Asia Watch: The Real Reason Taiwan Won't Return

 journalists Harrington's sculpture (mythological animal)        

Since Tsai Ing-wen came to power, there have been frequent reports about Taiwan. On the Internet, netizens have even been clamoring for the armed intervention of Taiwan because of certain bad incidents of Taiwan independence that hurt the feelings of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Of course, I personally believe that the compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are flesh and blood, and the armed unification of Taiwan is irrational, inhumane, and not in favor of the practice.        

Then why is Taiwan independence a big deal these days, and why are more and more young people in Taiwan rejecting the Mainland and refusing reunification? According to U.S. media reports, in recent years, China has1.3Ten thousand families immigrated to the United States to set off the third wave of immigration. Moreover, many European countries have also released data saying that China has become the most important source of immigrants in their countries. Is everyone will find it intriguing, foreigners and Chinese people in the blood can be said to have no relationship, but the Chinese people want to run to the foreigners' land to become their citizens. According to the American Expatriate Newspaper released a statistical report on the third wave of immigrants to see, the article shows that most of the migrants look at the United StatesBetter education, a sound system and a relatively stable social environment. And from another data report from Europe, the main purpose of most immigrants is for European countries to haveA world-class welfare systemThe

 In other words, if you want to increase the attractiveness of a country, you either need to have a healthy and sound social environment, or you need to have a social security system with high benefits. Both of these things are still a way off for China at the moment. People all over the world are very practical, not only thinking about themselves, but also thinking about the next generation, moving to wherever the environment is good, and it has nothing to do with whether it is a hostile country or not, or whether it is religiously different or not.        As far as the Taiwan authorities are concerned, objectively speaking, support"unificationist"The remarks are still relatively small voices in society. More people are worried whether the social security system will drop to the mainland level after the reunification of the motherland and whether the standard of living will be lowered. Why do they have such doubts? Let us take a look at the comparison of the current social conditions in Taiwan and the Mainland:

Let's start with education benefits        The Chinese mainland currently invests in education as a percentage ofGDPshare4.15%(Data from wikipedia)2014year), while Taiwan, China's share was5.5-6.3%Between. State financial expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP4%The input indicator is the world's baseline for measuring the level of education, which means that China's investment in education is just barely up to the world's standard, which is not optimistic.        Mainland China implements nine years of compulsory education, and due to differences between provinces and cities, the only tuition expenses that families need to bear for the primary to junior high school age group are the costs of books. Taiwan, on the other hand, currently implements 12 years of compulsory education, which is three years more than the mainland. And as a side note, Taiwan has community-based school district resources, so students are free to attend school across districts, but are not entitled to government subsidies. Unlike China, Taiwan has also abolished the college entrance examination system, meaning that every high school graduate has the opportunity to attend college.

Medicare:        Although both China and Taiwan currently have universal health care coverage, there are still significant differences between the two in terms of who is covered by health care or health insurance (Taiwan), the degree of enjoyment, the environment in which it is realized and the efficiency with which it is realized, the welfare inputs, and its effectiveness. First of all, Taiwan, China, implements direct subsidies for all people (free as well as special occupations, self-employed owners, employers need to insure themselves), while the mainland, although it also has universal coverage, the government is only directly involved in direct subsidies for health care contributions to the New Rural Health Cooperative (NRHC) and in towns and cities.
       In terms of the scope of use and the amount of payment, Taiwan is covered by the whole province, while mainland China has a narrow scope of payment and a limited amount. Taiwan's universal healthcare insurance only requires each person to pay a monthly fee of60Taiwan dollars, hospitalization for medical treatment, injections and medication can reach full reimbursement, but you must pay the100yuan for registration fees as well as hospital accommodations, which cannot be perfected in mainland China at this time.

Per capita income        According to the World Bank2014According to the data released in 2007, the per capita income of mainland China was US$7,476 ranking 94th in the world, while the per capita income of Taiwan Province of China was US$21,874, ranking 38th in the world. Taiwan's per capita income is roughly the same as China's2.9times (multiplier)At the same time, China is classified as a middle-income region, while Taiwan Province of China is classified as a high-income region.        

as well2014The price data of the year, some of the prices in Taiwan, such as supermarket rice per catty4RMB, Pork28Yuan, Chicken30Yuan, grapefruit20Yuan (/pounds), and almost double the price of living on the mainland (electrical appliances, electronic furniture, and other products are on par with the mainland), but given the income differential, Taiwan's purchasing power is still still significantly better than the mainland.  
 

 
 The remaining aspects such as housing, transportation benefits, etc., there are too many national deviations, not to be compared for the time being. From the point of view of social welfare and income system, Taiwan Province is superior to mainland China. At the same time from human nature, we all want to run to the more developed, perfect region, rather than to aspire to a more backward environment. Therefore, the key to Taiwan's reluctance to unify with the motherland lies in the motherland whether the quality of the nationals to be improved, when the various security and welfare can exceed the Taiwan region. To solve this historical problem, we still have to rely on our own development, strengthen the country's power, establish a sound rule of law system, to create a high welfare social environment (at present, China's social welfare, still belongs to the world's backward level).