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The View from Taiwan

Commentary from Taichung - Taiwan

Entries for December, 2005

Japan, the US, practice defending the Senkakus

The Taipei Times notes that Japan is send a small force of its own troops to practice with US marines. The two countries will simulate an invasion of the Diaoyutai (Senkaku) Islands:
[...]

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Lin Cho-shui in the Taipei Times

The Taipei Times hosted a commentary by DPP insider Lin Cho-shui. The article is uneven but offers a glimpse of the thinking on the DPP and Chen that DPP insiders are going through.
For the past six years, Chen has favored a leadership style that emphasized closed-door decision-making and repeated policy changes. He has been [...]

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The Submarines for Taiwan: Brian Dunn

Intrepid blogger MeiZhongTei, who has recently withdrawn his support from the purchase of submarines for Taiwan, points out that Brian Dunn, who blogs on Taiwan-China-US defense affairs, still imagines that the subs are a useful purchase. Dunn, responding to MZT, writes:
This analysis ignores the fact that China’s subs are on average, quite poor and poorly [...]

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Fruit Exports: the Pro-China parties foul up again

The Taipei Times hosted a commentary by a Tainan city councillor on the chimera of fruit exports to China.
Many readers will recall the sensation caused by fruit exports to China. In July, Beijing invited both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Farmers’ Association of Taiwan Province (台灣省農會) to discuss this. Anyone of good [...]

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Why My Students Can’t Write

The China Post provided yet more evidence of why my students can’t write. This article on Taiwan’s university system is a perfect example of bad writing at its worst:
This and other negative reports about university teachers have borne witness to the fact that our universities are losing their reputation as places for development [...]

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Man-Made Values and the Taiwan-China Confrontation

The China Post blames the DPP for everything with this one:
Over the past ten years or so the government has been making efforts to indigenize (bentuhua) the island. The tendency to do so has been strong particularly since the independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2000. The drive has created many side effects, [...]

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More Great Letters

Got another wonderful letter about the Taiwan website today.
Hello there!
Just wanted to let you know that I have enjoyed your site so much these past few years..yes, I have bookmarked this page and visit it around this time of the year when nobody is doing work and I have free time.
I have been back to [...]

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Water and Water Policy in Taiwan

Water and Taiwan
“If free-market mechanisms - which much of western agriculture publicly applauds and privately abhors - were actually allowed to work, the West’s water “shortage” would be exposed for what it is: the sort of shortage you expect when inexhaustible demand chases an almost free good. (If someone were selling Porsches for three thousand [...]

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New Blogs on the Roll

After several days of doing editing and enjoying Christmas, I’ve added some new blogs to the roll.
Moods
Project H2O
[Taiwan] [Taiwan Blogs]
Related PostsNew Blogs on the RollAfter a week of visitors, it is good to get back to the grind. New Blogs on the Roll this week:D.A.N…New Blogs on the RollNew Blogs on the Roll:Mr. ChompersTraveling around [...]

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Financial Times on Chen — *sigh*

The by-line reads Kathrin Hille again, so we know that FT is about to publish another piece slanted pro-KMT, one of a series of anti-Chen articles that they have been publishing in recent months. Reading articles like this, I always wonder: is the writer too lazy to dig, too stupid to know, or simply malicious? [...]

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Hong Kong = Taiwan’s Future???

China’s foot-dragging on giving Hong Kong democracy provides a good indication of what Taiwan can expect if it is annexed by China.
“But just as in any country and any region democratic development is a gradual historical process, Hong Kong’s democratic development must also be pushed forward in a stable, sure-handed and systematic way,” state media [...]

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Hitchens on Christmas

Hysterical. Don’t miss it.
I used to harbor the quiet but fierce ambition to write just one definitive, annihilating anti-Christmas column and then find an editor sufficiently indulgent to run it every December. My model was the Thanksgiving pastiche knocked off by Art Buchwald several decades ago and recycled annually in a serious ongoing test of [...]

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My Students Put on A Show!

My graduating seniors, whose advisor I have been these four years past, put on The Foreigner yesterday to a packed house. I have constructed a temporary website with 160 pics of the best show Chaoyang has ever put on!
[Taiwan]
Related PostsMy daughter Back to SchoolMy daughter started school again today. We send her to a very [...]

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China’s One-Child Policy and Economic Consequences

Vince Pollard posted a introduction to this new report on the threat of aging population to China’s continued economic growth. China watchers may be interested….
Wang acknowledges the government’s retreat from coercive policies. But from the author’s perspective, China has just five years to initiate policies ameliorating the increasingly negative effects of the “one-child policy.” Further [...]

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Soft Coup Judgment Against Chen Misguided

Taiwan News has an excellent analysis of the recent court decision against President Chen Shui-bian’s remark that the Blues planned a “soft coup” during the staged demonstrations against the elections in 2004:
But the excessive focus on whether Lien and Soong were behind this initiative rips the military component of the post-election campaign by the pan-blue [...]

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  • Taiwan Blogs: Main Blogs



    TAIWAN BLOG FEED
    Blog Aggregator

    35togo
    Photos and commentary on Taiwan

    The Bala Daily
    Pics & Commentary on Taiwan

    Battlepanda
    Politics and Life from local reporter

    Becoming Taiwanese
    An American-Taiwanese in Taiwan

    Belligeretron
    Life and All from Taipei

    Bent
    News from Taiwan and China

    Big Ell's Blog
    Wit and Wisdom from Canada in Taichung

    Black American Lawyer in China
    Brash, black, legal insight on Taiwan and China

    Bloggers in Taiwan
    Taiwan English Blog List

    Bourdieu Boy
    Learned insight into Taiwan

    Chewin' on the Chung
    Karl's insightful blog on what life is really like in Central Taiwan

    Conductor's Notebook
    Pieces, Themes, and Variations

    Craig Ferguson Images
    Stunning images, photography news & views

    Cross-Strait Economics Blog
    A balanced view of an unbalanced Strait

    The Daily Bubble Tea
    Travels, pics, life

    David on Formosa
    Popular and informative Taiwan Blog

    Doubting to shuo?
    Teaching on the Beautiful Island

    Far-Eastern Sweet Potato
    Writer based in Taipei

    FideCogitActio
    Life and Catholicism in Taiwan

    filination
    Taiwan, from Israel

    following an unknown path
    a widely-linked missionary blog

    The Foreigner in Formosa
    Cthulhu meets Taiwan

    Gary EFL Taiwan
    Taiwan EFL blog

    The Gentle Rant
    Observations on a world quickly going insane

    Getting a Leg Up
    Podcasting and Blogging from Taichung

    Hanjie's Blog
    Things and scenes in Taiwan

    Highway 11
    Blog and site of East Coasts' leading expat mag

    Ilha Formosa - Keeping up with the War God
    Taiwan: Life, love and laughs in paradise.

    Investorblogger
    Investing, Blogging in Taiwan

    IslaFormosa
    Rants and Raves about Taiwan

    It's Not Democracy,It's A Conspiracy!
    Maddog Dissects Taiwan's News and Politics

    Jeff's Taiwan
    Longtime expat and local history buff

    Jerome F. Keating's writings
    Historian and writer on things Taiwan

    Kelake
    Design and Life on The Beautiful Isle

    Keywords
    P. Kerim Friedman's wide ranging and insightful blog

    Laowiseass
    Wire service reporter in Taiwan

    the leaky pen
    Life in Taiwan and in the University system

    Letters from Taiwan
    Pics and Commentary on Taiwan

    Lief in Taiwan
    Sumptuous Pics, Learned Commentary

    The Life of Brian
    Commentary from Prof and Hypnotist

    The Mandate of Heaven
    Wulingren on Taiwan

    media diary
    Cinema in Taiwan

    memoirs on a rainy day
    Beautiful pics, great commentary

    Misadventures in Taiwan
    Podcasts and video from Tainan

    Mixed Eggs I have Met
    Pix, commentary on life in Taiwan

    MoShang
    Podcasting and Musical Performance in Taiwan

    My Several Worlds
    A Global Mind in Asia

    Naruwan Formosa
    Politics and Life on the Beautiful Island

    The Nebulon Fry
    ESL teaching, musings on life & stuff

    The New Hampshire Bushman in Taiwan and The World
    Tea, GPS, and good times in Taiwan

    New Writing
    Living in Taipei.

    Ni Howdy
    The Ba-Gua Shan of Taichung Blogs

    Notes from a Small Island
    27, British, and in Taipei

    Notes of a former native speaker
    Jonathon Benda's excellent Taiwan blog

    The Only Redhead in Taiwan
    Redheaded contemplation of Taiwan

    Pashan
    Hiking in Taiwan, great pics

    Patrick Cowsill
    From Wanhua, Taiwan

    Pinyin News
    News and Commentary on Chinese Language in Taiwan

    Poagao's Journal
    Bands, Movies, Life in Taipei

    Portnoy in Between
    A window into the local blogosphere

    Prince Roy
    Blog of US consular official in Taiwan

    Rank
    Notes from the overpass, a day-to-day look at life in Taiwan

    The Real Taiwan
    Commentary on Life in Taiwan

    Red A -- the Blog
    Powered by alcohol, the clean fuel

    The Regulatory
    The Sound and the Fury

    R.O.C. the Boat
    Blogging Taiwan's UN membership drive

    SanBeiJi
    Pics and Travels in Taiwan

    Scott Sommers' Taiwan Blog
    Internationally popular blog on Taiwan and education

    The Shorty Method
    A personal approach to living.

    Sofa in the Sky
    Prose Poetry on Taiwan

    Sponge Bear
    Pix, commentary on central Taiwan

    Stinky Tofu
    Strange tales of Taiwan from a Lonely Planet writer.

    Steven Crook
    Local reporter and writer on Taiwan.

    Stranger in an even Stranger Land
    Teaching English in Kaohsiung

    The Tainan Don
    Observations from the South

    The Taipei Kid
    One of the most widely read Taiwan blogs

    Taipei Trash
    Pics and Commentary from Taipei

    Taiwan Airpower Blog
    Blog Devoted to the Taiwan Air Force

    The Taiwan Chronicles
    Living and working in Taiwan

    Taiwan Composite
    Business and culture on the Beautiful Isle.

    The Taiwandesk
    Things Taiwan

    Taiwanese Heart, Global Perspectives
    Group blog on Taiwan Politics

    Taiwanindependence
    Blog on TI

    Taiwan Matters!
    Politics from veteran Taiwan Bloggers

    Taiwanonymous
    Musings About Life in Taiwan

    Taiwan Pundit
    News from Taiwan

    Taiwan Tourism Bureau Blog
    Taiwan Tourism Bureau's information filled blog

    Talking Taiwanese
    Language education in Taiwan

    Taoyuan Nights
    From Taoyuan, Taiwan

    That's Impossible: Politics from Taiwan
    Taiwan Politics

    Thirsty Ghosts
    A group blog from local foreign media reps

    Tumbling in Taiwan
    An Indian in Hsinchu

    Wandering to Tamshui
    Politics and Daily Happenings on Taiwan

    The Wild East
    The One-Stop Blogspot of the Radio Banciao collective

    Wild at Heart
    Blog of Taiwan environmental group

    Winkler Partners
    Law Firm's Blog with many useful resources

    Writer's Block
    Taiwan Woman's Life Here and Abroad

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