CAUTION: Lawmakers in Taipei said Taiwan should not be ‘overly optimistic’ about relations with the US and that the legislation might escalate tensions across the Strait

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 02, 2018
By: Staff writer, with agencies

The US Senate on Wednesday passed a bill promoting closer ties with Taiwan, which

Beijing has warned could threaten stability in the Taiwan Strait, but drew praise from Taipei, which pledged to deepen cooperation.

The US Senate unanimously passed the Taiwan Travel Act. In January, the bill passed the US House of Representatives without opposition.

The legislation now only needs US President Donald Trump’s signature to become law.

It should be US policy to allow US officials at all levels to travel to Taiwan to meet their Taiwanese counterparts, permit high-level Taiwanese officials to enter the US “under respectful conditions” and meet with US officials, and encourage Taiwanese economic and cultural representatives to conduct business in the US, the bill says.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-02-28

Interior Minister Yeh Jiunn-rong has reminded victims of the 228 Incident that applications

for compensation are still being accepted.

The 228 Incident was bloody crackdown against anti-government protests that began on February 28, 1947. The exact number of people killed in the crackdown is not known, but academics put the figure between 10,000 and 30,000.

The deadline for victims of the incident to claim compensation passed in May last year. However, Yeh said it is believed that some victims did not have enough time to submit an application. Yeh also said he has received petitions from victims’ relatives to extend the deadline. A bill to set a new deadline passed the Legislature in December, with the president approving the change in January. Yeh said the new deadline for applications is December 25, 2021.    [FULL  STORY]

The toilet paper panic hints at deep flaws in Taiwan’s corporate structures.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/01
By: Brian Hioe

Alarm in the past week regarding planned hikes in toilet paper prices in Taiwan has been

bizarre, leading to a consumer panic in which entire stores have been sold out of toilet paper. Toilet paper prices are set to rise next month by 10 percent to 30 percent. No less than the Executive Yuan has weighed in on the matter, urging that there is no need to panic about possible toilet paper shortages.

While toilet paper suppliers justify the raises by citing raises in pulp prices on the international market, controversy has been heated enough that the Executive Yuan has stated that it will look into whether toilet paper suppliers have colluded to raise prices. The Executive Yuan has stated that toilet paper suppliers have done this in the past, or offered false justifications to hike prices, but that there has indeed been an increase in the expenses needed to produce pulp from toilet paper from $650 USD to $800 USD this time. However, the Executive Yuan also asserts that it will investigate wrongdoing. Likewise, the four major supermarket chains in Taiwan, Pxmart, RT-Mart, Carrefour, and A-Mart Taiwan, have vowed not to raise prices before next month or to stockpile toilet paper in anticipation of making further profits when prices rise. Some accusations have also suggested that involved companies leaked information regarding the price hikes beforehand to drive up demand.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan remembered the 228 Incident from seven decades ago with events taking place simultaneously on Wednesday across the country

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/28
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan remembered the 228 Incident from seven decades ago

with several events taking place simultaneously on Wednesday across the country, but the most important of all should be a solemn event held at the 228 Memorial Park where government leaders gave their promises to the victims of political persecution and their family that they would soon see the belated justice.

The event with the park sealed off from the public centered not only around remembering the 228 Incident, but also on the work of restoring the truth about those who were politically persecuted and executed under the Kuomintang-led authoritarian regime as the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice was passed last December.

The act provides a legal framework for forming a committee that will look into political archives and possibly set the stage for retrials of previous unfair convictions.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/28
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Feb. 28 (CNA) Taiwan on Wednesday mourned the tens of thousands of victims

killed or jailed during the crackdown launched by the Kuomintang (KMT) regime in the wake of an anti-government uprising on Feb. 28, 1947, widely known as the 228 Incident.

At a ceremony hosted by the Memorial Foundation of 228 at Taipei’s 228 Peace Memorial Park, Lin Li-tsai (林黎彩), delivered a speech on behalf of families of the victims. Lin said her father Lin Chieh (林界) was detained and shot by the military in Kaohsiung at the age 37.

What happened to her father during the crackdown and its aftermath has haunted her whole life, the 71-year-old Lin said.    [FULL  STORY]

CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: The coalition called on the DPP to correct the ‘severest infringement’ on Taiwanese’s right to self-determination and allow the referendum

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 01, 2018
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

A major coalition to campaign for a Taiwanese independence referendum was formed

yesterday in what was the highest-level gathering of pro-independence advocates since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration took office, with former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) calling for a new constitution and name for the nation.

The Island of Joy and Happiness Coalition (喜樂島聯盟), launched by Formosa TV chairman Kuo Bei-hung (郭倍宏), was joined by Lee, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former presidential adviser Peng Ming-min (彭明敏), as well as the New Power Party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, the Social Democratic Party and the Taiwan Radical Wings.

At a news conference in Taipei packed with hundreds of independence supporters, coalition representatives announced plans to formally launch on April 7, the anniversary of late democracy activist Deng Nan-jung’s (鄭南榕) self-immolation in 1989.
[FULL  STORY]

The New York Times
By: Chris Horton
Feb. 27, 2018

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Across Taiwan’s major cities, consumers are in a near panic over a shortage of one of modern life’s basic necessities: toilet paper.

From Taipei in the north to Tainan in the south, retailers are having difficulty keeping it on their shelves, as reports of imminent price increases have sent consumers rushing to stores to stock up on the household staple, which in Taiwan is sold folded in packs rather than as rolls.

Taiwan’s toilet paper producers notified retailers on Friday that prices would increase 10 to 30 percent as soon as mid-March as a result of rising pulp prices on the global market, according to a report by Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Photo
A city inspector checked toilet paper supplies on Monday at a store in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, to ensure inventory was not being held back.CreditKaohsiung City Government/European Pressphoto Agency
In Taipei’s Da’an district on Tuesday, PX Mart’s paper products section was down to its last few small packages of toilet paper; all the bulk packs were sold out. Around the corner, the situation was just as desperate at a normally well-stocked 7-Eleven convenience store, where an employee said stocks disappeared as soon as they were replenished. The rush on toilet paper was a top story for local newspapers stacked next to the cash register.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-02-27

The foreign ministry says it will continue to watch developments surrounding Beijing’s

planned move to abolish presidential term limits.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Andrew Lee said Tuesday that the foreign ministry will not comment on Beijing’s internal affairs. However, Lee said the foreign ministry will continue to watch for any impact a lifting of term limits could have on regional stability.

Lee said that Taiwan hopes to defend regional peace. He said that Taiwan hopes that other countries in the Asia-Pacific will work together for the region’s peaceful and prosperous development.    [SOURCE]

Taichung offers quieter scenic alternatives compared to Taipei, with a wide range of affordable food choices and amazing shopping districts

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/27
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taichung in central Taiwan has been named one of the top three

destinations in 2018 to grow in popularity with travelers this year along with Cebu in the Philippines and Sapporo in Japan by HomeAway, an Austin, Texas-based vacation rental platform.

Cebu in the Philippines (Photo Courtesy of Pixabay)

HomeAway Asia 2018 Trend Report unveiled the hot spots among people traveling in groups or as a family in 2017, and predicted top trending destinations which are set to grow in popularity in 2018. Osaka and Kyoto in Japan and Hong Kong were the top three destinations in 2017, while Taichung, Cebu, and Sapporo are dubbed up-and-coming travel destinations for 2018.

Taichung offers quieter scenic alternatives compared to Taipei, with a wide range of affordable food choices and amazing shopping districts, and tourists are slowly flocking to the central city, according to the report.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/27
By: Yang Sz-ruei, Kuo Chu-chen and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) Prosecutors in Hualien on Tuesday detained the developer of the

Yun Men Tsui Ti commercial and residential complex that partially collapsed Feb. 6 in a magnitude 6.0 earthquake, killing 14 people.

Prosecutors filed a request with the court to detain Liu Ying-lin (劉英麟) on suspicion of negligent homicide, after they questioned him overnight along with the architect and civil engineer responsible for the project, as well as two business proprietors who operated the A-Kuan hot pot restaurant and the Beauty Inn hotel in the complex.

They found that Liu did not hold licenses that qualified him to work on a construction project, and that the 12-story complex was jerry-built in such a way that significantly lowered its quake-resistance capability and strength.    [FULL  STORY]