Monthly Archives: April 2016

Defense Ministry’s latest film tells story of fallen AT-3 pilot

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/20
By: Elaine Hou and Lu Hsin-hui

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) “Eject! Eject!” a woman shouts and wakes up from a

Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense

nightmare. She is the lead in a short film produced by the Ministry of National Defense, adapted from the story of a fallen AT-3 pilot who died in a crash in the southern city of Kaohsiung in 2014.

Titled “I’m OK. Thank you,” the six-minute film begins with the widow of “Lt. Col. Chen Tzu-chiang (陳自強)” waking up from a nightmare. The teary-eyed woman then turns around to look at a bedside photo of herself and her husband.

She picks up the photo and cries, thinking of her dead husband.
Photo taken from the shooting. Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense [FULL STORY]

Taiwan officials in Beijing for detainee negotiations

Taiwan Today
Date: April 20, 2016

A delegation of Taiwan officials arrived April 20 in Beijing to visit detained

Chen Wen-chi (right), director-general of the MOJ Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs, leads the Taiwan delegation to the boarding gate for a flight to Beijing April 20 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. (CNA)

Republic of China (Taiwan) nationals forcibly deported from Kenya and launch negotiations with their mainland Chinese counterparts on establishing procedures for handling any future criminal cases involving peoples from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in third jurisdictions.

Headed by Chen Wen-chi, director-general of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Justice, the 10-member group comprises officials from the MOJ, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation.

The delegation’s scheduled three-day trip follows the forcible deportation of 45 ROC nationals to mainland China by the Kenyan police earlier this month. In addition, 32 ROC nationals are detained in Malaysia as part of a telecoms fraud investigation. Beijing is said to be urging their deportation to mainland China after the return of 20 other suspects to Taiwan last week.

In the Kenya case, the MOJ called on Beijing to adhere to the past pattern of cooperation established five years ago after the Philippines deported 14 ROC nationals to mainland China over Taiwan’s objections. At that time, prosecutors from both sides investigated the case and collected evidence together. The deportees were repatriated to Taiwan five months later and tried under the nation’s criminal code. [FULL STORY]

KMT’s Hung chides DPP, NPP reaction

DEPORTATION UPROAR:Adviser Sun Yang-ming said that the legislature was ignorant of international law in condemning Beijing’s removal of suspects from Kenya

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 21, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday said opposition parties had reacted poorly to the deportation of Taiwanese from Kenya to China as part of an alleged fraud investigation.

Hung said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the New Power Party (NPP) had acted irrationally and used populist rhetoric in discussing the incident, adding that she expects the KMT to be the mediator between the DPP government and Beijing should a political stalemate arise.

At a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting, Hung said the Kenya incident shows that if the “foundation of friendliness” of the cross-strait relationship is lacking, mutual trust between the two sides would be affected.

“The KMT firmly endorses the [so-called] ‘1992 consensus’ and the cross-strait peace it helps maintain, and it expects itself to maintain cross-strait relations and play a role if interactions between the DPP and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] reach an impasse,” she said. [FULL STORY]

16 Taiwan entries win at Houston film festival

Taiwan Today
Date: April 20, 2016

Taiwan submissions won 16 awards at the 49th WorldFest-Houston International

Outdoor scenes showcasing the beauty of Taiwan feature heavily in “The Missing Piece,” a locally made feature winning the Gold Remi Award for best comedy at the 49th WorldFest-Houston International Film and Video Festival April 16 in the U.S. (CNA)

Film and Video Festival April 16, including the Gold Remi for best comedy—one of four top-line honors on offer at the oldest independent film event in the U.S.

“The Missing Piece” by director Chiang Feng-hung trumped more than 500 submissions from 74 countries and territories to claim the prestigious Gold Remi Award. It tells the story of a young man suffering difficulty communicating after a childhood trauma, as well as four other characters struggling with different life issues.

Chiang said after the film’s April 15 WorldFest screening that he tried to use a simple but significant approach to giving the audience an insightful look into the characters’ self-seeking quests. [FULL STORY]

Prosecutors list Wong as defendant

CONTENTIOUS SEARCH:Prosecutors raided Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey’s office looking for evidence relating to the transfer of medication to OBI Pharma

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 21, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) and OBI Pharma Inc (台灣

Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey places the lid on his tea cup during an appearance at the Legislature in Taipei to report on his involvement in the OBI Pharma Inc scandal on Monday this week. Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

浩鼎) chairman Michael Chang (張念慈) were yesterday both listed as defendants by prosecutors in a probe into insider trading allegations, while Ruentex Group (潤泰集團) chairman Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) and Wong’s wife were released after being questioned.

Judicial officials intensified their investigation yesterday, conducting raids on Wong’s office at Academia Sinica, the Wong family’s residences and the offices of Ruentex Group-owned China Network Systems Co (中嘉網路), a cable TV service provider.

The raids were headed up by the Taipei Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office and the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau (MJIB), with investigators seizing documents and other evidence at seven locations across the greater Taipei area.

Wong was first summoned for questioning at the MJIB’s Taipei Division Office yesterday afternoon, then taken to the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office in the evening for further questioning. [FULL STORY]

Puyuma Express inaugurates western line service Thursday

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-20
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) on Wednesday said the Puyuma Express will begin to join the western line services from April 21, travelling daily between Songshan Station in Taipei City and Chaozhou Station in Pintgung County, with only one southbound train and one northbound train a day.

A single trip of the western line Puyuma stops over at 10 stations (including departure and destination) and takes about four hours and 20 minutes, about one hour faster than the Tze-Chian Express, but the fare, NT$ 940, is the same as the latter.

The stopover stations include Taipei, Banqiao, Taoyuan, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung.

Currently, the southbound Puyuma, train code 111, departs daily from Songshan at 7:48 a.m. and arrives at Chaozhou at 12:08 p.m.; the northbound Puyuma, train code 136, departs from Chaozhou at 2:58 p.m. and arrives at Songshan at 7:17 p.m. [FULL STORY]

No easy task to bring back 45 detained nationals in China: premier

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/20
By: Tai Ya-chen, Hsiao Po-yang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Premier Simon Chang (張善政) said Wednesday that it

Premier Simon Chang (front).

will not be easy to bring back 45 Taiwanese nationals deported to China by Kenya for alleged telecom fraud.

Chang said a delegation has arrived in China to negotiate the matter, and that the Cabinet will give it a “free hand to do as much as possible in the negotiation.”

To get the Taiwanese nationals back from China soon will be one of the topics in the talks, but Chang said it will not be easy to get them back immediately because China also has its own judicial procedure.

On whether it will be possible to bring the suspects back to serve jail terms after the judicial procedures are completed, he said that there are such precedents.

But since the suspects have been taken to China instead of Taiwan in the past, “we cannot be optimistic” that they can be brought back soon. [FULL STORY]

Taiwan prepares for Enterovirus outbreak

Outbreak News
Date: on April 19, 2016
By: Staff

In light of the second confirmed enterovirus 71 (EV 71) with severe

Taiwan map/CIA

complications case in Taiwan has prompted officials to prepare to the possibility of an outbreak in 2016.

Last Friday, the Taiwan CDC confirmed the second EV 71 case in a Yilan County 2-year-old. The complications were so severe that the child had to be treated in intensive care and is now recovering.

Taiwan CDC once again stresses that enterovirus is highly contagious and infants and children aged below 5 are at increased risk of developing enterovirus infection with severe complications. Adults who return home from work are advised to change cloths and wash hands with soap and water before coming into contact with children. In addition, please make sure children wash their hands with soap and water thoroughly when going out, returning home and before having their meals in order to ward off infection.

Taiwan CDC has established a response work team and designated 76 hospitals in the nation as the Treatment Center for Patients of Enterovirus Infection with Severe Complications. Health officials urge parents to pay close attention to the symptoms of the child diagnosed with enterovirus infection, if the sick child develops suspected symptoms such as drowsiness, disturbed consciousness, inactivity, flaccid paralysis, myoclonic jerk, continuous vomiting, tachypnea, and tachycardia, please take the child to a large hospital for medical attention immediately in order to ensure prompt treatment. [FULL STORY]

Beyond Tapei 101: A Taiwan leisure farm tour

Cebu Daily News
Date: April 19th, 2016
By: Jude Bacalso

WE were driven around by a Watermelon.

At least the driver, in limited English (always prefixed with “I’m sorry my English

THE EMERALD UNDER THE MAHSI MOUNTAIN,
an incredible green oasis called the Fata’an Wetlands’s Shin Liu Farm, where we experience the culture of the Amis. In fact, I’m wearing
a traditional Amis headdress that I braided myself upon arrival. (CDN PHOTO/JUDE A. BACALSO)

is so bad” in these parts) insists on being called that.

Whether it was an unfortunate translation or an actual nickname from a childhood among cantaloupes, Watermelon made the best transporter on this road trip that brought me and our merry bunch of 10 from the Northern tip of Taipei, southward through the Eastern coastal towns of Yilan and Hualien, down to Taitung on the Southestern side, and back up in a six-hour journey to Nantou (which, in fact, is only a 2 ½ hour journey from Taipei).

We had traveled the length of the country, and not once set foot on a mall or set sight on its famous attraction: the skyscraper called Taipei 101.

NO MENU restaurants are the best. A few kilometers from Agrioz is Old Mother restaurant that serves only four items, the centerpiece of which is this huge serving of their roast chicken. (CDN PHOTO/JUDE A. BACALSO)

“We have 300 registered leisure farms in Taiwan,” says the bedimpled Calem Ngan, who works for the Taiwan Leisure Farm Association, and is our guide on this road trip.

To the uninitiated, a leisure farm is just as it sounds: Taiwan’s strong agricultural sector takes pride in the transformation of their existing farms into learning centers for various crops and produce, complete with their own accommodations that range from quaint bed and breakfast types to sprawling digs that feature an eight-story hotel with en suite onsen-style spas.

And as expected, the dining is organic and impossibly fresh, often plucked by you in their popular DIY activities (a prerequisite to be accredited as a Leisure Farm), and cooked by the owner’s daughter herself, as in the case of Fairy Story Organic Farm in Yulin, where Yi Hsuan takes me to their backyard to pick scallions, shows me how to chop it in a large table behind the main house, and roll dough to make the town’s famous Green Onion Pancakes, the main produce in the area. [FULL STORY]

Political turmoil not to affect Rio Olympics preparations: Wu

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/19
By: Lee Chin-wei and Lilian Wu

Taipei/Lausanne, April 19 (CNA) Wu Ching-kuo (吳經國), the only Taiwanese

A street rally in Sao Paulo in March. (CNA file photo)

member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said on Monday the political turmoil in Brazil will not affect the preparations for this year’s Olympic Games.

Concerns grew over whether the 2016 Rio Olympics can be held as scheduled after the lower house of Brazil passed a motion to impeach President Dilma Rousseff on Sunday.

The impeachment motion will next go to the country’s Senate, and if a majority approves it, Rousseff will have to step down for 180 days to defend herself in an impeachment trial, leaving a potential power vacuum at the top of the country’s government.

In a telephone interview with CNA Monday in Lausanne, Wu said Brazil’s political upheaval will not affect the country’s preparations for the Olympics, being held from Aug. 5 to Aug. 21. [FULL STORY]

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