Published since 2019 by the Fair Winds Foundation and Association of Foreign Relations, Taiwan Weekly provides in-depth report and analysis of the major issues facing Taiwan.
People often refer to former Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s famous saying: "A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency."
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July 10: For the first time in seven years, real wages in Taiwan have declined. According to statistics released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), Executive Yuan, from January to May, the average recurring salary was NT$43,341 (about US$1,397), an annual increase of 2.46 percent, and the total salary increased by 1.61 percent. The annual growth rate of the consumer price index (CPI) was 2.44 percent during the same period. The DGBAS indicated that considering the price factor, real total salary is NT$58,348 (about US$1,881), an annual decrease of 0.81 percent. The figures show that salary growth cannot keep up with commodity prices.
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In an interview, Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih expressed that after stability and peace are ensured in the Taiwan Strait, he will reduce the length of compulsory military service back to four months.
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Director-General Tsai Ming-yen of the National Security Bureau (NSB) stated that the current atmosphere of war in the Taiwan Strait is all "manipulation" and not based on reality and that Communist China is not capable of attacking Taiwan by force at this juncture.
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The Executive Yuan passed a new plan for differential house tax rates on July 6.
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July 1: General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, delivered a speech at the National Press Club luncheon in Washington, pointing out there is no sign that mainland China has decided to attack Taiwan in 2027, and the United States and other countries still have time to make it clear to China that the use of force is a bad idea. He emphasized that the U.S. military must be ready at any time and advance military modernization as soon as possible to ensure its superiority over China and increase the likelihood of deterring war.
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In 2019, the protests in Hong Kong broke out, and the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan loudly proclaimed its support for Hong Kong.
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With the 2024 presidential and legislative elections approaching, campaigns have shifted their focus back to significant economic and financial issues—whether to restart negotiations on the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), including cross-strait agreements on trade in services and trade in goods.
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On the morning of June 29, during her opening speech at the 2023 World News Media Congress, President Tsai Ing-wen stated that in recent years, many international media professionals have set up stations in Taiwan, which confirms Taiwan's efforts to defend media freedom and freedom of speech.
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June 25: Former President Ma Ying-jeou invited mainland Chinese students from Peking, Tsinghua, Fudan, Wuhan, and Hunan universities to come to Taiwan in July for student exchanges. The Ministry of Education recently issued a document to the five universities in Taiwan willing to host the mainland students, asking the schools to propose a security plan to ensure the safety of instructors and students on campus. The move was criticized as imposing a technical barrier.
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