Companies have been punished for disseminating disease-awareness information. In Taiwan, as in the rest of the world with the lone exceptions of the United States and New Zealand, pharmaceutical companies are prohibited from advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers. The main rationale for that approach is the belief that decisions on what drug to prescribe…
Two amendments are said to be contrary to Taiwan’s WTO obligations. AmCham Taipei’s Retail Committee has raised questions as to whether two amendments to Article 23 of the School Health Act (SHA), dealing with the provision of lunches to public school students, contravene Taiwan’s obligations to international trade agreements to which it is a party….
Teen Singer Waves Flag, Angers China The presidential campaign of Tsai Ing-wen got an unexpected boost when it was revealed that China was picking on little girls. Chou Tzu-yu, a 16-year-old member of the Korean pop band Twice, raised the ire of Chinese nationalists, who called her a Taiwan independence supporter when images of her…
Historic Ma-Xi Meeting Draws Mixed Reaction It was a brief meeting arranged on short notice, an hour of closed-door talks followed by a sumptuous banquet. But when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou met in Singapore on November 7, the first encounter between Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Kuomintang (KMT) leaders in…
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…
In a move that some found shocking and others considered inevitable, the ruling KMT convened a special party congress on October 17 to replace its candidate for the 2016 presidential election, Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu, with New Taipei City Mayor and party chairman Eric Chu. The dramatic turn of events had been building for…
Speaking at an AmCham Taipei membership luncheon on October 23, Tsai Ing-wen, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate in the upcoming presidential election, reminded attendees of the “mutual interests” and “shared values” tying the United States and Taiwan, identified the United States as Taiwan’s “most important economic partner,” and called U.S.-Taiwan relations the “cornerstone for…
Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu announced a temporary halt to campaign activities on September 2. The announcement made on Facebook seemed to catch KMT headquarters offguard and fueled speculation that Hung was withdrawing from the race. Media pundits also suggested that her sudden seclusion allowed her to avoid embarrassing questions over visits by several…
People First Party (PFP) chairman and veteran politician James Soong threw his hat into the presidential race as a third-party candidate, vowing to end decades of bitter partisanship that has divided the nation. “Collaboration instead of endless confrontation is our only way out of this mess,” he was quoted as telling the media, adding that…
