Taiwan Today: President Tsai congratulates Japan’s Shinzo Abe on re-election

Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe, right, waves with former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba after the ruling party presidential elections at its headquarters in Tokyo, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. Abe handily defeated his sole challenger Ishiba. Prime Minister Abe was re-elected Thursday to a third term as leader of the ruling party, paving the way for him to serve as prime minister for up to three more years.(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

President Tsai congratulates Japan’s Shinzo Abe on re-election

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Thursday congratulated Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on his re-election as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.

President Tsai, who also serves as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), expressed hope that relations between the two countries will continue to flourish well into the future.

Abe won a landslide vote against his sole challenger, former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba, in an election held that day.

Vatican-China deal will not affect ties with Taiwan

A possible agreement between the Vatican and China will be aimed at Catholic religious affairs only and will not affect the Holy See’s ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan), Deputy Foreign Minister Kelly Hsieh (謝武樵) said.

Both Catholic and Chinese state media have recently reported that the Vatican and Beijing could seal the deal before the end of this month, ending a decades-long dispute over the issue of the appointment of bishops in China, with some speculating that this could lead to the Vatican forming diplomatic ties with Beijing and ditching Taipei.

Since Pope Francis assumed the papacy in March 2013 and began making goodwill gestures to China have breakthroughs been achieved.

MAC warns of disadvantages of studying in China

The Taiwan government is concerned about the growing number of Taiwanese students opting to study in China and is taking steps to inform them of the downsides of such a decision, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺) said.

Speaking at a seminar sponsored by Taiwan ThinkTank, Chen said that since China revised its regulations to allow Taiwanese students into its universities with lower academic standards, there has been a spike in the number of Taiwan students going to China.

While the Taiwan government has no official statistics yet on the trend, he said, “the MAC is worried, although we don’t know whether China will maintain the new offer beyond its first year.”

Moves by Beijing to give Taiwanese students and graduates equal status with mainland Chinese, granting them greater access to mainland universities, professional qualifications and jobs, has caused consternation in Taiwan, which has seen a major brain drain of qualified people.

Taiwanese companies advised to move to Central America amid trade war

Taiwan’s Central American allies have been calling for Taiwanese companies to move their production bases to the area amid the U.S.-China trade war that is beginning to hurt these companies with higher tariffs.

A recent report released by Yuanta-Polaris, a Taiwan-based economic think tank mentioned the country’s machine tool and electronic component industries as the two sectors that will likely be the most affected by the ongoing trade war.