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One of the top stories from this past week was that China’s Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said Taiwan was “very likely” to be able to become a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The AIIB is a Chinese-led multilateral fund that has attracted more than 40 countries to apply to become founding members. It has been seen as a counterweight to the Washington-based World Bank. Taiwan’s application to become a founding member of the AIIB was rejected earlier this week.
When talking to the Taiwanese media in Washington DC on Friday, the Chinese vice finance minister said although Taiwan was not able to join the AIIB as a founding member, he said it is very likely for Taiwan to become a regular member. He also said that as far as he knows, Taiwan and China are communicating with each other on the issue of Taiwan’s designation in the AIIB.
2)
Also this past week, the chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) says that he will not run for president in next year’s election.
KMT chairman Eric Chu, who is also the mayor of New Taipei City, made the comments on Friday. That’s despite a new poll indicating that he represents the KMT’s best chance of defeating opposition candidate Tsai Ing-wen.
The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced this week that Tsai will be the party’s candidate. Tsai is widely considered a favorite in the presidential election, which is slated for January.
3)
And finally, this past week, the Water Resources Agency is reporting that water levels in a number of Taiwan’s reservoirs are continuing to rise following a period of rain last week. The report comes as the worst drought to hit Taiwan in decades continues.
As of Wednesday, both the Shihmen and Yung-Ho Shan Reservoirs have water storage rates between 20-30%. The Fei-Tsui Reservoir has had an especially high rate of water storage at 88.95%. That’s because of a large amount of rainfall in the Greater Taipei Area, where the reservoir is located.