Taiwan - Robert Maguire on Diigo

16 Dec 09

Environmental officials defended Taiwan’s record yesterday after the nation was ranked behind Japan and South Korea in an influential climate change performance report that evaluates emissions trends, levels and climate policy.
“The conclusions reached in the report draws on Taiwan’s information from the IEA [International Energy Agengy], which is from 2007,” Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) told a press briefing last night. “[2007] was the worst year for us in terms of carbon emissions increases … that was accurately reflected in the report.”
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- Information from the EPA shows that the nation’s total carbon emissions decreased 4.4 percent over the last year from 267 million tonnes to 257 million tonnes. Meanwhile per capita emissions have fallen to 11.17 tonnes from 11.73 tonnes.
- Officials also lamented that government policy only accounted for a small percentage in the report’s ranking. The report weighed “Emissions trends” as 50 percent, “Emissions Levels” as 30 percent and “Climate Policy” 20 percent in reaching its conclusions.
  
  The report — which looked at 57 countries that accounted for more than 90 percent of total global carbon emissions, last year ranked Taiwan 32nd in the overall category and third in its regional category.
  
  This year, however, the ranking dropped 15 places, landing Taiwan at a dismal 47th, meanwhile its regional ranking was in the bottom three.
  
  Germanwatch said Taiwan had the greatest decline in rankings in this year’s report, adding that this was mostly due to its lack of initiatives to curb emissions increases in the energy sector in comparison with other countries.
- “Its problems are primarily a lack of solutions for curbing emissions in the electricity sector as well as a lack of planning for renewable energy,” he said.
- Taiwan accounts for about 1 percent of total carbon emissions despite being home to only 0.3 percent of the world’s population.

13 Dec 09

Taipei Times - archives

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taiwan iran china cia nuclear weapons US

The Daily Telegraph said that “recent intelligence reports” have alleged that officials from Iran’s Ministry of Defense have bought 100 pressure transducers from the unnamed companies and secretly shipped them to Tehran.
A UN official refused to comment last night and a source with the CIA said that he could neither “confirm nor deny” the allegations.

12 Dec 09

Carter Stuns the World -- Printout -- TIME

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china US politics history carter taiwan

Monday, Dec. 25, 1978
At precisely 9:01 Friday evening, the President, seated at his
gleaming wooden desk in the Oval Office, looked gravely into the TV
cameras and in a calm, steady voice revealed that the U.S. and
Communist China had secretly and suddenly decided to end nearly 30
years of bellicose estrangement. The two countries would establish
normal diplomatic relations on Jan. 1.
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- With that stunning announcement, Jimmy Carter capped a period of
  extraordinary diplomatic activity. Not for years has an Administration
  engaged itself on so many fronts of such complexity all at the same
  time. At the beginning of the week came word that Vance would meet with
  Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in Geneva Dec. 21 to put the
  finishing touches on the long-stalled SALT II treaty to limit nuclear
  weapons. If all goes well-and White House officials maintained that the
  changed relations with Peking would not affect the SALT talks—Carter
  is expected to hold his first summit next month with Soviet Party
  Chairman Leonid Brezhnev to sign the pact.
- The
  chronology of events, as put together in part from interviews conducted
  Saturday morning by TIME Correspondent Christopher Ogden with Vance and
  National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski: arly this year,
  Brzezinski. who is well regarded by the Communist Chinese regime
  because of his strong anti-Soviet opinions, was dispatched to Peking by
  Carter. The President authorized him to tell his hosts that, as Carter
  put it, "the U.S. has made up its mind" to achieve full normalization
  of relations.
- Soon after Brzezinski returned to Washington, the Administration gave
  Leonard Woodcock, the former United Automobile Workers president who
  heads the U.S. Liaison Office in Peking, full authorization to
  negotiate with the Chinese. During the summer and fall, Woodcock met
  with Foreign Ministry officials seven times. In Washington, meanwhile,
  Brzezinski met a dozen times with China's envoy, first Han Tsu and
  later his successor, Ch'ai Tse-min. Their talks took place in
  Brzezinski's office, the Chinese Liaison Office on Connecticut Avenue,
  and Brzezinski's home in Virginia.
- The negotiations were conducted in
  absolute secrecy, despite Carter's past assertions that secret
  diplomacy is objectionable.
- The chief advocate of the China move continued to be Brzezinski, who has
  long urged normalization, in part to counter Soviet expansionism, but
  he worked closely on the project with Vance.
- Peking must allow the U.S. to keep its economic and
  cultural ties with the Nationalist Chinese and agree, at least tacitly,
  not to reunite Taiwan with the mainland by force. The Chinese began
  dropping strong hints that they were getting ready to accept the U.S.
  terms. In late November, for instance, Teng told a visiting Japanese
  delegation that diplomatic relations with Tokyo had been restored "in
  one second" and that relations with Washington could be restored in
  "two seconds."
- In early
  December, the Chinese Foreign Ministry told Woodcock that Teng wanted
  to see him. Woodcock flashed the word to Brzezinski and Carter, who
  summoned Ch'ai and told him that if the negotiations were concluded
  satisfactorily, the President wanted to invite "one of your top
  officials" to the U.S.
- On Tuesday. Dec. 12, Woodcock was summoned by Teng. "I understand your
  Government has invited Chinese leaders to the U.S.." Teng said briskly.
  "I will go." After the meeting, Woodcock cabled Carter: "My God,
  they've accepted. I think we've got something."
- Both sides immediately began working on the language of a joint
  communique. That evening, Brzezinski and three other officials gathered
  in Brzezinski's office. Carter soon sauntered in, wearing blue jeans
  and a western-style sport shirt. The group worked past midnight, with
  dispatches rocketing back and forth across the international date line.
  The cables to Washington totaled about 120 pages and were kept in a
  bright red cardboard folder on Brzezinski's desk. They were heavily
  annotated. Carter's comments ("Good," or "What is meant by this?") were
  neatly written in green ink; Brzezinski's replies were scrawled in
  pencil or black ink.
- On Wednesday, when Vance phoned to report that the Middle East peace
  talks had hit serious snags, Carter told him in cryptic language—even
  though he was using a scrambler phone—that the agreement with Peking
  was almost set. The President referred to it as "the matter that only
  five of us are involved in." After several more exchanges of cables
  with Peking, Brzezinski informed Carter at about 1 p.m. Thursday that
  work on the communique was finished. The President smiled and said,
  "Good deal."
- By now a dozen U.S. officials knew about the agreement, and Carter
  ordered them to maintain absolute secrecy. The President, during an
  interview Thursday with ABC's Barbara Walters, gave a deft and
  disarming response to a question about China. There was no hint that a
  historic development was imminent.
  Although Vance had told no one traveling with him, not even his closest
  aides, what was going on, he had let on that the new matter involved
  foreign policy and was not connected with the Middle East. When
  reporters in Washington asked Press Secretary Jody Powell for
  clarification, he silently closed his door.
- By Friday, it became obvious to everyone in Washington that something
  important was about to happen. At 3 p.m. Soviet Ambassador Anatoli
  Dobrynin showed up at Brzezinski's office. When the envoy departed a
  few minutes later, reporters pressed around him to ask what had been
  discussed.
- Carter, after jogging calmly around the South Lawn, called in
  congressional leaders for a 6:15 p.m. briefing and then swore them to
  secrecy.
  That evening the suspense ended, on both sides of the world. While
  Carter was reading the joint communique on TV in the U.S., Hua
  Kuo-feng, China's Premier and Communist Party Chairman, was reading the
  statement to about 100 Western and Communist reporters in Peking. It
  was the first press conference ever held by a Chinese Communist Party
  Chairman, and Hua was in good form. He even answered a few questions,
  ritualistically describing Taiwan as "a sacred territory of our
  country" and its people as "compatriots of our own flesh and blood."
- During his TV announcement, Carter took particular pains to assure the
  Nationalist Chinese and their U.S. supporters that the new ties to
  Peking "will not jeopardize the well-being of the people of Taiwan."
  The U.S.-Peking statement acknowledged that "there is but one China,
  and Taiwan is part of China" (a view shared by the Nationalists on
  Taiwan). It also specified that the U.S. recognizes Peking as the "sole
  legal government of China." But the statement went on to declare:
  "Within this context, the people of the U.S. will maintain cultural,
  commercial and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan."
- In a further effort to mollify Taiwan, the Administration implied
  strongly that they had received tacit assurances that Peking would
  not invade Taiwan. In the Shanghai communique, Peking
  insisted that it had the right to liberate Taiwan.
  Mainland China, Teng now told the Ad ministration, will seek
  reunification, but slowly, peacefully, and in a manner that will not
  disrupt Taiwan's capitalistic economic system. The U.S. will continue
  to sell Taiwan "selective defensive weapon ry"—which might
  include interceptor air craft, artillery, and antitank weapons.
  Said Carter, during an unusual visit to the White House press room after
  his speech: "The interests of Taiwan have been ad equately
  protected."
- Another of Carter's major concerns was to assure Moscow that the
  agreement with mainland China was not meant to challenge or provoke the
  Soviet Union, even though the U.S.-Peking communique condemned
  "hegemony," which is a Chinese code word for Soviet expansionism. To
  counterbalance that possibility, the communique pointedly said that the
  new step was not taken for "transient, tactical or expedient reasons,"
  diplomatic language implying that Carter's China action was not in any
  way directed against Moscow. Vance told TIME: "We will treat the Soviet
  Union and China equally and not play one off against the other."
- In the U.S., Taiwan's longtime friends in the Senate were furious over
  the rapprochement with Peking. Utah Republican Orrin Hatch
  contemptuously called Carter's foreign affairs advisers "loose-jointed
  and weak-kneed diplomats" and declared that the President should have
  held out for a better deal on Taiwan. Said Hatch: "All he had to do was
  stand fast. Mainland China needs this relationship more than the U.S.
  does." Arizona Republican Barry Goldwater accused Carter of having
  committed "one of the most cowardly" presidential acts in history and
  threatened to sue him in court on the questionable ground that a
  President cannot cancel a treaty without the Senate's approval. Liberal
  Republican Jacob Javits of New York complained that Carter had not
  sought the advice of Congress before making his decision—especially
  since the House and Senate passed a resolution this year demanding just
  such advance consultation on the issue.
- Moreover, a clause in the
  Taiwan defense treaty permits either side to cancel it on one year's
  notice, which is precisely what Carter is doing.
- That nominee is expected to be Woodcock.
- Said Maine Democrat Edmund Muskie: "We have been committed to
  normalization for six years, and everyone in Congress must have been
  aware that this dialogue was going on." Among other supporters of
  Carter's action were two prominent Republicans: Gerald Ford and Henry
  Kissinger.
- Carter sought to blunt some of the conservative reaction by indicating
  that normalization would lead eventually to a bonanza for the American
  economy.
- Kissinger's only reservation was that the U.S. should
  fulfill its "moral obligation to the people of Taiwan."
- As is so often the case with China, there was no indication from Peking
  of why Hua and Teng had decided to bring the long negotiations to a
  successful conclusion.
- But there still remained the question of why the Administration chose to
  announce the agreement with Peking so suddenly last week. Was it to
  divert attention from the failure of Vance's shuttle diplomacy? Was it
  part of an aborted attempt to score a diplomatic hat trick: successes
  on the Middle East, SALT and China all in two weeks? According to
  Administration officials, the answer is far simpler: the inability of
  the President's staff to keep a secret for very long. The plan originally was
  for Carter and Hua to make their announcements on Jan. 1, the date that
  normalization will take effect. But the agreement came almost too quickly.
  On Wednesday, Carter told his aides: "If we wait until Jan. 1, it will leak.
  Let's do it right now." Carter then cabled Teng: "Since we're
  ready, let's announce it." Teng agreed.

09 Dec 09

Healthcare Economist · Taiwan’s National Health Insurance System

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Taiwan’s adoption of a national health insurance (NHI) system in 1995
Health spending as a share of GDP was 4.79% in 1993 (prior to NHI) and 6.1% in 2007 (after NHI).
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- Administrative costs are 1.5% of total NHI spending.
- Taiwanese patients pay very low premiums and copayments. Over 98% of Taiwanese pay their premiums on time.
- The government sets a uniform national fee schedule. “Doctors and hospitals must achieve very high productivity to survive.”
- There is complete freedom of choice of providers. Competition between providers is based on quality, not cost.
- “Taiwan only has private supplemental indemnity health insurance; it covers specific diseases such as cancer or disasters like injuries from traffic accidents. It is a cash benefit, and the money is used to help pay for copayments, hire special nurses and buy nutritional foods—not for genuine inpatient medical services which are covered by the NHI.”
- Expenditures have outpaced revenues by 2% since 1998. To make up the difference, copayments and coninsurance rates have increased and the government instituted a tobacco tax. There has been only one premium increase (4.25% to 4.55% of wages in 2002).
- The government pays 100% of premiums for the poorest 1% of households. The near-poor (the next 2%) can receive interest free loans to pay for NHI.
- Physician payment: Currently, there is a fee-for-service system under a system of global budgets. Bundled payment (i.e., DRG-style payments) is available only for 53 surgical procedures.
- Patients use an IC Card (Smart Card) to access care. All providers submit claims electronically. Currently, however, there is no integrated form of electronic medical records, although most hospitals/providers have their own systems.
- Screening rates for breast cancer, oral cancer, and colon cancer are low.
- State-specific 5-year cancer survival rates are similar to those in OECD countries.
- Taiwan has 4.5 nurses/1000 population compared to 9.6 nurses/1000 in wealthy OECD countries.
- Like Japan and South Korea, Taiwanese patients have many physician visits of short duration. The average Taiwanese has 12.4 visits/year, although many of these visits can last less than 5 minutes.
- Taiwan lags behind the U.S. in: the pace of adoption of technology (new drugs reach the market 2 years faster in the U.S. than in Taiwan),
- the quality of the medical education (a top tier Taiwanese medical school is of the same quality as an average American medical school), and R&D.

White House set to announce Taiwan arms deal - By Josh Rogin | The Cable

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US politics taiwan obama china weapons missiles statistics reference armstrade

Taiwan's deputy national security advisor, Ho Szu-yin, is in Washington this week and is said to be talking with the administration about the issue.
"I
can assure you this administration will not waiver in its commitment to
provide those defense articles and services necessary for Taiwan's
defense," Assistant Secretary of Defense Chip Gregson told the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council in September.
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- Some experts say it's not a huge issue.
  
  "Given the broad agenda that Presidents Obama and Hu [Jintao] laid out in Beijing last month, I expect China to register their complaints, register their disapproval, and then move on," said Abe Denmark, Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security.
  
  The Taiwanese government has already budgeted around $4 billion to purchase 66 F-16s, but Taiwanese officials do not expect a deal to happen. The initial agreement also raised the possibility of Taiwan purchasing diesel submarines, but that is also seen as very unlikely.
- F-16
  sales are also an issue for members of the U.S. Congress, who are
  concerned that the production line for the planes might shut down if
  foreign sales trail off.
- A host of items remain left over from the arms-sales
  agreement made between the Taiwanese government and the Bush
  administration, including Black Hawk helicopters and Patriot missile
  batteries, both of which are expected to be in the package. The Bush
  team put through some arms sales to Taiwan just before leaving office,
  including Apache helicopters and destroyers.
- The Obama administration is clear on its support for standing policies regarding Taiwan, including adhering to the Taiwan Relations Act,
  which pledges that America will help Taiwan maintain its defense
  capabilities.
- China
  continues to build up its missile inventory opposite Taiwan, which is now estimated to top 1,300 missiles capable of hitting Taiwan.
- "These arms sales are at least partially a response to China's military buildup opposite Taiwan," said one Asia hand. "The rapprochement across the strait simply hasn't been reflected in China's military deployment."
- One Asia hand said that the White House might see the arms-sales
  announcement as "a repudiation of the critics of the president's trip
  to Beijing," because it combats the perception that Obama is kowtowing
  to the Chinese.
- "This shows that China policy occurs in more than one-week increments; you can't judge the success or failure from one trip," the expert said.

08 Dec 09

Which Countries Are Missing From Copenhagen Talks? - The Gaggle Blog - Newsweek.com

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taiwan US china politics obama environment UN climatechange cop15

Taiwan: Much of the world considers Taiwan an independent country, even though some bigger powers (including the U.S.) don’t, mainly for political reasons. Since it’s not a U.N. member state, Taiwan’s interest will be represented by China, which will have prime placement at the conference. But Taiwan remains more willing to make cuts to its emissions than more-industrial China, so the interests of both aren’t perfectly aligned. Taiwanese leaders will still attend the conference, although they’ll be limited in how they can participate. They’re also hoping that face time with other leaders might help boost Taiwan’s standing.

06 Dec 09

The View from Taiwan: Bubbling Taipei: the world's most expensive cabbages

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taiwan bubble economy housing offices building construction statistics reference china hongkong politics kmt

sprays insecticide on what, at an estimated $1.2 million (£725,000) each, are probably the most expensive cabbages on Earth. Even when the Taipei 101 tower was built 200 metres away from his garlic beds, the cabbage man and his wife — who do not live on the plot — held on to their patch, whose value has steadily risen. Consensus opinion holds that the 50m x 25m allotment may be worth about $150 million today, although some put it as high as $300 million and everyone expects it to gain about 25 per cent in value over the next 18 months.
While the value of that plot has been rising, Taipei has been doing little in the way of building work. Just 2 per cent of GDP has been spent on construction in each of the past five years — far below even the dismal levels in deflationary Japan.
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- About ten floors of the Taipei 101 building are vacant but they represent as much as 35 per cent of the total grade-A office vacancies in Taiwan.
- The article also notes that Taiwanese businessmen have repatriated over $17 billion back to Taiwan in the first half of the year from China, and may move back here to erect headquarters, further increasing demand for office space.
- To get a sense of what this will mean for Taipei, read the Global Voices blog posts on housing in Taiwan a couple of months ago.
- Much will depend on how willing the government is to defend the locals from the effects of speculative investment flows, which in turn depends on how active and strong Taiwan's democracy is, and how well the citizenry uses it to defend its interests. That power of democracy to preserve the interests of ordinary people is one reason the KMT has struggled so hard to isolate the agreements with China from democratic oversight, especially since the citizenry, as recent polls have shown, is majority-against the agreements (review the Taiwan News piece on the financial MOU, and shudder).

01 Dec 09

Chinese View of Greatest National Threats | The Progressive Realist

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US china climatechange politics environment food resources nuclear weapons taiwan statistics reference

Like statistics on almost anything coming out of China, opinion-survey results from there should be considered approximations of reality at best. (For instance, it is just about impossible to get reliable results from the poor, rural majority of China's population. Therefore polls unavoidably make the responding public seem more educated, urbanized, richer, etc than the whole Chinese public is.)
The Lowy Institute, in Sydney, today released a poll of Chinese attitudes about their own country
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29 Nov 09

Spies Among Us - TIME

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Chen's death aroused congressional concern that the repressive
government of President Chiang Ching-kuo maintains a web of spies,
especially on campuses, to keep an eye on the 500,000 Taiwanese living
in the U.S. At a hearing last week, a House foreign affairs
subcommittee heard testimony that Taiwanese headed for the U.S. are
warned not to speak out against the Chiang government.
"Without
question, agents of the Taiwan government have engaged in harassment,
intimidation and monitoring of U.S. residents."

27 Nov 09

Speech on Establishing Diplomatic Relations with China (December 15, 1978) - Miller Center of Public Affairs

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carter china taiwan US diplomacy economy trade shanghai communique nixon

—Neither should seek hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region or in any other region of the world and each is opposed to efforts by any other country or group of countries to establish such hegemony.
As a nation of gifted people who comprise about one-fourth of the total population of the Earth, China plays, already, an important role in world affairs, a role that can only grow more important in the years ahead.
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- Before the estrangement of recent decades, the American and the Chinese people had a long history of friendship. We've already begun to rebuild some of those previous ties. Now our rapidly expanding relationship requires the kind of structure that only full diplomatic relations will make possible.
- We have already begun to inform our allies and other nations and the Members of the Congress of the details of our intended action. But I wish also tonight to convey a special message to the people of Taiwan—I have already communicated with the leaders in Taiwan—with whom the American people have had and will have extensive, close, and friendly relations. This is important between our two peoples.
  
  As the United States asserted in the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972, issued on President Nixon's historic visit, we will continue to have an interest in the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue. I have paid special attention to ensuring that normalization of relations between our country and the People's Republic will not jeopardize the well-being of the people of Taiwan. The people of our country will maintain our current commercial, cultural, trade, and other relations with Taiwan through nongovernmental means. Many other countries in the world are already successfully doing this.
- I am pleased to announce that Vice Premier Teng has accepted my invitation and will visit Washington at the end of January

YouTube - China in U.S. Campaign Politics: Part 6 of Election 08 and the Challenge of China

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reagan carter taiwan china bush clinton politics US history elections mfn

25 Nov 09

A Primer on U.S. Policy Toward the "One-China" Issue: Questions and Answers

"Reagan"

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20 Nov 09

American Service-Members' Protection Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The American Service-Members' Protection Act (ASPA) is a United States federal law introduced by US Senator Jesse Helms as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act and passed in August 2002 by Congress. The stated purpose of the amendment was "to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party".
authorizes the President to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court”
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- The Hague Invasion Act
- The Act prohibits federal, state and local governments and agencies (including courts and law enforcement agencies) from assisting the Court. For example, it prohibits the extradition of any person from the United States to the Court; it prohibits the transfer of classified national security information and law enforcement information to the Court; and it prohibits agents of the Court from conducting investigations in the United States.
- prohibits U.S. military aid to countries that are party to the Court.
- exceptions are allowed for aid to NATO members, major non-NATO allies, Taiwan, and countries which have entered into “Article 98 agreements”, agreeing not to hand over U.S. nationals to the Court. Furthermore,

12 Nov 09

China News: How Chinese People See Their Compatriots | China Digital Times (CDT)

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06 Nov 09

Taiwan and the United Nations: Not even asking | The Economist

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For the first time since 1993, Taiwan is not to ask its little band of 23 diplomatic partners to propose it for UN membership. This is not because Taiwan has suddenly given up: it has always known membership was out of the question, since China refuses to recognise its statehood. Rather, Taiwan’s new approach typifies the effort that has marked the 16-month tenure of President Ma Ying-jeou: to ease tensions with China without dashing all hopes for greater international recognition.
It wants to become, like Palestine, an observer at the International Civil Aviation Organisation. And it wants to join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is even prepared to be flexible over the contentious issue of the name the island uses.
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- Taiwan was asked to join the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an observer, under the name “Chinese Taipei”. This was the first time it had taken part in a UN event in 38 years.
- The urgency of tackling climate change makes Taiwan’s exclusion on political grounds look egregious; likewise the importance of air safety—Taiwan’s international airport is the world’s 15th-largest air-cargo hub.

26 Oct 09

That's Impossible: Politics from Taiwan

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surveillance US taiwan china technology espionage spying satellite military

So they say. The report, in which China Times quotes unnamed military sources, claims that Taiwan's military has rented access to a privately-owned high quality satellite to spy on China, and has been doing so for years now. The data is extensive, including photos showing detail down to 0.6m, and allows Taiwan to maintain real time understanding of China's troop and equipment movements.
The article implies that the US must know about and be passively allowing Taiwan to maintain this contract, otherwise, the report alleges, the Taiwanese officials involved wouldn't have gotten visas to go to the US in the process of dealing with this satellite company

The View from Taiwan: Chen Shui-bian: if he didn't exist, he'd have to be invented...

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taiwan politics media press economist chen

Mr Chen weighed in to back the association, claiming that, as president, he took orders from the Americans. After his sentencing in September he sued for his freedom in the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, proclaiming his innocence and arguing that America should intervene, as Taiwan was technically under its occupation.
Shame on you, Economist. If I read your magazine and wanted to know what the most important issue in Taiwan politics is these days, could I find ECFA? According to the search I conducted at 12:55 pm today: nope (image at top). But I could find a piece about ex-President Chen declaring his support for a meaningless fringe group already shot down in the US courts, said support being already retracted 8 days before the Economist piece was published. That announcement by Chen is waaaay more important than ECFA, a fundamental re-writing of the Taiwan-China relationship.

23 Oct 09

Shinseki to Taiwan? | FP Passport

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No cabinet-level U.S. official has visited Taiwan since Clinton administration Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater in 2000, but Taipei is hoping to change that with an invitation to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki:
Shinseki is also just prominent to be counted as a diplomatic victory for the KMT government, but perhas not prominent enough to anger China too much.
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- It does seem a little strange that the U.S. is apparently willing to invoke China's wrath by selling $421 million in missiles to Taiwan, but a short stop-over from a high-ranking cabinet official would be considered a brazenly provocative act.

22 Oct 09

Taiwan's "Unsettled" International Status: Preserving U.S. Options in the Pacific

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politics US taiwan chinataiwanus chinataiwan reference law status

In June 2007, the State Department included the following phrase in standard letters to citizens concerned about Taiwan: The United States has "not formally recognized Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan and [has] not made any determination as to Taiwan's political status."

21 Oct 09

Taiwan: Choosing Carbon Taxes Over Carbon Tariffs - Environmental Capital - WSJ

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UN taiwan taxes economy environment climatechange statistics reference

Taiwan could become the first country in Asia to pass a carbon tax, part of the country’s plan to steadily reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2025.
But so would carbon tariffs slapped on Taiwanese imports by the U.S. and some European countries, among them some of Taiwan’s biggest trading partners, retorts the government. The U.S. has already included carbon tariffs in the House energy and climate bill; the inclusion of carbon tariffs is gaining momentum in the Senate.
3 more annotations...
- In Taiwanese eyes, carbon tariffs have another disadvantage: the revenues would end up in another country. At least with a carbon tax, the revenues would stay in Taiwan.
- In a very big way, Taiwan’s uncertain international status—it isn’t a member of the United Nations—has painted it into this corner. Since it isn’t part of the UN, it couldn’t sign Kyoto. It can’t officially participate in the upcoming Copenhagen climate summit that will draft Kyoto’s successor, either. It also can’t participate in the UN-run program that offers carbon credits for clean-energy projects.
- Earlier this month, Chinese and Taiwanese officials talked up greater cooperation on renewables and energy efficiency. Another idea is for Taiwanese-owned factories on the mainland to make green investments that might qualify for carbon credits in Taiwan.

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