Lin Po-rung, formerly mayor of Taichung
city from 1981 to 1985 and 1989 to 1997,
talked to the Free China Review shortly before
completing his third and most recent term.
FCR: Can you describe Taichung city in a few sentences?
Lin Po-rung(林柏榕): Taichung is a pluralistic city. It's the consumption and commercial center of central Taiwan; it has an industrial zone with 800 factories;it's a city of culture, with many higher education facilities--108 out of every 1,000 people have received a college-level education. Taichung is also an agricultural city: agriculture takes up more than one-third of the city's total area. Ten percent of our population are farmers, and we have a city farmers' association here. Youcan also regard Taichung as the administrative hub of central Taiwan, because we have several provincial or central government agencies here.
Commerce, industry, and culture and education are the areas that stand out. Commercial and industrial development are the way to go in modern society.When Taichung people see the potential in these areas, it's only natural for them to want to head off in the same direction. But culture and education are things thatTaichung people have traditionally held in high regard, and the city government has also put a lot of effort into promoting and encouraging them. Over the past few years,we've spent more than 40 percent of our annual budget on culture and education. For example, the artworks on display in the Sculpture Park of Art, Taiwan's only sculpture park, cost us more than NT$50 million [US$1.67 million]. According to statistics released by the Council for Cultural Affairs, the number of cultural activities herein Taichung, and the extent to which citizens participate in them, rank second only after Taipei.
Taichung also has a lot of potential for development. We can offer some things that Taipei can't, such as a harbor. We have the Ching Chuan Kang Air Force Base nearby--with an area of 1,700 hectares, it's the largest airport in the Far East. An international airport needs only 500 hectares. It would make Taichung a convenient international gateway if part of the base could be released for civilian use.
As to creating a proper infrastructure, whether we're talking about construction or things that aren't so visible, I think Taichung has been doing a better job than any other city or county in Taiwan. I can't say I'm satisfied, but I'm confident that Taichung has built one of Taiwan's best infrastructures for future development.
How would you describe the people here? What are their major concerns and complaints?
The outstanding characteristic of the people here is their moderate attitude. They're neither overly aggressive nor exces sively passive. They followthe doctrine of the mean, in other words, avoiding extremes. You won't see any protestsor that kind of thing on the streets of Taichung.
As in other places, one of their major concerns is public safety.People live in a certain amount of fear, because several serious crimes haven't been solved yet. They also have various other concerns in common with people elsewhere: traffic, quality of life, and of course the ups and downs of the stock market.
As for complaints, I think it's best to set that in context by comparing the situation here with conditions elsewhere on the island. We're better off than other places, in many ways, but there are always going to be complaints.
Our traffic situation, for instance, is much better than Taipei's,but it's becoming a more serious problem as the city expands. This is related tourban planning, which has long been a thorn in the side of many Taiwan cities, including Taichung. Most of Taiwan's urban plans were drawn up by the Japanese, and their plans tended to be small-scale. Taichung was laid out as a city with a maximum population of 150,000 people, but the actual number is now approaching one million. That's like trying to squeeze an adult into a kid's suit.
To solve this problem, the city government has adopted an aggressive policy of building new roads. Taichung has acquired several hundred new roads inrecent years, but still can't seem to keep up with the increasing amount of traffic--2,000 new cars and 2,000 new residents every month. When a million people try to move around a city originally designed for 150,000, I think there's certainly going to be dissatisfaction.
Taichung is also planning a mass rapid transit system, but I don't think it will improve the traffic situation much. The fact that Taipei's MRT is losing a lot of money because it doesn't have enough passengers shows that Chinese people don't like constraints. Going somewhere in their own cars is usually seen as more convenient than any means of public transportation.
One of the most high-profile issues in Taichung has been its rezoning project. Has it in fact benefited the city?
The main reason why we were able to rezone so fast is that the blueprint was approved by the central and provincial governments very quickly. Taiwan probably has the world's most time-consuming administrative processes when it comes to urban planning. Maybe it was because we were more aggressive; anyway, Taichung only had to wait three or four years, whereas it's normal for other cities to wait for eight, ten years for such plans to get through.
Once a blueprint's laid out, the local government concerned has to acquire land for public facilities, such as roads, parks, and schools. One wayis for the government to buy land, but that requires a huge budget. Although the price governments pay is usually lower than the market price, Taichung's city government just doesn't have that kind of money.
The other possibility is rezoning. There, owners get to keep as much of their lands as the government doesn't actually need for public works. Whenthe rezoning is implemented, each privately owned site will be smaller than it was originally, thanks to the existence of roads, schools, and so on; but against that,the rezoning project will have caused prices to go up. If landowners then decide to sell, they can get much more money than if the government had bought their land outright, so owners certainly prefer rezoning projects.
As I've mentioned, the Taichung that was originally laid out by the Japanese can no longer meet today's commercial, industrial, or residential needs.The only solution is to expand the city, and rezoning is the best way to go, so we've converted some agricultural land to commercial, industrial, or residential use. The process also helped us relocate the original small, cramped downtown area to a larger area that could more readily be developed. Rezoning has created a win-win situation for both the government and the people.
People in southern Taiwan often complain of feeling ignored by the central government. How about Taichung?
Rather than say "ignored," I'd prefer to call it an "imbalance in the distribution of resources." This has hampered balanced development in different parts of the island. Taipei has been the capital city ever since the nationalist government moved to Taiwan. Before the lifting of martial law, the government had almost complete control of the distribution of the country's resources, and most of those resources were allocated to Taipei. Just look at how much the central government spent on Taipei's MRT! So basically we've had to fend for ourselves. The redevelopment zone is a major source of finance in Taichung. Over the past few years, the city government has generated about NT$100 billion [US$3.3 billion] in land and cash,all by itself, partly through selling surplus land acquired on rezoning and partlyas t he result of increasing its stock of public-facility land. How long do you think we would have to wait for that kind of budget from the central government?
What are the current obstacles to Taichung's development?
The shrinking amount of land is the biggest problem we face. Bynow, nearly all the city's land has been rezoned, but we need even more if we're going to develop further. People have been talking about this recently, and I agree that it would be very helpful if we could be allocated some of the land in Taichung county.
Another problem, which is actually a problem for most local governments,concerns restrictions on local government autonomy. There has always been unfairness in this area. You can have a county with less than 100,000 residents and another with 3 million, but they're on the same administrative level. And irrespective of size, a local government always has to get provincial or even central government approval for some very small things.
Becoming a designated special municipality like Taipei and Kaohsiung would certainly have helped Taichung, both in its economic development and with its administrative efficiency. At least there would be fewer bureaucratic levels between us and the central government. But we couldn't afford to be too aggressive over this,because administratively we've always been accountable to the provincial government.That's being downsized now, so I expect closer contacts between local and central governments. But unless and until city governments get more autonomy, we'll just have to go on waiting in line for central government approvals.
--interview by Jim Hwang