Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Beef debacle is Ma’s opportunity

Taipei Times

Many people ask why the National Security Council (NSC) handled the Taiwan-US beef protocol instead of the Department of Health (DOH) or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The NSC later said it became involved because it was a matter of national security.

Now that the issue has gained notoriety, the Consumers’ Foundation (消基會) has expressed firm opposition to easing beef restrictions and both pan-blue and pan-green legislators reject the NSC’s and the Presidential Office’s handling of the case.

Taiwan lawmakers send message to U.S. and PRC

Taiwan News Editorial

The bipartisan consensus reached Tuesday in Taiwan's national legislature to agree to approve amendments to the food sanitation act banning imports of risky beef products from countries where cases of mad cow disease have been documented sent a ringing message that foreign powers cannot ignore the will of the Taiwan people and the reality of Taiwan's democratic system.

The proposed amendments, which should be voted into law on Jan. 5, will challenge the content of a controversial protocol signed October 22 between the Taiwan Economic and Culture Representative Office (TECRO) and American Institute in Taiwan after secretive talks between Washington and President Ma Ying-jeou's right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government.

Claims of 'recovery' for Taiwan premature

Taiwan News Editorial

Monday's announcement by the Council for Economic Planning and Development that its five-color monthly economic monitor had risen to an apparently overheated "yellow-red" in November from the seemingly healthy "green light" in October has sparked exaggerated claims of a "sustainable recovery" for Taiwan's battered economy in some local media.

After eight straight months of depressed "blue" lights since September 2008 and four consecutive months of sluggish "yellow-blue" signals, the CEPD indicator jumped to show a "green" light in October and a torrid "yellow-red" for November.

Don’t place hope in PRC investment

Liberty Times Editorial

The two “China” parties — the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — say they only want what is best for Taiwan when it comes to trade and economic exchanges across the Taiwan Strait. Chinese officials have even said that Taiwanese businesspeople go to China to make money off the backs of the Chinese.

However, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) have exposed the claims for the lies that they are. Chiang has said that “over the past 20 years, Taiwanese investment in China has exceeded NT$4.8 trillion [US$148.7 billion], and so it cannot be denied that China’s economic growth owes a lot to Taiwanese businesspeople.” Kao has said that “Taiwan was opened up to Chinese investment in June, but to date, investments only stand at NT$1.19 billion, not a very large sum.”

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