Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-21
By: Samuel Hui

After Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, announced his decision to award

medals to veterans who fought in World War II under the banner of the Republic of China to mark the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender, the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China apparently sent a message to all major state-run media to prevent ROC veterans still living in mainland China from apply to receive the medals.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense believes there to be 3,675 surviving veterans who fought on the side of the Allies during World War II living in Taiwan today, while volunteer organizations from mainland China say nearly 30,000 ROC veterans are living on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. Most of them faced persecution for fighting on the Nationalist side after the Communist victory in the civil war that followed WWII and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Many of these veterans in mainland China desperately seek recognition from the ROC Armed Forces, Taiwanese volunteer Liu Tai-ping told our sister paper Want Daily last month ahead of the recent meeting between Eric Chu, chair of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, and Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC.     [FULL  STORY]

‘ABSOLUTE MESS’:While stopping construction of the Taipei Dome is dangerous, allowing it to continue is even riskier, Deputy Mayor Teng said

Taipei Times
Date: May 22, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Halting the Taipei Dome’s construction is the “lesser of two evils,” Taipei Deputy

Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) said yesterday in a press conference outlining the city’s safety concerns that led to the decision to order the Dome’s contractor, Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), to suspend construction.

“The Taipei Dome is an absolute mess,” Teng said. “Even though halting construction is dangerous, allowing it to drag on is even more dangerous. The purpose of today’s action is to force Farglory to present plans to ameliorate the situation.”

Teng specifically cited cracks that have appeared at the neighboring historic Songshan Tobacco Factory, as well as ground movement next to the Taipei MRT’s Bannan Line (板南), which runs next to the Dome site.

The city issued the order to halt the construction on Wednesday night. Earlier that day, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said Farglory had repeatedly failed to provide a clear explanation of how it would address risks posed by construction to the MRT line and the old tobacco plant.     [FULL  STORY]

eTaiwan News
Date: 2015-05-19
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Several senior advisers to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) suggested Tuesday that Ma should pardon former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on the eve of the final year of his second four-year term. Hsu Wun-pin (許文彬), one of the president’s senior advisers, was positive about Ma’s promotion of judicial human rights during his term, noting that Chen was released on medical parole from Taichung prison Jan. 5 because of deteriorating health. The Taipei District Court also recently ruled to stop another criminal trial of Chen due to his serious illness. Hsu suggested that Ma take stock of the spirit of the Act of Courtesy for Former Presidents and Vice Presidents and consider granting Chen a special pardon.

In response, a Presidential Office source said that Ma insists upon rule by law, and “will not interfere in individual judicial cases, especially since special pardons can only be granted after cases are final.” Chen still has four criminal cases pending, the source said. The former president was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined NT$250 million in a series of corruption cases that surfaced shortly after his second term ended in 2008. He began serving his sentence Nov. 11, 2010, but had been detained for nearly two years prior to that. Hsu said that Ma’s governance over the past seven years has not satisfied everyone, citing the examples of such issues as housing tax, benefits for military personnel, civil servants and teachers, as well as cross-Taiwan Strait trade exchanges.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/20
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, May 20 (CNA) Central Taiwan had recorded the most significant rainfall as of early Wednesday afternoon, thanks to a strong plum rain front currently affecting the country, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

As of 3:30 p.m., Dajia District in Taichung topped all areas of Taiwan, with daily accumulated rainfall of 175 mm, followed by the city’s Waipu District with 169.5 mm and Da-an District with 157 mm, bureau data shows.

The Water Resource Agency (WRA) also issued warnings for flooding in Taichung and neighboring Changhua to the south, while the bureau said areas affected by torrential rain could gradually expand beyond northern and central Taiwan to reach southern parts of the island.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Editorial
Date: 2015-05-20

The head of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, called for discussion

about the establishment of a framework to maintain peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait during his meeting with Eric Chu, chair of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, in Beijing on May 4.

The proposed framework amounts to a peace agreement, an idea which was formally brought up by Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao in 2007.

There has been no progress toward negotiating such an agreement over the past eight years and the political climate in Taiwan suggests the goal would be difficult to achieve even in twice that amount of time.

In an article published before the meeting between the heads of the ruling parties on either side of the Taiwan Strait, Zhu Weidong, deputy director of the Taiwan Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, predicted that the two sides will remain at a basic stage of peaceful development for the next 10 years or more. Zhu argued that Beijing needs to further improve the emotional bond across the strait and build support in Taiwan for a peace agreement through pushing economic cooperation.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: May 21, 2015
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

National Security Bureau (NSB) officials yesterday said they are monitoring

leads regarding a planned protest that might interfere with high-level cross-strait talks set to take place in Kinmen (金門) this weekend.

Bureau Director-General Lee Shying-jow (李翔宙) told legislators during yesterday’s meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei that his agency is responsible for the security of officials 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).

Lee said the bureau gathered intelligence and met on Tuesday over reports on groups that intend to protest and disrupt the meeting.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation and following up on developments. Our work is to ensure the meeting can be completed peacefully,” Lee said.

The Hsia-Zhang meeting was postponed to this month after the original scheduled talks in February were canceled amid a dispute over China’s unilateral decision to establish the M503 flight route and three feeder routes over the Taiwan Strait.     [FULL  STORY]

IB Times
Date: May 19, 2015
By: Adam Justice

Taiwanese man Wu You-ting has taken Iron Man fandom to a whole new level.

Wu, 28, had always considered himself a fan of millionaire-turned crime-fighting cyberborg comic hero Iron Man, but it was not until he saw the film’s third instalment at a local theatre that he was inspired to build his own suit of armour.

“I really like Iron Man. Once I went to see the movie and saw the movie theatre placing the [full size] 1m-tall Iron Man statue in the lobby. I wanted to buy it to take home very much. But then I felt that it’s really expensive, so I decided to make one by myself. And it can be propped up on display at home, and looks good when I wear it out for fun,” he said.

Wu, a local dance teacher, and his friend Guo Wen-sheng took approximately eight weeks and $164 (£105) to build their own custom Iron Man suit to fit Wu. They got their ideas from various fan websites where others had embarked upon the same mission.     [FULL  STORY]

Outbreak News
Date: May 19, 2015
By: Robert Herriman

Six new indigenous dengue fever cases were reported during the past week in

Taiwan, bringing the country’s total for 2015 to 108. Of the 6 cases detected, five were confirmed in Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City.
Aedes mosquito

The Taiwan CDC says according to the epidemiological investigation, the 5 cases had all visited the same market, while the other 1 new case resides in Cianjhen District, Kaohsiung City.

Taiwan CDC stresses that we have entered the dengue season and there is currently no effective vaccine or cure for dengue fever. As dengue fever is transmitted by vector mosquitoes, including Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, in Taiwan, besides taking personal precautions against mosquito bites, the public is urged to regularly remove vector-breeding sites, ensure the cleanliness of the environment as well as recycle all unwanted containers in and around the residence in order to prevent the breeding of the vector mosquito.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/19
By: Liu Shih-yi and Lilian Wu

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said Tuesday that it is dropping a case against the late Taiwanese arms broker Andrew Wang (汪傳浦) for his role in the death of a Navy officer in 1993.

The office said that Wang — the key figure in the corruption scandal surrounding Taiwan’s 1991 procurement of Lafayette-class frigates from France — fled Taiwan in 1993, shortly after the suspicious death of Navy Officer Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓).

Yin is widely believed to have been murdered because he was ready to blow the whistle on those who took kickbacks in the frigate deal.

Wang lived in England for many years before dying of cancer in January at the age of 86.     [FULL  STORY]