This week we review Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je’s trip to the US where he stopped by San Francisco and New York, and look at China’s premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Germany and talk economics and trade, yet another food scandal in Taiwan that has consumers fed up and angry, and a report of interview with former president Lee Teng-hui.

  • On Wednesday, independent Taipei mayoral candidate Dr. Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) began his US tour, visiting San Francisco Bay Area and meeting with academics, students, industry leaders and Taiwanese American supporters. During a dinner speech Ko gave, he listed Taipei’s largest problem as the high housing prices, and Taiwan’s greatest issue as the social immobility caused by inheritance of wealth and power…(Full article here)
  • On Saturday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) wrapped up a three day trip to Germany, his second trip within the past year. Li met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, and spoke to a gathering of business representatives in Hamburg…
  • Taiwan is embroiled in yet another major food safety scandal, this time a major oil company 正義  is found to mix oil destined for use in animal feed into its consumer oil products. 正義  is owned by the Ting Hsin International Group (頂新), a conglomerate that operates major food brands Master Kung (康師父), Weichuan (味全), as well as wireless service providers, Taipei 101 management, and was in talks of purchasing one of Taiwan’s major cable distributor 中嘉…
  • On Friday, Taiwan’s former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was interviewed on TV by talk show host Cheng Hong-yi (鄭弘儀). Lee spoke for an hour, about topics ranging from cancer treatment to land rights and political reforms…

(Feature photo of Matsusei Supermarkets, owned by Ting Hsin, in Kaohsiung, by 龍本 on Wikicommons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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The Debrief