Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-11
By: Staff Reporter

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council criticized opposition Democratic Progressive Party chair Tsai

Ing-wen for “empty words” and avoiding expressing the party’s cross-strait policy clearly after Tsai said the party will shoulder the responsibility of “maintaining the status quo,” reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

The council published a press release on Friday, saying that Tsai’s remarks were merely rhetoric and avoided expressing her stance on cross-strait issues. The council said the key for peaceful cross-strait relations over the past few years is the current Taiwanese government’s recognition of the 1992 Consensus.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, also reiterated that the consensus which allows for one China but is flexible as to what this means, has been the political foundation for the cross-strait relation’s peaceful and remarkable progress over the past seven years, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency. He warned that policies such as “one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait” and “Taiwan independence” will destroy peaceful development. The official also said the consensus “acknowledges that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan were one and the same China.”     [FULL  STORY]

Asia One
Date: Apr 10, 2015
By: AFP

TAIPEI – Taiwanese rallied Friday to mark the anniversary of the end of the “Sunflower

Movement”, which saw demonstrators occupy parliament for more than three weeks in a move that shook warming relations with Beijing.

Protesters linked hands and shouted slogans urging the government to “return power to the people” as they circled the parliament in Taipei in the latest show of opposition to increasing mainland influence.

Fears that China is extending its control over Taiwan have been growing after a thaw in relations under current President Ma Ying-jeou, whose Beijing-friendly Kuomintang party suffered its worst ever showing in local polls in November.

Ma last week said ties with China have “returned to normal” since protesters took over parliament last year to show their anger at a planned trade pact they argued placed the island under Beijing’s sway.     [FULL  STORY]

Police said around 1,000 people had turned out for Friday’s protest, which came after hundreds rallied last month to mark the beginning of the occupation and several other wildfire demonstrations in recent weeks.

“I think Taiwan society has changed after the ‘Sunflower Movement’ and its impact continues to spread. I believe this force of change will help Taiwan move towards a positive direction,” said Huang Kuo-chang, a scholar and prominent leader of the movement.
– See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/taiwanese-activists-rally-keep-sunflower-spirit-alive#sthash.K8lFABPi.dpuf

Government prevaricated for two weeks before submitting AIIB application after Washington had no objections, says leaked document

South China Morning Post
Date: 11 April, 2015
By: Lawrence Chung in Taipei

A leaked document shows that official advisers strongly recommended that Taiwan join a

Beijing-led international development bank, but the government prevaricated for two weeks and submitted its application at the last minute because it feared upsetting the United States, its main defence ally.

The government received an assessment report recommending the island join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on March 18, the document reveals, but it submitted its application to join only on the deadline’s final day, March 31, after it checked with Washington that it would have no objections.

The US is the main arms supplier to Taiwan, an island governed separately from the mainland since Nationalist forces fled there after losing the civil war to the communists in 1949.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/10
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, April 10 (CNA) Six Army pilots have violated regulations by bringing civilians to their bases housing Taiwan’s attack helicopters without prior approval, the latest investigation by the Ministry of National Defense has found.

After a comprehensive investigation, a Defense Ministry task force found that six pilots under the Army Aviation Special Forces Command brought civilians to their bases over the past two years in breach of regulations, said ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Luo Shou-he (羅紹和) at a news conference Friday.

A total of 385 officers at the 601st Aviation Brigade have brought civilians to their base in Taoyuan in line with regulations on visitors, but five pilots were found to have done so without getting prior permission from their superiors, Luo said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/10
By: Lee Yi-jung and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 10 (CNA) Taiwan-born investigative journalist Pai Hsiao-hung (白曉紅), who wrote a book on migrant sex workers in Britain based on her undercover observation at brothels, said on Friday that poverty is the main reason behind an increase in human trafficking in many countries around the world.

Governments of many countries have blamed the problem on illegal immigrants, and ignored that “poverty is the culprit,” Pai said at the release of the Chinese version of her book, titled ” Invisible: Britain’s Migrant Sex Workers,” in Taipei.

As part of her research for the book, which was written in English and published by Westbourne Press in 2013, Pai had worked undercover as a housekeeper in brothels in the U.K.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-10
By: CNA

People planning to travel to Europe should take steps to avoid contracting measles as there

has been a surge in the number of cases reported there, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Thursday.

Travelers who do not have measles immunity are advised to get vaccinated two to four weeks before their departure for Europe, the CDC advised.

It said that if symptoms such as a fever, nasal inflammation or rashes develop during a trip to Europe, medical treatment should be sought immediately.

France, Italy and Germany are among the most heavily affected countries, with 884 cases reported in the German capital as of late March, the CDC said, adding that this means an average of 15 new cases per day in Berlin.     [FULL  STORY]

MAKE HASTE?The Taichung government denied that the accident might have been caused by the mayor asking the contractor to finish the MRT line earlier

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 11, 2015
By: Chen Wei-han and Jake Chung  /  Staff writers

Four people were killed and four injured yesterday when a steel girder suspended over an

MRT construction site in Taichung fell and crushed a car.

The female driver, Su Chia-chen (蘇家蓁), was rushed to the hospital, but was later declared dead.

The three other casualties — Hsieh Kuang-hui (謝光輝), Tu Ya-yu (杜亞有) and Liang Hsiao-kai (梁孝凱) — were construction workers.

Injured construction workers Chen Kuan-chi (陳冠吉), Lin Chao-ching (林朝卿), Hsieh Cheng-chia (謝政家) and Chiu Chen-jung (邱振榮) were still in local hospitals at press time last night.

The accident occurred at an elevated section of the Taichung MRT’s Green Line, near the intersection of Beitun Road and Wensin Road, at about 5pm.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/10
By: Wu Je-hou, Hau Hsueh-ching and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, April 10 (CNA) A massive steel girder at a construction site of the Taichung Mass Rapid
Transit system fell to the ground at rush hour on Friday, killing four people and injuring another four, according to the Taichung government.

Three construction workers and a female driver were crushed when the 43-meter-long, 209-metric ton steel girder fell from a height of about three stories high onto busy roads, the city government said.

Of the four people injured, one was in critical condition, said Deputy Mayor Chang Kuang-yao (張光瑤).

Because the girder hit at least four vehicles at the intersection of Wenxin Road and Beitun Road in the northeastern part of the city’s downtown area, more victims may still be trapped at the site, rescuers said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-09
By: CNA

Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, said Wednesday that “Chinese Taipei” is a good precedent

used by Taiwan to participate in international organizations and that Taiwan could use the name to join the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Taiwan participates in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum under the name Chinese Taipei, which is also the short form of the name Taiwan uses at the World Trade Organization, of which it is a member, Ma said. The full form of Taiwan’s name at the WTO is the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.

Ma’s remarks came in response to questions on Taiwan’s bid to join the proposed bank during a meeting with foreign journalists based in Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Security allegedly breached after the unauthorised tour at a military base on the island

South China Morning Post
Date: 09 April, 2015

The family of a military officer in Taiwan has publicly apologised after he allowed friends and

relatives to take a tour of restricted areas of a military base and sit inside US-made Apache helicopters.

Lieutenant Colonel Lao Nai-cheng is under investigation for alleged breaches of security at the base in Taoyuan.

He is the information security officer at the base and is accused of allowing a group of people, including the boyfriend from Japan of one of his relatives, to visit the hangar housing the helicopters.     [FULL  STORY]