A PTT post titled “[Breaking] The Great Thief Who Stole Taiwan’s Agricultural Technology” has been circulating online. Posted by cpaladin (Wesibalalin) on December 24, the author attempts to accuse former Agriculture Minister Sun Ming-hsien of being the kind of Taiwan traitor the DPP loves to denounce, using three examples: orchids, bananas, and grouper aquaculture to attack Eric Chu and Chu Mau-song (backing Eric Chu).
Observant people can see that cpaladin is attempting to frame Sun Ming-hsien as a liar while pulling Eric Chu down with him. Though written subtly, cpaladin does implicate Eric Chu at the article’s end. It’s similar to how Weekly Wang reported that Huang Guo-chang’s father-in-law invested over 100 million in agriculture on the mainland.
First, let me note that PTT’s Gossip Board truly is the best channel for spreading plausible-sounding nonsense. Since I’ve never gotten a PTT account, let me quickly analyze the article here and provide a brief “boo” response.
Please first see the article key points I’ve excerpted for you, and I’ll provide the truth after each section. Those interested in the original post can go read it on PTT themselves:
Former Agriculture Minister Sun Ming-hsien shamelessly goes on TV, packaging one or two truths with eight lies… Those with any sense of decency cannot tolerate this kind of treason while telling Taiwanese to be shameless.
Only when the tide goes out do you see who’s swimming naked.
Orchids
Taiwan orchids—Kaohsiung District Agricultural Improvement Station assistant researcher Tsai Chi-chu mastered “embryo rescue” technology unmatched globally. Station director Huang De-chang said, “Private companies doing within-species crossbreeding are many, some can already do 5,000-6,000 varieties.” But cross-species orchid hybridization—orchids with more distant genetic relationships—only Dr. Tsai Chi-chu of Kaohsiung can achieve. This proves Taiwan’s orchids were developed by Taiwanese through public-private-academic collaboration. Now this traitor Sun Ming-hsien allegedly stole it for China, shamelessly claiming Taiwan’s technology lags China’s.
Since I didn’t watch the show, I can’t confirm whether Sun Ming-hsien personally stole technology to China. Based on my research, Sun Ming-hsien definitely did transfer some Taiwan agricultural technology to mainland China. But mainlanders aren’t simply fools.
If we casually search academic literature databases (not just news, which invites exaggeration), mainland China has already made substantial multifaceted progress in “embryo rescue” technology—not just limited to orchids.
Dr. Tsai Chi-chu’s orchid breeding technology is globally unique (I’m borrowing the author’s statement since I’m not an expert), but that’s as far as it goes.
Orchids certainly have high economic value—readers should judge independently (I genuinely can’t understand why anyone would hype orchids—it seems like another tulip bubble).
But if the technology is so precious, why hasn’t anyone applied for a patent? So never trust someone puffing themselves up.
Bananas
Bananas: In 1960, Wu Chen-jui became chairman of the Fruit Growers Cooperative, aggressively marketing to Japan, successfully resuming banana exports to Japan in 1963. Banana exports became one of Taiwan’s most profitable agricultural products. At that time, Taiwan bananas held 90% of Japan’s market share. On March 7, 1969, Wu Chen-jui created pure gold flower baskets, bowls, plates, and cups—thirty taels of gold each—distributed to relevant officials. The prosecutors launched a major investigation, imprisoning over ten people including officials. In 1971, Taiwan bananas faced their greatest crisis: Panama disease. Because all Taiwan’s banana suckers came from the same stock, they lacked inter-stock resistance. Within just one year, the entire Japan market fell to the Philippines—by 1976, Taiwan’s banana exports to Japan were less than one-tenth of 1969’s volume.
After researching related materials, I’ll note that Wu Chen-jui truly was deliberately harmed during the [martial law]1 era when he offended some powerful people over minor matters.
However, I cannot be that generation’s judge—at best I can sympathize with those era’s social realities. But precisely because of those predecessors’ efforts, Taiwan society progressed to today’s stage (whether it’s backsliding now is another question).
Further, in cpaladin’s long section, we discover that Taiwan banana’s loss of Japan market dominance was not simply due to Wu Chen-jui’s imprisonment.
Philippine banana farming technology had already matured then, beginning to compete for Japan’s market. So Li Kuo-ting proposed replacing bamboo baskets with cardboard boxes to increase shipping efficiency and reduce costs. Yet Wu Chen-jui himself rejected this proposal for unspecified reasons.
Yet cpaladin interpreted this as Li Kuo-ting wanting to profit his own brother, loudly praising Wu Chen-jui… No wonder many say color matters more than brains.
The fatal blow to Taiwan banana farmers was two years after Wu’s arrest: In 1971, massive Panama disease outbreak led to Japan completely banning Taiwan province banana imports.
Yet Japan still needed bananas, so second-place Philippines naturally fully captured Japan’s market at this moment… This is the truth.
I don’t understand what cpaladin is stretching—it’s completely incongruent.
Grouper
Grouper: Scientific name: leopard coral grouper—the largest and finest-quality grouper. In 1995, Taitung Branch of Fisheries Research Institute partnered with Fangliao Township Aquaculture Farm and successfully developed the world’s first grouper fry breeding technique. Grouper farming requires three years to harvest; by 2007 market prices reached 1,500 NT per pound. Good times don’t last—in 2008, grouper fry breeding technology leaked to China. China’s Fujian region immediately constructed large greenhouses for grouper farming. By 2012, under Ma Ying-jeou’s direction, Chinese grouper was exported back to Taiwan; that year’s market price was only 500 NT per pound. Today, Taiwan grouper is merely 250 NT per pound.
Back during Chen Shui-bian’s administration, many fishermen already secretly smuggled grouper fry to mainland for cultivation.
Later, cross-strait normalization under Ma Ying-jeou began establishing regulations opening Taiwan operations to mainland aquaculture. But not many people participated; most chose instead Southeast Asian locations.
Taiwan’s superior technology doesn’t stay static—it advances with global innovation; that’s Taiwan’s real value.
However, biased selective attacks based on political leanings are a serious problem many Taiwanese now suffer.
For example, though cpaladin notes that in 2008 China immediately established large greenhouses—seeming to blame Ma Ying-jeou—wouldn’t large-scale farming require prior preparation time? So wouldn’t that mean Chen Shui-bian’s era?
Author cpaladin deliberately wrote the keyword “2008” simply because Ma took office that year. This is just deliberate confusion between lies and facts.
Incidentally, I should thank Ma Ying-jeou for letting even ordinary people enjoy delicious grouper. Of course this returns to the question: whose Taiwan interests matter—farmers’ or ordinary people’s? (Little wonder some criticize online users for being mama’s boys who don’t understand people’s real hardships.)
Sun Ming-hsien, that old bastard, is saying this is farmers’ choice. Agricultural technology often requires years to decades of time and countless people’s money and effort to bear fruit. This process is usually Taiwan’s public-private-academic collaboration result. Today, these two—Kao Yu-jen and Sun Ming-hsien—simply transferred 30 years of Taiwan’s agricultural results to China, then publicly mocked Taiwan’s technical inferiority. As a Taiwanese, how can we tolerate this?
I acknowledge Taiwan agriculture had a brilliant past, but cpaladin, don’t keep mourning the days when ROC farming techniques brought glory worldwide.
Based on my private exchanges with mainland organizations, mainland agriculture has already made extremely breakthrough progress in many areas—even making agricultural techniques for extreme climates that lead the world, promoted to many third-world nations. This mirrors Taiwan agricultural missions’ efforts around the globe back then.
You can keep living in your well like some Taiwanese, but the outside world won’t wait for you.
Actually, from cpaladin’s own text, you can see Taiwan definitely has technology leaking out constantly, but the revealed fact is also that Taiwan has fewer and fewer proprietary new technologies to rely on.
Young people who could invest in research mostly switched to service industries, selling fried chicken, coffee, and creative small pleasures.
Damn the Chinese KMT
This is standard angry internet user language, so I’ll leave it for everyone as a teaching reference rather than using profanity myself.
Shamelessly packaging one or two truths with eight lies
Wait, isn’t that what the original author is doing?!