The problem of Taiwan's declining birthrate is serious, and Zhuo Rongtai, a person in charge of the administrative agency of the Taiwan authorities, proposed that the household administration units could introduce the policy of rewarding births to relevant units through data collusion, which caused an uproar on the island. (Source: Taiwan's "United News Network")
In recent years, the problem of Taiwan's declining birthrate has become more and more serious, and Zhuo Rongtai, the new person in charge of the administrative organ of the Taiwan authorities, recently had a whimsical idea, announcing that the household administration units could introduce the incentive policy to the relevant units through the collusion of information on unmarried young people of marriageable age or people who have married but have not given birth to children. This remark sparked discussions, and was questioned as "checking the water meter" and violating privacy, which was criticized by all walks of life.
The total number of newborns in Taiwan continues to hit a new low, and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has spent 400 billion yuan (NT$, the same below) in the past eight years to rescue the declining birthrate, and the birth rate is still declining. Zhuo Rongtai attended the event on the 1st and mentioned that the declining birthrate depends on household officials, who know best which families and which young people have not yet married at marriageable age, "or have been married for several years without dynamics." He suggested that these materials could be collated with relevant units for more introduction of incentive policies or mutual communication on government decrees.
However, as soon as Zhuo Rongtai's proposal came out, it caused an uproar on the island. Huang Jianhao, a representative of the Kuomintang Democratic People's Congress, said that this practice is too absurd, which is equivalent to forcing people to have children, and what Taiwan's administrative agencies should do is to analyze family background, education, and employment status through data, and then introduce policies. In his view, the use of information on marital relationships and childbearing as a policy tool against individuals is a serious violation of privacy.
The People's Party's representative Mai Yuk Chun pointed out that the solution to the problem of declining birthrate is not to increase the incentives for production by simply collapsing information, which is completely palliative, but to set up relevant budgets, such as providing tuition subsidies. If you want young people to dare to marry and have children, you should help through policies to last a long time, "not the three fires of new officials", and there is no consideration for the future of young people.
Lai Shibao, a representative of the Kuomintang, criticized Zhuo Rongtai's move to manage too much, "Is it a crime not to get married and not have children?" He questioned that the Taiwan authorities spend hundreds of billions of yuan every year on the budget for the declining birthrate, but the actual results are very poor, and "the more you help, the fewer children you will have." Now the number of births per year has dropped to less than 150,000.
Zhuo Rongtai, responsible person of the administrative organ of the Taiwan authorities. (Source: Taiwan's "China Times News Network")
Zhuo Rongtai's hope that the household administration unit will save the declining birthrate crisis also made the relevant personnel dumbfounded, some people sighed "I had better know whose family should have a child", and also thought that Zhuo Rongtai's task and cognition of household administration personnel seemed to be too far from the front line. A household administration official in northern Taiwan said that "Zhuo Rongtai's statement is a bit excessive", which not only infringes on personal information, but also makes the public feel disturbed.
A person in Taiwan's legal circles pointed out that the current household administration on the island adopts a registration system for marriages and births, and the household administration organs already have the power to know, but the registration and registration are convenient for management and use, and the parties concerned do not necessarily want unrelated people to know. Marriage or having children is a personal choice, and Cheuk Wing-tai directly ordered that household officials use personal information for targeted treatment, where is the people's privacy placed?
This incident has also aroused heated discussions and criticism among netizens on the island, and many people believe that household administration information is personal information, and if it is used in this way, it may be suspected of "checking the water meter". Some netizens bluntly said, "High prices, high house prices, and difficulty in making a living, how can young people have the spare energy to raise children?" The point is that I can't even afford to raise myself, and I still have children. The higher-ups don't know the sufferings of the people, and they talk about everything easily. "High housing prices, low wages, high inflation, and unresolved declining birthrate."
Screenshot of Taiwanese netizen comments.
Some netizens questioned, "Can personal information be used like this?" "If you can't even do basic personal information protection, what other applications are you talking about?" "What's the difference between this and calling someone to harass someone to buy insurance and buy stocks?"
Screenshot of Taiwanese netizen comments.
Some netizens also contacted Wang Yichuan, the former executive director of the DPP's policy meeting, showing off the scandal sarcasm of being able to locate and monitor the marching masses with a mobile phone, "You can analyze it with a mobile phone", "Monitoring the people is one of the essences of the DPP, and it will appear if you don't hide it", "Many people in the DPP are thinking in the authoritarian era", "Even this must be controlled, and the DPP is becoming more and more exaggerated".
Screenshot of Taiwanese netizen comments.
Taiwan's "United Daily News" published an editorial on the 2nd, pointing out that the declining birthrate has not been solved for many years, and the core problem lies in the "high cost of childbirth", in the past, the Tsai Ing-wen authorities scattered money to give birth, but caused a "household registration competition", a basket of beautiful slogans, including 0 to 6 years old together, childcare allowance doubled, affordable education and insurance services, childcare integration, etc., a lot of money is spent, subsidies are wavering, newborns are still becoming scarce, it is obvious that the policy does not prescribe the right medicine.
Before the election, Lai Qingde put forward the political idea of "investing in the future generation from 0 to 22 years old", to put it bluntly, it is to increase subsidies and allow employers to provide a more flexible working environment. This time, Zhuo Rongtai's "emergency illness and indiscriminate medical treatment" threw out household administration information to assist in the declining birthrate, resulting in concerns about disturbing the people and violating privacy, and the Lai Qingde authorities should re-examine the definition of innovation, and stop taking the wrong pulse and prescribing the wrong drug order.