ELECTION 2024/Inaccuracies, data errors flagged in fact-check of presidential debate

Taipei, Dec. 31 (CNA) Taiwan's three presidential candidates each made erroneous or misleading claims during their debate on Saturday, according to an analysis by the Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC).

In a series of articles released on its website Saturday and Sunday, the TFC flagged a number of statements by the candidates that it labeled as accurate, inaccurate, or lacking in necessary context.

In the report, the TFC said Democratic Presidential Party (DPP) nominee Lai Ching-te (賴清德) criticized an opponent's support for nuclear power by arguing that Taiwan was already generating more energy from renewable sources than from nuclear power.

The TFC said Lai's claim was supported by Bureau of Energy data, which showed that from January through October of this year, renewables accounted for 8.9 percent of Taiwan's energy mix, compared to 6.3 percent for nuclear power.

Meanwhile, during a segment on the economy, Taiwan People's Party (TPP) nominee Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) claimed that while Taiwan's GDP had risen 120 percent since 2000, its real wages had only risen by 4 percent during that time, and its average working hours remained the 6th highest in the world.

The TFC said Ko's statement "did not correspond with" its data, which showed that Taiwan's economy had grown by 130 percent since 2000, while real wages in the industrial and service sectors grew by 9.8 percent.

In terms of working hours, Taiwan ranked sixth highest in a review of 39 countries conducted by the Ministry of Labor earlier this year, not sixth highest in the entire world, the fact checking organization said.

Ko also claimed during the debate that Taiwan in recent years had experienced shortages of "water, electricity, labor, land, talent, eggs, COVID-19 rapid tests, vaccines and toilet paper."

The TFC flagged this statement for "omitting key facts," on the grounds that two major recent toilet paper "shortages" were in fact caused by panic buying.

A run on toilet paper in February 2018 was later found to have originated with false advertising by a major supermarket chain, while another such incident during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was caused by misinformation spread online, the TFC said.

The TFC also called out Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) for failing to provide adequate context when he said the government had rejected his call to test all arriving travelers for COVID-19 early on in the pandemic.

Although Hou did propose testing arriving passengers for COVID-19 in March 2020, the TFC said, many public health experts at the time worried that large numbers of false positive test results could overburden Taiwan's medical system.

On financial issues, meanwhile, the TFC said Lai's assertion that the government had paid NT$900 billion (US$29.3 billion) off the national debt during President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) time in office was off by around NT$100 billion.

According to Ministry of Finance data, about NT$670 billion in debt was paid off by the government from 2016-2022, while another NT$126 billion was paid off this year, adding up to a total of NT$796 billion, the TFC said.

The TFC also backed Ko Wen-je's contention that the Tsai government's budget surpluses and payments against the national debt were made possible through the use of separate "special budgets" and by counting government borrowing as a source of income.

Citing experts it consulted on the issue, the TCF confirmed that borrowing is counted as government income, and that special budgets -- which have been used toward national defense, the response to COVID-19, and a major infrastructure program -- are not included in the general budget.

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