Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/09
By: Lin Hsien-feng and Ted Chen

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) Elder tribesmen in Zhuoxi Township in Hualien County led a hunting festival Thursday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Dafen Incident (大分事件) that was the start of a widespread uprising against Imperial Japanese occupying forces in Taiwan.

Zhuoxi Township head Lu Pi-hsien (呂必賢) said the rebellion in 1915 was incited by a confiscation of hunting rifles, under orders given by Japanese occupying forces that were seeking to subdue the aboriginal tribes.

Hunting rifles were fundamental to the survival and prosperity of the Bunun people, who lived in mountainous regions at altitudes of around 2,000 meters, Lu said.     [FULL  STORY]

Will the Sunflower Movement change Taiwan?

BBC News
Date: 9 April 2015
By Cindy Sui BBC News, Taipei

Breakfast at the Wangs’ on a Sunday: it’s a lesson in how attitudes in Taiwan towards China have changed significantly in just three generations.

Mother Josephine’s parents fled to Taiwan from China with the retreating Nationalist party after it lost the civil war to the Communists in the late 1940s. They believed the Republic of China and mainland China were part of the same country and that is what she was taught.

Father Clyde worked for years at Taiwan’s agency promoting trade, including with China. He and Mrs Wang believe Taiwan must have good relations with its biggest trade partner and former enemy, which wants Taiwan to be reunified one day. They don’t support unification or independence, but maintaining the status quo.     [FULL  STORY]

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY:Chien Hsi-chieh said the public should learn disobedience tactics and that a ‘non-violent civilian-based defense’ system against invasion be set up

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 10, 2015
By: Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan should develop a national defense strategy that incorporates nonviolent civil resistance

in the event of a Chinese invasion, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chien Hsi-chieh says in a new book, titled Power of the Weak (弱者的力量).

Chien, a long-time labor activist and expert in nonviolent resistance tactics, said the nation should establish a system of “nonviolent, civilian-based defense” that would coexist with military forces and act to paralyze a foreign authoritarian regime.

The strategy would require the entire population to receive education and training in civil disobedience tactics, with the government serving as a coordinator in sharing the experience of social activist groups with the rest of the public, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02015/04/09
By: Chen Wei-ting and Maubo Chang

Taipei, April 9 (CAN) Visitors from Europe and the U. S. are most supportive of local hotels’ water conservation practices, according to an executive of the Landis Hotel Taipei.

The executive said that since 2009, the Landis has attached great importance to water conservation and has installed sensor-controlled taps in its public toilets which use 30 percent less of water than ordinary taps.

In addition, the executive said, the hotel puts in every room a card reminding guests who stay for more than two nights that their bed sheets and towels will be changed everyday only if they put the card upside down on their bed each morning.     [FULL  STORY]

SPIES LIKE US:Two air force academy officials were allegedly part of the network of Taiwanese military officials recruited by a Chinese spy currently on trial in Taipei

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 10, 2015
By: Chien Li-chung  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

Investigation bureau agents yesterday raided the homes of two — one active and one retired

— air force pilots allegedly recruited by a Chinese intelligence officer in a case described as the largest Chinese spy ring to have operated in Taiwan in recent years.

A preliminary investigation showed that a retired deputy commander of the Republic of China’s Air Force Academy’s flight training section surnamed Ko (葛) had been offered free trips to Southeast Asia by Zhen Xiaojiang (鎮小江), a Chinese intelligence officer, in exchange for confidential military information, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.

The trips took place between 2009 and 2013 before Ko’s retirement.

“During that period, Ko provided confidential air force intelligence information to other Chinese intelligence officers introduced by Zhen at places outside of Taiwan and China,” prosecutors said.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/08
By: Sophia Chen and Ted Chen

Taipei, April 8 (CNA) A high school teacher in Taichung is persisting with his journey of coming

to terms with his lifelong dream to become a woman with the support of his students and over the objections of his mother.

Tseng Kai-hsin (曾愷芯), who has taught physics at National Taichung Senior High School for more than 20 years, is slated to complete his sex change operation in July.

The 51-year-old Tseng said Wednesday he has always felt he was a woman trapped in a man’s body and had thought about undergoing a sex change operation since he was in junior high school.

Those urges, however, were firmly suppressed deep in his heart, he said, and he never revealed his desire to become a woman to anyone, apart from a close female confidante during his college days.     [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: Apr 8, 2015
By RALPH JENNINGS Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s president said Wednesday that relations with political rival China

were moving forward despite widespread public opposition that crested with an occupation of parliament last year, and that he hopes to cooperate with Beijing on regional economic development.

When President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, his government accelerated efforts to ease icy relations with China by avoiding politics to instead discuss trade, investment and transportation links.

But Ma’s engagement with China hit its strongest wave of resistance at home last year when tens of thousands of protesters occupied parliament and surrounding streets in Taipei to demand more oversight of relations with Beijing or a cancellation of any future agreements.     [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: Apr 7, 2015
By: Rod Nickel, WINNIPEG, Manitoba

(Reuters) – Japan and Taiwan have imposed trade restrictions on poultry and poultry products

from Ontario, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Tuesday, a day after bird flu was confirmed in the Canadian province.

The government agency said a turkey farm near Woodstock, Ontario, was under quarantine after the presence of H5 avian influenza was confirmed there on Monday. It said seven other farms nearby were also under quarantine.

About 7,500 birds have died at the first farm, and the remaining 4,500 in the infected barn are scheduled to be killed on Wednesday.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-08
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Lieutenant General Chen Chien-tsai, commander of the Aviation Special Forces Command of

the Republic of China (Taiwan) Army, was removed from his post and transferred to the Army Command Headquarters Wednesday in the military’s latest punitive action against those involved in a major security breach in late March.

Chen was transferred to serve as a committee member in charge of compiling operational guidelines at the headquarters, Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Major General Luo Shou-he announced at a press conference. He said Chen was transferred because he failed in his duties as chief supervisor.

Apart from Chen, Major General Chien Tsung-yuan, head of the Army Aviation Special Forces 601st Brigade, was also transferred to the Army Command Headquarters to be a committee member after being given three demerits for security lapses, Lou said.     [FULL  STORY]