The Nation: Sahlins on Confucius Institutes

Just to let you know... excellent critique of the Confucius Institutes at, of all places, The Nation. So rare to read criticism of China on a lefty news organ....
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Burmese Pythons: A Kinmen endemic species

When I was on Kinmen in August I didn't see any Burmese Pythons. How depressing.

Taiwan Today ran a piece on the discovery that the Burmese Python of Kinmen, long thought to be invasive, is actually an endemic species of Kinmen Island. The piece on the DNA work that showed that was recently published in Zoological Studies. You et al (2013) note:

The python once occurred on the islands in the early twentieth century, when the natural environment was less damaged (Hu 1976). However, those records were neglected by biologists until 2009, when Shiang et al. (2009) first included this python in their handbook based on a news report from 1950. Until that time, scientists had not formally recognized that this snake lived on these islands.

Rediscovery of pythons on the islands began in 2003, when reported by local newspapers (Kinmen Daily News, 16 June 2003). Since then, farmers and villagers have increasingly reported python sightings. Most of the snakes were captured because of their predation at chicken, duck, or lamb farms (You et al. 2011). By the winter of 2009, so many pythons had been captured that this species was becoming a nuisance to local farmers, who were experiencing financial losses due to predation of livestock by the snakes. Numerous complaints to the county and Taiwanese central governments were filed, and the authorities were encouraged to provide funding for scientific research on the pythons.

One of the most controversial issues is the origin of these pythons, because local residents cannot recall seeing such large snakes in the last half century. As a trade center between Taiwan and China, this region is notorious as a route for the illegal wildlife trade, including large numbers of yellow-margined box turtles (Cuora flavomarginata) and other herpetofauna for the pet trade (Chen and Lue 2010). Considering that pythons have rapidly invaded the state of Florida in the US, local people soon concluded that the presence of pythons was the result of introductions by pet traders. This hypothesis was strongly supported by field workers, including experienced birdwatchers, wildlife photographers, filmmakers, and ecologists (primarily mammalogists, ornithologists, and invertebrate zoologists from several different laboratories) who have spent decades investigating wildlife on the islands but had never seen or heard of a python (S.-M. Lin, personal interviews). 

The research article goes on to show that the DNA of the pythons on Kinmen is more closely related to species that live across the water in China than to pythons in the pet trade, which come from Vietnam. They are also adapted to Kinmen's cooler weather. This suggests that they recolonized Kinmen.

The snake benefited from the military's withdrawal, which enabled it to spread. You et al point out that another beneficiary of the withdrawal of the military is the otter.

Surveys of river otters Lutra lutra on Kinmen and Little Kinmen islands were carried out in 1992 and 1993. In order to record sightings of otters in the past, 12 Kinmen residents who had seen or caught otters before were interviewed. Interview results indicated that the otter is a resident, breeding species on Kinmen. Survey results indicated presence of otters throughout Kinmen and in many sites on Little Kinmen. However, habitat degradation, including pollution and drought, may pose serious threats to the continued existence of the species on both islands.

Kinmen has many areas which contains explosives, mines, and other dangers. These areas are avoided by residents. As a result, they have become thriving areas for wildlife, much as the North/South Korea border region has.
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MaWangMess: Blowback edition II: Prosecutor Huang indicted

Caught in mid-flight, early morning dew on its back.

The MaWangMess continues to blow back on the President, as Taipei District prosecutors went after Prosecutor Huang for leaking information to Ma.

State Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming was indicted Friday on charges of leaking classified information in violation of the Criminal Code and the Communication Security and Surveillance Act.

The indictment said Huang broke the law when he briefed President Ma Ying-jeou Aug. 31 on tapped phone conversations indicating that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng lobbied the justice minister and a senior high court prosecutor in late June to prevent legal action against an opposition lawmaker.

Just  couple of things -- the indictment, I've heard, contains a rebuke of the prosecutor which says that his tactics smack of the old authoritarian party-state era. Awesome. Once the attack on Wang failed Huang became the obvious sacrifice. I can't imagine that the Court will convict Huang but then I thought they couldn't lose on the Wang case in the high court. Huang denied everything and said he'd resign if convicted.
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I Walk With Giants

October was the busiest I have ever been; swept away on an avalanche of work. My most abject apologies for the light blogging the last three weeks. But November 1 brought some sweet news: my first SF short story, in Analog. I can't resist a shout of joy here even though this is a Taiwan blog.
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Vader Sends Clone Army to Occupy Taipei

Pic shamelessly stolen from link below, some other great pics there.

It's like something out of science fiction, reverberating around Facebook with knowing sneers from weapons fans: our new clone army, ready for the next set of Star Wars movies.

What a coincidence. Wu Po-hsiung, the former KMT heavyweight and KMT chairman, as well as one of the first KMT politicians to visit China over a decade ago in his position as head of a large Hakka federation, was out front and center this week saying that political talks are probably inevitable...

Political issues may be unavoidable for Taiwan and China as the two sides conduct economic exchanges, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said yesterday, stressing that Taiwan should address political issues according to the public’s needs.

Wu was speaking to a Chinese audience, while at home the President was once again saying that the Time is Not Right For Political Talks with China. The Taipei Times argues that the President is actually moving toward political talks. My attitude is that whatever they say they are not doing, or accuse the other team of doing, is what they are indeed doing.

Meanwhile, stirring as those masks may look, they'd last about ten seconds in the face of shrapnel, high caliber bullets, explosives, and other nasties of a modern battlefield. But they sure look like they'd be useful against demonstrators armed with rocks, don't they? Perfect for those post-political talks riots...
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Swamped...

Betel nut stand. Courtesy of Cary Broder.

Swamped. It will be two more days, so until then, puzzle over this strange betel nut stand my man Cary Broder photographed somewhere in the wilds of Taiwan.
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SOAS Taiwan Studies News

SOAS Taiwan Studies News

New Deputy Director, Film Screening Programme, New Cooperation Agreement with Council for Indigenous Affairs, New Taiwan Studies Library Resource Centre, and Term 1 Seminar Series

Dear All,

We have some exciting new developments at the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies.

Firstly, from this week Dr Chang Bi-yu will be joining us as a Senior Teaching Fellow in Taiwan Studies and the new Deputy Director of the Centre of Taiwan Studies. Please see the news item for details: http://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem88002.html

Secondly, we will start a new film screening programme under the title Understanding Taiwan Through Film and Documentaries. This is sponsored by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture under the Spotlight Taiwan project. The first screenings will be on November 14 and 15 with Q&As with the documentary maker Lin Leh-chyun.

For details on the project see: http://www.soas.ac.uk/taiwanstudies/taiwan-film-screening/

Screening of Madame Chiang Kai-shek:

http://www.soas.ac.uk/taiwanstudies/events/14nov2013-screening-of-documentary-madame-chiang-kai-shek-a-legend-across-three-centuries-with-qa-wi.html

Screening of Lee Teng-hui:

http://www.soas.ac.uk/taiwanstudies/events/15nov2013-screening-of-documentary-lee-teng-hui-the-first-chinese-democracy-with-qa-with-director-li.html

The Centre of Taiwan Studies has also signed a new cooperation agreement with Taiwan’s Council for Indigenous Affairs. For more details see: http://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem87993.html

On November 4 the Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies will open at the SOAS Library. This is a project supported by Taiwan’s National Central Library. The initial book, audio-visual and database donations are designed to support the SOAS Taiwan Studies teaching Programme

Lastly, we have a full list of confirmed Centre of Taiwan Studies Seminars for this term:

http://www.soas.ac.uk/taiwanstudies/events/

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Econ Round Up

The Ministry of Economic Affairs put out the numbers on FDI. From Digitimes:

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) approved 2,308 foreign direct investment projects (except from China) totaling US$3.596 billion in January-September 2013, respectively increasing 20.40% and decreasing 8.59% on year.

......

In January-September, MOEA approved 103 investment projects proposed by China-based firms with total value of US$331.28 million. There were 310 approved projects of direct investment in China proposed by Taiwan-based companies or individuals with a total amount of US$6.354 billion, decreasing 8.28% and 21.02% respectively on year.

Looking at the numbers above, note how much "foreign" direct investment is coming from Caribbean islands. I bet a lot of that is recycling Taiwanese or Chinese money, not foreign at all, taking advantage of tax breaks and other incentives. Ditto for Samoa which comes in at number 5.

Also note that the number one foreign destination is Vietnam. Even as Ma pushes China Taiwanese are slowly shifting elsewhere. Investment in China from Taiwan declined according to the piece. Moreover, note how investment in China still dwarfs investment from China: $6.3 billion versus $0.33 billion. Remember how China was going to save Taiwan's economy and we had to have ECFA right now!!! It would be a colossal joke, if so many jobs had not been lost... ECFA was also supposed to boost FDI, but the last few years Taiwan's FDI performance has been grim...

The legislature is set to pass the NZ-Taiwan trade pact. Perhaps it will stimulate the permanently faltering economy...

Neither Taiwan's top economic planner, stung by a projection made in February that went badly wrong, or the chief of the country's statistics bureau were able to say on Monday if Taiwan's economy will grow by at least 2 percent this year.

............

She said more time was needed to assess whether the economy will be able to grow 2 percent this year given the weakness in the country's exports in the third quarter, which totaled US$76.20 billion, short of the DGBAS's projection of US$78.04 billion.

The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) on Oct.15 cut its forecast for Taiwan's economic growth this year to 2.01 percent, from the 2.28 percent it estimated in July, citing lower-than-expected economic momentum in the second half of the year.

At his hearing, Kuan was given a hard time for his confident projection in February that Taiwan would see a "golden cross," with growth exceeding 4 percent and the jobless rate falling below 4 percent.

The Golden Cross comment was roasted in the Taipei Times this week as well:

During the January-to-last month period, the unemployment rate only went down 0.05 percentage points to 4.18 percent. That makes Taiwan’s job market the weakest among its Asian counterparts including Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Hong Kong’s jobless rate held pat in June and has stayed at 3.3 percent for four months, according to statistics provided by DGBAS. Japan and South Korea’s unemployment rates stood at 4.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively in August, latest figures showed.

Kuan said that the remarks were a goal and indeed, that is what he actually said. The opening forecast of the year pegged growth at 3.5%, a figure which has fallen steadily over time.
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Daily Links:

• Thrips from Taiwan. I'll bet you've never heard of these suckers.
• Can Japan Defend the Senkakus?
• How orchids got so cheap: Taiwan tech
• DPP criticizes China for sacking pro-Democracy scholar. Good job, DPP.
• A look at Taiwan's solar industry.

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

On the Road with FTV: Wuling and Hehuanshan cycling

The other reason I haven't been blogging, aside from the massive workload, is another shoot with FTV, this time atop Wuling and Hehuanshan at the top of Taiwan. The image above was taken Tuesday morning, the weather was glorious, cool and clear. That's the ski lodge there atop Hehuanshan. Enjoy a few pictures by clicking on READ MORE below...

Northern Taiwan Tour: Two Days of Fun-n-Sun!

Corey Sanderson fortifies himself for the Suao Mackerel Festival

Saturday and Sunday, courtesy of the fine folks at the China Productivity Center, I took a great trip across northern Taiwan to Pingxi, Suao, and Neiwan where a diverse and interesting group visited a variety of tourist sites, including local museums and old streets, and participated in some of the local activities, including the lantern in Pingxi, which I had never done before. Come below the READ MORE divide for some great Taiwan fun with people who really made it worthwhile.

Journal of American-East Asian Relations Website

Cold springs, Suao.

I've been out for the last week running madly about Taiwan on various trips. Apologies for the blogging lack... Next few days posts will pile up. First this announcement via H-Asia... some of my readers in schools abroad should think about this:

H-ASIA
October 21, 2013

Journal of American-East Asian Relations new website
*******
From: James Matray

The Journal of American-East Asian Relations has a new website located at http://www.brill.com/journal-american-east-asian-relations. The previous electronic listing with Interworld-Pacific is now defunct. I am eager to receive submissions, especially from advance graduate students and tenure-track professors, and promise a prompt decision. Please visit our new website with Brill where you will find a link to a PDF providing instructions for contributors.

James I. Matray
Editor-in-Chief
Journal of American-East Asian Relations
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Gorgeous Taitung

Seven minutes of pure heaven.
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Silly Comments from Academic make headlines

The Taipei Times gave this fellow front page headlines:

President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) statement that cross-strait relations are “not international relations” during his Double Ten National Day speech has further weakened Taiwan’s sovereignty and was meant as a hint for the US and Japan not to interfere in cross-strait issues, a local academic said.

“If by including such words in the National Day address Ma intends to make the cross-strait issue an internal matter and not open to international interference, it would cause serious repercussions in the days to come,” said Wong Ming-hsien (翁明賢), director of Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies.

Pointing to the fact that Taiwan is not a part of the UN, and the Ma administration’s inclination to make the cross-strait issue an internal issue rather than international, Wong said that in the event of a military conflict over the Taiwan Strait, neither Japan nor the US would have grounds to intervene.

Actually, no. The glory and the hell of the Taiwan Relations Act is that Taiwan has no role in the decision to defend Taiwan. China already defines Taiwan as an "internal matter". Any decision to not defend Taiwan will be entirely the result of a political calculus that occurs in Washington (and Tokyo). If Washington so desires, it will intervene no matter what Ma or anyone else says. It's bad enough that these irresponsible words are said in a public forum, but let's not add to the silliness by giving them front page status.

The scholar also said that the stall in arms shows the US is holding back and observing, implying it is because of Ma. Alas, the stall predates Ma...
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Daily Links:

• China Policy Institute: Is ICAO Assembly Attendance a step forward or backward?
• China Policy Institute: Jon Sullivan on Ma's 10/10 speech. Don't miss it. 
• Chinese Tourists seen damaging historical site
• QuirkyTaiwan: the 'savage' women of Taiwan
• Brian on the truths and myths of Air-Sea battle
• The DPP is initiating a no-confidence motion in the government. Yawn.
• Cold Front moving in.
• Taiwan bees under threat from viruses
• WantWant says a US default could devastate Taiwan
• APARC's Taiwan democracy forum

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Joint Letter on the Wiretapping, Ma-Wang Mess

The Taipei Times printed the text:

As international SCHOLARS and writers who applauded the transition to democracy, that began in the late 1980s, we are deeply concerned about the backsliding of freedom, democracy and human rights under the current administration in Taiwan.

While an erosion of democracy and justice has been ongoing since this administration assumed office in 2008, recent events constitute a fundamental breach of the basic principles of separation of powers and checks and balances in a democracy.

We refer in particular to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) use of the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, set up in 2007 to deal with major corruption cases involving government officials, against his political opponents, to his interference in the judicial system for political purposes and to his attempt to remove Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平)...

Finish it at the TT
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Taiwan = ROC? Yes, but not the way you might think

Rare clear night here in Taichung. So happy with this picture.

TISR published a very interesting poll this week picked up by the Taipei Times:

The survey, conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR), showed that 69.7 percent believe that Taiwan and China are “two countries with separate development,” 9.6 percent think that both sides belong to “a divided ROC” and 2.4 percent see the two as belonging to “a divided People’s Republic of China [PRC].” A further 18.2 percent had no opinion, the survey showed.

Given a choice of how they would like the international media to refer to the country, “Taiwan” ranked first at 78.9 percent, followed by the ROC at 72.5 percent, “Chinese Taipei” at 25.8 percent and “Taiwan, China” at 6.5 percent; 3.7 percent had no answer.

This is the first poll I've come across that really hints at the way Taiwanese have taken "ROC" to stand for Taiwan. This is the opposite of the goal that the KMT had, which was to subsume Taiwan into the ROC. Instead, the Taiwanese have hollowed out the ROC -- they are happy to use that name but are cold to its outlandish territorial claims. They have also appropriated the ROC flag as their own, as a flag representing Taiwan (but not China). The public even appears to feel that there is no need to change the name of the country if China recognizes the ROC (a weird question, that).

TISR is the former Global Views, which allegedly shut down its political polling after pressure from the KMT during the 2012 Presidential campaign since it was finding Tsai ahead of Ma (story). The poll is online here.
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Daily Links:

• Two videos from the Woodrow Wilson Center: Taiwan's Dilemma: A Democracy Divided Over National Security and Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse
• China's Taiwan Affairs Office says political talks cannot be put off indefinitely. Ma government replies it has not avoided politics in favor of economics -- pretty much the exact opposite of what it says at home. 
• Reporters from Phils and Borneo Post taken on leisure farm junket. 
• Where's the development going to boom? Taoyuan.
• The Taiwan Oyster and its filmmaker.
• A tale of Taiwan's intelligence agencies in action assassinating among the Shan people in the 1970s. 

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!