Taiwan Blog Feed

Hi all,
...

The South China Morning Post reports that the Great Chinese Navy, in its infinite kindness, will be protecting Taiwanese vessels from Somali pirates:

The Chinese navy will begin guiding several mainland vessels - plus a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship - through the dangerous waters off Somalia from today in its historic expedition to join international efforts in fighting rampant piracy in the area.

A ship from Taiwan may also be among the vessels being protected by the PLA naval mission.

An official from the China Shipowners' Association said owners of the Taiwanese ship had approached the association seeking protection. But since the group was not authorised to handle applications from outside the mainland, the shipping company was referred to the Straits Exchange Foundation, the body that deals with Taiwan-related affairs.

Why are there Somali pirates? I found this thought-provoking discussion at Huffington Post.

In local news, the KNN feed notes that KMT legislator Diane Lee, she of the dual-citizenship case, has been charged with fraud and embezzlement:

Last March, DPP legislators William Lai, Chiu Yi-ying, and Chen Ting Fei claimed that KMT legislators Diane Lee held U.S. citizenship. In addition, they also filed charges against Lee at the Taipei District Prosecutors Office. The Prosecutors Office studied the documents supplied by the U.S. government last December and found that Lee was still a U.S. citizen. As she campaigned in legislative elections while possessing dual-nationality, the prosecutors determined that she had violated the provisions on embezzlement by fraudulent means in the Statute on Punishment of Corruption and had also committed the crime of document forgery as stipulated in the Penal Code. Therefore, prosecutors yesterday decided to ask the National Immigration Agency and the Coast Guard Administration of the Executive Yuan to bar her from traveling abroad.

Now that all our factories are in China, the only growth industry left on Taiwan is prosecution....

[Taiwan]