Liberty Times: SMIC's failure sounds an alarm for policy of promoting investment in China The China-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.

(SMIC) this week lost a lawsuit over trade secret theft that was filed in the United States by Taiwan's Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

SMIC's founder Richard Chang resigned after the two companies settled the dispute out of court.

Chang is a local businessman who ventured into the Chinese market after his Taiwan firm was acquired by TSMC. His failure should debunk the myth that China is a global factory, and TSMC's victory in the lawsuit is a message that companies would be better off staying in Taiwan rather than investing in China.

The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou should reverse its policy of encouraging local businessmen to invest in China.

Apple Daily: Police should give up useless show In order to curb the rampant fraud carried out by conmen through telephones and automatic teller machines, the police staged a nationwide operation Thursday by having every ATM around the nation guarded by a police officer for the whole day.

This is a pointless show which will not scare away the conmen but simply make them take a day off their trade.

Just the previous day, a police officer was stabbed to death by a man with mental disorders while driving him to a police station in a patrol car.

The root cause of that tragedy is the police force has been stretched too thin by too many trivial duties such as the national anti-fraud show.

We call upon the police to scrap such useless campaigns.

China Times: Truce means saving energy for longer trek President Ma's most significant change to Taiwan's cross-strait policy is his bid to go from confrontation to detente by means of the diplomatic truce he advocated.

The truce gives both China and Taiwan a break from the fierce competition for allies and allows Taiwan to devote its resources to dealing with the impact of the global financial meltdown.

Nonetheless, in the truce, Taiwan has difficulty coping with Beijing, which has emerged stronger in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Some local people have warned that the truce depends more on Beijing's mercy than on Taiwan's strength. They are right, but we cannot afford to miss the opportunity to enhance our international profile.

However, it seems that the truce does not apply at international film festivals and book fairs, as Taiwan has been forced to alter its name to participate in such events.

In order to cement the detente with Taiwan, we urge China to maintain the diplomatic truce for all its worth and allow Taiwan a proper role on the international stage.

United Daily News: Can politicians stop fussing over nothing? There are two hot issues dominating local politics -- one is Premier Wu Den-yih's alleged association with a former gang boss, and the other is U.S. beef.

Lee Wen-chung, the Democratic Progressive Party's candidate for magistrate in Nantou County, accused Wu of colluding with a gangster to distribute government posts and franchises for sand and gravel mining. Lee and other DPP leaders are watching with glee as the premier scrambles to salvage his reputation. They claim that their ad hominem attacks on Wu have given a boost to Lee and other DPP candidates in the year-end elections.

Meanwhile, the government's decision to allow imports of U.S.

bone-in beef has given the DPP ammunition to attack the ruling party on another front. The opposition party is helping to organize a march against the decision.

The public should remember that it was the DPP administration that opened the Taiwan market to U.S. de-boned beef in 2006. So the DPP is no better than the KMT at dealing with Washington.

Also it was reported that the DPP chairwoman had told a U.S.

diplomat in Taiwan that the planned protest is aimed more at the KMT than Washington.

It is a shame that the nation's politicians are engaging in struggles, not in the interest of the people, but for their own political gains.

(By Maubo Chang)