ーWhat do you think will become of the world economy going forward?
I think neither the state-capitalist Beijing Consensus of China nor the neoliberal Washington Consensus of the United States will work well in running a national economy in future.
The Beijing Consensus approach is to use redundant domestic labor by relying on foreign capital and technologies.Despite the high rate of growth, the country has not given rise to a middle class, resulting in mounting social discontent due to the income disparity.
The Washington Consensus, which aims for smaller government and promotes the free flow of capital across national borders, is not without problems.While global capitalism has expanded the world economy ever dynamically thus far,it remains unable to solve its essential shortcomings of the instability of financial markets, the widening income gap and social bipolarization,accelerating environmental pollution, and chain reactions from the food pollution.
During my 12 years in office as president of Taiwan, my primary focus had been agricultural development.Then, surplus capital and redundant labor created by agriculture were used to develop industries.Japan served as the model in this method of running an economy in which the state takes leadership in distributing domestic resources.
Economic growth hinges on where to derive starting capital or seed money.While Western countries had colonies to exploit, Asian countries have to base their economies on land taxes.The priority production system in the postwar Japan was a representative example.
It is not likely that a laissez-faire attitude toward global capitalism will improve the domestic economy going forward.Individual countries play an important role, where the national leader assumes a particularly heavy responsibility.In that sense, I hold in high regard the Three Arrows policy that Prime Minister Abe espouses.
ーChina and South Korea are critical of the foreign policies of the Abe administration.
Prime Minister Abe did a wonderful job of launching a drastic monetary policy and touring Southeast Asian countries soon after his inauguration.Without giving in to the unreasonable claims of China and South Korea, he aims to establish relations with Asian countries from an independent perspective.Japan has to be a leader in Asia for the betterment of the world.
