Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Uncertainty about what side Ma is fighting for

James Wang 王景弘

Once, wrote Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) in his memoir, founder of Formosa Plastics Group Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) confided in him that the company was quite happy to speak in terms of “one China” if that’s what the Chinese government wanted to hear.

Formosa Plastics was, after all, making a lot of money from them. The logic of this sounds quite normal — quite harmless.

China’s free market just a dream

Wang Dan 王丹

The massive size of the Chinese market is a fatal attraction for foreign capital, as every investor dreams of entering the Chinese market. Unfortunately, for many people, such as media mogul Rupert Murdoch, it remains nothing but a dream.

Not long ago, Murdoch’s company News Corp announced that it was selling a controlling stake in three Chinese television channels to China Media Capital (CMC), a private equity fund formed with government backing. Some analysts say this might be the crucial first step of the company’s withdrawal from the Chinese market, a tacit acknowledgement that the group’s efforts to expand into the Chinese media market in recent years have been in vain.

DPP threatens boycott over referendum

Taipei Times

Following a third failed attempt by opposition parties to hold a referendum on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday called on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to support another referendum proposal or face a boycott at next week’s provisional legislative session.

“Let’s not get into fistfights on the floor. Let’s put the [ECFA] to a referendum and see who wins the support of the public,” DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a press conference.

Taiwan is building a bridge too far to China

Jean Wu and Susan Wang

The Taiwan Strait can certainly be characterized as “troubled waters.” Ever since the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) defeated troops retreated to Taiwan at the end of the civil war, there has been tension across the strait, first because of Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) dreams of “recovering the mainland” and more recently because of Beiing’s insistence that Taiwan is part of China.

It is interesting that the KMT has now started to refer to its efforts at reconciliation as a “bridge over troubled waters.” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) used the term in a recent speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington.

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