- Premier Wu issues rebuke to China over 'One-China' preconditions for negotiations. Whilst this is welcome let us not forget that a critical series of elections are immanent - the KMT wishes to appear loyal to Taiwanese and not subservient to China. This always amuses me because it essentially unveils the fact that the KMT recognises most Taiwanese strongly identify with Taiwan as their own independent country and do not wish to engage with China under the condition that Taiwan is referred to as a part of the PRC. November 28th, everything will be back to normal and rebukes like this will not be heard until the run-up to the Presidential Election in March 2012.
- Thanks to James for this link - white-people for hire in China as window-dressing for companies that wish to cultivate an international image on the local stage.
- Last miner freed in good health from being trapped in an illegally operated mine in Chile ... I welled up watching the live video feed.
- Former Taoyuan County Commissioner Eric Chu, now running for Mayor of Sinbei City, is increasingly drawing fire, and is blaming the DPP for running a smear campaign. Earlier this week the Taoyuan County Government broke the law in publishing political material to support Chu's election and now ....
... problems have been found with a large number of government contractors that were approved when he was Taoyuan County commissioner.
The latest issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine stated that 234 government contracts issued for school infrastructure renewal projects in Taoyuan County were mired in some sort of controversy — out of the total 425. Citing information from prosecutors’ offices, the report said that most of the controversial contracts were picked up by a set group of construction companies.
