When Jacky, a passionate entrepreneur in his thirties, talks about his innovative upcycled charcoal and his sustainable carpentry training camp, his eyes light up with enthusiasm. The same level of intensity and excitement is evident when you encounter Michael, the 70-something chairman of Taiwan’s leading inkjet producer and owner of many patented inventions. You can…
What’s your impression when you look at photos of Jade Mountain covered in light snow, captured by late award-winning Taiwanese photographer Chi Po-lin? For me, the images fill my heart with profound love and admiration for life and nature. But they also remind me of the responsibility we have as a community to care for…
In the weeks I’ve spent back at the Chamber, I have attended many meetings in which AmCham’s 26 committees devote their time and energy to the production of our White Paper. This is one of the most ambitious projects of any industry association, taken on annually, and has been a ritual for AmCham Taiwan for…
Poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote: Dove that ventured outside… knows what serenity is, for she has felt her wings pass through all distance and fear in the course of her wanderings… The ball that we dared, that we hurled into infinite space, doesn’t it fill our hands differently with its return: heavier by the…
Soon after this issue is in your hands, I’ll be landing in Washington, D.C., and returning a “window on Japan” to my life. By March I will have taken over stewardship of the National Association of Japan-America Societies (NAJAS), a developer of thought and exchange programs for 38 grassroots societies across North America that promote…
The President’s View appropriate to our annual Wine & Dine feature would be tasting notes on Taiwanese fruit beers. But I cannot resist a sobering look back at the last year for AmCham, paired with mention of two developments that I hope for during the coming Rabbit Year. The China House: As we approached…
The season of Thanksgiving and the American Club made for the perfect time and place to welcome back esteemed former Chairperson, Mr. Robert Parker, who traveled from his home in California as our inaugural “Visitors & Issues Program” speaker. Parker related to the audience how 43 years ago, at the time of the United States’…
China watchers continue parsing messages and choreography from the CCP’s 20th Party Congress, but a sense that Mr. Xi is advancing his timeframe to pull Taiwan into the fold pervades. If so, Taiwan must strengthen itself by accelerating its own timeframe for a trio of strategic openings. Changing and opening is always tough, and even…
The U.S. Congress showered attention on Taiwan in mid-September. Headlining was the Senate Committee’s vote to jack-up military assistance under the Taiwan Policy Act. A week later, AmCham loyalists followed Senior Advisor Don Shapiro’s speech at a Taiwan Congressional Caucus-supported launch in Washington of the Taiwan Matters for America / America Matters for Taiwan booklet,…
If there were ever a time and place to reverse the saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” it would be Taiwan, August 2022. As pressure mounts from across the Strait, let’s invite back some four million visitors – sellers, buyers, investors, investment suitors, free-spending tourists, caregivers, activists, and students – between now…
