Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma’s legacy will be more odious than he wished

Ku Chung-hwa 顧忠華

President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) second term in office has only just begun and he has already lost a member of his Cabinet, because of a run-in with Ma himself.

According to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), former minister of finance Christina Liu (劉憶如) complained to him that Ma had failed to step in and ensure the integration of government policy after she had been trying to introduce the capital gains tax which Ma himself had called for.

Anti-beef activists rally outside AIT to protest US’ attitude

Taipei Times

A group of activists protest outside the American Institute in Taiwan in Taipei yesterday against what they see as Washington forcing Taipei to open its doors to the importation of US beef containing the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times

A group of activists demonstrated at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday to protest what they called Washington’s high-handed attitude in forcing Taiwan to open its doors to US beef containing residues of the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine.

The protest was organized by several civic groups, including the National Alliance for Food Safety and Citizen Congress Watch.

US Congress set to debate bill on TRA implementation

Taipei Times

Representative Robert Andrews has introduced a new bill to establish a special commission to advise the US Congress on how to implement the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).

Andrews, a Democrat, lists the proposed commission’s number one job as assessing arms sales and reporting whether sufficient “defense articles” had been made available to Taiwan by the US. It would also assess whether Taiwan’s air and air defense forces retain the ability to effectively defend Taiwan against threats posed by China.

Aboriginal rights activists protest proposed land bill

Taipei Times

Aboriginal rights advocates yesterday protested a proposed amendment to the Mountain Slope Conservation and Utilization Act (山坡地保育利用條例) that seeks to relax restrictions on the transfer of Aboriginal reserve land, worrying it may accelerate the loss of Aboriginal land to non-Aborigines.

The existing law stipulates that, after obtaining ownership of a plot of Aboriginal reserve land, an Aboriginal person is required to hold it for at least five years before it can be sold.

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