The Agonist - Taiwan

Taiwan premier quits over Typhoon Morakot

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:54:25 -0700

Taipei | Sept 7

AFP - Taiwan's premier quit Monday over the government's handling of last month's deadly typhoon as the China-friendly administration struggled to end its worst crisis since it came to power.

Liu Chao-shiuan's surprise announcement ended weeks of speculation about the political fallout of Typhoon Morakot, which was the worst to hit Taiwan in half a century and killed over 600.

"Someone has to take political responsibility," Liu told a hastily-called press conference. Later Monday, a spokesman for President Ma Ying-jeou said the chief secretary of Taiwan's ruling party had been named as the new premier.

"The president decided to appoint Wu Den-yih, the secretary general of the Kuomintang party, as the new premier," Wang Yu-chi told reporters.

Liu's resignation comes after severe public criticism of the way the government tackled the typhoon. Anger over the government's response to the crisis has proved its toughest challenge since taking power over 15 months ago.

imagine that!

Hundreds missing as typhoon Morakot mudslide buries Taiwan village

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:44:39 -0700

Tania Branigan/Beijing & Justin McCurry/Tokyo | Aug 10

The Guardian - • Up to 600 people feared buried as record rainfall hits island
• China evacuates 1 million from east coast provinces
• Deadly tropical storm Etau triggers floods in Japan

Hundreds of people are missing in a village in Taiwan after it was buried by a mudslide when typhoon Morakot struck the island yesterday morning, a police official has reported.

At least 34 people have died and millions of others been affected across east Asia after Morakot and a separate tropical storm battered China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan.

Southern Taiwan suffered its worst flooding for half a century as the typhoon dumped up to 2.5 metres (8.2ft) of rain.

The official, surnamed Wang, said around 100 people from Hsiao-lin village, in Kaohsiung county, had been rescued by military helicopter or other means, according to Associated Press.

Lin Chien-chung, a rescued resident, told the Taipei-based United Evening News he believed 600 people were buried in the mudslide and that it covered "a large part" of the village. Hsiaolin is thought to have around 1,000 inhabitants.

Taiwan's women split over prostitution issue

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:11:00 -0700

Taipei | July 9

AFP - Sex workers in Taiwan have cautiously welcomed a government plan to legalise prostitution, but the scheme is being opposed by an alliance of women's groups who fear it will breed crime and violence.

A red-light area similar to Amsterdam's famed canalside sex-for-sale district has been proposed for the capital Taipei, with legal and zoning measures due in place within six months.

Prostitutes and their supporters say they see a ray of hope after many years of campaigning for legalisation to protect them from both customers and police, but some are concerned about being moved into special zones.

"I hope the government will allow us to stay where we are and give us legal protection," said one prostitute who wanted to be identified as Hsiao-feng. "I don't want to move to a new place to start again."

Hsiao-feng earns a living in Taipei's Wanhua district, which is believed to be home to thousands of sex workers plying their trade illegally even though prostitution was outlawed in the city in 1997.

"Who wants to have red-light districts near homes?" she asks. "The government would have to put us in the mountains but then we can't make a living because nobody wants to travel that far."

Observers say paid-for sex remains big business and the ban has driven it underground, where brothels operate under euphemistic names such as tea houses, massage parlours, clubs and even skin-care salons.

There are also women known as "liu ying" or "floating orioles" -- a metaphor for flirtatious and seductive women -- who find patrons on the streets.

There is no official record on the scale of Taiwan's sex industry but the advocacy group Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) estimates that it involves 400,000 people and is worth 60 billion Taiwan dollars (1.8 billion US) a year.

"Right now we are helpless when customers don't pay, or even rob or hurt us," Hsiao-feng told AFP.

"We have to watch out for the police and their informants because we can end up in prison if caught."

Prostitutes face three days in detention or a fine of up to 30,000 Taiwan dollars if arrested, while their clients go unpunished.

"The government should protect sex workers' human rights and stop treating them like criminals," says COSWAS chief Chung Chun-chu. "It should allow a blanket decriminalisation to regulate the sex trade."

The public is divided on the issue, with 42.3 per cent supporting the plan to legalise prostitution while 38.8 per cent oppose it and the rest are undecided, according to a poll by the local China Times.

Taiwan students invent power-generating motorcycle helmet

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:13:17 -0700

Taipei | June 15

DPA - Three Taiwan university students have invented a motorcycle helmet
that can generate electricity and power a scooter's lights.

Cheng Shiu University outside the south-western city of Kaohsiung announced the invention Friday, saying it plans to find a factory to mass-produce the helmets.

The students fixed five tiny fans that are also generators onto the front of the helmet so that when the motorcycle starts running, wind blow the fans and the fans produce electricity, said Professor Chen Feng-shih, who supervised the invention.

Through a Bluetooth wireless transmitter, the power is sent to the motorbike to power the scooter's front and back lights, brake light and direction indicators.

It can also power a pair of direction indicator and brake lights on the back of the helmet.

Wind farm 'kills Taiwanese goats'

Thu, 21 May 2009 07:13:30 -0700

May 21

BBC - A large number of goats in Taiwan may have died of exhaustion because of noise from a wind farm.

A farmer on an outlying island told the BBC he had lost more than 400 animals after eight giant wind turbines were installed close to his grazing land.

The Ministry of Agriculture says it suspects that noise may have caused the goats' demise through lack of sleep.

The power company, Taipower, has offered to pay for part of the costs of building a new farmhouse elsewhere.

A spokesman for the company said the cause of the goats' deaths still needed to be investigated, but that it doubted the goats died from the noise.

Taiwan's opposition to march against China in mass rally

Thu, 14 May 2009 23:11:42 -0700

Taipei | May 15

AFP - Taiwan's pro-independence opposition will take to the streets this weekend in what they say will be the biggest anti-China rally since the island's Beijing-friendly administration came to power.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is hoping for a turnout of 300,000 for the march through downtown Taipei, and for a further 100,000 to attend an all-night sit-in protest in the presidential office square.

"We want to tell the world that Taiwan's future is not up to President Ma Ying-jeou or the Kuomintang (KMT)," DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said, ahead of Ma's first anniversary as the president.

However, just 32 per cent of 1,019 people surveyed this week by the TVBS cable news network backed the march, which organisers said is aimed at stopping the island's sovereignty from being undermined by the KMT's close ties with China.

Forty-four per cent said they opposed the rally.

Taiwan mulling building bridge linking with China

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:16:53 -0800

Taipei | Feb 5

AFP - Taiwan is considering building a bridge to mainland China in the latest sign of warming ties between the cross-Strait rivals, an official said Thursday.

President Ma Ying-jeou asked Taiwan's top economic planners to conduct a feasibility study when he visited Kinmen, a Taiwan-controlled fortified island group off the Chinese mainland, in August.

The bridge would link Kinmen with Xiamen, a city in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian, at a cost of up to NT$13.2 billion (US$390.5 million).

"President Ma inquired about the progress of the feasibility study last night," presidential office spokesman Wang Yu-chi told reporters.

But Wang denied reports that the president "ordered" construction of the proposed bridge, saying the final decision would depend on the results of the study.

China's Hu calls for military exchanges with Taiwan

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:51:25 -0800

Dec 31

AFP - Chinese President Hu Jintao called Wednesday for military dialogue with Taiwan, in another sign of rapidly improving ties between the former arch enemies.

"The two sides can pick the right time to engage in exchanges on military issues and explore setting up a military and security mechanism to build mutual trust," Hu said.

This would help "improve the situation in the Taiwan Straits and lessen military and security concerns" he said in a speech broadcast live on national television.

Hu made the call in an address to mark the 30th anniversary of a message from China to "compatriots in Taiwan" which called for reunification of the two sides by peaceful means.

Panda Diplomacy - 3 years on.

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:07:59 -0800

December 23

BBC - Two giant pandas have begun their journey from China to Taiwan, a gift from Beijing to a self-governing island it considers part of Chinese territory.

Fortified by a breakfast of carrots and steamed buns, the pandas left the mountains of Sichuan for the airport in the provincial capital, Chengdu.

Hundreds of security guards and armed police have been deployed on the route.

A BBC correspondent says the high security reflects the sensitivity of any event that involves Taiwan.

Roads to Chengdu airport have been closed and a flight chartered specially for the pandas.

The pandas are China's gift to Taiwan amid warming ties.

But the gesture is not welcomed by all in Taiwan. The pandas were first offered three years ago, but were rejected by the president at the time.

That decision was reversed after Taiwan's nationalists - the Kuomintang - won the presidency in May.

Detained Taiwanese ex-president stops eating: lawyer

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:34:11 -0800

Taipei | Nov 13

AFP - Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian has not eaten since being detained over a corruption probe, in protest at what he insists is a politically-motivated investigation, his lawyer said Thursday.

Chen, whose pro-independence stance in office set him against Beijing, has repeatedly accused the island's China-friendly government of being behind the allegations of embezzlement, money laundering, taking bribes and forgery.

Chen had only drunk water since entering a detention centre early Wednesday and had not eaten a proper meal since late Tuesday, lawyer Cheng Wen-long said.

"He intends to stop eating in protest," Cheng told reporters after visiting the former leader, who he said was "in an okay condition now."

A court ordered Chen locked up Wednesday, capping 24 hours of high political drama that saw a defiant Chen led away in handcuffs, taken to hospital after saying he had been beaten by police, and then finally put behind bars.

Anti-China protests bring Taiwan capital to standstill

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:49:42 -0800

Taipei | Nov 6

AFP -

The streets of central Taipei came to a standstill on Thursday as tens of thousands of protesters chanted slogans and blew air horns to protest closer ties with China being promoted by their leaders.

The demonstrators were determined to express their outrage at the presence of Chen Yunlin, Beijing's top negotiator on Taiwan affairs, who was heading a large delegation of Chinese officials and business people visiting the island.

Demonstrators said they were also angry that a meeting between Taiwan's democratically-elected President Ma Ying-jeou and Chen had been moved forward by several hours, a move they suspected was to avoid any discomfort for the Chinese official with a show of widespread public anti-China sentiment.

Ma had been embarrassed by demonstrations on Wednesday that saw Chen trapped inside a building for several hours before police could secure him safe passage back to his hotel.

China and Taiwan sign landmark deal

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:21:13 -0800

Tania Branigan | Beijing | Nov 5

The Guardian - China and Taiwan moved closer to overcoming six decades of hostilities today, as they signed deals drastically expanding direct flights and allowing shipping links across the Formosa strait.

The agreement follows a dramatic thaw in relations over the last six months, since the election of Taiwan's new president, Ma Ying-jeou. The island broke away from the mainland at the end of the civil war in 1949.

Beijing and Taipei have agreed to set aside contentious political issues to work on improving economic links - important to both at a time of worldwide gloom.

US to sell $6bn in arms to Taiwan

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 08:52:54 -0700

October 3

BBC - The US government has notified Congress of plans to supply Taiwan with arms worth more than $6bn (£3.4bn).

The sales include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache helicopters and submarine-launched missiles.

Correspondents say the decision is likely to anger China, which regards Taiwan as its territory and opposes US military support of the island.

The move could also complicate efforts to get North Korea, an ally of Beijing, to end its nuclear programme.

The US Defence Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) said the sales would "help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance and economic progress in the region".

DSCA said the deal would not alter the military balance in the region but was "a demonstration of the commitment of this administration to provide Taiwan the defensive arms its needs to be strong".

Congress members have 30 days to submit comments or objections about the proposed sale.

Wolfowitz up to more mischief?

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:07:16 -0700

Jim Lobe | Oct 2

Asia Times - Former United States deputy defense secretary and World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz is embroiled in a geostrategic conflict of interests through his chairmanship of a US arms-control advisory panel as well as the US-Taiwan Business Council. At the heart of the matter is a pending US$11 billion arms package for Taiwan.

Bye-Bye, Taiwan; it's been fun

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:00:28 -0700

From Xinhuanet:

Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush discussed bilateral relations and the financial upheavals in the United States in a phone conversation on Monday morning Beijing time...

The Chinese president also praised the good momentum of the development of the Sino-U.S. ties in recent years in various areas.

He said China is ready to work with the U.S. side to intensify dialogue, exchanges and cooperation, and properly handle issues concerning mutual interests and of major concern, particularly the Taiwan question, in a bid to push forward the sustained and steady development of the Sino-U.S. constructive and cooperative ties.

The italics are mine. Translation: "You want a loan? Give us Taiwan."

So much for principles.