My comment:
(a) Just last Friday (Aug 1, 2014), I had a brief discussion with a middle-aged Taiwanese American man here in Boston, who just returned from a twice annually trip to Taiwan (about three weeks each time). (He can no longer read Chinese. We talked in Hoklo, or Taiwanese/Fukkienese.)
I: "Is Taiwan's economy all right?"
He replied "fine" but wondered why I asked. I explained that (under Ma, but I did not say this) Taiwan's economy barely grows at 2% annually. He said fine, then recalled something: "But college graduates can not find jobs. When they can, salaries has been the same as those twenty years ago. It is twenty New Taiwan dollars [a month], the same as I got there twenty years ago, which is six hundred [US] dollars [a month]." I commented, "College graduates can not find jobs everywhere. Four decades ago, my aunt could not find a job after graduating from a university in Taiwan, and she became angry about the society. But her degree was for Turkey language. Once she got a job, she was no longer angry. Back in Chicago where I was in 1980s, an American white college graduate could not find a job for a year, from University of Illinois at Chicago where I came from. He also was very frustrated. On the other hand, though salaries in US has been the same as those a decade ago. college graduates' starting salaries are about $40,000." The conversation ended.
(b) Taiwan has been afraid of industry hollowing. So ever since Lee Teng-hui, through Chen Shui-bian and now Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan keeps importing foreign labor to work for assembly jobs in electronics and other industries (including shoe- and sneaker-making). (No to mention Taiwan imports many more labor to be home cook, au pairs, and someting similar to certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in US (below nurse; but not trrained or certified in Taiwan)). As in US, when foreign labor come to Taiwan, they are paid local wages.
At the same time Taiwanese can not find jobs, and when they can, earn poor salaries--on par with foreign labor.
I have been in US for three decades. I have learned it is futile to go against economics. Hollowing, so what? Chinese get the jobs, so what? Those are low-paying jobs. 作者: choi 时间: 8-4-2014 07:02
王文靜、郭奕伶、田習如, 獨家專訪呼聲最高的下一位美國總統; 希拉蕊：越依賴中國，台灣越脆弱. Business Weekly 商業周刊, June 25, 2014. www.businessweekly.com.tw/KIndepArticle.aspx?id=22631
My comment: I am not afraid of China. For decades prior to American Independence War, the economy of the thirteen colonies got closer and closer, and more integrated, with that in UK, accompanied with more exchanges in culture and visits.