Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Miners’ families need a resolution

Taipei Times Editorial

With three weeks left until the legislative and presidential elections, the political debates are centered around the controversy surrounding presidential candidates’ properties.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have been targeting the gray-zone status of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) old family home, while claiming it to be an illegal structure and with wordplay on Lai’s family name calling it a “shameless shack” (賴皮寮).

Built in an old coal mining area of New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里), Lai’s family home was originally a coal miner’s shack, as his father and grandfather were coal miners. A wooden shack was built in the early 1900s, which was later reconstructed as a brick house by Lai’s father.

Overview of the presidential debate

Taipei Times Editorial

The nation’s three presidential candidates yesterday clashed at the first platform presentation organized by the Central Election Commission, with each candidate scrapping over various issues.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), was first to speak, followed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).

Taiwan retains No.1 in Asia on freedom index

Taipei Times

Taiwan ranked 12th among 165 jurisdictions around the world and first in Asia in this year’s Human Freedom Index with a score of 8.56, retaining its position from the previous year.

The index, compiled by the Washington-based Cato Institute and the Vancouver-based Frasier Institute, ranked 165 jurisdictions for “personal,” “economic” and “human” freedom in 2021, the most recent year for which sufficient data were available, the report said.

Taiwan scored 7.97 for economic freedom, or ranking 11th in the world — up from 24th in 2020 — and 8.98 for personal freedom, 12th and unchanged from 2020.

China trade report just another bully’s tool

Yen Huai-shing 顏慧欣

China last week announced that Taiwan’s ban on imports of certain Chinese goods constituted a “trade barrier.” Some say they worry the announcement would affect the nation’s Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) application. Beijing’s next move is unclear, but the Chinese trade report is unlikely to affect Taiwan’s participation in the trade agreement.

Some say China could block Taiwan’s trade bloc entry by pressuring one or two members, using trade-barrier probes as leverage. This is overthinking it.

First, everyone knows China does not want Taiwan to join the CPTPP. It would try to block Taiwan’s entry with or without the report. Taiwan’s trade bloc eligibility is not a concern.

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