Word: asia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This spring, Taiwan became the first in Asia to start a bike-sharing program in its two major cities, Taipei and Kaohsiung. Looking to spin the lush island's yin for cycling into a way to reduce pollution, the Taiwanese government launched the service hoping commuters will ditch their cars and start using the thousands of rental bikes it has stationed around the two urban centers to get to work. "Cycling is a great way to unwind after work," says Horace Lee, a corporate planning associate at the Taipei Stock Exchange. "I cycle around the neighborhood just for fun before...
...green bikes project is one of several green initiatives that Taipei has started in recent years in an effort to reign in the island's enduring emissions problem. Kaohsiung, an industrial port city with some of the worst air in Asia, unveiled its program on March 1 with an initial trial of 4500 bikes at 20 different stations. The government ultimately hopes to install 120 stations around the city. In crowded Taipei, notorious for its streets clogged with aggressive drivers, bike rentals have been limited to its newest - and safest - business district, Hsinyi, where 500 bikes were stationed during...
...Though one of the more environmentally pro-active places in Asia - Taipei has reduced air pollutants over 30% in the last decade - the island still has a long way to go. Taiwan's per capita carbon dioxide emissions are three times the global average, and they're growing faster than any country in the world. President Ma Ying-jeou set an ambitious goal to decrease emissions to half of 2000 levels by 2050, but critics say his goal of maintaining 2008 levels is a bit flimsy, and programs like bike sharing are more style than substance. "In Taiwan, the economy...
...there gives Beijing a vital edge in the South China Sea, whose waters are contested by five other governments. The disputed Spratly and Paracel archipelagoes, which sit above reserves of natural gas, have been an ongoing bone of contention between China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Further afield, China and India, Asia's other rising giant, are locked in a protracted contest of influence over the Indian Ocean, with China setting up a "string of pearls" - or listening posts - from Burma to Pakistan. New Delhi has stepped up its own military ties with Hanoi in an attempt to keep Beijing busy...
...decline in American influence is at the core of the region's changing geo-political landscape. For decades after World War II, the U.S. authored the status quo in Asia's waters, with a series of naval bases from Guam to Japan, and a high-powered presence of marine corps and air-craft carriers to back up its interests with muscle. In 1996, when tensions between China and Taiwan bubbled over into threats of war, Washington was able to check Beijing's aggression by deploying two carrier battle groups off Taiwan's shores. That kind of move is unthinkable...