Taiwan Today

Premier Sun Yun-suan cites the many useful proposals originating at the 1980 National Development Seminar Hundreds of constructive suggestions for the government emerged from the 1980 National Development Seminar concluded in Taipei July 28 after nearly two weeks of discussions, inspections and travels throughout Taiwan Province. Remarking on this at the concluding session, Premier Sun Yun-suan said the government is concerned about "the building of a free, democratic and unified China." Commenting on Seminar proposals "that are being vigorously pursued by the government," the Premier took note of the new election law, administrative renovation, increased relations with other countries, advances in education, cultural development, economic progress, major gains in science and technology, augmented health protection and increasing use of mass communications media and techniques. Premier Sun contrasted the stagnation and backwardness of the Chinese mainland under Communism with the fast-flowing change and modernization of the Republic of China on Taiwan. He said that a free, democratic and progressive China can be attained, and that this is the responsibility of every Chinese. About 280 Chinese scholars and specialists from at home and abroad participated in this year's Seminar. Included were world-ranking names in science, education and many other scholarly fields. Seven panels were organized at the 1980 Seminar. Each made its own report to the government, which had promised careful study of all recommendations and the implementation of as many as possible. These were among the major proposals of the seven panels: Politics and diplomacy —Expand political participation by the people. —Make government appointments on a basis of specific merit. —Require the announcement of property holdings before the assumption of public office. —Consider the establishment of an institute of diplomacy. —Take the offensive against Chinese Communism and thereby bring about changes on the mainland, especially through use of the Taiwan model. —Improve psychological warfare against the Communists, including the use of such slogans as "If you want a better life, follow the example of Taipei." Economy —Promote technology-intensive and energy-conserving industries. —Develop free enterprise and promote competition except in national defense industry. —Revise the investment law in accordance with the requirements of private investors to promote capital accumulation and the training of technical personnel. —Price energy at real cost and dispatch personnel to Europe and Japan to study conservation methods and utilization criteria there. Enact an energy control law and enforce conservation regulations. —Prepare an emergency oil rationing plan to cope with the possible cutoff of supplies. —Diversify export products and importing countries. —Transform Taiwan into a shipping and aviation center to augment service income. —Adopt tax reform to reduce indirect taxes and increase those on land, inheritances and gifts. —Develop a comprehensive social security system. —Improve banking services and the monetary climate. —Establish big trading companies and multinational corporations to provide export outlets for small and medium enterprises. —Improve and expand economic reporting at home and abroad. —Reduce tariffs and promote free trade. —Provide people's housing and revise the unearned increment tax. Science and technology —Give priority to national defense and economic construction. —Establish an engineering instruction institute. —Encourage planning for technology transfer. —Stimulate and guide production electronics. —Reconsider the production and import of diesel engines of less than 3,000 ccs. Education —Extend compulsory education from 9 to 10 years. —Emphasize the quality of schooling at the senior high level instead of trying to raise the quantity. —Add useful new courses at senior high schools, junior colleges and senior vocational schools. —Establish special classes for highly talented students. —Provide for a non-profit national education research organization. —Make vocational training compulsory for workers aged 15 to 18. —Open education banks to help finance schools and students. —Give special assistance to students at normal colleges. —Offer separate entrance examinations for normal colleges. —Remove night schools from the college entrance examination and open them to everyone. —Assure teachers of the opportunity to take advanced courses in the summer and earn the master's degree. —Set up special TV channels exclusively for education. —Terminate outdated courses. —Improve the evaluation of teachers. —Consider adding pre-school to the compulsory education program. —Increase the number of teachers in primary and middle schools. —Study ways to improve teacher-student relations. Press and communications —Rely on the mass media to bring government and people closer together. —Strengthen shortwave broadcasting by the China Broadcasting Corporation. —Publish more materials addressed to overseas Chinese. —Produce documentary films on national development. —Explain in the media why some suggestions of the Development Seminars cannot be implemented. —Inform the press of the background in national security matters. —Terminate the large use of newspaper space for reports on entertainers. —Make additional funds available for promotion of Chinese culture in overseas communities. Cultural development —Support research and design of Chinese computers. —Revise the copyright law to discourage piracy. —Encourage the publication of Chinese classics. —Establish a data center to provide the world with correct information on the Republic of China. —Call the attention of scholars to Chinese literary works of the 1940s and invite analysis. Health protection —Strengthen management and control of poisonous elements and food additives. —Establish an ad hoc unit to prepare plans to prevent pollution by PCB, DDT, BHC and heavy metals. —Provide budget for the institution of a national nutrition program and employ the necessary technical personnel. —Write nutrition improvement into national law and also provide statutes regarding food and nutrition specialists. Following is the text of Premier Sun's address to the closing session of the 1980 Seminar: The 1980 National Development Seminar of the Republic of China reaches a successful conclusion here today. I have deep respect for your incisive views, the frankness of your discussions and your outstanding patriotism and dedication. Speaking on behalf of the government, I want to thank all of you. In sponsoring the National Development Seminar, the government is primarily interested in surveying the views of prominent persons and scholars of all circles so as to bring its administrative activities more closely in line with the aspirations of the people and the needs of the country. The government has accepted and implemented the proposals made at past National Development Seminars. Just now the various groups of the seminar have reported their proposals. Some of these concern the major policies and decisions of the government; others involve the technicalities of implementation. These proposals are instructive and appropriate for reference and adoption by the government during the course of national development. The high-minded views expressed during your discussions have been widely reported by the mass communications media and have attracted widespread attention and response among the people. The National Development Seminar has again yielded a fruitful harvest. Our major concern today is not only the development of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu into an equalitarian society. Even more important is the building of a free, democratic and unified China. I have found many valuable ideas among the conclusions reached after discussion in your various groups. One of these is the political call, "If you want to fare well, follow the Taipei example," proposed by the press and communications group. This call is as brilliant as last year's "Unification is not difficult if everyone learns from Taipei." Considering the shortness of time, I cannot mention all of the important views that have been expressed. I want to report generally, however, on Seminar proposals that are being vigorously pursued by the government. 1. Politics and diplomacy When Dr. Sun Yat-sen, our National Founding Father, established the Republic of China, he sought to make ours a land of freedom, equality and democracy. Although democratic and constitutional government has suffered many setbacks since the Republic of China's founding, the government's determination to implement democracy has never been shaken. The recent enactment of the Election Law is an example of the government's determination in this regard. When parliamentary elections are held at the end of this year, the government will require all election officials to abide strictly by the provisions of law and not to indulge in favoritism or commit irregularities. The government will never allow anyone to cause trouble or undermine the rule of law by taking advantage of the election process. I hope all the people of the country will abide by the law, fulfill their responsibilities and adhere to the principle of keeping freedom within legal bounds. We shall see to it that the election becomes a milestone in our march toward democracy and the rule of law in this bastion of national revival, and shall lay the everlasting foundation for democratic government throughout China. Additionally, we shall continue to carry out administrative renovation, rectify political morale, give attention to work at the grass roots, strengthen social welfare, enlarge political participation and promote all-people solidarity. In external relations, the progress of the Republic of China in various fields during recent years has attracted the attention of the world community and helped augment our substantial relations with friendly countries. All of the Chinese abroad are compatriots, and so we welcome them to return to this bastion of national revival and join in national development during the course of the anti-Communist struggle for national recovery. We hope they will serve as a bridge between their countries of residence and the free motherland. We also hope they will carry the seeds of freedom and democracy to the mainland. 2. Education Education is the root undertaking of a country and the motive force of national advance. The government will continue to concentrate on education and increase educational investment. Besides strengthening social education, we shall promote scholastic education through the following measures: —Strengthening the spiritual education of the people by emphasizing citizenship training based on democracy, the rule of law and our way of life. We seek to cultivate good citizens who will love their country and people and who will abide by the law. —Stressing the vocational function by extending the period of compulsory education at vocational schools and junior colleges. At the same time, we shall augment graduate schools and research institutions to raise the level of academic education. —Promoting extension education and improving the quality of manpower through evening classes at universities, summer schools, the opening of cultural centers in cities and counties, and the sponsorship of schools of the air. —Improving the quality of teaching by improving educational and research institutions, providing more advanced teacher training and streamlining instruction at normal colleges. —Encouraging and assisting private schools so as to provide the balanced development of these and public schools. 3. Cultural development Culture is a country's lifeline. On the highly interdependent international scene, Chinese culture has been buffeted by foreign cultures. It is the common responsibility of the government and people to keep the best and remove the worst from our traditional culture and thereby create a new culture appropriate to the times. In cultural development, we shall: —Accelerate cultural development on all fronts by formulating a national cultural policy, quickly establishing a competent organization and setting up an appropriate foundation. —Cultivate artists and managers with vigor, establish a national opera troupe and national orchestra, and systematize and develop our folk arts in coordination with the establishment of cultural centers, libraries, galleries and museums in various places. —Augment international cultural interflow with participation in literary, artistic, cultural and academic meetings the world over and by sending more artists abroad for visits and performances. —Enact a Film Law to establish the place of the movies among our various cultural enterprises. 4. Economy Our economic development for the 1980s will emphasize an overall increase in labor productivity together with more economical consumption of energy. We shall push ahead with the development of industries requiring intensive technology, which place high value on processing, which consume less energy and which cause little pollution. We shall do our best to promote and encourage strategic and essential industries. We shall stress market diversification and control the supply of major resources, including energy. We hope to encourage investment abroad to assure needed imports and overcome export obstacles. At the same time, we shall expand our external relationships with regard to economy, trade, finances and technical cooperation, and shall develop transportation facilities so as to make Taiwan an air and sea transportation center and enhance its economic and strategic position in the Western Pacific. In line with the economic developments of the 1980s and the need for the equitable distribution of wealth in society, we shall make every effort to review and improve our tax systems and develop our monetary and capital markets. Rates of bank interest and the foreign exchange market will be gradually liberalized. 5. Science and technology This is the major constructive force in the development of the national economy and national defense. Our goal is the creation of a domestic environment and conditions favorable to scientific and technological development and quality improvement. Emphasis will be placed on: The search for energy substitutes. Advancement of computer science and technology. Development of high-molecular chemistry. Production of plastics for engineering use. Application of systems analysis and industrial designing. All these are intended to serve the needs of the sophisticated science and technology required for national defense. At the same time, we shall strengthen these coordinated measures: —Accelerated cultivation of talented people by raising domestic research standards and augmenting cooperation among the government, academic circles and business enterprises. —Establishment of a "technology transfer planning unit" to introduce, plan, promote and supervise essential technology. —Stepping up of contacts and cooperation with scholars and experts abroad through engineering and technical organizations established overseas. —Employment of financial and tax measures to encourage business enterprises to step up the pace of research and development. 6. Health protection Our country soon will join the ranks of the developed nations, and we should pay particular attention to medical care for the people. In promoting good health and an improved environment, we need to solve problems brought about by industrialization and an affluent life. Our current tasks include: —Formulation of a long-term (10-year) health protection plan, raising the level of education, construction of additional medical facilities, eradication of various contagious diseases, control of chronic diseases and the gradual implementation of health insurance for all the people. —Expansion of the central health organization, enlargement of facilities at public hospitals, provision of additional follow-up education for medical practitioners, installation of a telephonic medical service system and arrangement of consultant services for medical practitioners. —Revision of the food processing control law so as to improve hygienic measures and regulate the use of additives, enactment of regulations for nutritionists, promulgation of food standards and provision of nutrition education for the people. 7. Press and communications Mass communications media have a key role to play in national modernization and development. The government will: —Assure a normal environment for the development of mass communication enterprises so media can smoothly and successfully fulfill their responsibility of serving as a bridge between government and people under our country's constitutional system. —Eliminate international misunderstandings about the Republic of China and seek to establish a new image for our country through the joint endeavors of the government and of people at home and abroad. —Utilize all communication channels to report to our mainland compatriots on progress in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu and to convey our concern about their situation. I recall that at the opening of the first National Development Seminar last year, I said we must "strive for what will be tomorrow as well as for what we have today." Although we have encountered difficulties in this bastion of national revival during the last year, we still have been able to move vigorously along the auspicious road toward more democratic government, greater economic prosperity and a more harmonious and secure society. By contrast, the Peiping hope of carrying out the "four modernizations" has turned out to be only a dream and its mask of democracy has been torn away. The Chinese Communist regime faces a crisis in which the people on the mainland have lost confidence in the Communist system and in Communism itself. This makes the outcome of the struggle between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits all the more obvious. We are convinced that time is always on our side, whether we are seeking the goals of today or tomorrow. Looking toward the future, we are filled with self-confidence. We believe that the hopes of China hinge on our existence and that our progress ensures our victory. To overthrow tyrannical Communist rule and build a free, democratic and progressive new China is the responsibility of every Chinese. The people living in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu should surely devote all their strength to the acceptance of this responsibility. Our compatriots abroad should actively join in the undertaking. Our compatriots on the mainland have an even heavier responsibility. They should seize every opportunity and every means to take action and remove the evil of Communism. I believe completely that if we can weld together the three formidable forces in this bastion, overseas and on the mainland, we can assuredly accelerate the collapse of the Chinese Communist regime and enable our mainland compatriots to enjoy freedom, prosperity and happiness together with us in the near future. With the adjournment of this meeting, you will return to your places of work. In this moment of farewell, I want to express the hope that all of you will carry on your research into the major problems facing our country. I hope you will maintain your contacts with the various departments of the government and become permanent friends who will not hesitate to criticize adversely. Finally, let us join in the struggle for the future of freedom and democracy in China and for the eternal happiness of the Chinese people.