Diplomats, pundits and academics unanimously refer to the threat of an emerging Chinese military in terms of its capability to make war and more specifically to interdict the Taiwan Strait in the event of a military confrontation over Taiwan.

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By Ni Kuei-jung 倪貴榮
In 2004, the Intellectual Property Office gave a Taiwanese manufacturer of recordable compact discs compulsory licensing of a patent owned by Dutch company Philips. This brought a protest from the EU, which commissioned a trade barrier probe -- the results of which were made public on Feb. 1.

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The US economy must enter a new paradigm of productivity and demand that is tied to wages, not debt
By Thomas Palley
A second big interest-rate cut in a fortnight, along with an economic stimulus plan that united Republicans and Democrats, demonstrates that US policymakers are keen to head off a recession that looks like the consequence of rising mortgage defaults and falling home prices.

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By Jim Yardley
At the mouth of the Tashan mine, one of the largest coal mines in China, men in hard hats waited to begin another shift 400m underground. Lunch break was over. Their faces were smeared with coal dust as a dingy white truck carried them down an underground road to the floor of the mine.

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As a private citizen, holding a US green card is one's free choice as long as one agrees to fulfill the duties that come with the card.

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Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Ma Ying-jeou have been nominated as presidential candidates by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) respectively. They have registered as presidential candidates and the election is less than seven weeks away. Voters are eagerly examining their past performance as mayors and their campaign pledges. It's time to hold TV debates so that voters can make a good choice in the election.

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Taiwan is a vibrant multi-ethnic country. Most people love its colorful divergent cultures of Aborigines, Hoklo, Hakka, Chinese, Japanese and even Westerners. Its people enjoy free speech under the newfound democracy.

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I read your article on domestic workers missing holidays ("No holiday for many domestics," Feb. 4, page 2) with anger and shame. I was reminded of the novels of Charles Dickens who described the horrible working conditions in Victorian England, which so shocked the public that new laws were enacted to control greedy, heartless people who employed children in dangerous jobs and offered people a life of endless work and little sleep for paltry wages.

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