This is the sight that greeted me when I returned to my parked scooter after a morning walk in Sintian - a sleeping dog. He/She/It was very friendly, and tried to hop on as I was leaving. Alas, our apartment is too small for a dog, and I don't think our cat Happy would be too...er, happy if I brought a canine home.
After several years of wrangling, the Legislative Yuan 立法院 has gotten around to approving the legalization of gambling, and thus the construction of casinos, on the Penghu Islands 澎湖縣, as reported by the BBC. What effect this decision will have on the islands and it residents won't be known until after casinos are up and running. For the islanders, it is a chance (they hope) to improve the local economy, which has been suffering for many years now from the decline of the local fishing industry, despite the growth of tourism during the same period. Young people have been fleeing Penghu for Taiwan proper in search of jobs (including a friend of my wife who first moved to Taichung 台中 to find work, and who now lives in Tainan 台南), and island officials hope gambling can stop the flow. Unfortunately, the effects on the local environment cannot be ascertained at this point, either. I have never visited Penghu, but from all accounts, the islands are quite beautiful. How much of that natural beauty will be lost to bulldozers and concrete, in the name of "saving" the local economy?
Another question is who will come to gamble, once the casinos have been built? Taiwanese, of course, but the main targets appear to be Chinese. It is no coincidence that when the DPP 民主進歩黨 was in power, approval for legalized gambling lagged in the legislature, but now that the KMT 中國國民黨 is back calling the shots, things appear to be moving forward quickly. The Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 administration is pinning it hopes for economic recovery and growth on tying Taiwan closer to the Chinese market, but the strategy is a risky one. As the BBC article notes:
"...the nearby gambling centre of Macau 澳門 faces problems of being too dependent on Chinese gamblers. China recently placed restrictions on its citizens visiting Macau, for fear of capital flight."
For the KMT, China is the answer to all of Taiwan's problems, despite reality suggesting otherwise. During the presidential election campaign, Ma promised to open up Taiwan to allow up to 3000 Chinese tourists a day to come here. The promised bonanza of tourists and the NT dollars they were going to generate has failed to materialize, however. For one thing, the Chinese government is selective about who gets to visit Taiwan, among other restrictions. But I think a more important reason can be found by asking a simple question: why would a Chinese tourist want to visit Taiwan? Curiosity factor aside, what is there to see on this island that can't be seen in China itself? And considering the relatively high cost of visiting Taiwan from the mainland, the average Chinese tourist would probably find more value for their money, not to mention a more "exotic" atmosphere, by traveling to a country that doesn't share a similar culture.
While the Chinese are not showing up on Taiwan's shores in the promised numbers, visitors from Japan and South Korea are continuing to arrive here on holidays. These are people who are, in general, more affluent than the average Chinese, and who are not restricted or vetted by their governments - they are free to visit Taiwan whenever, how often and for how long as they like. For Japanese tourists, especially, Taiwan is a low-cost, high-interest destination that isn't a long distance from home. But the Ma administration is seemingly ignoring, or at least downplaying, the significance of these comparatively well-heeled visitors, and is choosing instead to place most (if not all) of its eggs in the Chinese basket.
In this Coral of Dreams story, if they (the KMT) build them (the casinos), will they (the Chinese hordes) come?
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