Word: april
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...This has begun to change under Ma, who shortly after taking office established what he calls the "three links": direct shipping, air travel and mail service. In late April, the two sides agreed to more than double the number of weekly direct flights to 270. Ma has also eased limitations on investment by Taiwan companies in China, and his administration recently announced that, for the first time, mainland investments would be allowed in a broad range of Taiwan manufacturing and services companies. China Mobile, the mainland's largest cellular-service provider, has already agreed to invest about $530 million...
...counters that everything he has done is in Taiwan's best interests, especially concerning the economy. The global financial crisis hit trade-dependent Taiwan especially hard. Exports in April plunged a staggering 34% from the same month in 2008 - the sixth consecutive monthly double-digit decline - as demand for the island's computer and electronic equipment shriveled in the U.S. and Europe. The government expects GDP to contract 3% in 2009; some private estimates predict worse. The severity of the crisis brought new urgency to the effort to improve ties with China in order to capitalize...
...promising more reform. In April, China and Taiwan inked an agreement that will start the process of liberalizing cross-strait financial services. More broadly, Ma intends to forge a comprehensive economic-cooperation agreement with Beijing that would reduce tariffs on Taiwan exports to China as well as provide investment guarantees and protect intellectual property. There is a reason to hurry. In 2010, China is slated to slash tariffs on goods from nations in Southeast Asia, potentially putting Taiwan's products at a greater disadvantage in the China market. Through a bilateral trade agreement, Ma says, "We hope we can avoid...
...David Letterman didn't say what prompted him in March to wed his partner of 23 years, who is also the mother of his 5-year-old son. I know that in our case, the plus sign on my pregnancy test led my boyfriend and me to marry in April, which has made our relationship feel more committed, but maybe a little less cool...
...Beijing has never given any indication that it's prepared to do. The idea that Kim Jong Il's regime even cares if the nation's isolation "deepens" is dubious at best. As for the U.N., it met in emergency session just after the long-range missile launch in April and gently tightened sanctions that were already having no demonstrable effect on North Korea's behavior on key security issues. Will another "emergency session" really produce painful sanctions that could conceivably make a difference? That, after all, is presumably what Tokyo has in mind when it talks about not tolerating...