LEGALITIES:The ministry said that Eslite Group’s offer could violate investment rules and that it has no right to alter the contract between the city and Taipei New Horizon

Taipei Times
Date: May 13, 2015
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Efforts to resolve a dispute over the Taipei City Government’s disagreement

with Taipei New Horizon Co (臺北文創) over royalties and management of an office building, store and hotel in the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區) yesterday hit another snag, as the Ministry of Finance (MOF) questioned the legality of Eslite Group’s (誠品集團) plan to acquire the superficies rights to its operations in the complex.

The bookstore-turned-conglomerate on Monday unveiled plans to buy the lease for the Eslite Spectrum Songyan Store (誠品生活松菸店) and Eslite Hotel (誠品行旅) from Taipei New Horizon Co, which was founded by the Fubon Group (富邦集團) to manage the complex, to end the controversy.

However, the ministry said the proposal could violate investment rules regarding build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects.     [FULL  STORY]

Undercurrent News
Date: May 11, 2015s    

Greenpeace Taiwan held a protest outside a Mitsui Taipei Food & Beverage Enterprise Group restaurant on May 8, over what it called the company’s “reluctance to initiate talks” about serving bluefin tuna at its outlets, reports Taipei Times.

Members of Greenpeace used a hoist to hang a banner reading “serving endangered species” from the sign on Mitsui’s flagship store in Taipai’s Zhongshan District.

Citing a ranking published by Greenpeace in January, Greenpeace Taiwan ocean campaigner Hsieh Yi-hsuan said that the Japanese-style restaurant chain is one of the poorest-performing seafood chains in the nation in terms of its damage to marine ecology, ranking at the bottom along with Sushi Express, the nation’s largest conveyor-belt sushi bar chain.    [FULL  STORY]

The Dallas Morning News
By: Sheryl Jean
Date: May 11, 2015

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – After living a comfortable life in the Lake Highlands neighborhood of Dallas for a decade, the Limmers decided to move to this small island in the Pacific Ocean.

The family of four flew nearly 8,000 miles, toting just a few favorite possessions – a Chinese Crested hairless dog named Pickles, a bunch of stuffed animals and a pinball machine.

Why? Jayson Limmer followed his wife to Taipei for her job. She moved with their daughters, Natalie, 12, and Alli, 10, in July. He joined them in February.

The Limmers also wanted an adventure and they wanted their daughters to experience another culture.     [FULL  STORY]

Channel News Asia
Date: 11 May 2015
By: Victoria Jen, Channel NewsAsia’s Taiwan Correspondent

TAIPEI: Taiwan has been spared the brunt of Typhoon Noul, as the storm moves northeast along the island’s eastern coast without making landfall.

The typhoon has weakened since Sunday (May 10), after sweeping through the

Philippines and killing at least two people there. Still, Taiwan’s coastal areas such as Taitung and Hualien are being lashed by heavy rains and fierce winds.

Due to safety concerns, domestic flights and ferries between Taitung and the outlying Green Island and Lanyu Island have been cancelled, while school and work has been suspended for residents on the two offshore islands.     [FULL  STORY]

Forbes
Date: 5/11/2015
By: Niall McCarthy, Contributor

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leader of Taiwan’s ruling party, Eric Chu, held high level talks in Beijing. Even though the meeting marks the highest level talks between the two sides in six years, the prospect of warmer relations are controversial in Taiwan where many fear growing economic cooperation with China could be the first step towards reunification, something that is widely opposed.

China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and the situation is generally seen as one of the greatest potential flashpoints in US-China relations. Even though cross-Strait relations have steadily improved in recent years, as illustrated by the talks in Beijing, China has not ruled out the possibility of invasion. It has also continued to enhance and modernize its military capabilities.

China has also continued to broaden its territorial claims in the South China Sea, prompting Japan to cast its postwar pacifism aside. Even though the possibility of China taking Taiwan by force is extremely remote, it is acquiring the capability to do so. How do the military forces of China and Taiwan measure up in 2014? The following infographic provides an overview of the military balance, or rather imbalance in the Taiwan Strait.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/11
By: Chen Chao-fu and Maubo Chang

Kaohsiung, May 11 (CNA) A man who was arrested Sunday for robbing a bank

in Kaohsiung comes from a wealthy family, according to police officers in charge of the investigation of the case.

An ad hoc police team formed to probe the case said the man, identified by his family name of Tsai, is the son of a rich co-owner of a piston factory in the city’s Lujhu District.

The young man led a lavish lifestyle, and his trading company that sold components for dune buggies went bankrupt, forcing him to pawn more than 40 pieces of jewelry to pay debts, according to police.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: May 12, 2015
By: Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄)

yesterday panned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over its handling of the detention of a Taiwanese fishing boat by the Philippines.

“An initial report released by the Philippine authorities accuse the Taiwanese fishing boat Sheng Fong No. 12 (昇豐12號) of engaging in illegal fishing in Philippine territorial waters,” Chuang told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. “However, it was a unilateral investigation, without Taiwan being invited to take part in the probe. The foreign ministry should not just believe whatever the Philippines claims.”

The Pingtung-registered Sheng Feng No. 12 early on Thursday morning was passing through waters 6.5 nautical miles (12km) southeast of Mavulis Island — called Yami Island by Taiwan — the northernmost tip of the Batanes Islands, when the Philippine coast guard approached and boarded the fishing boat to investigate whether it had been poaching, according to a fishermen’s association in Pingtung’s Liouciou (琉球), where the vessel is registered.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-11
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

The director-general of Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration, Wang Chung-yi,

visited Kinmen on May 7 in a bid to stem silt theft by mainland Chinese vessels in waters near the island county a short distance from the Chinese mainland.

Wang inspected several trouble spots including Beiding, Tianpu and Mashan aboard a CGA vessel to gain first-hand information on reportedly frequent incursions by Chinese iron-shelled ships in those areas.

Although no mainland Chinese vessels were observed encroaching into Kinmen’s waters or engaged in illegal activities, Wang urged CGA personnel to use all means at their disposal to prevent such activities near Kinmen.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/11
By: Claudia Liu and Jeffrey Wu

Taipei, May 11 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou on Monday reiterated his cross-

strait policy of using the “1992 consensus” as the basis for maintaining the peaceful status quo between Taiwan and China.

In a meeting with Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Ma said the basic cross-Taiwan Strait policy of the Republic of China is to continue the peaceful development of ties between Taiwan and China based on the 1992 consensus.

The 1992 consensus is a tacit agreement reached in Hong Kong in 1992 between Taiwanese and Chinese negotiators that there is only one China but both sides are free to interpret what that means.     [FULL  STORY]

A charity group in Taiwan offers training and jobs for people with intellectual disabilities so that they can support themselves.

Channel News Aisia
Date: 10 May 2015
By: Victoria Jen, Channel NewsAsia’s Taiwan Correspondent

TAIPEI: Mothers’ worries for their children never end, especially for those with

children who are intellectually disabled.

A charity group in Taiwan is offering comfort to these mothers, by providing training and jobs to their children so they can make a living on their own.

Yen Chin-chin could not hold back her tears, recalling the day she gave birth to her second child. Her son was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

“It took my family and me four years to accept reality. The turning point was when my son had heart surgery. I told him, if he could make it, we could all make it,” she said.     [FULL  STORY]