Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma's blind spots risk Taiwan's well-being

Taiwan News Editorial

In an exclusive interview with the vernacular China Times, President Ma Ying-jeou revealed numerous blind spots that expose the risks that the China-centric policies of his rightist Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government pose for Taiwan's future well-being.

The prime point of the president's lengthly discourse was that his policies of cross-strait reconciliation with the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party-ruled People's Republic of China were generating "peace dividends" for Taiwan, including an inflow of 1.5 million Chinese tourists and the signing of the controversial "Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement" and other pacts with the PRC and will pave the way for the realization of his China policy goals of "peace and prosperity."

Chen’s office asks public for small donations

Taipei Times

The office of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday announced belt-tightening measures and asked for public donations to sustain its daily operations until February after a recent amendment revoked Chen’s perks as a former head of state.

Chen Sung-shan (陳淞山), manager of Chen’s office, said it would continue to operate despite the financial difficulty. To sustain the NT$540,000 (US$16,800) monthly expenses, he said the office would implement austerity measures to cut costs.

Flowers are no match for a typhoon

Taipei Times Editorial

Taiwan is no stranger to extreme weather. The 2001 typhoon season, which lasted from about May to December, comes to mind. That was the year Typhoon Nari did a U-turn as it headed toward Okinawa, parked over open water to gain strength and finally inundated Taiwan as it slowly drifted southward. It was the seventh of nine typhoons to hit Taiwan that year, striking just two months after Typhoon Toraji caused flash floods in Hualien, Taitung and Nantou counties that killed more than 200 people and caused nearly NT$7.7 billion (US$240.2 million) in agricultural and infrastructure damage.

Key IT firm may be China-owned

Taipei Times

An information technology company that provides key systems software for much of the country’s financial institutions is alleged to have been bought by a major China-based investor, an opposition legislator said.

The purchase has raised questions among Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers on just how much of Taiwan’s sensitive financial data may have flown across the Taiwan Strait to Chinese companies.

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