Post 228

This sign would be funnier if it were the name of a cafe, and not of a boutique:

Did anybody notice this sentence from the first paragraph of today's front-page story in the China Post 英文中國郵報 on Ma Ying-jeou's 馬英九 formal apology to the victims of the 228 Incident 二二八事件?:

"Many immigrants to Tái​wān 台灣​ from China were killed in bloody clashes during a military crackdown 64 years ago in the incident."

Shouldn't that be more like "Many thousands of residents on Tái​wān were killed by soldiers from China..." or "Many thousands of Taiwanese were killed..."? The Post a few years back ran an editorial on the events of 1947 by looking back mournfully on the "hundreds" of mainlanders killed by the above-mentioned immigrants to Tái​wān in the incident, before briefly referring to the "thousands" of Taiwanese who lost their lives at the hands of soldiers who came from you-know-where.

(A bit of advice on semantics to the China Post news staff: according to Merriam-Webster, an "immigrant" is defined as "a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence", while one of the entries under "country" refers to "a political state or nation or its territory".)

This magnificent monster of a moth was taking a rest atop a urinal in the public restroom at the entrance to the No. 2 Trail in the Dà​kēng 大坑​ area:

Roadside detritus left over from the recently observed Lunar New Year 春節 and Lantern Festival 元宵節:

Yet another Yomiuri Shimbun 読売新聞 article on the Japan-Tái​wān alliance in the chip-making industry (from the Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売 "Elpida, eyeing China, listed in Tái​wān" ):

"Elpida Memory Inc. エルピーダメモリ, the world's third-largest Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chipmaker, became the first Japanese company to be listed on the Tái​wān Stock Exchange  臺灣證券交易所 on Friday, and hopes tie-ups with Tái​wān firms will help it tap the vast mainland market. 'We are joining hands to expand into the Chinese market,' Elpida President Yukio Sakamoto said at a ceremony celebrating his firm's listing on the bourse in Taipei 臺北 ​. Tái​wān newspapers showed considerable interest in Elpida's listing. The Economic Daily News reported that Elpida plans to compete with South Korean giants through a Japan-Tái​wān alliance, while the Liberty Times  自由時報 said Elpida is eyeing integration with other Tái​wān DRAM makers. Elpida shares closed at NT21.7 (about ¥60/73¢) after their first day of trading, slightly higher than its initial public offering price of NT21.3. Elpida reportedly raised a total of ¥12 billion ($146 million) through the listing. Elpida has already reached an agreement to purchase the DRAM business of Tái​wān's Powerchip Technology Corp. 力晶科技股份有限公司, the world's sixth-largest maker of the chips. Elpida is also negotiating a business integration with Tái​wān's ProMOS Technologies Inc., the globe's seventh biggest. Elpida's moves are a bid to survive in the DRAM market for personal computers, which has seen severe price competition recently. The firm will transfer its DRAM production base from Japan to Tái​wān, which is currently the world's biggest production center for computer parts. Tái​wān authorities welcomed Elpida's stock listing, calling it a major step toward realizing a Japan-Tái​wān semiconductor alliance. One high-level Tái​wān official said, '[The listing] will greatly contribute to the integration of Japanese and T'ái​wān DRAM production, and to deepening technological cooperation.'

Tái​wān apparently aims to gain a leg up in international competition by merging its well-established management, production and sales networks in China with Japan's technology. Taiwan is strongly promoting investment in China, evident in its signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement 海峽兩岸經濟合作架構協議 , similar to a free trade pact, with China in June last year. Taiwan investment in China in 2010, including investment via third parties, was about $14.6 billion (¥1.19 trillion/NT43 trillion), far surpassing the $4.2 billion Japan has in the country. The unification of the Taiwan and Chinese economies, dubbed 'Chaiwan,' grows closer every year. Taiwan's real gross domestic product growth in 2010 was 10.82 percent, even higher than China's 10.3 percent. However, Taiwan has been increasingly concerned that domestic firms might be left behind by burgeoning South Korean and Chinese companies.

In addition to Elpida, many other Japanese companies are looking into integrating with Taiwan firms to establish a foothold in the huge Chinese market, a place that is extremely attractive but also considerably risky. During the past year, Japanese and Taiwan firms have formed alliances in the electricity, publishing, distribution and foods industries, among others. Many Japanese firms believe tie-ups in Taiwan will get them into the Chinese market by riding on the coattails of T'ái​wān's ever-deepening economic relationship with the mainland. Japanese companies doing business on their own in China have faced various difficulties, such as strikes by local employees demanding more pay and difficulty cutting through red tape to open new factories. Referring to these problems, a senior official at a major Taiwan IT company said, 'We understand the temperament of the Chinese as well as Japanese business practices.' A top Taiwan official said the Japan-Taiwan alliance would be very beneficial. 'The success rate of business in China by Japanese companies on their own is about 60 percent. But partnering with Taiwan firms will increase this by more than 10 percent,' the official said."