Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

As expected, the US-China trade war has started. On Thursday last week, US President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on counteracting “China’s economic aggression” and announced a US$60 billion punitive tariff scheme on as many as 1,300 Chinese products following an investigation based on Section 301 of the US’ 1962 Trade Expansion Act.

Launching a trade war is part of the Trump administration’s national security strategy — the economy is critical to US national security, and the trade policy is to counter hostile economic competitors.

National Taiwan University (NTU) president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) has been dogged by scandals since a committee on Jan. 5 announced his selection. Nearly three months have passed and yet the controversy over his appointment to head the university shows no sign of abating.

Concern over Kuan’s election first surfaced after local media reported that Kuan is an independent director at Taiwan Mobile Co, while company vice chairman Richard Tsai (蔡明興) also sat on the selection committee. Following allegations of a conflict of interest, Kuan was accused of plagiarizing a student’s paper in a conference paper he coauthored.