty politics. But there's Taiwan media that's pro-DPP & @DPPonline also played dirty politics at this local election. But DPP supporters continue to think DPP is the 'savior' & refuse to acknowledge that DPP did not evolve their narrative and vision to keep up with the rest of the population.

Wrote a Facebook post on why @DPPonline lost the local election in Taiwan yesterday, @theon9citizen has also carried the article on their site—my thinking is DPP became complacent on local issues & thought they could use China as a boogeyman to help them win the local elections.

https://twitter.com/theon9citizen/status/1596537333502943233

Also, voters are tired of @DPPonline using China's threat to hold them hostage, while their concerns over their livelihoods & social issues are sidelined & while DPP continues to act like the KMT in favoring businesses over workers. DPP's little differentiation turned voters off.

For me, the DPP's massive defeat at today's local election in Taiwan is a sign people are highly dissatisfied with DPP's performance on local issues. In a study conducted in Sep 2022, when Taiwanese are asked about the issues they were most concerned about, it was the economy. Economy was the top concern, at 52.9%.

But what specifically about the economy? The top 2 concerns were the high housing prices with 74.4% of Taiwanese being concerned about this issue, and rising prices in Taiwan, which 73.2% were concerned about.

money.udn.com/money/amp/stor…

Taiwan is holding its local election today. Voters are sent documents showing the candidates & the policy proposals of each of the candidates. These are also shown at the polling center so that voters are able to decide who to vote for based on the policy proposals, if they want. The voting for Taiwan's local election today just closed. Waiting at one of the polling stations with others to get in to witness the counting of the votes. In Taiwan, the counting of the votes are done in the same place as the voting, so that the voting integrity is ensured.

By now, people globally would have seen and read about the threats China has made against Taiwan due to Pelosi's visit.

It should be noted that in spite of China's aggressive posture, Taiwan has not responded in the same manner.

Instead, Taiwan has tried to defuse the tensions. In the last few days, China came out with a series of threats against Taiwan economically, militarily and psychologically.

Economically, China suddenly halted imports from over 100 Taiwanese food companies, which has been seen as a form of retaliation.

focustaiwan.tw/cross-strait/2…

A relative (living outside Taiwan) asked me if I'm doing alright in Taiwan, given the global coverage over the last few days about Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. I said, things are normal because living in Taiwan, we have become used to China's threats. The high-levelness of Pelosi's visit made global news these few days and put greater spotlight on China's threats, and for many people who seldom hear of news from this part of this world, the threats sound scary. But these are the threats Taiwanese face on a constant basis.

I grew up in an authoritarian regime, and you have to understand, the only way people can survive is if they learn to lie to themselves, and learn to make themselves believe in the government's lies. Even after I was sued by the prime minister, that was how my relatives coped. After I was sued by Singapore's prime minister, my closest relative tried to stop me from speaking up by guilt-tripping me: you have to think about your parents, stop criticizing the government, do you want your parents to be hurt?

I spoke to VOA about Taiwan's low wages:

"For people in their 40s today, 20 years ago, they were earning higher starting pay, and managed to continue earning higher and higher pay based on annual increments if they stayed on the same job."

Thank you to @erinhale for writing!

https://twitter.com/erinhale/status/1510790190289227777

"But then for younger workers, they started entering the workforce during a time when wages stagnated and do not have the same opportunity to see their wages grow, so there is a massive gap between those above their 40s, and those below their 40s," he said."

Coming from an authoritarian regime, I tend not to blame Russians for Putin's war, or the Chinese for their government's atrocities. Living in authoritarian Singapore, many Singaporeans abide by the government's demands out of fear, for fear of losing your livelihood, or ... ... simply because we are not able to access other sources of information other than the government's propaganda. We learn to trust in the party, or else. So we trust blindly, out of fear, or out of a lack of information. Because what else can you do?

"One of the features of Hitler's policy was..he transferred European colonial practices intended for “non-whites” to Europe. This helped..discredit colonial policy & Germany's defeat contributed to the collapse of other colonial empires. Something similar could happen again now."

https://twitter.com/commonscomua/status/1503438940153561089

"Putin decided to repeat what US did with Iraq, but did not consider that the reaction to the aggression of an authoritarian empire against a more democratic Eastern European republic would be so different...This allows us to finally put an end to such politics around the world."

"China is getting more leverage, and 10, 15 years, if things continue like they are—if we don’t stabilize our relationship with the West, and if we don’t make domestic structural reforms—China will be in a position to dictate the terms."

https://twitter.com/sehof/status/1504306309558325252

"Beijing could say, “Hey, Russia, you still sell weapons to India? India is not friend of China, so you should stop.” But the response I often got..was, “In 2014, before the first Ukraine war, [Russia was] overly exposed to the West, yet were able to stand up and push back."

If you've been following what the Chinese government and state media has been saying over the last 2 days, China isn't interested in seeing Putin's war in Ukraine subside. Instead, they are helping to fuel it.

Thread.

China says Russia has its own right:

https://twitter.com/royngerng/status/1504119370293051392?t=g8ERI5jTlFVfPpE_IbJHmQ&s=19

China supports Russia's propaganda and helps prop it up economically against the sanctions, then threatens countermeasures against others:

https://twitter.com/royngerng/status/1504126544977207298?t=g8ERI5jTlFVfPpE_IbJHmQ&s=19

"Mr. Wang said he can leave Odessa at any time, but has instead chosen to stay... He spends some of this time fixing Android phones hacked by Russian malware—his way, he said, of practicing “nonviolent resistance.”

https://twitter.com/xinwenfan/status/1503773722540646400

“I am not leaving because I refuse to accept it,” he told the Journal. “I won’t accept the killing of civilians or the distortion of truth. I refuse.”

"Following the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago, American economic advisers convinced Russia’s leaders to focus on economic reforms and put democracy on the backburner – where Putin could easily extinguish it when the time came."

project-syndicate.org/commentary/199… "This is no trivial historical contingency. Had Russia become a democracy, there would have been no need to talk about NATO and its eastward expansion, no invasion of Ukraine, and no debates about whether the West owes Russia’s civilization greater respect."

"CNN requested access to speak with the prisoners with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry:

"I want to tell our commander-in-chief to stop terror acts in Ukraine because when we come back we'll rise against him."

https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1504031852084015104

"The pilots were asked what they thought about Putin's claims that Ukraine was run by neo-Nazis.

"I think it was invented as a pretext."

"We didn't see any Nazis or fascists. Russians and Ukrainians can communicate in the same language, so we see the good (in these people),"

Semantics aside, whether Taiwan is considered an independent country by others, the threats are similar. Putin wants an Ukrainan government that is aligned to it, or even belongs to it. The Chinese government prefers a government in Taiwan aligned to it, or to belong to it. Countries surrounding Ukraine are concerned about Putin's expansion into their countries if Ukraine falls, and this is a similar concern countries around Taiwan like Japan and in Southeast Asia are concerned about, where the Chinese government has territorial disputes with them.