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FOCUS November 2015

  

Category - Official Text

  1. 美國在台協會梅健華處長記者會 - 2015年10月27日 (全文英文)。 Click to read the full-text
    AIT Director Kin W. Moy Press Conference - October 27, 2015
    OT-1525, October 29, 2015, 9 pages.
    “Some people have asked me since my arrival what I hope to accomplish during my assignment in Taiwan. I tell them that when I depart I would like the people of Taiwan to know that they have no better friend than the United States. And that Americans will continue to support Taiwan and be present as it defines its future.” (From AIT)
  2. 美國副貿易代表羅伯特 ‧何禮曼 第九屆美台貿易暨投資架構協定(TIFA)聯席委員會會談記者會致詞稿。

    Remarks by Deputy United States Trade Representative Robert Holleyman.
    OT-1521, October 1, 2015, 2 pages.
    “TIFA process remains the key forum to find ways to further expand and enhance this important trade and investment relationship.” (From AIT)  
  3. 跨太平洋夥伴關係協定摘要 (全文英文)。
    SUMMARY OF THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT United States Trade Representative Oct. 5, 2015.

    OT-1522, October 6, 2015, 15 pages.
    “We envision conclusion of this agreement, with its new and high standards for trade and investment in the Asia Pacific, as an important step toward our ultimate goal of open trade and regional integration across the region.” (From AIT) 
  4. 2014年國際宗教自由報告: 台灣部分。
    Taiwan 2014 International Religious Freedom Report for 2014.
    OT-1524, October 15, 2015, 3 pages.
    “The constitution provides for freedom of religious belief. Domestic service workers and caretakers are not covered under Taiwans labor standards law and are therefore not legally guaranteed a weekly rest day. Due to this exclusion, many domestic workers are effectively prevented from attending religious services.” (From AIT)

Category - International Relations 

  1.  Kerry, John.
    國務卿克裡就敘利亞和打擊恐怖主義問題發表講話 (全文)。
    Secretary Kerry on Syria and countering terrorism.

    Share America, September 30, 2015, 6 pages.
    “This is a topic that the council has explored many times. Going back to the 9/11 attacks and even before, we have come together fairly often to condemn terrorism and also to take concerted action to counter violent extremist organizations. So this is not a debate about goals, I don’t think. We all oppose the aggressive ambitions of such organizations as ISIL, al-Qaida, and groups that initiate or that are imitating them or affiliated with them. We all oppose the atrocities that they commit, and we all want to end the suffering that they continue to inflict.” (From Share America)
  2. Manning, Robert A.
    Xi-Obama Summit: Bridging the Trust Deficit in US-China Ties?
    YaleGlobal Online, September 29, 2015, 3 Pages.
    “Implementation of many of the agreements reached at the Xi-Obama meeting can serve as metrics of whether China is moving toward cooperation. If so, China could reduce the trust deficit in Sino-US ties and put the relationship on a trajectory that encourages Obama’s successor in 2017 to also pursue a policy that is more cooperative than competitive.” (From YaleGlobal Online)  
  3. Blanchard, Christopher M. and others.
    Armed Conflict in Syria: Overview and U.S. Response.
    Washington, D.C. : Congressional Research Service, October 1, 2015, 31 pages.“The Islamic State controls large areas of northeastern and central Syria, from which it continues to launch assaults on forces opposed to and aligned with the government of President Bashar al Asad. Meanwhile, fighting elsewhere pits government forces and their foreign allies against a range of anti-government insurgents, some of whom have received limited U.S. assistance. Russian military intervention in support of Asad poses a direct challenge to U.S. goals in Syria, and is raising new questions about the future of the conflict and U.S. strategy.” (From CRS Report)

  1. Obama, Barack.
    Remarks by the President After Meeting with Agriculture and Business Leaders on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
    The White House, October 6, 2015, 2 pages.
    “Under this agreement, all those foreign taxes will fall.  Most of them will fall to zero. So we are knocking down barriers that are currently preventing American businesses from selling in these countries and are preventing American workers from benefitting from those sales to the fastest-growing, most dynamic region in the world.” (From the White House)  
  2. Fischer, Stanley.
    Macroprudential Policy in the U.S. Economy.
    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, October 2, 2015, 12 pages.
    “The U.S. financial system is extremely complex. We have one of the largest nonbank sectors as a percentage of the overall financial system among advanced market economies. Since the crisis, changes in the regulation and supervision of the financial sector, most significantly those related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) and the Basel III process, have addressed many of the weaknesses revealed by the crisis. Nonetheless, challenges to our efforts to preserve financial stability remain.” (From the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) 
  3. Dwyer, Gerald P. and Norbert J. Michel.
    Bits and Pieces: The Digital World of Bitcoin Currency.  
    The Heritage Foundation, September 16, 2015, 18 pages.
    “Bitcoin is now accepted as payment by well-known companies, such as Dell, Papa John’s, and Overstock.com, but it remains a very small part of global commerce. It is a technological innovation with the potential to benefit millions of people. Policymakers should prevent burdensome regulations that single out Bitcoin’s development or drive it offshore.” (From the Heritage Foundation)

 

  1. Contrasting Partisan Perspectives on Campaign 2016.
    Pew Research Center, October 2, 2015, 14 pages.
    “With four months to go before the first presidential nomination contests, Republican and Democratic voters have sharply different perspectives on their parties’ campaigns – from the qualities they value in candidates to the assessments of their presidential fields and the issues they prioritize.” (From Pew Research Center) 
  2. Kosar, Kevin R.
    How to Strengthen Congress.
    National Affairs, Number 25, Fall 2015, 14 pages.
    “Congress has been complicit in its own diminution, but any path to reining in the executive must begin with the legislative branch. The most democratic of the three branches, only Congress has sufficient constitutional power to bring the executive branch to heel. To reverse the current state of executive-dominated governance, Congress needs to take steps to remedy decades of neglect and bad decisions that have enfeebled the first branch while empowering the executive.” ( From National Affairs) 
  3. Mcelwee, Sean.
    Why Non-Voters Matter: A New Study Suggests that Increasing Turnout Could Have Significant Ramifications for Policy.
    The Atlantic, September 15, 2015, 11 pages.
    “In 2014, just 41.9 percent of the voting-age citizen population of the United States voted. But the people who voted are not only in the minority, they form an unrepresentative minority. Millions of Americans are too young to vote. Others are disenfranchised felons, unable to vote for health reasons, missed registration deadlines, stuck at work, dissuaded by voter ID laws.” (From The Atlantic) 
  4. Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to U.S., Driving Population Growth and Change Through 2065.
    Pew Research Center, September 28, 2015, 10 pages.
    “Fifty years after passage of the landmark law that rewrote U.S. immigration policy, nearly 59 million immigrants have arrived in the United States, pushing the country’s foreign-born share to a near record 14%. For the past half-century, these modern-era immigrants and their descendants have accounted for just over half the nation’s population growth and have reshaped its racial and ethnic composition.” (From Pew Research Center) 
  5. Von Spakovsky, Hans A. and Elizabeth Slattery.
    One Person, One Vote: Advancing Electoral Equality, Not Equality of Representation.
     
    The Heritage Foundation, September 10, 2015, 15 pages.
    “The Supreme Court has held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause includes a “one-person, one-vote” guarantee requiring voting districts to be drawn “on a basis that will insure…that equal numbers of voters can vote for proportionally equal numbers of officials.” So far, states have been free to choose which population category to use, such as total population, voting-age population, citizen voting-age population, citizen-eligible voting-age population, or some variant thereof, as long as the Constitution does not forbid it. Now, in what may be the most important voting case in 50 years, Evenwel v. Abbott, the Supreme Court is presented in its October 2015 term with the chance to clarify whether the “one person, one vote” principle includes a judicially enforceable right to ensure that voters are not denied an equal vote.” (From the Heritage Foundation)

  1. Lucas, Nathan J. and Kathleen J. McInnis.
    The 2015 National Security Strategy: Authorities, Changes, Issues for Congress.
    Washington, D.C. : Congressional Research Service, October 1, 2015, 25 pages.
    “The 2015 report retains much of the underlying thought of the 2010 version. However, its emphasis appears to shift away from the U.S. role in the world being largely a catalyst for action by international institutions to one that reflects more involved leadership both inside those institutions and between nations. It also takes a tougher line with both China and with Russia, while emphasizing the desirability for cooperation with both.” (From CRS Report) 
  2. CRS Insight: U.S.–China Cyber Agreement.
    Washington, D.C. : Congressional Research Service, October 16, 2015, 2 pages.
    “During the state visit on September 24-25, 2015, President Xi Jinping of China and President Barack Obama reached a Cyber Agreement. Soon after, the White House released details contained in the agreement. In principle, the United States and China agreed, among other things, to provide timely responses to requests for information and assistance concerning malicious cyber activities, refrain from conducting or knowingly supporting cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, pursue efforts to further identify and promote appropriate norms of state behavior in cyberspace within the international community, and establish a high-level joint dialogue mechanism on fighting cybercrime and related issues.” (From CRS Report)

 

  1.   How China is Becoming an Innovation Dynamo.
    The Economic Times, September 24, 2015, 3 Pages.
    “A recent report in The Economist, based on research by McKinsey Global Institute and PwC, confirms China’s transition to a global innovation powerhouse. The private sector drives innovation in China, going by the ability of companies to expand revenues and raise profits as proof of successful innovation, rather than the number of patents filed. A PwC survey also shows that Chinese companies are increasing investments in R&D faster than competitors in any other market.” (From The Economic Times) 
     

 


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