Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) drew criticism on Wednesday for comments he made a day earlier that, if elected president, he would consider boycotting the Beijing Olympics if the crisis in Tibet worsened.

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By Tu Jenn-Hwa 林震華
The Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs recently said the amount of Taiwan's inward foreign direct investment (FDI) approved last year was US$15.36 billion -- a new high.

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By Shea Jia-dong 許嘉棟
With the US subprime mortgage crisis, economic predictions for the world economy over the next year are pessimistic, both internationally and domestically. Furthermore, there have been significant hikes in the price of crude oil and raw materials, with increasing signs that stagflation could deliver yet another blow to the world economy.

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By Matthew Lien
The recent election of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was attributed in part to his restoration of a river running through Seoul. When Lee was elected mayor of Seoul in 2001, one of his key campaign promises was to remove the freeway covering the Cheonggyecheon River and to restore the waterway as a symbol of the city's beauty.

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The Japanese killed thousands in building the infamous World War II rail line, but many more Asians died there and few want to know
By Thomas Fuller
The flocks of foreign tourists who visit this western Thai city usually head straight to the storied bridge on the River Kwai and the meticulously maintained cemeteries containing the remains of thousands of Allied prisoners of war who died building a railway here during World War II.

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Western governments have focused too much on Beijing's economic clout and not enough on its illegitimacy, which helps to explain their meek responses
By Simon Tisdall
China's anger and embarrassment over the Tibet protests is keenly felt and will not be easily assuaged. Its sense of betrayal is as striking as its inability to comprehend the cause of it. But Beijing's shame is widely shared. The unrest has confronted Western governments with inconvenient truths for which they plainly have no answers.

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