Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Newsweek leaves Taiwan out of its ranking of countries... China ranked below Albania, but still too high.

Newsweek (a magazine with red sympathies or at least on the left of the political spectrum) came up with a ranking of countries that put China all the way back to number 59. Taiwan was left out. If not simply ignored, Mongolia did not make the top 100.

As Taiwan undoubtedly would have ranked very high in the world (much higher than China) in the 5 ranking measurements considered -- Education, Health, Quality of Life, Economic Dynamism, and Political Environment -- Newsweek does a disservice to its readers by excluding Taiwan from its ranking.

China received its best score in the Economic Dynamism category. No mention was given to the fact that China's economic rise was heavily fueled by Taiwanese setting up factories and transferring knowhow to China in the 1990's and 2000's.

China came in at the low rank of 93 for political environment. Its peers include Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Cuba and Syria. China also was quite low in education and quality of life.

Those in Taiwan, including the Ma regime, with rose-colored glasses gazing upon a false China dream, need to remember that there are more than 58 countries in the world that Taiwan could do better getting close to (make that more than 90 countries -- with the exception of perhaps Iran and Syria, Taiwan could do better pursuing an ECFA with almost any country other than China.)

Like captains choosing players for their neighborhood baseball team, China as it is currently governed by a brutish, oppressive authoritarian regime, should be one of the last standing -- meaning the last to be picked to play on any team. And if everyone in the crowd has to be put on the team, make China a bench sitter.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is the ranking of Taiwan with regards to traffic safety , environmental pollution, and pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables ?

mike t.

No Moral Equivalence said...

@Mike, when you get to be able to focus on these little details, it means the major problems are already taken care of.

Whereas in authoritarian regimes like China, they can pollute the environment as much as they want without any consequence -- its people are so oppressed that they cannot stand up no matter how many people die of toxins. Other countries do not hold China to account it be tariffs on its goods, or other penalties because they

1. like the cheap products since in their own countries they have raised taxes so high on all levels -- income, payroll, corporate, investments -- that they cannot produce the products so cheaply and

2. have embraced the fantasy that somehow as China becomes economically well off, then along with that prosperity will come political freedom. To the contrary, as China gets more money, the regime clamps down more on its people and also it exports oppression as it noses into other countries especially in Africa, treating them like colonies and exploiting their resources.

Anonymous said...

No Moral Equivalence said...
@Mike, when you get to be able to focus on these little details, it means the major problems are already taken care of.-----

no, residents of mailiao , yunlin very big disagree. why you say big lie? you not know 2000+ scoter acidents everyday? many organic vegetables and fruits fake have pesticide? this is fact why you not know or know but lie?

Anonymous said...

"Those in Taiwan, including the Ma regime, with rose-colored glasses gazing upon a false China dream, need to remember that there are more than 58 countries in the world that Taiwan could do better getting close to (make that more than 90 countries -- with the exception of perhaps Iran and Syria, Taiwan could do better pursuing an ECFA with almost any country other than China.)"

You can tell that to the UN!

Meantime change gear and tactics cuz its sounding more like a hen in heat!

mike T.

Aì Tâi-oân said...

Chinese culture keys in on shame. There is a culturally passed-down shame-avoidance mechanism that creates a powerful motivator for change. The Chinese Communist regime play us up the greatest of Chinese culture and people almost to the point of racism. They in many ways echo the Nazi's fascist nationalism. The Chinese regime tries to stir up a nationalistic almost racist pride and they try to get the people to associate the authoritarian regime with being the caretaker of China's greatness.

Articles that expose the emptiness, foolishness, even shame of what the Chinese regime have done as well as the shame of the past empires to which the regime appeals can help break the spell of pride that blinds citizens into a complacency about the kind of government they have.

The more Chinese are ashamed of their authoritarian past, the more they will be able to break away from their authoritarian present.

Anonymous said...

Aì Tâi-oân what you said may be true but that's China's problem.

Our problem here is how to be united . Always touching on ethnic issues here with all the labels attached to each group will not help in any bit.


Besides this constant bickering amongst us will make other people suspect that we may also have the ever-bickering Han genes!

mike T.