Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/06
By: Tang Pei-chun and Lilian Wu

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) Passports of the Republic of China (Taiwan), which now receive visa-free treatment in around 140 countries and regions, have become subject to counterfeiting by international human trafficking rings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.

Among those forging ROC passports, Chinese nationals are the main culprits, Deputy Foreign Minister Simon Ko (柯森耀) said when briefing legislators on proposed amendments to regulations enforcing passport laws.

Ko said ROC passport holders can travel to 140 countries or regions visa-free, making the passport desirable for human traffickers eager for easy access to third countries.     [FULL  STORY]

The Standard
Date: May 05, 2015
By: Jasmine Siu

Coffee Alley, a well-known cafe chain, has stopped selling herbal teas after the jasmine tea sold in its Taiwanese outlets exceeded the pesticide limit.

The revelation came after Taipei City government’s Department of Health yesterday released its latest investigation on tea products sold by the local industry.

Twenty-five teas, including nine tea leaf samples and 16 herbal tea samples, were inspected.

Of these, 17 were found to contain pesticide residuals, including six that exceeded safety limits. These included Earl Grey, Jasmine, Roselle, Rose and Chrysanthemum.     [FULL  STORY]

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

The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield revealed Monday that he

decided to join the cast of Martin Scorsese’s new historical drama Silence because of a phone call from the director.

“It’s very rare that he calls you, and he gave me a call. So it was kind of impossible to say no,” the 31-year-old British-American actor who has been shooting the film in Taiwan over the past few months said at a press conference in Taipei.

Garfield said he also took the film because he was drawn to the story and his character.

An adaptation of late Japanese writer Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel of the same name, Silence is about the persecution of two Jesuit priests who traveled to Japan in the 17th century to find their mentor and spread Christianity. Garfield plays Father Rodriguez, one of the two priests.     [FULL  STORY]

UNIFICATION GAFFE?The AP was forced to retract part of a report saying that Eric Chu had ‘reaffirmed support for unification’ after a protest by the KMT

Taipei Times
Date: May 06, 2015
By: Lai Hsiao-tung and Alison Hsiao / Staff reporters

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said

that when he talked about “one China” during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), he was referring to the Republic of China (ROC).

Chu has been criticized over his opening remarks in a meeting with Xi in Beijing on Monday, in which he described the so-called “1992 consensus” by saying that both sides “belong to one China, but with each side ascribing different contents and definitions to the concept of ‘one China.’”

Taiwanese opposition parties accused Chu of making concessions on national sovereignty by recasting the “1992 consensus” under Beijing’s “one China” framework.

Chu, who returned to Taiwan early yesterday after a three-day visit to China, said that his phrase “belong to one China,” according to the ROC Constitution, meant “belong to the ROC” — with each side ascribing a different content and definition to “one China.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/05
By: Tsai Pei-chi and Maubo Chang

Taipei, April 5 (CNA) The Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Justice burned 120 kilograms of various narcotics Tuesday, with a market value of more than NT$800 million (US$26.07 million).

In an annual narcotics-burning ceremony held at the Muzha Incineration Plant, Justice Minister Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪), accompanied by Wang Chung-yi (汪忠一), chief of the Investigation Bureau, and Liou Ming-lone (劉銘龍), chief of the Environmental Protection Department of the Taipei city government, reviewed 4,534 bags of marijuana, heroin and cocaine confiscated by the courts in different cases, and ordered their destruction.

The narcotics were then dumped into an incinerator and burned to ashes in two hours.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/05
By: Peggy Tsai and Scully Hsiao

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) Thirty-nine people were indicted Tuesday for intruding into the Cabinet complex in Taipei during a mass protest last year against a controversial Taiwan-China trade pact.

Taipei prosecutors brought charges against the 39 people, saying they violated Article 306 of the Criminal Code, which forbids entry into another person’s property without reason.

Video footage from a surveillance camera showed 13 of the demonstrators breaking into the Cabinet complex March 23, days after a group of student protesters invaded the Legislature and began an occupation that lasted 23 days, in protest against Taiwan’s trade-in-services agreement with China.     [FULL  STORY]

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

Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, said Tuesday that Taiwan and China can find

ways to achieve peace and mutual prosperity, stressing the significance of the 1992 Consensus in the development of cross-strait ties.

Ma said he believes both sides of the Taiwan Strait will find ways to make peace and deliver mutual prosperity and that “we have been working toward that direction based on the 1992 Consensus.”

According to Ma, that was why Eric Chu, chair of the ruling Kuomintang, also reaffirmed the principle of the 1992 Consensus during his visit to China to meet with the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, who is also China’s president.     [FULL  STORY]

It has been brought to our attention that the use of phrase “Taiwan a Province of China” may not be totally Piwik’s fault.  Piwik uses a database provided by MaxMind Incorporated of Waltham, Massachusetts.  MaxMind describe’s their company on their web site as follows:  “MaxMind provides IP intelligence through the GeoIP brand. Over 5,000 companies use GeoIP data to locate their Internet visitors and show them relevant content and ads, perform analytics, enforce digital rights, and efficiently route Internet traffic. Businesses can obtain additional insights into their customers’ connection speeds, ISPs, and more using GeoIP data. ”

We have written to MaxMind asking them to change Taiwan’s description in their databases.  Being an American company we would think that they would support democratic Taiwan and not bend to communist, dictatorial China’s political wishes.

Most of our readers may not know this but eyeontaiwan.com is a very pro-Taiwan web site.  We firmly believe in and promote the fact that Taiwan is not a possession of Communist China.  Indeed, everything published on the subject leads most educated people to the same conclusion.

We were horrified to learn that a piece of user analytical software that we use refers to Taiwan as “Taiwan, Province of China”.  That software is Piwik.  We have contacted the Piwik organization and expressed our dislike of ow they reference Taiwan.  Furthermore, we will no longer use that software until Taiwan is no longer represented as a Province of China in Piwik’s software.

We can not recommend Piwik to anyone due to their political insensitivity.

Eric Chu is the chairman of the Nationalist Party, a historic adversary of China’s Communist Party that is now united by a desire to boost economic cooperation. That has stirred opposition in self-ruled Taiwan.

The Christian Science Monitor
Date: May 4, 2015
By: Ralph Jennings, Correspondent

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan’s beleaguered ruling party is trying to steady its

reputation at home and renew dialog with rival China, which is also eager to charm the Taiwanese after a year of setbacks.

Eric Chu, chairman of Taiwan’s Nationalist Party and a potential presidential candidate, is meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in his role as general secretary of China’s Communist party. Monday’s meeting in Beijing, at China’s invitation, will discuss “people’s welfare” and the future of two-way relations, the Nationalists said in a statement.

The meeting in Beijing gives Mr. Chu’s party a major chance to show skeptical Taiwanese that its seven years of engagement with Beijing can still help Taiwan’s economy following anti-China protests last year. For China, which has long claimed sovereignty over Taiwan, the meeting gives it a way to impress anti-Beijing youth and blue-collar workers in Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]