China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 40% of its value from June, with shock waves felt around the world, Taiwan included. The Taiwan Stock Exchange (Taiex) dropped by 7.49% in 90 minutes on August 24, the largest decline in a single session in the history of the exchange. The market closed down 376 points, or…
In the face of declining exports and diminished economic growth, the Executive Yuan announced on August 20 that it was raising the number of Chinese tourists granted Free Independent Travel (FIT) visas by 1,000 per day for a new daily total of 5,000. Raising the number of Chinese allowed to travel under the FIT program…
The upcoming TIFA meeting is seen as a good chance to show commitment to liberalization. This year’s AmCham Taipei Doorknock delegation to Washington D.C. found itself in the U.S. capital during a momentous week that included two historic Supreme Court decisions (upholding “Obamacare” and legalizing single-sex marriages nationwide) and – more germane to the Chamber’s…
The key question is how long can Taiwan’s IC industry hold off its Chinese competitors? Taiwan’s semiconductor sector faces a formidable challenge from China as Beijing moves aggressively to build homegrown chip-making giants. The Chinese government announced a US$20 billion fund last year for that task, and says it will invest a total of US$161…
Despite resistance from China in the field of display technology, Taiwan has agreed to take part in the new ITA-2 free trade pact. Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) announced from Geneva, Switzerland, that it has ended its resistance to finalizing a deal for the updated Information Technology Agreement (ITA) global trade pact, known as…
Senior high-school students opposed to the allegedly “China-centric” new curriculum guidelines developed by the Ministry of Education (MOE), as well as the non-transparent way that the guidelines were established, have staged a series of rallies and protests. On July 23, a late night attempt by protestors to storm the MOE headquarters was met with resistance…
A video clip shown on Chinese television channel CCTV-4 in July, depicting a practice assault on a building that looks like Taiwan’s Presidential Office, has sparked concern in Taiwan and abroad that China is indirectly threatening the island. The video depicts a number of military maneuvers by the PLA at the Zhurihe military base in…
Rebuffed in its bid to be among the bank’s founders, Taiwan is expected to apply for regular membership. Several hours before the midnight deadline on the evening of March 31, Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford sent a fax to the preparatory office for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing expressing Taiwan’s desire to…
Eric Chu, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT), met with China’s President Xi Jinping in Xi’s capacity as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on May 4 at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. Chu was in China as leader of his party’s delegation to a KMT-CCP forum held in Shanghai. The two party heads…
While en route to Singapore to participate in a military exercise, two Okinawa-based F/A-18 fighter jets with the U.S. Marines Fighter Attack Squadron made an emergency landing at Taiwan’s Tainan Air Force Base on April 1 due to a mechanical problem experienced by one of the planes. Guided to the base by jets from the…
