Taiwan's top election issue: rich earn 6 times more than poor

Taiwanese will go to the polls on Saturday to elect a president after a campaign dominated by domestic economic issues and pledges by candidates to help the newly industrialized island’s middle class.

Incumbent Ma Ying-jeou, who is seen as a careful economic planner and friendly to Taiwan’s archrival China but out of touch with common voters, is up against Tsai Ing-wen, who says the wealth gap has widened under Mr. Ma.

At this point the vote between the Nationalist Party’s Ma and his Democratic Progressive Party opponent is too close to call.

Wealth-related woes have pushed relations with China out of the spotlight for the first time in Taiwan’s 25-year democratic history. Ties with Beijing have improved since 2008 following a series of trade talks, reducing the odds of war. Now, content with current relations with China, voters, much like those in the US, are focusing on local economic improvement.

“I think the election is about the economy, furloughs, and unemployment, and jobs going over to China,” says Ted Su, a doctor in Taiwan who’s afraid of cuts in his profession. “The wealth gap has widened, but wages haven’t gone up.”

Taiwan’s economy rocketed in the 1980s with fast growth in export manufacturing, earning the island the label of one of Asia’s four economic tigers.

What worries Taiwanese workers

Unemployment hovers comfortably below 5 percent, while officials say the economy grew about 4.5 percent last year, making it the world’s 19^th largest.

But salaries rose 5.8 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to government figures, a rate that workers call too little for a comfortable life in the major cities. Companies often avert layoffs by requiring unpaid leave or free overtime.

Taiwan’s wealthiest 20 percent earn more than 6 six times the poorest 20 percent, the government announced earlier this year. The statistic has wormed its way into the political dialogue, as voters look to their government for answers.

“The issue is wealth distribution, not economic growth,” says Hsu Yung-ming, a political scientist with Soochow University in Taipei. “The wealth distribution problem has worsened, as it has in a lot of other countries.”

Two parties, one mission

Mr. Ma, a Harvard graduate and former justice minister, says he has kept the economy on track since taking office in 2008 despite the intrusions of global issues that have hurt high-tech and machinery exports.

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