Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Lawmakers pass new nuclear funding

Taipei Times

The legislature yesterday voted down a set of anti-nuclear motions proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Holding just one-third of the legislative seats, the DPP failed in 11 attempts to block the use of nuclear power, despite support from anti-nuclear activists who have staged a protest outside the legislature since Sunday night.

A motion to reject the request for a supplementary NT$14 billion (US$485.74 million) in funding from state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) for continued construction work at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮) District, New Taipei City (新北市), was defeated.

Taiwan’s unresolved status is getting growing attention in the United States

Michael Richardson

A flurry of events around the United States shows that Taiwan’s longstanding “strategic ambiguity” is getting some attention.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U. S. House of Representatives is holding a full day of hearings this week to explore “Why Taiwan Matters”, a federal judge has set a hearing date over a Kuomintang default in a case involving Republic of China gold bonds, WikiLeaks revealed a close relationship between the ROC government and the American Institute in Taiwan while Taiwanese-American groups in Los Angeles and Boston urged eviction of the ROC from Taiwan.

No help with trade disputes

Taipei Times

Even a man as powerful and influential as Hon Hai Technology Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) cannot conquer all. Gou has led the group in building about 30 overseas manufacturing sites and the group owns the world’s largest contract electronics maker, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, which generated NT$3 trillion (US$104 billion) in revenue last year from making electronics for devices such as the iPhone and Kinect.

Still, Gou’s influence has held no sway in his legal battle against Chinese automaker and electrical component manufacturer BYD Co during five years of patent infringement lawsuits. Hon Hai’s handset manufacturing arm, Foxconn International Holdings, sued BYD for theft of trade secrets in Shenzhen and Hong Kong in 2007.

US lawmaker warns China on Taiwan

Taipei Times

US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, has warned China not to interfere in Taiwan’s presidential election and promised to support Taiwan’s democracy in every way she can.

In a wide ranging speech -delivered in Los Angeles on Saturday, Ros-Lehtinen called on US President Barack Obama to sell F-16C/D aircraft to Taipei and to work to improve relations with Taiwan.

“Taiwan remains a great beacon of democracy in East Asia and an important strategic ally in a key region of the world,” she said.

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