Taiwan Update, Issue No.:1208-02
1. Taiwan East China Sea’s Peace and its
background
In remarks made on the morning of August 5 at the Opening
Ceremony of the Special Exhibition on the 60th Anniversary of the
Coming into Force of the Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China
and Japan, which was co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Academia Historica at the Taipei Guest House, President Ma Ying-jeou
expressed his concern regarding rising tensions over the Diaoyutai
Islands. He proposed the East China Sea Peace Initiative aimed at easing
these tensions, and called on all parties concerned to show restraint,
shelve controversies and settle the dispute in a peaceful manner. It is
hoped, he said, that reaching a consensus on a code of conduct in the East
China Sea, and on establishing a mechanism for cooperation on exploring
and developing resources in the East China Sea, would help ensure peace
in this region.
The Diaoyutai Islands, an island group that is part of Taiwan, lie just
102 nautical miles from Keelung in northeast Taiwan and are within the
administrative jurisdiction of Daxi Village in Toucheng Township, Yilan
County, Taiwan. Whether looked at from the perspective of history,
geography, geology, practical use or international law, the Diaoyutais are
indisputably an inherent part of the territory of the Republic of China
(Taiwan). It is therefore appropriate that the Republic of China should
propose this East China Sea Peace Initiative and attempt to settle the
Diaoyutai dispute.
The Republic of China is a peace-loving country, and its government
has always asserted that international disputes should be settled
peacefully based on the provisions of the UN Charter. With respect to the
Diaoyutai issue, the government of the Republic of China has
consistently affirmed its position of “safeguarding sovereignty, shelving
disputes, pursuing peace and reciprocity, and promoting joint exploration
and development.”
As an important air and sea transportation hub in the western Pacific,
the East China Sea has clear significance for security and peace in the
Asia-Pacific region, and in the world as a whole. In order to prevent
further escalation, the dispute over the Diaoyutais must be settled
peacefully through a multilateral dialogue mechanism. The government
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Taiwan Update, Issue No.:1208-02
of the Republic of China, therefore, solemnly proposes an East China Sea
Peace Initiative and calls on all parties concerned to:
1. Refrain from taking any antagonistic actions.
2. Shelve controversies and not abandon dialogue.
3. Observe international law and resolve disputes through peaceful
means.
4. Seek consensus on a code of conduct in the East China Sea.
5. Establish a mechanism for cooperation on exploring and
developing resources in the East China Sea.
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the coming into force of the
Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan. Sixty years
ago today at the Taipei Guest House, the Republic of China and Japan
officially brought to an end an extremely vicious war that lasted for eight
years and resulted in the death or serious injury of 25 million people.
Over the last sixty years, countries in Northeast Asia have enjoyed rapid
economic development and become a model for other countries around
the world. Alarmingly, however, the recent rise of tensions due to the
Diaoyutai dispute has the potential to jeopardize peace and stability in
East Asia. Yet peace and prosperity in the region have not come easily,
and the Republic of China never again wants to see a catastrophe such as
the Second Sino-Japanese War happen here.
By proposing the East China Sea Peace Initiative, the Republic of
China hopes that all parties concerned will be compelled to carefully
consider the gravity of the possible consequences of territorial disputes in
Northeast Asia. It is therefore hoped that all parties concerned will
commit to settling these disputes through peaceful means, so that peace in
the East China Sea can be maintained.
It has been noted that, in order to avoid conflicts in the South China
Sea, the parties concerned reached a consensus and signed the
Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea ten years
ago. They also committed to resolving territorial and sovereignty disputes
in a peaceful manner, without resorting to the threat or use of force. The
parties have also attempted to enter into negotiations on a Code of
Conduct in the South China Sea, with the aim of making this commitment
legally binding.
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Taiwan Update, Issue No.:1208-02
As for the East China Sea, the government of the Republic of China
hopes that the parties concerned will settle disputes through peaceful
means in accordance with the United Nations Charter and Article 279 of
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982. The
Republic of China also hopes that having all parties seek a consensus on a
code of conduct in the East China Sea will provide a common frame of
reference for dealing with such issues as territory, sovereignty and the use
of resources.
National territorial sovereignty cannot be divided. Natural resources
can, however, be shared. There have been various sovereignty disputes
over maritime space and islands around the world over the years. One
such example that has been turned into a success story is the North Sea in
Europe, where it was agreed that the parties involved would develop oil
fields. It is hoped that, through the East China Sea Peace Initiative, all
parties concerned can shelve their disputes and come together to
cooperate on exploring and developing resources in the East China Sea.
This cooperation can also extend to a range of other areas, such as
protecting the marine environment, conducting search and rescue
operations, combating crime, and so forth. This initiative will hopefully
give weight to the issue, so that all parties concerned can work towards
making the East China Sea into a sea of “peace and cooperation.”
2. Taiwan to acquire two mine hunting ships
soon
Taiwan is beefing up its naval defense capabilities with the
acquisition of two minehunters from the United States soon, a source
familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
The two refurbished Osprey-class mine hunting ships will be
delivered to Taiwan soon, and will be commissioned about a month after
the delivery, the source told CNA.
The vessels will improve the Navy's minehunting and minesweeping
ability to locate and destroy naval mines used in sea blockades, in the
event of conflict, the source said.
In early 2010, the U.S. government approved the sale of two
Osprey-class mine hunting ships to Taiwan. The package includes
refurbishment, upgrade and other related support and services, at an
estimated cost of US$105 million.
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Taiwan Update, Issue No.:1208-02
3. Cabinet to present framework for economic
stimulus
The Cabinet plans to unveil Tuesday the framework of its plan to
stimulate Taiwan's economy and will hold a series of meetings with
business leaders on the issue later this week, Cabinet spokesman Hu
Yu-wei said on Monday.
The framework will be presented by Minister without Portfolio
Kuan Chung-ming, who heads a task force that addresses global
economic issues, Hu said.
The economic stimulus plan will cover five areas -- exports, human
resources, investment, government efficiency and business sectors, Hu
said.
The Cabinet also touted its progress in improving government
efficiency in a press release on Sunday, pointing out that the
administration has pushed for relaxation of 785 laws and regulations
between July 2008 and last month.
The relaxed laws and regulations include the easing of restrictions
on Chinese business travelers' entry to Taiwan and simplifying the filing
of corporate tax, the statement said.
Meanwhile, a series of five meetings between government officials
and business leaders will be held from Aug. 11, with Premier Sean Chen
hosting the first meeting that day, according to the Council for Economic
Planning and Development.
The meetings, organized by the council after business leaders urged
the government to improve the business environment amid the current
economic uncertainty, will discuss issues prepared by leading business
groups, such as labor relations and energy policies
4. Cross-strait invest pact effective by year-end:
official
Vice Economics Minister Bill Cho ( 卓 士 昭 ) stated that a
cross-Taiwan Strait investment protection pact is expected to take effect
by the end of this year after ratification in the Legislative Yuan.
The pact is to be signed on Aug. 9, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC)
head Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said.
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Taiwan Update, Issue No.:1208-02
According to Lai, the pact will provide new channels for settling
disputes and assure Taiwanese investors' personal safety when doing
business in China.
Lai said the agreement will be a big help to Taiwanese
businesspeople, who have been vulnerable in disputes with Chinese
companies or the mainland government because they can only seek
arbitration in line with China's judicial procedures.
In the future, she said, the new mechanism will enable
person-to-person disputes, between private Taiwanese and Chinese
companies, for example, to seek arbitration in either Taiwan or a third
country agreed upon at the time a contract is signed.
Though the inclusion of a person-to-person arbitration mechanism
is not common in similar international investment agreements, it is
significant for Taiwan because about 65 percent of business disputes
between Taiwan and China fall into the category, according to the MAC.
The mechanism gets around one of the main stumbling blocks that
was holding up the agreement, which was Beijing's refusal to accept the
use of an international arbitrator to settle disputes because that would
tacitly acknowledge Taiwan's sovereignty.
As for commercial disputes between private businesses and
governments (P2G), the investment pact will outline multiple remedies
with different levels of mediation, it said.
A government-to-government (G2G) settlement, meanwhile, will be
dealt with based on the existing Economic Cooperation Framework
Agreement (ECFA), council officials said.
Lai said the investment pact will also cover personal safety, another
concern of Taiwanese businesspeople operating across the Taiwan Strait.
Under the new plan, if Taiwanese investors are arrested in China,
their family members are to be notified of their whereabouts within 24
hours of their arrest.
Some exceptions exist, however, as China's newly amended criminal
litigation law stipulates that authorities do not need to inform family
members of arrests of suspects involved in national security issues and
terrorist acts.
The investment pact, along with a cross-strait customs cooperation
agreement, will be signed during the eighth meeting between Straits
Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and his Chinese
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Taiwan Update, Issue No.:1208-02
counterpart, Chen Yunlin, president of the Beijing-based Association for
Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.
Originally scheduled to take place in the first half of this year, the
meeting was postponed, as a consensus on the investment pact had not
yet been reached.
5. HTC remains 5th largest maker of phones but
closes in on competitors
Taiwan's HTC Corp. remained the fifth largest maker of mobile
phones in the United States, but the struggling manufacturer has cut the
gap between it and the leading players, research firm comScore said
Wednesday.
According to a study by comScore, 234 million Americans aged 13
and older used smartphones and feature phones from April to June this
year.
Samsung Electronics Co. ranked as the top handset maker with 25.6
percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG Electronics Inc. (18.8
percent), Apple Inc. (15.4 percent), Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.
(11.7 percent) and HTC (6.4 percent).
Among the top five vendors, Apple recorded the biggest gains of 1.4
percentage points from the previous three-month period, while HTC's
market share rose 0.4 percentage points.
Google Inc.'s unit, Motorola, dipped 1.1 percentage points, with LG
and Samsung declining 0.5 and 0.4 percentages points, respectively, the
study shows.
In terms of smartphone operating systems, Google's Android
remained the top platform with a 51.6 percent market share, up 0.6
percentage points from the January-March period.
Apple's iOS share increased 1.7 percentage points to 32.4 percent,
trailed by Research In Motion's BlackBerry system with 10.7 percent,
Microsoft's Windows with 3.8 percent and Nokia's Symbian with 0.9
percent.
In April this year, HTC said it will learn more about the smartphone
markets in Europe and Asia in the face of the steep competition in the
United States.
AT&T Inc., the second-largest U.S. mobile operator, announced in
July a price drop for HTC's One X flagship smartphone from US$199 to
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Taiwan Update, Issue No.:1208-02
US$99 for a two-year contract, less than three months after the launch of
the phone.
Some analysts viewed the move as a bad signal because HTC had
been able to sell its phones for 6-12 months prior to the price cuts.
On the contrary, HTC did well in China with its cheaper “New
Desire” series, which helped its volume share in the sub-2,500 Chinese
yuan segment improve from 3 percent in the first quarter to 6 percent in
June, the analysts said.
6. New supercomputer launched by NCHC to
spur efficiency: official
The National Center for High Performance Computing (NCHC) has
launched a new supercomputer to help reduce the computation times
required in various fields, a center official said yesterday.
Formosa 5, Taiwan's self built cloud-computing system, has finished
final testing and is ready for use, said Alpha Wang, manager of the
planning and promotion division at the NCHC.
The main feature of the system is a graphic processing unit (GPU)
cluster that allows it to carry out several simultaneous calculations
quickly and accurately, she said.
The Formosa 5 CPU is currently the fastest in the country, 1.8 times
the speed of another of Taiwan's well-known supercomputers, the
Advanced Large-scale Parallel Supercluster, Wang noted.
7. Taiwan clinches 1st place at Microsoft
software contest
LOS ANGELES -- Frequent use of computer software for school
assignments has helped a Taiwanese university student win a category at
the 2012 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office in Las Vegas
Wednesday.
Yeh Chih-chang, who will begin her fourth year at New
Taipei-based Tamkang University, won the first place in the Microsoft
Powerpoint 2007 category at the annual event. It was the fifth first prize
won by Taiwan's team over the past four years.
Meanwhile, Chen Man-ying of National Taiwan University of
Science and Technology won the third place in the same category.
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Taiwan Update, Issue No.:1208-02
Yeh received a cash prize of US$5,000 and Chen, US$500, as well
as a medal and a certificate each.
Chiu Sung-hsuan, deputy leader of the six-member Taiwanese team,
said he was quite pleased with the results because the team faced tougher
competition this year compared to last year.
Taiwan won the first place in the Powerpoint 2007 category in 2011,
top places in Word and Excel in 2010, and in Excel in 2009.
Yeh said she is familiar with the software as she often uses it for
school assignments, but was quite surprised to win the competition
because she was not sure if she correctly understood the exam which was
translated from English to Chinese.
According to organizers, contestants from 73 countries and regions
competed in six categories — the 2010 and 2007 editions of Word,
Excel and Powerpoint — in this year's competition that was held from
July 29 to Aug. 1..
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