The publishing sector was not included in the service trade agreement between Taiwan and China, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said, in an attempt to ease concerns from angry local publishers dissatisfied with the negotiation process, which they said was not transparent.
Hours before the pact was signed in Shanghai on Friday, Rex How (郝明義), a presidential advisor and chairman of Locus Publishing Co, issued a statement urging President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to postpone the deal.
How said the negotiations on the pact were conducted in secrecy and denounced the government for ignoring the needs of Taiwanese.
He said many feared that Taiwanese publishers will continue to be forbidden from printing books in China, while Chinese publishers would be able to do so here.
Publishing, printing, retail and distribution are four sectors that are closely related to each other, but the government only included printing in the service trade talks, he added.
As a result, when Taiwan opens its doors fully to Chinese investors in the printing sector in the future, local companies will only be able to print advertising or packing materials, but not books in China, he said.
Lu Cheng-hua (呂正華), a deputy director-general of the ministry’s Industrial Development Bureau, said that under the newly-signed service trade agreement, Taiwan has not agreed to fully open the printing sector to Chinese investors.
Chinese investors are only to be allowed to form joint ventures with Taiwanese companies in the printing industry, and can only hold a stock share of under 50 percent, Lu said.
As for China, what it has offered is similar to what Taiwan has agreed to, Lu said.
If Taiwanese companies want to print books in China, they have to have a Chinese partner who holds a majority of shares and has a “book printing certificate” — a special permit from the Chinese authorities, Lu added.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS