Monday, August 17, 2009

Daily Links, Aug 17, 2009

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What's perched on the blog today?
MEDIA: The Taipei Times collected attacks on the government's response by KMT legislators -- people whose greed and shortsightedness were responsible for so much of the failure. But it shows that with the upcoming election, KMT legislators have to put some distance between themselves and the government they created. Aid pours in from abroad. Ag losses push US $4oo million. 1 MW solar power station to be built in Taiwan science park. Taiwan's mango exports to Japan climb sharply. The world's first botanical company cluster now forming in Pingtung. Such clusters are common in Taiwan -- the old Shoes Nest in Taichung, the mold and die cluster in Sanchung, the IT industry in Hsinchu, or ceramics in Yingge. Willy Lam notes that China's Hu is emphasizing military expansion. Still plans to claim Arunachal Pradesh. Asia Sentinel has a nice piece on the government failure in Morakot. CSIS looks at Japan's choices in the face of China's rise. Commonwealth Mag has three excellent English articles on the government, water policy, and Morakot. In WSJ Richard Allen has an article talking about the "legal obligations" of the US to Taiwan under Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and how they can be used to balance China. Allen was Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to Nixon in '68.

UPDATE: A friend has identified the bird as a Tiger Bittern, a relative newcomer to Taiwan.
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3 comments:

Leonarta said...

Now Jerome A. Cohen must regrets that he didn't accept your suggest to point out his relationship with Ma when he wrote political issue regarding Ma. Now that everyone in U.S. can see Ma government and Ma's idiot perform, and doubt that Pro. Cohen's ability to review politics. That is inevitable humiliation to anyone who takes positive opinion on Ma.

Anonymous said...

Those clusters are one of the most awesome things about Taiwan. Self-organizing, everyone gets to be their own boss, but cooperates when necessary, companies have to try to find their own niche in the chain.

It's one of the reasons Taiwan's electronics industry is so hard to replicate in China. China is too big! You don't create clusters easily when you have all the space in the world cheaply and every province copies the other as soon as it gets a whiff that another has stumbled on a good idea.

Anonymous said...

This is Ma Ying-jeou campaign ad is probably worth revisiting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ydvuqsDnY

"We're ready"

"Taiwan moving forward"

Sounds so stupidly hollow now. P.S. Music is a scary SOB. Turns off the rationality.