Accounting for Taiwan's economic policy toward China

This article explores the ideas, institutions, and interests in which Taiwan's economic policy toward China is embedded. The authors indicate that the ideas behind Taiwan's economic policy toward China are as vibrant as ever, the political foundation for a coherent and feasible policy is eroding, and commercial interests are digressing from the Taiwan government's policy goals. Political forces around ideas have strong hearing on the formation of Taiwan's economic policy toward China. The truthfulness or falseness of the security argument is of intrinsic value to Taiwan's decision makers. The authors also point out that in order to have a complete picture of cross‐Strait economic relations, we need to specify how trade and investment with China influence Taiwan's distribution of political interests.     

Taiwan’s Anti-Nuclear Movement: The Making of a Militant Citizen Movement

Social movement studies have constantly focused on research relating to movement strategy, without reaching a consensus on the most viable strategies for realising a movement’s goal. Instead of conceptualising movement strategy as merely a product of movement leaders’ rational calculations, this article analyses a case of strategy shift attributable to leadership replacement and unexpected events. This article examines the significant breakthroughs achieved by Taiwan’s anti-nuclear movement following Japan’s Fukushima Incident in 2011, as well as the 2014 Sunflower Movement in Taiwan. It argues that a militant citizen movement came into being because a new wave of activism employed non-partisan leadership and demonstrated a willingness to employ disruptive tactics. Mounting protests generated a split among members of the traditionally pro-nuclear Kuomintang political party, which was forced to halt the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant in 2014. With the regime change in 2016 that brought the more environment-friendly Democratic Progressive Party to power, Taiwan is now on course to phase out nuclear energy.     

The Korean experience in FDI and Sino-Korean relations

The possibility of regional cooperation in the Yellow Sea Rim (YSR) area has been discussed since the early 1980s. In recent years, Korean outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased rapidly and it will be growing much further. In the new phase of the global economy and the post-cold war political environment, Korean firms consider the socialist countries, especially China, to be attractive new partners for trade and investment projects. Foreign investment contributed to economic growth in developing countries. In the early stage of industrialization in the 1970s, the share of foreign firms amounted to about one-tenth of the total manufacturing employment in Korea. Similarly, outbound Korean FDI could also play an important role in the industrialization of the LDCs in Southeast Asia and China. A case study of a Korean multinational corporation reveals that the direct employment effect of Korea’s FDI is extensive in terms of money invested. In spite of the complementarity in economic structure and the phase of development between Korea and China, the prospect of Korea’s outbound FDI is not all clear. However, one can safely assume that the unit scale of FDI projects will increase. Unlike in the past, the large Korean corporations are now preparing more than a few fair-sized projects in China. The positive impact of those FDI will be significant. The YSR cooperation, if successful, could create efficient economic cooperation based on complementarity between Korea and China. The Korean outbound FDI would pave a road to such regional cooperation. This article is the revised version of a paper prepared for the International Conference on Regional Development in the Yellow Sea Rimlands, held February 18–21, 1991. The conference was cosponsored by the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, the State Science and Technology Commission of China, and the East-West Center of Honolulu, Hawaii.     

Contested governance between politics and professionalism in Taiwan

This essay critically examines the evolution of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) in Taiwan. The ‘American-style’ EIA was originally introduced in Taiwan as an economic policy-making instrument. During the 1980s, grassroots environmental protests rose. The state first met the popular opposition by denying their professional status, and then sought a more peaceful resolution by upgrading the EIA. In 1994, owing to the combined effects of more accountable parliamentary and environmentalists' lobbying, the EIA was finally codified. Democratization also made the codified EIA more powerful and professional, as environmentalists preferred. The latter part of this essay examines the actual practice of the EIA since 1995, with special attention to some controversial cases. The current EIA failed the proclaimed standard of “science and objectivity,” as politics lurked in the disguise of professionalism.     

Reluctant Bedfellows: Want of Authority and Knowing Receipt

The case note examines the recent decision of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal in Thanakharn Kasikorn Thai Chamkat (Mahachon) v Akai Holdings Ltd, where Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury adopted the test of irrationality in determining whether a defaulting agent had apparent authority to act on behalf of his principal to confer benefits on a third party. His Lordship further held that a concurrent claim in knowing receipt arose against the third party, and the test of unconscionability is substantially the same as that of irrationality. The present note argues that symmetry of the two tests is not necessary, for knowing receipt and apparent authority deal with issues that are categorically different and serve different purposes. It also examines, in the context of benefits conferred upon an underlying agreement that is void, the oft‐overlooked issue as to what amounts to receipt for the purpose of knowing receipt.     

香港律师会会长何君尧致辞

让我首先向各位提供一些有关律师行业增长的数据。相比於2010年12月底，执业律师的数目由6782上升至7101，升幅4．7％，     

Raising Seoul's global competitiveness: developing key performance indicators

This paper develops a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for Seoul city administration, inaugurated in 2006. Proper establishment and application of the KPIs into its administration would not only help in accomplishing municipal leadership's strategic initiations but also enhance Seoul's global competitiveness. At the same time, the KPIs can be a good communication tool through which the leadership and city customers can communicate with each other.     

Dental shape match rates in selected and orthodontically treated populations in New York State: a two-dimensional study

Forensically identifying a suspect's dentition from a bitemark in an open population requires the supposition that every person's dental alignment is different. There have been few studies that have tested this claim. Four hundred and ten lower anterior dentitions from a selected population and 110 lower anterior dentitions from one that was orthodontically treated were measured using geometric morphometric analysis, allowing comparison of arch shape. Dental match rates of 1.46% and 42.7% of individuals were found in the respective populations, given an established measurement error. Orthodontic treatment had a strong effect on match rate suggesting that treated or naturally well-aligned dentitions may be indistinguishable. Sexual dimorphism was found to be only slightly significant. Principal shape variation in both populations was degree of arch curvature. Results of studying these populations show that dental matches can occur, and that statements of certainty concerning individualization in such populations should be approached with caution.