The Debrief, 8/26/14

For our news roundup this week, we talk about possible rise of the minimum wage in both Taiwan and South Korea, and review Ting Hsin International Corporation, a Taiwanese food conglomerate, buying the CNS cable operator that another food and media conglomerate Want Want failed to acquire in 2012, as well as the case of US journalist James Risen’s battle with the US government.

• On Monday, the Ministry of Labor convened a meeting of the committee on the minimum wage. However, all seven of the committee members representing employers declined to show up. In a joint press release, the employer representatives said that the meeting was not called according to previously agreed protocols, and pressed for a set formula to calculate minimum wage…
• The Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團), a Taiwanese processed foods conglomerate, has agreed to acquire cable TV operator China Network Systems Co. (中嘉網路, CNS) for approximately NT$67 billion (US$2.24 billion) from private equity fund MBK Partners Ltd. In 2012, CNS was negotiating a sale to another food conglomerate, the Want Want Group (旺旺集團), but the deal was not approved by the National Communications Commission (NCC) after mass protests… (See here)
• James Risen, a New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner, is facing possible jail time for refusing to testify against a former CIA operative that allegedly contributed information about the United States’ failed mission in Iran to his 2006 book, State of War. Since 2006, the US Justice Department has been trying to obtain testimony from Risen, to reveal the identity of his confidential source. Risen tried multiple legal options to avoid testifying against his source, who is believed to be Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA agent… (See here)

(Feature photo of Port of Keelung, by jeff~, on Wikicommons, CC BY 2.0)