Where business has slowed, the main reason appears to be economic factors. Ever since Beijing angrily terminated official communications with Taiwan’s then newly installed Tsai Ing-wen government in June last year, political relations with China have plunged to their coolest point in nearly a decade. But the cross-Strait political chill over Taiwan’s unwillingness to accept a…
The government is seeking to strengthen trade, investment, tourism, education, and cultural relations with South and Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia may be close to Taiwan geographically, but Taiwanese traditionally tended to see its people as little more than a source of cheap labor. Even in academia, says Edwin Yang, an instructor in the College of…
The Taiwan economy is back in positive territory, but the pace of growth is likely to remain slow until global conditions improve substantially. In the meantime, Taiwan may benefit as a key part of the supply chain for Apple’s iPhone 7, but its tourism sector will need to make up for a sharp drop in…
Faced with lackluster growth, stagnant salaries, and complaints from young people that it’s hard to find a job, Taiwan is seeking to follow the example of rival Asian tiger Korea by undergoing industrial upgrading. To this end, President Tsai Ing-wen and her administration have announced plans to develop five major innovative industries: smart machinery, green…
Senior government officials have cited Taiwan’s recent labor unrest as their biggest short-term economic problem, saying that continuing controversy could undermine investor confidence. Recent ruckuses in the Legislative Yuan suggest that an immediate solution is not in sight. In late October, Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers sided with labor groups, waving placards and occupying the Speaker’s podium…
An international tribunal’s recent ruling on the South China Sea leaves Taiwan in a sensitive position. In September last year, President Tsai Ing-wen, then the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate, told a diplomatic reception: “A future DPP administration will be committed to following…the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)…
The Taiwan media, once tightly controlled, is now considered the freest in the region. But much criticism is directed at the quality of the content, especially for television news, where competition among the seven all-news cable stations has led to an emphasis on sensationalist and often trivial stories, with scant international coverage. Amid public concern…
The victory of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Tsai Ing-wen in mid-January’s presidential election was no surprise; she had been leading in opinion polls for months. More unexpected was the scale of the triumph – and that of the DPP candidates in the legislative contests. Not only did Tsai win 56.1% of the vote in a…
2015 did not bring the expected strong performance for the Taiwan economy. Growth for the year is now likely to come in at a disappointing level of under 1%. The outlook for next year seems better – but recent experience has shown that forecasts so far in advance are subject to too many variables to…
Consideration of the economic outlook for 2016 also has to take the upcoming presidential and legislative elections into account. President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008 on a platform of reinvigorating Taiwan’s economy and cooling tensions in the Taiwan Strait through unprecedented cross-Strait trade agreements. But after his reelection in 2012, public confidence in the…
