Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-22
By: Chen Yi-chun and Staff Reporter

China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) has found that

single men aged 30 and over in China mostly live in rural areas, while single women aged 27 and over reside mainly in towns. The situation reflects a phenomenon the agency calls “marriage system exclusion,” according to a report released May 13.

In modern society, the pressure on single men and women to get married comes mostly from the expectation of their families. However, in ancient China, they would not just be subject to punitive fines but also possible imprisonment that could involve all their family members.

During the reign of Emperor Hui in the Han Dynasty (195-188BC), parents would be fined if they failed to have their daughter married before she was 20.

The leftover Han women could be sold to the emperor’s palace as servants, while leftover men would be castrated so that they could enter the palace for a chance to shake off poverty and get rich.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/22
By: Flor Wang and Scully Hsiao

Taipei, May 22 (CNA) People in northern, central and southern Taiwan as well as northeastern Taiwan can expect showers and thunderstorms Saturday and Sunday as the first weather front of this year’s monsoon season moved northward, the Central Weather Bureau forecast Friday.

The front will continue to affect Taiwan through May 31, the bureau said.

The weather front brought heavy rain to southern Taiwan on Friday evening, with one rain collection station in Taiwu Township (泰武鄉) in Pingtung County getting up to 58 millimeters of rain in a single hour.

From midnight Thursday to 9:20 p.m. Friday, 249.5 mm of water had fallen on Xidawu Mountain (西大武山) in another part of the township, the most rainfall produced in a single day anywhere in Taiwan since the current rainy season began to affect the country a week ago.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-22
By: Staff Reporter

Lynn Kuok, a Singaporean research fellow for US think tank the Brookings Institution

suggested Ma Ying-jeou’s administration clarify the Republic of China’s nine-dash line claims over the disputed South China Sea under International Law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as a way to bring China to the negotiating table.

In her article, Kuok stated that the People’s Republic of China in Beijing actually inherited the nine-dash line claims from the Republic of China after the latter retreated to Taiwan in 1949. Such a claim allows China to claim the entire South China Sea as its territorial waters. Kuok praised Ma Ying-jeou’s approach of taking a small but significant step to state that its claims are in accordance with UNCLOS and international laws.

She then suggested that the spirit of putting the disputes aside and engaging in joint exploitation from Ma Ying-jeou’s East China Sea Peace Initiative should be applied to the disputed South China Sea as well. Kuok believes that this approach will allow Taiwan to have more of a political presence in the region. However, she suggested President Ma push for the policy before the upcoming presidential election next year.     [FULL  STORY]

FLASH MOB?The government is paying people to warmly welcome a Chinese official arriving for cross-strait talks in Kinmen today, a DPP lawmaker alleged

Taipei Times
Date:  May 23, 2015
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Green Party Taiwan and the Economic Democracy Union yesterday voiced

objections to Taiwan joining the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a topic expected to be covered at a meeting between Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) today in Kinmen County.

Green Party Taiwan co-convener Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) told a press conference in Taipei that the party is against the nation’s bid to become a member of the AIIB if the application process is opaque or subordinates Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Lee said that the Ministry of Finance’s submission of an application in late March to become a founding member of the bank had fueled controversy in Taiwan, with critics saying the authorities had failed to follow proper procedures and had compromised the nation’s sovereignty.

Beijing rejected Taiwan’s application, saying it would only grant Taiwan a seat on the AIIB’s board of founding members if the nation agrees to its “one China” policy.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/21
By: Cheng Chung-sheng and Y.F. Low

Washington, May 20 (CNA) A piece of legislation that would promote Taiwan’s participation as an observer in the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) cleared the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific of the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs is scheduled to review the legislation Thursday.

The legislation, led by Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ), chairman of the subcommittee, will require the U.S. president to develop a strategy to obtain observer status for Taiwan in Interpol.

Specifically, it requires an official request for observer status for Taiwan, urging of member states to assist in the effort, and a status report to Congress.     [FULL  STORY]

The National Interest
Date: May 21, 2015
By: Michal Thim

Last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2015 that included a reference to a recent issue: China’s potential participation in 2016 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, a biannual multilateral exercise that mostly involves the US and its key allies.  Other nations are invited but do not partake in major parts of the program. China was such a guest last year.

The amendment stipulates that if US Department of Defense invites Beijing to participate in RIMPAC, a similar invitation must be extended to Taiwan.  Not surprisingly, the news was received well in Taiwan. David Lo, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry spokesperson, welcomed the amendment, and Taiwan-based Want China Times ran the headline ‘House passes clause to invite Taiwan to RIMPAC’.

However, before jumping to conclusions, let’s have a look at the exact wording of amendment proposed by Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC):     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-21
By: CNA

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday that it would be inappropriate

for it to talk openly about the nation’s request for arms from the United States, but added that Washington has not been dumping its arms or forcing Taiwan to buy them.

Ministry spokesman Major General Luo Shou-he said that before the US executive branch formally notifies Congress about the arms deal, it would not be appropriate for the ministry to talk openly about it.

He made the remarks after the latest edition of US-based Defense News reported on Taiwan’s plans to upgrade its arms capability and procurement in the wake of the rising Chinese military threat.

Luo said reports that requests for several kinds of arms and equipment by Taiwan are awaiting authorization from the United States are only speculation.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/21
By: Cheng Che-fon, Milly Lin, Elizabeth Hsu and Kuo Chung-han

Kaohsiung, May 21 (CNA) The Kaohsiung City council on Thursday passed two regulations requiring companies with industrial pipelines under the roads of Kaohsiung to move their headquarters to the southern port city by the end of 2016 or risk losing access to the pipelines.

The city council passed “Rules on Existing Industrial Pipelines” and “Rules on Environmental Maintenance” with a majority vote.

The 66-seat city council is comprised of 33 councilors who are members of the Democratic Progressive Party, 24 who are from the ruling party Kuomintang, with the rest coming from other parties.

Besides moving their headquarters, the regulations stipulate that the 13 enterprises which own underground pipelines in the city need to submit a maintenance plan and pay pipeline maintenance inspection fees every year.     [FULL  STORY]

DRUNK ON POWER?In a special report, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said tycoons run Taiwan, and blasted ‘greedy’ firms and their convoluted relationships with politicians

Taipei Times
Date: May 22, 2015
By: Kuo An-chia and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Taipei City Government yesterday provided records of a Line app

conversation to substantiate Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) allegation that Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) “reeked of alcohol” when he came to negotiate the controversial Taipei Dome project on Tuesday night.

The company yesterday said that it would not rule out filing charges for slander against Ko, who on Wednesday said that the meeting with Chao had not gone well because Chao was inebriated at the time.

The city government yesterday made public the Line records of City Hall secretariat employee Liu Yu-ting (劉玉婷) and city government consultant Hung Chih-kun (洪智坤) in response to the company’s statement.    [FULL  STORY]