Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/27
By: Paige Tsai, Sophie Yeh and Jay Chen

Taipei, June 27 (CNA) The issue of legalizing gay marriage is “extremely

CNA file photo

controversial” in Taiwan, a senior Ministry of Justice official said Saturday, adding that the government would not consider making same-sex marriages legal for the time being.

Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang made the comment to reporters after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the U.S. Constitution provides same-sex couples the right to marry.

In Taiwan, there have been repeated calls for legal amendments and for the Justices of the Constitutional Court to interpret the constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in such a way that would allow same-sex marriages to be legally recognized.

But Chen said: “All countries are not the same. In Taiwan, the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage remains extremely controversial.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/26
By: Liu Chien-pang and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, June 26 (CNA) A Indonesian man died Friday after he jumped from a height of about three stories off a 30-story building in Taipei around noon,

Firefighters rushed to the Taipei City Hall Bus Station around 10:30 a.m. and tried unsuccessfully to rescue the young man, who was standing on a platform above the entrance at about the third level of the building.

The man was rushed to hospital after he leapt from the building around noon but he died apparently of head injuries, the United Daily News and Apple Daily reported.

The unidentified man was most likely an immigrant worker, according to the reports.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/26
By: Rita Cheng and Y.F. Low

Washington, June 25 (CNA) Elections in Taiwan are free, fair, credible and transparent, according to an annual human rights report released Thursday by the U.S. State Department.

Taiwan is governed by a president and a parliament selected in multi-party elections, said the Taiwan section of the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014.

In 2012, voters re-elected President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang to a second four-year term in an election considered free and fair, the report said.

On Nov. 29, 2014, Taiwan voters elected more than 11,000 local government leaders, and observers regarded the elections as credible and transparent.     [FULL  STORY]

Asia One
June 26, 2015

Local university students in Taiwan believing themselves to be eager and

Students attending second foreign language classes at Fu Jen Catholic University’s Second Foreign Language Centre. — Photo: Fu Jen Catholic University

entrepreneurial have instead found themselves getting schooled on a course regarding entitlement and elitism after a proposed plan to crowdfund a hiking expedition ran afoul of public sentiment.

Unfortunately for society as a whole, how the university students originally conceived of the project reveals much deeper problems in our education system that must be addressed beyond merely rebuking these young individuals.

Three of the four major newspapers in Taiwan placed as their headline story the crowdsourcing campaign looking to raise NT$500,000 (approximately S$21,756) for 25 university students to complete a mountain climbing expedition.

The website “Climb for Taiwan” has drawn a great deal of public ire for the National Taiwan University students and their professor who asked the public to invest in the next generation of societal leadership.     [FULL  STORY]

Rocket News 24
June 26, 2015
By: Joan Coello

Most Asian nations, when compared to Western countries, have a relatively conservative mindset towards same-sex unions, but 2015 seems to be a progressive year for the LGBT community in Asia so far.

Earlier this year, Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward became the first ward to recognize same-sex marriages in Japan. In May, Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City took the first step towards administrating same-sex partnerships, and now Taipei City follows in Kaohsiung’s footsteps to become the second city in Taiwan to offer same-sex partnership registrations.

Last week, supporters of same-sex relationships in Taiwan took a moment of rejoice as the nation’s capital city, Taipei, began administration for same-sex partnerships.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/26
By: Tyson Lu and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, June 26 (CNA) Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the presidential candidate of opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said on Friday that China has promised it will not intervene in Taiwan’s presidential election in 2016.

Tsai said China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has made the promise as she tried to ease local farmers’ fear that Beijing would stop buying Taiwan’s farm products if the pro-independence DPP won the presidential election in January next year.

She did not elaborate on what the Taiwan Affairs Office had said and under what context.

But Tsai said she hopes what the Chinese authorities mean is that they know Taiwan is a democratic society, where it is normal to see different political parties take the baton as the ruling party, and therefore they will not change their Taiwan policy because of a power rotation.     [FULL  STORY]

INSIGHT:Taiwan fared relatively well, while China had poor results, with some speculating that the report’s late release was to avoid upsetting China prior to talks

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 27, 2015
By: William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in Washington

Taiwan’s principal human rights problems are labor exploitation of migrant workers by

An ROC national resident overseas attends a National Day celebration at Taipei Arena, Oct. 9, 2013. (File photo/Huang Shih-chi)

fishing companies, exploitation of domestic workers by brokerage agencies and official corruption, a new report from the US Department of State says.

While Taiwan gets generally high marks in the report, it notes that authorities indicted 687 officials, including 69 high-ranking officials, on corruption charges last year.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 was issued on Thursday — four months after a deadline set by the US Congress.

There was widespread speculation that the delay was deliberate to avoid upsetting China before a series of strategic and diplomatic talks were completed this week and to appease Iran where nuclear talks are being finalized.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/26
By: Kuo Chu-chen and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, June 26 (CNA) A community in Gaoshu (高樹) Township, in southern Taiwan’s

Photo courtesy of Cheng’s family

Pingtung County, on Friday announced it has raised more than NT$100,000 (US$3,228) to help a cancer-afflicted Indonesian girl pay for her medical expenses and future plans.

The girl, a third grader in Jiuliao (舊寮) Primary School surnamed Cheng (鄭), was diagnosed with kidney cancer stage 4 recently in Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.

Cheng was born to a Taiwanese father and an Indonesian mother in Indonesia. She came to live with her grandparents in the southernmost Taiwanese county of Pingtung three years ago.

Cheng’s parents currently work in Indonesia and her grandmother is an ethnic Indonesian.     [FULL  STORY]