Taiwan Weekly is a newsletter released every week by Fair Winds Foundation, Association of Foreign Relations and Taipei Forum that provides coverage and perspectives into the latest developments in Taiwan.
This Week in Taiwan 0404-0410
April 6: Chairman Eric Chu of the Kuomintang (KMT) announced that Director Alexander Huang of the Department of International Affairs will serve as representative to the United States, and Deputy Director Eric Huang will serve as deputy representative permanently stationed in the United States. Chu is expected to visit the United States in late May, accompanied by Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia. The tentative itinerary includes visits to five major cities (Boston, Washington, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles), where he will publicly deliver remarks.
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Businesses Criticize 70％ Renewables in 2050 Roadmap as Ridiculous
The National Development Council (NDC) released on March 30 a roadmap for Taiwan’s realizing net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, in which the share of renewable energy in the composition of energy structure will come from 20 percent in 2025 to 70 percent in 2050.
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Net-Zero Emissions：Bitter Fruit in 30 Years If Indifferent Now
Before the end of March, the National Development Council (NDC) hastened to unveil a roadmap for Taiwan to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, revealing various items of ideal goals but lacking feasible measures.
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Prosecutor-General Nominee's Path Through the Ranks
President Tsai Ing-wen sent the prosecutor-general's nomination letter to the Legislative Yuan today.
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This Week in Taiwan 0327-0403
March 27: During her remarks at an event in Chiayi, President Tsai Ing-wen stated that from the Russian-Ukrainian war, people see the importance of drones, and the government is planning to make Chiayi an important bastion for aerospace drones. The Chiayi County Government is planning an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) artificial intelligence (AI) innovation research and development center, which will begin operations in August. In the future, the center will cooperate with the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology to develop Taiwan's UAV industry.
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Chiu Touts Mutual Recognition, Criticized by KMT as Unconstitutional
Minister Chiu Tai-san of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) sent signals related to the cross-strait negotiation the day before yesterday that if "upholding the sovereignty of the Republic of China" does not count as Taiwan independence, it would be a better condition for negotiation with mainland China.
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Does Taiwan Really Want to Race to the Battleground？
With the concern over "Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow" ascending, the Ministry of National Defense began to review extending the current military training service.
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Tsai Stands with Zelenskyy, But He is Busy Seeking Xi
In the video conference with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, President Tsai Ing-wen told Mr. Abe that Taiwan has joined the economic sanctions against Russia and started humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, and Taiwan would firmly stand with Ukraine.
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Government Spending to Maintain Cyber-Army A Democracy Virus？Scholar Wary About Monopolized Marketplace of Ideas
Although Premier Su Tseng-chang stated that the government is not keeping a cyber army, previously, William Lai, now vice president, called upon President Tsai Ing-wen during his presidential primary campaign to ask her cyber army to stop attacking him in the presidential primary election of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which raised the seriousness of the relationship between the public sector and the cyber army to the public.
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This Week in Taiwan 0320-0326
March 21: The University of Gothenburg in Sweden conducted a Varieties of Democracy project, revealing that the top three countries in the world most seriously affected by external disinformation are Taiwan, Latvia, and Palestine, and Taiwan has ranked first for nine consecutive years since 2013. Wang Yi-ting, an associate professor of political science at National Cheng Kung University who participated in the project, urges the public and the media to increase vigilance.
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