The current coronavirus crisis has injected new urgency into a longstanding issue: Taiwan’s exclusion from the World Health Organization and its annual World Health Assembly. Pressure from Beijing designed to isolate Taiwan within the global community has kept Taiwan from participating in scores of international organizations, including all those affiliated with the United Nations. But…
At a time when democratic values are under siege in many parts of the world, Taiwanese citizens last month demonstrated their continued firm commitment to a free and open political system. In the January 11 elections for president, vice president, and national legislators, nearly 75% of eligible voters cast their ballots. In the U.S., in…
At a time when the collision between the U.S. and China is shaking up the established order in the conduct of world trade, it’s natural to wonder whether an opportunity is arising for Taiwan to achieve its long-held aspiration of taking on a role as a regional hub. In exploring that question, the cover story…
Each autumn, the Ministry of Economic Affairs holds a Taiwan Business Alliance Conference to promote Taiwan’s advantages as a location for foreign investment and to spotlight new business opportunities. This year’s program, held October 7 at the Taipei International Convention Center, included a new wrinkle. For the first time, the Ministry presented an “Economic Contribution…
For decades before the establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China in 1979, Americans with a scholarly or professional interest in Chinese affairs invariably spent at least a year in Taiwan – and often much longer – studying Mandarin or doing research. The result was that a whole generation…
Before the U.S. government announcement last month that it would sell 66 F-16 Viper jet fighters to Taiwan in a deal valued at US$8 billion, there hadn’t been an American sale of advanced military aircraft to the island since the George H.W. Bush administration agreed to supply an earlier version of the F-16 in 1992….
The AmCham Taipei CEO Mission that visited Washington, D.C., this June found growing interest among American government officials in seeking ways to strengthen bilateral relations with Taiwan. As reported in this issue of TOPICS, there now appears to be greater understanding and appreciation in Washington of Taiwan’s strategic value in the Indo-Pacific as a staunch…
Artificial intelligence will be the electricity of the twenty-first century – a technology that will supercharge industries across the board. That’s just one of many bold observations from Taiwanese venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee’s new book, AI Super-powers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order. It’s a provocative must-read for anyone who wants to better…
The cover story in this issue of Taiwan Business TOPICS looks back with appreciation to 40 years ago this month when the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), freshly passed by Congress, became U.S. law with President Jimmy Carter’s signature. The drafting of the TRA – a process in which AmCham Taipei is proud to have played a…
AmCham Taipei’s Private Equity Committee suspended operations in late 2017 in frustration over the difficulty PE firms were facing in Taiwan in gaining approval for investment applications. In a number of cases over the previous six years, investment plans by PE companies had been either rejected outright or stalled so long that the prospective investor…
