Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma and Beijing’s agenda

Jei-Hsuan Huang

A Beijing-initiated rumor made its rounds last year regarding an aborted military plan to invade Taiwan in case the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate prevailed.

The fact that the innuendo was made public after — not before — the election, showed Beijing’s lack of confidence in its effect on Taiwanese voters.

Is Ma Ying-jeou Becoming the Kiss of Death?

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The latest word and joke about Taipei is that Ma Ying-jeou is fast becoming the kiss of death to anyone that has anything to do with him. What started this rumor? Well first Ma shook the hand of Yankee's pitcher Wang Chien-ming. Wang had previously been a 19 game winner in several seasons but after shaking hands with Ma, Wang is struggling. He has won only one game this year. Then there is Hilary Clinton; Ma shook her hand and she shortly afterwards fell and broke her arm. Next, Ma was scheduled to meet Managua Mayor Arguello, but he went out and committed suicide. Also on Ma's list for meetings was President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras. Ma had met him in the past and was scheduled for a two day visit on Ma's current trip to Latin America. But before Ma arrived a military coup was staged in Honduras and Zelaya had to flee.

Yonaguni plans raise questions of Taiwan

I-chung Lai

Recent news reports said the US and Japan are planning to station military on Yonaguni Island in response to demands from local residents following China’s military expansion. A closer analysis, however, shows that it is more likely that such a military deployment would be the result of US and Japanese questions about the future strategic direction of Taiwan. In other words, the move is aimed at Taiwan rather than China.

Sell Your Taiwanese Stocks!

Leo Wang

Upon seeing Crystal Hsu’s business reporting on Taipei Times yesterday (July 2^nd, 2009), something alerted me greatly.

I have been following stock markets since my days as an undergrad. That’s more than 15 years ago. And I don’t remember seeing the Taiwan’s broad stock market index averaging a p/e (price to earnings) ratio over 40 times. According to Hsu’s report, Kevin Hsiao, the head of UBS Wealth Management Research Taiwan, had pointed out that that p/e ratio is the highest among all four “small dragons” of Southeast Asia. Another observation on Hsaio’s data is that Taiwan’s p/e ratio is more than twice as large comparing against all the other three small dragons (Hong Kong 18.2x, South Korea 14.7x, Singapore 15.5x) and China (14.3x) and India (16.6). Amazing.

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