ZERO ROYALTIES:The Clean Government Committee recommended that President Ma Ying-jeou and Lee Sush-der be investigated by the Ministry of Justice

Taipei Times
Date: May 09, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

The Taipei City Government should dissolve its contract with Farglory Land

Development Co (遠雄建設) for the construction of the Taipei Dome, the Taipei Clean Government Committee recommended yesterday.

“We discovered that there was serious illegal profiteering and also that Farglory polluted the selection process by engaging in influence-peddling involving city officials,” committee member and lawyer Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) said. “We believe the city has a sufficient legal foundation to dissolve the contract in accordance with the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法) and Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法).”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/08
By: Milly Lin and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, May 8 (CNA) Stricter water rationing measures could take effect in

Tainan as soon as late May, as the water level of a main reservoir supplying water for the city has recently fallen to a new low.

As of 6 a.m. Friday, the water level at Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫) in Tainan stood at 157.60 meters, equivalent to just 16.41 percent of its overall capacity.

To cope with the situation, the government is currently supplying water for Tainan via Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫), Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫) and Jiaxian Weir (甲仙攔河堰), as well as reducing the water supplied by Nanhua Reservoir, Water Resources Agency official Lin Yuan-peng (林元鵬) said Friday in a meeting on water rationing measures.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/07
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and Maubo Chang

Taipei, May 7 (CNA) Seeking to sharpen the nation’s competitiveness by harnessing the talent of overseas Chinese students who study in Taiwan, the Ministry of the Interior decided Thursday to revise the rules to allow them to stay on the island for another six months to land jobs upon completion of their studies.

The ministry said, those students who don’t have local residency may apply for permission to stay as foreigners working in Taiwan if they can secure jobs within six months after graduation, said the ministry.

Those who fail to obtain employment during the additional six months will then be required to end their stay in Taiwan, according to the revised rules.     [FULL  STORY]

TONGUE TWISTER:An official incorrectly stated that Eric Chu was the first person in the ROC to use a term commonly used by Chinese officials to describe cross-strait ties

Taipei Times
Date: May 07, 2015
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) description of

cross-strait relations as two sides “belonging to one China” risked leading to a “misunderstanding” that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said in Taipei yesterday.

There is a subtle difference between that description and the so-called “1992 consensus” adopted by the government, under which both sides of the Taiwan Strait recognize that there is ‘“one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means, Hsia told a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee in Taipei.

The government has tried to avoid using the language Chu used because of political sensitivities and has opposed the formula whenever the Chinese mention it, Hsia said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-07
By: Wang Kun-yi

The opposition green camp in Taiwan has portrayed the meeting in Beijing on

May 4 between the head of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, Eric Chu, and the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, as a failure.

Several academics affiliated with the opposition Democratic Progressive Party criticized Chu as yielding to China while gaining nothing from Xi in return.

Despite Chu’s insistence that he does not intend to run in Taiwan’s 2016 presidential election, everyone still believes his trip to Beijing was meant to seek Xi’s support for his presidential bid, since he is seen as the KMT’s best chance in the elections.

Xi did not make any concrete offers in a five-point statement put forward during his meeting with Chu, who was visiting China in his capacity as KMT chair.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/07
By: Kuo Chu-chen and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 7 (CNA) A fishing boat registered in Liouciou in the southernmost county of Pingtung has been detained by the Philippines, charged with poaching, the Liouciou Fishermen’s Association said Thursday.

The fishing boat departed Wednesday morning for Davao in the southern Philippines but was held in waters off Batanes Islands, the association’s chief executive Tsai Pao-hsing (蔡寶興) said, adding that the boat with two Taiwanese and four foreign crew members aboard was still being detained.

The fishing boat was passing through waters 6.5 nautical miles from the Philippines’ Yami island early Thursday morning when inspectors on a Philippine ship approached and boarded the fishing boat to investigate possible poaching of fish, Tsai said, citing information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).    [FULL  STORY]

Want China Timesa
Date: 2015-05-06
By: Xinhua

An ancient Buddhist sculpture will be reunited with its head more than a decade

and a half after it was stolen.

The headless statue, housed in a museum in north China’s Hebei province, is being prepared for its journey to Kaohsiung in Taiwan later this month, where it will be pieced back together during a cross-strait exhibition.

The sculpture, made of white marble, dates back to the North Qi (550-557) of the South and North Dynasties. It was originally worshiped at Youju Temple in Lingshou county, Hebei, where the Buddha’s head was stolen in 1996. The body, which is 1.59 meters tall, was later sent to the Hebei provincial museum for protection.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/06
By: Tseng Ying-yu and S.C. Chang

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) The ruling Kuomintang’s presidential aspirant waded into

Taiwan’s top political issue Wednesday, saying she would use the term “one China, same interpretation” to describe the status quo of relations between Taiwan and China.

Hung Hsiu-chu, a vice chairwoman of the KMT, told a university audience that the de jure status quo of cross-Taiwan Strait ties is “overlapping sovereignty claims by two constitutional governments in two separate jurisdictions.”

In other words, she said, there are two constitutional governments inside “the entire China,” Hung said in speech titled “Whither Taiwan?” at National Taiwan University.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-06
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

The Associated Press has withdrawn a report that quoted Taiwan’s ruling

Kuomintang chair Eric Chu as saying that his party supports “eventual unification” with China during a meeting with Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, the party said Tuesday.

The original article, penned by AP’s correspondent in Beijing Christopher Bodeen in the early hours of Monday, apparently took a cue from the Chinese media, stating “The head of Taiwan’s Nationalists reaffirmed the party’s support for eventual unification with the mainland when he met Monday with Chinese president Xi Jinping as part of continuing rapprochement between the former bitter enemies.”

Describing the report on Chu’s comments as non-factual and fabricated, Lin Yi-hua, head of the KMT’s Culture and Communications Committee, said Chu did not broach the topic of unification with China during his recent visit to China.     [FULL  STORY]

FOCUS ON TAIWAN:Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) plays the ‘cross-strait card’ too frequently

Taipei Times
Date: May 07, 2015
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan and Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporters

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday lashed out at Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) over what he called a lack of substance in cross-strait policy that could make feasible her pledge of maintaining the “status quo” in cross-strait relations.

“As a responsible political party or a candidate for president of the Republic of China [ROC], they can ill afford to seek the presidency without proposing cross-strait policies. They will not be able to deceive people into thinking they are capable of maintaining the ‘status quo’ by giving empty words,” Chu said.

Chu made the remarks at a meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee where KMT Mainland Affairs Department director Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) reported on the results of Chu’s recent trip to China.    [FULL  STORY]