In this Year of the Monkey, a reminder of the sometimes strained relations between humans and Taiwan’s other primates. The scene playing out on Kaohsiung’s Shoushan could be an illustration from a visitor’s guide on how not to engage with the Formosan rock macaque, a primate species endemic to the mountains of Taiwan. Most of…
The boom of the last eight years is coming to an end as Chinese tourists decline and hotel oversupply grows more severe. Former President Ma Ying-jeou sought closer relations with China as a way to expand Taiwan’s economy. While the results of the various initiatives undertaken by the Ma administration remain open to debate, in…
This is Part 3 of the cover story on Pharmaceuticals: Links to Part 1, Part 2 The controversy over the biotech company has ensnared the president of Academia Sinica, as well as the company chairman. The Taiwanese biotech firm OBI Pharma has struggled since revealing in late February that Phase III clinical trials for its…
This is Part 2 of the cover story on Pharmaceuticals: Links to Part 1, Part 3 The incidence of cancer is rising in Taiwan as the population rapidly ages. In 2013 (the most recent year for which statistics are available), 99,143 Taiwanese were diagnosed with cancer, an increase of 2,449 people from 2012, according to a…
This is Part 1 of the cover story on Pharmaceuticals: Links to Part 2, Part 3 Several Taiwan biopharma companies have developed promising new drugs, and the new government taking office this month is expected to place even more emphasis on this sector. For the industry to become a major driver of economic growth, however, Taiwan…
This is Part 2 of the Special Report on Public Safety: Links to Part 1, Part 3,Part 4, Part 5 Taiwan is cheered by locals and foreign residents alike for its safe living environment. Violent crime is relatively rare. It’s even fine to take a walk in downtown Taipei’s largest green space – Daan Forest Park –…
This is Part 3 of the Special Report on Public Safety: Links to Part 1, Part2, Part 4, Part 5 From as far afield as Africa, fraud rings made up of criminals from both sides of the Taiwan Strait are fleecing victims. On a balmy night in August 2014, this reporter hailed a cab in downtown Taipei. As…
The ascendant Southeast Asian region of 600 million offers Taiwanese banks better prospects than mercurial China The Taiwanese banking sector booked a net loss in 2015 for the first time in nine years as a feeble domestic economy and China’s slowing growth battered balance sheets. Earnings fell 0.2% year-on-year to NT$319.6 billion (US$9.75 billion),…
Once saddled with a huge volume of non-performing loans, the farming credit system has strengthened under the supervision of a state-backed agricultural bank. Taiwan’s agricultural finance system has evolved considerably since the early 2000s when it was burdened with a large volume of non-performing loans (NPLs). The dire state of Taiwan’s rural finances at that…
In January, outgoing Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) chairman William Ming-chung Tseng (now a member of the Legislative Yuan) highlighted the slow pace of consolidation in the banking sector as a major regret of his FSC tenure. When he was appointed head of the FSC in 2014, Tseng called for consolidation in a bid to streamline…
