More returning investments announced
By Natasha Li / Staff reporterTaiwanese companies returning to the nation have pledged up to NT$703.4 billion (US$23.06 billion) in investments, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday, as it approved another two firms’ applications to take part in a government incentive program. The new plant would implement environmentally friendly manufacturing and smart production processes, and would create 245 job opportunities, it said. The plant would create 100 job opportunities, it said. The company would offer up to 588 job opportunities, it said. Companies participating in this program have pledged NT$66.1 billion in investments, which would create up to 4,630 job opportunities, the ministry said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
Cross-strait site for students not ‘green terror,’ official says
By Sean Lin / Staff reporterThe Executive Yuan yesterday denied that an online registration platform for students visiting China is “green terror,” saying that academic exchanges with China require special monitoring. The Ministry of Education on Wednesday unveiled the Registration Platform for Academic Exchanges in China, which is to take effect Sunday and apply to cross-strait exchanges at all education levels. The Chinese-language China Times on Wednesday said that the platform was “green terror” manufactured by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), referring to the party’s affiliation with the pan-green camp. At that time, she suggested establishing the platform to pre-empt events that might expose students to China’s “united front” tactics. Su Tseng-chang accepted the suggestion and instructed the ministry to create the platform.
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
China media posts footage of ‘spy’ confessing to fraud
Reuters, SHANGHAIChinese state media has released trial footage it says proves that a Chinese defector seeking asylum in Australia is a convicted criminal with a history of fraud. However, China accused the 26-year-old man of being an unemployed fraudster and fugitive. Shanghai police said an investigation was launched in April after Wang was allegedly involved in automobile import fraud in February totalling 4.6 million yuan (US$653,836). He had been given a suspended 15-month prison sentence in 2016 in a separate fraud case, police added. “Certain Australian media and institutions have been creating and hyping up ‘Chinese espionage’ and ‘Chinese infiltration’ with all kinds of false exaggeration and bias,” the spokesman said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
Japan’s retail sales tumble after tax hike
Reuters, TOKYOJapan’s retail sales last month tumbled at their fastest pace in more than four-and-a-half years as a sales tax hike prompted consumers to cut spending, raising a red flag over the strength of domestic demand. However, some analysts have warned the tax hike, previously postponed twice, could leave the economy without a growth driver amid a slump in exports and production, and as other factors drag on the consumer sector. “Incomes haven’t been rising originally, so consumption hasn’t been growing since before the sales tax hike.”The slump was also sharper than the declines reported after the previous two sales tax hikes, in 1997 and 2014, suggesting other factors are dragging on consumption. Seasonally adjusted retail sales dropped 14.4 percent month-on-month last month, the data showed. Others also noted more structural pressures faced by retailers even before the sales tax hike, such as the prolonged decline in real wages.
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
Pressure on global trade seen into 2020
BloombergGlobal trade might shrink through the end of the year as countries around the world continue to grapple with a manufacturing-led slowdown. An index by freight giant DHL fell to a four year-low this month, capturing the ongoing uncertainty for the global economy amid still-elusive negotiations on a US-China trade deal, a slowdown in China and an industrial slump in Germany. Of the seven countries in the index — including the US, Japan, China and Germany — all but one posted sub-50 readings. It is a “sobering picture of gloomy prospects for the world economy and global trade,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy and economics at Cornell University in New York State. “Persistent trade tensions, elevated political instability and geopolitical risks, and concerns about the limited efficacy of monetary stimulus, continue to erode business and consumer sentiment.”
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
HK protesters call for global support
US President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act into law on Wednesday. It bans the export of certain non-lethal munitions to Hong Kong police. “Now is the time for the Western world to stand with Hong Kong,” he said. Some urged Washington to penalize Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) over the government’s handling of the crisis. While the KMT supports freedom of speech for Hong Kongers, violent acts by “rioters” should not be validated, Huang said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
DPP slams KMT for opposing anti-infiltration bill
By Yang Chun-hui / Staff reporter, with CNAThe Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) opposition of its anti-infiltration bill, saying that the pan-blue camp’s stance on the issue runs against the international community’s mainstream consensus. However, the KMT has been opposing the DPP’s efforts to counter Chinese infiltration, he said. While the DPP and the New Power Party have proposed three versions of anti-infiltration legislation since May, the KMT has not contributed any, Lin said. If the KMT considers it important to fight infiltration, it should submit its own version, he said. The legislation would provide important protection for Taiwan’s democracy and would require support from all legislators across party lines, Lin said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
Simon Chang apologizes over hospital remark
By Ann Maxon / Staff reporterChinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday apologized for saying that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) would end up back in a hospital if he kept criticizing the KMT. Chang yesterday said he was sorry if his remarks made Su or his family uncomfortable. He had meant to urge Su to stop criticizing others and do his work as premier, Chang said. Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said that as a former premier, Chang should always speak the truth and not allow elections to lead him astray. Asked if she would press charges against Chang, Su Chiao-hui said that the harm done by his remark cannot be undone.
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
AIDC, China Airlines ink letter of intent
By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterAerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空工業) yesterday signed a letter of intent with state-owned China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) as it moves to diversify its business into aircraft seating and components maintenance. AIDC, the nation’s largest civil and military aircraft manufacturer, can now provide commercial airline seats after it received a letter of design approval in May from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its three-abreast seats, AIDC chairman Hu Kai-hung (胡開宏) told reporters. AIDC would work hard on a bid for about 600 economy-class seats that CAL needs as it retrofits two older Boeing 747s it plans to sell, Hu said. Although the revenue generated by the CAL seating deal would not be much, it would demonstrate AIDC’s ambition to enter this market, Hu said. The company would also discuss what maintenance services it could provide to CAL, even though the airline has its own maintenance department, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 28, 2019 15:56 UTC
US senator to propose bill to drop ban on Taiwan’s flag
Staff writer, with CNA, WashingtonUS Senator Ted Cruz is soon to propose a bill that would reverse a ban on Taiwanese diplomats and military personnel displaying Taiwan’s national flag on US government property. “Cruz is working on legislation with his colleagues that would allow diplomats and service members in the Taiwanese military to display their flag and wear their uniforms while in the US on official business,” a spokesman for the US senator said on Monday. In effect, it directs the US Department of State to remove US government guidelines from 2015 that prohibit all symbols of Taiwan sovereignty from being displayed on US premises, the source said. The policy has been interpreted by the US Department of Defense to include military uniforms that include Taiwan’s flag or the name “Republic of China.”The 2015 guidelines stemmed from an incident in January of that year when Taiwan’s representative office in the US raised Taiwan’s flag at Twin Oaks Estate, the former residence of Taiwanese ambassadors to the US. The flag-raising ceremony was the first one held in public since Taiwan and the US ended official diplomatic relations in 1979.
Source:Taipei Times
November 27, 2019 16:00 UTC
Climate anxiety churns up psychological storm
Fears about climate change are prompting worldwide action, but one knock-on effect in the United States is mounting anxiety about everything from plastics to class-based environmental disparities. “Climate anxiety counseling, 5 cents. Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, said Americans can be broken into six categories based on their reaction to climate change, ranging from alarmed to dismissive. “The common wisdom is that only upper-middle-class, white, well-educated, latte-sipping liberals care about climate change. Psychological responses to climate change such as “conflict avoidance, fatalism, fear, helplessness and resignation are growing,” according to a 2017 report by the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica.
Source:Taipei Times
November 27, 2019 15:56 UTC
Manga depicting Uighur torture reaches 2.5 million
The Guardian, TOKYOA manga depicting the plight of a Uighur woman who was detained and tortured in China has racked up millions of views and spawned versions in several languages. Media organizations this week revealed that China is holding more than 1 million people from the Uighur community and other Muslim minorities without trial. Shimizu’s short manga, which has been translated into English, Chinese, Uighur and other languages, tells the story of Mihrigul Tursun, a Uighur woman who was detained three times by Chinese authorities on returning from Egypt. Shimizu’s manga has attracted about 2.5 million views and has been shared more than 86,000 times since it appeared on Twitter in August, Kyodo news agency reported. Telling people about them through manga is my mission,” Shimizu told Kyodo.
Source:Taipei Times
November 27, 2019 15:56 UTC
Spy Allegations: DPP’s Lin files complaints over ‘Chinese spy’ photos
Speaking to reporters outside of the Criminal Investigation Bureau building in Taipei yesterday, Lin and DPP spokeswoman Lee Yen-jong (李晏榕) showed photographs posted to social media platforms that are allegedly of Lin dining with self-confessed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang (王立強). The photos were from a January 2017 meeting with Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) and former Hong Kong lawmaker Nathan Law (羅冠聰) during their visit to Taiwan, she said. Lee Yen-jong had been in touch with Lee Chi Wing in recent days, who told her that he was “astonished” at being mislabeled in a photograph as William Wang Liqiang, she said. Such misinformation would have a significant effect on the elections if it were allowed to continue spreading, she said. “In one post there was a link to an article alleging that the DPP provided financial support to Wang Liqiang.
Source:Taipei Times
November 27, 2019 15:56 UTC
Exports of fruit to Malaysia, Indonesia to reach NT$44.8m
By Chien Hui-ju and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerTaiwanese fruit exports to Malaysia and Indonesia are expected to exceed NT$44.8 million (US$1.47 million) by Sunday, the Council of Agriculture said in a report on Saturday. The forecast came after the council commissioned the Commerce Development Research Institute to hold a “Taiwanese Produce and Halal Food” exhibition, which ends on Sunday, at the Mercato Supermarket in the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur shopping center in Malaysia. The department said that it has invited a renowned local chef, Collin Edward Lim, to create Malaysian dishes using Taiwanese produce. The project provides participants with an export platform and assists them with expanding their market share based on their order niche points, Tang said. The council said that it would continue to invest in and assist program participants, vowing to introduce the excellence of Taiwanese agricultural products to Malaysia and other Muslim-majority countries.
Source:Taipei Times
November 27, 2019 15:56 UTC
The Tao of Stephen Cheng
By James Baron / Contributing reporterLike many Chinese immigrants in 1950s America, Stephen Cheng (程俊濤) had difficulty breaking into the entertainment industry over concerns that he was a spy. But fortunately Stephen Cheng was working with Voice of America, which wrote a letter attesting to his character and saying he wasn’t a communist. There was a big exodus of educated Chinese,” Pascal Cheng says. “He didn’t do the typical Chinese immigrant thing, like open a restaurant or a laundromat,” says Pascal Cheng. “You need to have more than one talent to make it in the theater,” Stephen Cheng told the Jamaica Gleaner during a visit to Kingston that yielded the recording of Always Together.
Source:Taipei Times
November 27, 2019 15:56 UTC