Taiwan’s Steaming Pools of Paradise - NY Times.

I have heard so much about how great the hot springs are in Taiwan.

Of course he is another way of treating them after an earth quake - From hot springs to a big stink - latimes.com

Labels: taiwan

Interesting Op Ed. in the NY Times on Taiwan's relationship with China that is a very good read, no matter your political view on Taiwan and/or China.

Taiwan and China by PHILIP BOWRING.

The big question is the relationship between Taiwan and China, and as the editorial mentions this is being figured out.

The editorial does not mention there are a lot of people in Taiwan who are deep Green (as well as Blue, not sure if there any Reds anymore).

Since I don't keep up much on Taiwan politics, my apologies in advance for any errors, unintentional insults, etc.

Colors of Taiwan Politics Explained:

Green = DPP or Party President Chen is from and is made up of people descended mostly from those in Taiwan before 1949. Also called native Taiwanese, but the aborigines were there before them.

Blue = KMT that ruled Taiwan through a dictatorship until democracy was introduced and has support initially from people who came over in 1949 and their decedents.

Reds - My take on Red was they just hate President Chen's guts. Since President Chen is out of office, seems have disappeared from Taiwan politics. Red with Chinese usually refers to China's government, which is totally different than this.

If you see people in Yellow Vests, usually religious.


And the majority of people in Taiwan are happy with the current relationship politically between Taiwan and China (if it's not broken, don't fix it). China is being a lot nicer to Taiwan recently, allowing it to join many international forums, just long as the Taiwan name is not used directly, instead Chinese Taipei is used.

Labels: taiwan

Yes, I just got my weekly Economist... The trials of Ah-Bian

From my limited knowledge of the issue - the article is fair and asks some important questions. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, my guess is it's about halfway finished and I have no idea what the end result will be.

I know both strong Blue, Red, and Green people, so I try to avoid discussions on this explosive topic. It also keeps me from getting kicked out of my house :-)

Previous Post:

Jailing of Ex President - Good or Bad for Taiwan?

Labels: taiwan

Taiwan Takes Step Forward at U.N. Health Agency - NY Times. China has dropped it's opposition to Taiwan having observer status at the World Health Organization. I thought the barring of Taiwan was one of China's more counter productive moves to isolate Taiwan. During SARS Taiwan was not able to get any information from WHO, it was supposed to go through China.

Labels: taiwan

Interesting...

• China, Taiwan military to meet in US: report - Reuters
• Taiwan discussing extradition treaties with US, China eTaiwan News
  Taiwan says it will discuss cybercrime with China, AS
• Taiwan defends trade pact with China

The current Taiwan President sees himself as elected on a platform to improve the relationship with China in order that he believes will help Taiwan's economy.

Labels: taiwan

Project Taiwan - Bring Them Home from the Los Angeles Golden Retriever Rescue Association.

The pictures are heat breaking.

It seems Taiwan is currently in a dog fad, where many have adopted dogs including some larger dogs including Golden Retrievers, and now many are being abandoned.

The LA Rescue Association does accept donations for Project Taiwan - Bring Them Home.

My family is considering getting another Golden Retriever, we used to have one lived whom live to a very old age, 15 years old. We also had an Akita.

Recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Golden Retriever breed.

Labels: taiwan

Taipei has the best collection of Imperial Chinese Art, because the Nationalists who escaped to Taiwan took the best with them. Now Taiwan and Chinese are talking of sharing some of the Imperial art collection that was split in 1949. What makes this even more interesting is the opposition party in Taiwan, DPP or Green party, has been working on building a Taiwanese identity. So how does the National Palace Museum, Taipei work with a government that is pushing a Taiwanese identity. The current government is not pushing the Taiwanese identity as much. Taiwan politics is fascinating to watch from a distance.

Labels: china's future, taiwan

Two articles from the BBC News.

• Chinese brides cold-shouldered in Taiwan
• Taiwan warms to Chinese spouses

There are 250,000 Chinese spouses in Taiwan, which make up 20% of all marriages. 23 Million people in Taiwan. Fertility rate of 1.2%. About 5% of all Taiwanese live in China, or 1.1 Million. Cost for match making services is NT$300,000 or about $10,000 US. There is also a lot of opportunity for people working in China to find a Chinese spouse.

The marriage rate per year of Chinese spouses in Taiwan was about 30,000, then there was a crackdown bringing it down to 14,000 per year in 2007, and now it will probably go up to 30,000 again with the latest changes. There are also over 50,000 spouses from other countries that had more lenient rules than the Chinese Brides, but that has now changed.

My guess is in another 10 years, there will be over 500,000 Chinese brides in Taiwan, or about 5% of the population. Currently it's about 2.5% of the population.

Now, if you combine the brides with their husbands that is 5% of all people living in Taiwan, and in 10 years would be 10%. And how many families now have a brother, son, uncle, etc. who has married somebody from Mainland China. What is the opinion of these family members? Thanks God my male relative finally married? Or negative. What percentage of these people vote? Does their voting record change after marriage? I am sure that somebody is thinking about the potential voting block here, especially when you look beyond just the 2.5%.

Per the Taipei Times there is also a fall in Taiwanese studying in the US (another blog post) since I was lucky enough to marry a Taiwanese whom was studying in the US 20 years ago.

Labels: taiwan

China transport links to help spur Taiwan economy - from Reuters.

Basically by allowing direct commercial transportation, it helps Taiwan's economy. I am sure the current President hopes so.

Basically the article is full of what is hoped for, what will actually happen is a good question. Especially with direct flights available from China. The question is what value can Taiwan, and it's competitors Singapore and HK offer? China offers opportunity, but it's also a competitor to Taiwan. One possible area would be in semiconductors, where some operations are done in China, where others are done in Taiwan. A previous semiconductor I worked for did the fab (creating wafers) in the US, then did the testing, cutting, and mounting I believe in Singapore, and then flew them back to the US for the final testing. And when I left they were moving the final testing overseas (semiconductors is always looking to cut costs, overall it's all about huge volumes and efficiency).

Labels: taiwan

A few of the stories I have heard about doing business in China.

Jude Shao, Stanford Graduate. 10 years in prison, finally paroled. A what is sad about this case is the evidence did not matter.

For Entrepreneur, Business Trip Ends in a Chinese Jail - Apex CEO took trip to China, and was forced to sign paper work giving away his entire business.

Miller leads effort on behalf of detained American citizen in China

There are 50-60 American citizens in Jail for economic crimes who are ethnic Chinese

Translation if your ethnic Chinese, the Chinese have no problem putting you in jail and it may be an issue of who has more power locally.

Hearsay/Urban Legends...

Many stories of Taiwanese who go to China, divorce Taiwanese wife, marry Chinese wife and start a business in China. Business does well so the husband has time in the US or Taiwan. They go back and the business is gone, or the Chinese wife has filed a lawsuit, or they get thrown in jail until they pay ex-amount of money.

Taiwanese American goes to China on business, and gets locked up in Jail. Ex Girl friend (Chinese), then goes to ex-wife and tells her husband is in Jail and needs $4 Million due to some business problem, and the ex husband's business has no money in it. Currently money request is at $1 Million. Ex Wife (Taiwanese) said we are divorced, sorry. Father says I already gave away my money to my two sons. Brother contacts US embassy who confirms person is in jail due to business reasons.

Taiwanese moves to China, divorces first wife, marries a Chinese. Does really well for 3 months, then new wife and his business partner make some type of deal and he ends up in debt and flees the country. Business and all money was taken by wife and partner.

Labels: Chinese Americans, taiwan

China and Taiwan Expand Accords is major news. A friend of mine liked it, since before when he had to fly to Shanghai, he had to fly to Hong Kong taking 8 hours. Now a direct flight will take 80 minutes from Taiwan. From a business prospective, he is very pro it. He only wants the agreement to be business related.

The fear of many Taiwanese is it will somehow make unification with China more likely. There are many people in Taiwan who favor Taiwan independence, and don't want to be unified with China.

From what I can see the pact will just reduce business costs and hurt Hong Kong and Okinawa that were making money because of the barriers to direct plane and ship travel. Ships from China would dock in Okinawa, and then go to Taiwan.

Labels: china's future, taiwan

Taiwan orders 160 China-linked goods off shelves from the IHT. The Taiwan government raised the allowable limits for Melamine under pressure from merchants, but there was such a backlash that the minister in charge of that area was forced to resign. Taiwan has been opening up to China in trade, but this milk scandal is causing doubts about the government's China policy. 25 tons of milk powder were imported into Taiwan for baking and $31.3 Million of China milk products/goods have been removed from shops in Taiwan.

3 Kids in Taiwan were found to have Kidney stones, but it seems they spent a lot of time in China.

And this is just dumb for those bakers who are unhappy:

Meanwhile bakeries in Taipei County have decided to forego milk powder and only use Taiwanese milk as the scare over tainted dairy products from China spread yesterday the Taipei County Bakeries Association told the Chinese-language Liberty Times.

Not all bakers welcomed the association's decision, saying switching entirely to Taiwanese milk would drive up their costs by at least 20 percent, while business was already down 50 percent because of the melamine scare.

Labels: china food safety, taiwan

NY Times mentioned it:

Lately Mr. Ma’s energies have been focused on smoothing out a diplomatic conflict that caught him by surprise — a surge in tensions with Japan over a June 10 incident in the group of disputed islands that the Taiwanese call the Diaoyutai Islands, where a Japanese coast guard vessel sank a Taiwanese sport-fishing boat. Although Japan administers the islands, which it calls the Senkaku Islands, China and Taiwan argue that they belong to the Chinese people.

Protesters in both mainland China and Taiwan have demanded a formal apology from Japan.

Right after a new President took power in Taiwan who was elected on better relations with China, and this happens with Japan. Who would of thought!

Labels: china's future, taiwan

NY Times article suggests what is going on in Tibet may influence Taiwan's election. Taiwan's election process is very exciting with Blue, Green, and for a while a Red party. US politics compared to that is pretty tame. DPP is the Green Party, KMT is the Blue party, and the Red Party just hates the guts of the Mr. Chen Shui-bian, the current President of Taiwan. Some people from the US even fly back to Taiwan just to vote.

Panda baiting is the term, that I just learned, of when the DPP attempts to upset China to get a reaction to sway voters at home. China at first played along beautifully, but lately has been attempting to just ignore Taiwan's politics.

Tip - It's a good idea to avoid discussions on Taiwan independence, politics, and such with Taiwanese and Chinese. These are pretty emotional issues.

Me - I try to stay out of it and just be a neutral observer at home.

Labels: taiwan