The Economist Sizes Tsai Up

choi

Taiwan readies for a new president | Sizing Tsai Up; Tsai Ing-wen has a delicate balancing act, both at home and with China. Economist, May 14, 2016.
http://www.economist.com/news/as ... hina-sizing-tsai-up

uote:

"To date only Singapore and New Zealand have bilateral agreements with both China and Taiwan

"Taiwan is one of very few countries to run a trade surplus with China, thanks mainly to contract manufacturing and exports of capital equipment.

The "sunflower" movement of protesters "greatly undermined Mr Ma's presidency.

"The honeymoon is over before Ms Tsai even begins.

Note:
(a) "One of the designers, Zita Hsu"

Zita Ying-Hsun Hsu  許鶯薰

(b) "At home she [Tsai] is under pressure to revive an economy that is barely growing * * * Ms Tsai inherits a growth rate of less than 1%"
(i) Taiwan's official quarterly GDP growth rates -- year on year (same as China, but different from America's quarter-on-quarter), annualized -- were:

1Q15 .....2Q15 ....3Q15 .....4Q15 .....1Q16
4.04 ......0.57 ......-0.80 .....-0.52 ......-0.84
Statistical Tables. National Statistics, Republic of China (Taiwan)
http://eng.stat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xI ... tNode=5347&mp=5
(first row: "Principal Figures (EXCEL) (ODF)" )

The GDP growth rate for the entire 2015 was 0.75.

(ii) In economics, two consecutive negative quarterly growth rates is defined as recession.

(c) "Ms Tsai's choice of defence minister, Feng Shih-kuan, the former head of a state-run aerospace company, reflects her desire to build up a local defence industry. And the economics minister, Lee Chih-Kung, is an energy expert—the DPP pledges to make Taiwan nuclear-free."
(i) 馮世寬 (1945- ; 生於江苏省淮安市; 空軍二級上將 (retired); 淡水行天武聖宮主任委員 [whose website says, "侍奉主神  關聖帝君 濟公活佛 中壇元帥 及諸神佛"]、漢翔公司董事長 (2006-2008) )  zh.wikipedia.org
(A) 陳慧萍、葉冠妤 and 林欣漢, 準國防部長馮世寬 還是宮廟「大師兄」; 林全：馮與社會溝通有一套. Liberty Times
http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/focus/paper/979686
("馮同時也是基隆和平島天顯宮「伍顯大帝」的弟子，經常前往參拜")
(B) 點故由來. 基隆天顯宮, undated (under the heading 天顯宮介紹)
http://www.tian-xian-gong.org.tw/wu_shin_about1.html
("緣自清朝中葉，當時由島上的謝姓祖先｜謝子龍三兄弟自浙江寧海奉迎伍顯靈官大帝金身於澎佳嶼，未久即恭迎至島上現址 * * * 相傳 [伍顯] 大帝成道於商末周初，曾匡扶武王伐紂，功成歸山修正果，練成九玄功，七十二變化、為南極之精英、北斗之魁神，大帝於隋初顯靈輔助隋文帝楊堅奠立帝基。宋末高宗康王南渡，厄於金兵之追迫，困阻大江，無計脫身時，伍顯大帝顯聖以泥馬渡康王過江脫險")
(ii) 李世光: "目前為國立台灣大學應用力學研究所特聘教授、國立台灣大學工程科學及海洋工程學系特聘教授，亦為第二期國家能源型計畫共同主持人兼執行長等數職"  zh.wikipedia.org
(A) College of Engineering, National Taiwan University, undated
http://www.ntu.edu.tw/english/academics/academics_institute.html
(consisting of Department of Engineering Science & Ocean Engineering and Institute of Applied Mechanics 應用力學研究所, among others_
(B) 第二期能源國家型科技計畫 National Energy Program Phase II (NEP-II)