‘SUICIDE’: National Women’s League chairwoman Joanna Lei said that Cecilia Koo’s call to nationalize the league’s assets was a ploy by the family to shield its interests

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 08, 2018
By: Yang Chun-hui, Yang Mien-chieh and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

The National Women’s League, under the leadership of then-chairwoman Cecilia Koo (辜

嚴倬雲), from 2006 to 2016 donated NT$236 million (US$8.07 million at the current exchange rate) to entities owned by her extended family, a source told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times).

The Koo family is one of the nation’s most powerful business dynasties and its members own many enterprises in the banking, securities, and rubber and cement sectors, among others.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the league funneled donations to the Koo family’s foundations registered as contributions to projects ranging from breast cancer research to establishing disaster relief centers.

However, the league directed the largest share of the donations, about NT$130 million, to the Taipei Li-yuan Peking Opera Theatre (台北新劇團), a theater group owned by Koo’s daughter, Vivien Ku (辜懷群).    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-06

Taiwan’s defense ministry says it’s hoping Defense Minister Yen Teh-fa can travel to

Washington, DC once the Taiwan Travel Act becomes law.

The Taiwan Travel Act promotes high-level visits by government officials between Taiwan and the United States. Although US President Donald Trump can still veto the act, it will go into effect by March 16, regardless of whether he signs it.

On Tuesday, defense ministry spokesperson Chen Chung-chi said that the two sides would still need to hammer out the details before the defense minister could visit the United States. Chen said it’s not yet clear whether the ministry will invite US officials to the opening of its new security think tank, which is set to open in Taiwan in May.    [FULL  STORY]

As Taiwan transitions to an all-volunteer armed force, the military must do more to build troop morale and public support.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/06
By: Lauren Dickey

Over the last year, there has been a noticeable uptick in public commentary on Taiwan’s

preparedness to defend against an attack from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). These assessments, by and large, have shared a confidence in the capabilities of the Taiwanese military.

Troops are seen as ready to defend the island at a moment’s notice and trained for the absolute worst-case scenario of urban warfare in an all-out Chinese invasion. What these analyses largely fail to address, however, is the impact the ongoing transition to an all-volunteer force (AVF) has upon Taiwan’s national security. Though the AVF transition was finalized in January 2012, it remains a work in progress, beset by the challenges of low recruitment and budget constraints. Taiwan’s experience is not unique; the historical experiences of the United States, nearly two dozen European nations, New Zealand, Australia, and others make clear that building a professional volunteer military is no easy task. It is a costly, time-consuming process that requires the support of the public just as much as it does the tireless attention of legislators, policymakers, and society.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/03/06
By:  Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – China was likely to appoint former Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi

(楊潔篪) to head a new institution to unify the coordination of diplomatic, foreign trade and economic cooperation with Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, Hong Kong media reported.

A review article published by the Sing Tao Daily named high-ranking Chinese politician and diplomat Yang as the most likely choice to head the new body. Additionally, the report said that as the control of Communist Party kept on expanding, the power of the State Council becomes weaker.

While making moves to have term limits abolished, President Xi Jinping (習近平) appointed a series of members directly under the central party organs, including the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms and National Security Commission, which allows Xi to diminish the power of the State Council, the paper said.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/06
By: Chen Chun-hua and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, March 6 (CNA) The government will announce measures next week in response to

Beijing’s recent offer of a raft of incentives aimed at attracting Taiwanese investment and talent into China, Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Tuesday.

An Fengshan (安峰山), spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, announced on Feb. 28 a set of 31 measures that he said were designed to benefit Taiwanese enterprises, associations and artists interested in career development in China.

The government will review the incentives and propose its own strategy, Lai said at a Legislative Yuan hearing on Tuesday, adding that China is expected to adopt an increasingly flexible “united front” strategy in its dealings with Taiwan and as such the country needs to adjust its existing approach.

“The essence of the incentive measures or the 1992 consensus is to benefit China, which ultimately wants to annex Taiwan,” Lai said.    [FULL  STORY]

FACING CHINA: Asked how Taiwan would respond to a dramatic increase in Beijing’s military budget, Lai said that budgets alone do not determine the outcome of wars

Taipei Timeas
Date: Mar 07, 2018
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

The government is to formulate more flexible responses to China’s divide-and-conquer

tactics and its attempts at weakening Taiwan’s self-determination, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.

Lai made the remark during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei in response to a question by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on how the Executive Yuan would respond to Beijing’s increasingly aggressive Taiwan policy, such as its unilateral launch of the northbound M503 flight route, the announcement of 31 incentives for Taiwanese working or studying in China and the reportedly planned merger of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) with its Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office — which the Cabinet has called an attempt to belittle Taiwan.

The government’s responses to China’s moves to subordinate Taiwan have been limited to “slogan-chanting condemnation” without effective countermeasures, Chiu said.

The government should adopt moderate and proactive countermeasures, such as moving the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Department from the Mainland Affairs Council — the TAO’s Taiwanese counterpart — to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or merging the council with the ministry, he said.

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-05

Taiwan’s representative to the US, Stanley Kao, says that Taiwan can only lift restrictions

on US pork and beef products if they are found safe for consumption.

Taiwan maintains a partial ban on imports of US pork and beef, including pork containing the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine. The United States has been pushing Taiwan to lift its restrictions.

On Sunday, Kao said that Taiwan is willing to hold talks on opening up to various agricultural imports. However, Kao said the US cannot treat beef and pork imports as a prerequisite for cooperation in other areas. Kao said the key to any change in policy will be the health of Taiwanese consumers in accordance with international and scientific standards.

Kao also spoke about the recent US decision to raise tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. He said that Taiwan is watching developments in US trade policy and plans to lodge complaints with the WTO. At the same time, he said that Taiwan will continue to consult with the US in order to understand overall developments and their potential impact.    [FULL  STORY]

The ecofeminist community 'Land Dyke' gives hope to female farmers striving in a profession dominated by men.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/05
By: Jennifer Creery

I found myself lost in the hills of Taiwan’s eastern county of Yilan (宜蘭), with only the hum of distant motors to accompany me. It is a tranquility that for many makes the area an ideal escape from the hubbub of urban life. A few minutes pass before a figure appears over the horizon and races my way. Its rider smiles and gives me a nod of recognition. “This way”, Joelle (蔡雪青) says.

We enter their storage house packed with produce and packaging machines. “Farming is a job where you have to do more things than any other job, and you have to do it all at a professional level,” she says. Her task is made easier by working as a collective; except this isn’t any ordinary farming team.

Tucked away in Shengou Village (深溝村) in northeast Taiwan's Yilan County, a collective of six feminist farmers toil the land, cultivating fruits and vegetables under the name of “Land Dyke Feminist Family Farm.” Their experimental farming group is known in Chinese as Tulake (土拉客), which means “land to greet the people”. Established in 2012, “Land Dyke” has expanded its production to Dazhou Village (大洲村) and Toufen Village (頭分村), as well as a fruit orchard in Zhenshan Village (枕山村).

The name “Land Dyke” was coined from the ecofeminist back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, where lesbian women sought to build their own farming communities. Why live in a patriarchal society, its followers believed, when you could create your own? However, unlike the separatist ideas touted by early lesbian farmers, “Land Dyke” takes inspiration from its principles of collective cooperation in order to create more community-based agriculture.    [FULL  STORY]

Restarting the reactor will help compensate for reduced energy production from coal-fired power plants 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/05
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council (AEC) has approved a plan to restart the country’s No. 2 nuclear power plant reactor after completing its review, saying measures will be implemented to ensure operational safety. The measure is expected to face strong opposition.

In response to growing alarm over Taiwan’s air pollution and requests from local governments to cut carbon emissions at coal-fired power plants in Taichung and Kaohsiung, the state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) requested that the country’s No. 2 nuclear power plant reaction be restarted in order to maintain a consistent and adequate power supply.

The company filed an application with the AEC to restart the reactor in early February as it foresees a tight energy supply in mid-summer from June to August.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/05
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 5 (CNA) Taiwan lodged a protest with Japan on Monday following an incident in which a Taiwanese fishing boat was chased and water-cannoned by Japanese patrol boats in waters near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands over the weekend, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

The protest was lodged in Taipei and Tokyo at noon with the Taiwan government accusing the Japanese side of using excessive force against the Su’ao-registered “Tung Pan Chiu No. 28” (東半球28號) near Taiwan’s territorial waters on Saturday and Sunday, according to a MOFA statement.

The Fisheries Agency has also launched an investigation into the case to determine whether the vessel was fishing outside the agreed fishing zone specified in the 2013 Taiwan-Japan Fisheries Agreement, it added.

According to a separate Fisheries Agency statement, Japanese patrol boats chased off the vessel on Saturday when it was about 10 nautical miles (18.52 kilometers) outside the fishing zone specified in the agreement.    [FULL  STORY]