Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

ECFA panders to large corporations at expense of small companies, DPP says

Taipei Times

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday assailed the government’s landmark trade deal with China, saying the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) would benefi the interests of larger corporations at the expense of small and medium-sized businesses.

“The [government] has only taken into account the needs of large corporations. It doesn’t care about the damage to small and medium-sized businesses, which will be unable to adapt [to an ECFA],” DPP ECFA response team spokesperson Julian Kuo (郭正亮) told a press conference yesterday.

Taiwan: Hawaii, Jamaica or Cuba?

James Holmes

Whither Taiwan’s maritime defense?

The ghost of Alfred Thayer Mahan can help strategists analyze the challenges and opportunities confronting Taipei in this age of surging Chinese military might. Best known as the author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, the 19th century’s most influential treatise on maritime affairs, Mahan was a keen student of the relationship between geography and maritime strategy.

Ma still unclear on Taiwan’s status

Taipei Times Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) often asks his critics why they question his determination to uphold Taiwan’s national interests and dignity as a sovereign nation. A review of some of his remarks will perhaps provide the president with a hint as to why so many people continue to remain stubbornly unconvinced.

On Monday, when meeting with Texas Governor Rich Perry, Ma referred to Taiwan as a “province” when speaking of the sister-state relations between Taiwan and Texas. Even though Resolution 81(R) HR, 1593 passed last June by the Texas House of Representatives, describes the link between Texas and Taiwan as a “sister-state relationship,” Ma chose to say “sister state and sister province” relationship when he expressed gratitude to the governor over the passage of the resolution.

New opportunities for Taiwan

Liberty Times Editorial

Recently, there have been a number of labor protests in China, something rarely seen since the Chinese Communist Party took power. These protests were sparked initially by conditions at the Foxconn plant in Shenzhen, which led to a spate of suicides and resulted in the company promising to increase wages by 122 percent.

This was predictably followed by demands from other workers’ groups for pay increases and, with tacit official approval, the minimum wage was raised. These changes are moving beyond the relatively wealthy areas of the Pearl River Delta manufacturing region and around Shanghai, further inland to regions such as Jiangxi and Shanxi provinces. If the trend continues, it could spread throughout the country. Although this is an internal matter for China, it also represents a huge opportunity for Taiwan.

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