2007 June | The View from Taiwan

Entries for June, 2007

Congress Considers Terminating Restrictions on Visits

Jun.29, 2007 in Chen Shui-bian, China, State Department

Agence France Press reports that both the House and Senate are considering ending restrictions on visits to the US by high-level Taiwan leaders:

U.S. lawmakers, accusing the administration of kowtowing to China, called Tuesday for an end to restrictions on visits to the United States by high-level officials from Taiwan.
The demand was adopted by the foreign [...]

Comments (2)

Chen the Ratcheter

Jun.29, 2007 in Chen Shui-bian, China, DPP, KMT, media

Last week in a piece in the CS Monitor, the writer observed:
It also matches a pattern whereby Chen has sought to ratchet up tensions with the mainland, rallying his political supporters, whenever he has found himself in domestic difficulties. Currently his wife is under indictment for corruption, as are two top aides and two cabinet [...]

Comments (6)

Callick Scores one for Beijing Correspondents

Jun.28, 2007 in Uncategorized

Taiwan blogger Tetsuo once observed that getting Taiwan reporting from your Beijing correspondent is like getting inside the Beltway reporting from your Melbourne correspondent. Usually Beijing correspondents of major media entities are hopeless at reporting on Taiwan, but a notable exception is Rowan Callick of The Australian, who has a pretty good piece with some [...]

Comments (7)

The 45 Minute Ulcer

Jun.28, 2007 in drivers

What’s driving like? Well, nothing static can convey the reality of a Taiwan road. But today I took a shot at it, recording a trip from home to the university. It started out in fine style. As I sat in the middle lane, the car in front of the yellow truck turned right from the [...]

Comments (16)

Tuesday was a Weird and Lonely Day

Jun.27, 2007 in Uncategorized

My son and daughter.
Tuesday was a very strange day.
On Tuesday I saw my children off at the airport, sending them to the US for five weeks to visit family and go sightseeing with my parents. They say parting is such sweet sorrow, but it is not, it is an agonizing rent in the heart, and [...]

Comments (13)

Jamestown Briefing: Disappointment for China Relations?

Jun.27, 2007 in Uncategorized

Denny Roy, who usually produces good stuff on Taiwan, has a fairly good briefing at the Jamestown Foundation on Taiwan’s 2008 Presidential candidates. Wisely, he has cottoned on to the possibility that Hsieh might turn out to have a foreign policy a lot like Chen’s.
The differences between Hsieh, 61, and Chen are easily overdrawn. Hsieh’s [...]

Walking among the hills

Jun.27, 2007 in Taichung, hiking

Off for a walk at the base of the hills outside Taichung…greeted, as always, by the endless array of bugs that the island provides.

Everywhere you look, early morning hikers can be found. The hills around me are honeycombed with hiking trails and minor roads that make excellent morning walks.

Winding lanes, perfect for an early morning [...]

Comments (3)

Daily Links, June 26, 2007

Jun.26, 2007 in Uncategorized

Who’s facing off on the blogs today?

Feiren has another post in Rank’s series on Great Taiwan bike rides.

Feiren also has a great review Taiwan Matters of just how bad a pick Vincent Siew is as Ma’s running mate. I think Hsieh’s chances of winning have gone up.

Scott has another post on native speaker teachers: are [...]

Comments (2)

WSJ Thumps Ma Ying-jeou

Jun.26, 2007 in Uncategorized

Slowly, slowly, the US is coming to understand which side is the root cause of the legislature’s problems. Today the Wall Street Journal came out with an article that pinpointed the problems on the Taiwan side with the infamous arms purchase. Taiwan Security has it on their website:
It took six years, but Taiwan politicans stopped [...]

Ma picks Siew

Jun.24, 2007 in 2008 Presidential Election, KMT, Ma Ying-jeou, Vincent Siew, Wang Jin-pyng

The Rumors Are True: KMT Presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou has selected economic technocrat Vincent Siew as his Vice Presidential candidate. The Taipei Times has the call:
[...]

Comments (14)

July 21 Meet Up in Taipei

Jun.23, 2007 in Swensons meet up

Those of you into meaty topics will enjoy the speaker and topic at our next meeting, July 21….
+++++++++++++++
To all,
In order to help you in your planning. our July speaker will be Professor Leng Tse-kang of Genda. His presentation on Cross-Strait Relations and Issues will be given on July 21.
At that time he will be fresh [...]

Comments (2)

Drowning

Jun.23, 2007 in death, drowning, suicide, swimming

Foreigners in Taiwan are always amazed at the inability of Taiwanese to swim despite living on an island surrounded by water and cross-cut by numerous rivers. Swimming pools abound, too. Even more alarming is that despite an avowed inability to swim, Taiwanese often go down to the water to play, resulting in many otherwise avoidable [...]

Comments (8)

Wow! CS Monitor Really Fouls One Up

Jun.22, 2007 in 2008 Presidential Election, Chen Shui-bian, China, Ma Ying-jeou, Olympics, Taiwan independence, US

The Christian Science Monitor, which sometimes does good work on Taiwan, published absolute dreck the other day on the Olympic Torch refusal by Taiwan. The writer, Peter Ford, has clearly spent too much time hanging out with people who support Beijing, resulting in a one-sided and viciously slanted piece on Taiwan and the Torch. The [...]

Comments (8)

Everyone’s reporting it’s Vincent Siew for Ma

Jun.22, 2007 in 2008 Presidential Election, Ma Ying-jeou

Taiwan News and other sources are suggesting Ma is going to pick the respected politician Vincent Siew as his running mate:
Former Premier and current chairman of the Chuang Hua Institute for Economic Research Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) is expected to be named as the running mate for Kuomintang presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), said KMT sources [...]

Comments (1)

Nelson Report on Taiwan Again

Jun.22, 2007 in China, US, United Nations

Poor Chris Nelson of the Washington insider report The Nelson Report. Every time he writes on Taiwan, he has to navigate between touchy people on all sides. After the nifty report on 6/20, which I blogged on yesterday, comes this missive from 6/21
++++++++++++
TAIWAN…what’s in a name? Last night’s Nelson Report (June 20) went at some [...]

Comments (1)

« previous entries