Focus Taiwan
Date: 018/03/23
By: Elaine Hou and Kuan-lin Liu 

Taipei, March 23 (CNA) The Taiwan government is assessing the possibility of establishing a United States border preclearance system at its main airport to expedite travel by its citizens to the U.S., the foreign ministry said Friday.

The relevant government ministries are already examining the issue and discussing how such a system can be put in place at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章).

He said the discussions include the details of setting up a preclearance system, the application process, and the management and benefits of such a system.  [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 24, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwan and the EU on Thursday concluded their first annual human rights consultations at

the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei, with the EU praising the talks as “friendly, open and constructive.”

The talks focused on the abolition of the death penalty and the promotion of equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.

The EU delegation was led by Mercedes Garcia Perez, head of the Division for Human Rights at the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic service, while the Taiwan delegation was headed by Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-chen (羅秉成).

In a joint statement issued by the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan — the EU’s representative office in Taiwan — the EU commended Taiwan’s far-reaching human rights agenda and encouraged the nation to actively communicate internationally about its human rights model.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 23, 2018
By: Staff writer, with agencies

China should prepare for military action over Taiwan following passage of the US’ Taiwan

Travel Act, an editorial in China’s Global Times said yesterday.

China has to “strike back” against the US’ act, for example by pressuring the US in other areas of bilateral cooperation such as North Korea and Iran, said the paper, which is published by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily.

“The mainland must also prepare itself for a direct military clash in the Taiwan Strait. It needs to make clear that escalation of US-Taiwan official exchanges will bring serious consequences to Taiwan,” the editorial said. “This newspaper has suggested that the mainland can send military planes and warships across the Taiwan Straits middle line. This can be implemented gradually depending on the cross-straits [sic] situation.”

Beijing was infuriated after US President Donald Trump on Friday last week signed the legislation that encourages the US to send senior US officials to Taiwan to meet their counterparts and vice versa.

Despite Beijing’s warnings, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday announced that US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing Ian Steff arrived yesterday for a six-day visit to strengthen bilateral trade, commercial and investment relations, his first as deputy assistant secretary.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-22

Foreign minister Joseph Wu says Taiwan’s ties with its existing 20 allies are generally

stable. Wu was speaking on Thursday in answer to questions at the Legislature.

Wu said Taiwan’s diplomacy has always been difficult due to pressure from China. However, Wu said he does not foresee any diplomatic allies cutting ties with Taiwan in the near future.

Wu said, “Even though there needs to be some more time and effort in [ties] with some allies, relations are all relatively stable. From what I see, I don’t foresee any allies cutting relations with Taiwan in the short run.”   [FULL  STORY]

Have a hard time finding true love? Maybe you should try a mailbox in central Taiwan, which looks like one of the mailboxes you see on street corners but functions very differently 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/22
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Have a hard time finding true love? Maybe you should try a

mailbox in central Taiwan, which looks like one of the mailboxes you see on street corners but functions very differently as it was especially erected for the purpose of matchmaking.

Walking in Dadun 19th Street (大墩十九街) in Xitun District, Taichung City, visitors will be able to see a big red mailbox standing on a quiet lane. The ordinary looking mailbox is not a Chunghwa Post mailbox, so the letters you drop in will not be sent to the addresses on them. Instead, the mailbox is a matchmaking mailbox that only accepts letters that ask for help from Yue Lao (月老), the god of matchmaking. The matchmaking mailbox accepts letters seeking true love all year round.

The matchmaking mailbox is a facility of Ci De Ci Hui Tang (慈德慈惠), a temple originally dedicated to worshipping Guan Gong, the Chinese God of War, as well as a goddess. According to temple abbot Chen Rui-bao (陳瑞寶), a Yue Lao hall was added to the temple in 2003, and since then the hall has become a popular place for believers coming to seek help from Yue Lao. Every Saturday, the temple arranges a “Yue Lao Master” to answer love seekers’ questions and provide them consultation.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/22
By: Chiang Chin-yeh and Kuan-lin Li

Washington, March 21 (CNA) The U.S once again reiterated Wednesday that it opposes

any unilateral action that alters the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, in response to reports of China’s aircraft carrier entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

The statement came from a spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State, who was asked to comment on China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier making passage through the Taiwan Strait on a routine exercise.

According to Taiwan’s Minister of National Defense Yen Teh-fa (嚴德發), the Liaoning entered the Taiwan Strait Tuesday, which is part of Taiwan’s ADIZ, and exited around noon the following day.

Taiwan’s military detected nothing unusual about the voyage.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-21

President Tsai Ing-wen has called the Taiwan Travel Act an important support for Taiwan’s

self-confidence. The president was speaking Wednesday while meeting a group from the Southeastern Taiwanese American Association.

Tsai said the act, signed into law by President Donald Trump last week, allows for Taiwanese officials of all levels to visit the United States. She said this raises Taiwan’s status and provides an important point of support for Taiwan’s sense of self-confidence. She thanked the US government’s support for Taiwan and for its contribution to regional peace and prosperity.

The president also said that Taiwanese-Americans are increasingly making their presence felt in American public life, including in Congress, and are working to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Tsai told the visiting delegation about some of the domestic reforms her administration has been carrying out. These include reforms to the pension system and the judicial system, as well as infrastructure projects and attempts to right historic wrongs through transitional justice legislation.    [SOURCE]

Students in Taiwan should focus on the period after German reunification to draw lessons on how to deal with transitional justice.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/22
By: Alexander Görlach

As Taiwan still struggles to deal with its despotic past and the cruel reign of the KMT,

which lasted for several decades after their retreat from the mainland in 1949, students in Taiwan often ask me about transitional justice in Germany.

Germany too, so the students say, had to grapple with the aftermath of dictatorship. So how did the Germans deal with their former tormentors, “after 1945, after the Second World War?” This last clarification strikes me every time I hear it.

In the minds of these young people who so eagerly want to know about German history, their focus is the Nazi party’s rule, their ferocious tenure that was responsible for the death of tens of millions. When they think of “transitional justice,” they refer to the genocide of the Jews and the Nazis’ destruction of an entire continent. Some of them know of the Nuremberg Trials, in which the protagonists of the Shoa, otherwise known as the Holocaust, and those responsible for the war were sentenced.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/03/21
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei (CNA) – President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday that the key to healthy development

of cross-Taiwan Strait ties lies in mutually beneficial policies that are negotiated on an equal footing.

Tsai made the remarks during a national security meeting in which senior officials exchanged views on the latest developments in China and East Asia.

The topics included what Taiwan should do in the wake of Chinese President Xi Jinping securing an indefinite term of office following the National People’s Congress recent approval of amendments to relevant constitutional provisions.

She admitted that China’s latest move and developments on the Korean peninsula could affect regional stability and global trade and economy, while posing “new and more complicated challenges” for Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]