Taiwan Roundup

Several interesting items in the news today:

• Lou Qinjian, vice minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology wants Taiwanese business people to bypass the Government and make their own decisions about forging closer industrial relations between Taiwan and China. A quote: "The government should leave to the individual businesses to determine whether to tap into the Chinese market," Lou said as Taiwan is mulling whether to relax restrictions on its hi-tech industry to invest in China. Speaking on the first day of the two-day Cross-Straits Forum on Industrial Standards in the Information Industry, Lou said China will seek Taiwan's cooperation on TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) , flat panel displays, IPTV (Internet protocol television), and green power.Lou arrived here Monday as the head of a 100-strong Chinese delegation composed of industrial leaders and scholars for the forum. Terry Gou, founder of Foxconn Electronics, said at the forum that industrial cooperation, especially in the field of information technology, should cover not only the private sector, but also the public sector.
• Lots of vote buying before the local elections it seems. No change there then. Also, there's some tension in the air:

  Late on Tuesday, scuffles broke out in Hsinchu County as President Ma Ying-jeou and his rival in the 2008 presidential elections, Frank Hsieh, accompanied their respective candidates for county magistrate on a walkabout through the streets.

  The clashes reportedly began when security cordoned off an area where Ma and KMT candidate Chiu Ching-chun were walking, preventing Hsieh and DPP candidate Peng Shao-chin from continuing on their route ... The rest of Taiwan was apparently hit by unprecedented levels of vote buying

• Two nuclear power plants in Taiwan are very close to an expanding fault line. Talk about being a hostage to fortune. I'm sure not planning on buying any property in the north.
• Taiwan's former first family have pleaded guilty to perjury.
• Taiwan Tobacco and Liqueur (TTL) has been effectively censured by the legislature for trying to use NT$260 million to promote Taiwan Beer in China (it gave nothing to help promote the Kaohsiung world games)
  
• The Government is offering grants to help promote the Hakka dialect. This is a good move. Pity that they are at the same time doing effectively nothing to help promote the Hoklo or Aboriginal languages.
• "Taiwan plans to restrict Chinese stock investment in strategic sectors, as it seeks to keep control of its economy amid rapidly growing ties with the mainland." It might have thought about doing this in the early 1990's when businesses flooded to China. This seems more than a little like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

  The report was published a week after Taiwan and China signed three landmark memorandums paving the way for growing cooperation in banking, insurance and securities.

  The agreements, which will go into effect in January, will enable Chinese institutional investors to buy shares in Taiwan's stock market for the first time.

  The announcement of the signing was met with criticism that Taiwan's government had acted too fast, without ensuring proper debate about the implications of the wide-ranging pacts. (So who exactly is running Taiwan's economy and national economic policy? The President and his government or Lien Chan, Terry Gou and a small cabal of pro-China industrial oligarchs?)