Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-01-18

Pingtung magistrate Pan Men-an said Thursday that the county government will better

regulate the local tourism industry and cater to a larger variety of tourists.

Media outlets recently reported that Kenting National Park, one of Pingtung’s main tourist attractions, has seen sharp drop in tourists. The reports also said some of local food vendors have also been criticized for charging high prices.

In an interview with RTI, Pan said the southern county will review some of the issues and punish those who engage in price-gouging.

Pan also said the country government has been working to create a friendly environment for visitors from Southeast Asian countries. He said the official website has instruction in multiple languages, and an increasing number of local restaurants have been halal-certified to attract Muslim customers.    [SOURCE]

Bonnie Glaser of CSIS calls on Beijing to discuss the issue with Taipei

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – China should talk to Taiwan about the former’s unilateral

launch of the contested M503 flight route in the Taiwan Strait, which has caused security concerns on the island, academics in the United States said Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Beijing announced that flights from southern to northern China would immediately begin using the flight path close to the median line in the Taiwan Strait as well as three feeder routes linking cities on the coast with the M503.

Southbound flights already started flying the same route in 2015, but only after negotiations with Taiwan, which sees the latest unilateral move as a threat to its national security, coming on top of recent approaches by Chinese military vessels and aircraft.

Beijing’s unilateral move was unfriendly and not helpful, so it should discuss the matter with Taipei, said Bonnie Glaser of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She was speaking at a seminar in Washington D.C. organized by the Global Taiwan Institute.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/18
By: C.L. Chen and Flor Wang

Taipei, Jan. 18 (CNA) Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) confirmed a

news report Thursday that it has provisionally delayed approval of applications by two China-based airlines to operate additional cross-strait flights during the Lunar New Year holiday in protest at China’s unilateral decision to launch a northbound M503 route.

The Taipei-based CAA said it has put on hold the application by China Eastern and Xiamen Air to fly a total of 176 additional cross-strait flights during the holiday period from Feb.15-20, in response to China’s launch of the M503 route which Taiwan considers a threat to aviation safety.

The CAA estimates up to 50,000 passengers could be affected as a result.

The two Chinese airlines said they would have to confer with their respective headquarters before commenting on the development.    [FULL  STORY]

VIDEO FOOTAGE: An assistant manager of CHB’s Dongguang branch is seen counting money and complaining about payments from a property appraisal firm being late

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 19, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

A Chinese branch of Chang Hua Bank was yesterday accused by a New Power Party

(NPP) lawmaker of collaborating with property appraisal firms to take kickbacks from customers applying for credit.

Yu Chih-jen (游志仁), the assistant manager of the bank’s branch in Dongguang, Guangdong Province, accepted some of the kickbacks, New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) told a news conference at the party’s caucus office.

Shenzhen-based bicycle parts manufacturer Joy Ind (S.Z) in June last year applied for a credit line of 30 million yuan (US$4.67 million at the current exchange rate) with CHB’s Dongguang branch, he said.

Joy Ind hired two companies to appraise its real estate holdings and the bank approved a credit line based on the appraisal report, provided by Golden Ruler, that had a higher estimated value, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatiomnal
Date: 2018-01-17

Economics Minister Shen Jong-chin said that Taiwan is buying liquefied natural gas

from the US to help reduce the trade imbalance between the two sides. He was speaking in an interview with the US news website Politico.

Shen said that Taiwan’s state-run energy company, CPC Corporation, has signed a 20 year contract to buy liquefied natural gas from the US beginning this year. Shen has also said that Taiwan is happy to find ways to reduce Taiwan’s trade imbalance with the US.

Taiwan is the US’s tenth largest trade partner. However, Taiwan exports more to the US than it imports. US Department of Commerce statistics show that as of November 2017, the US had a US$10.5 billion trade deficit with Taiwan that year. That’s a US$3 billion increase over the previous year’s trade deficit.    [FULL  STORY]

A hidden Japanese-made reservoir in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan was unveiled to the outside world via media reports on Wednesday after being deserted for more than 70 years

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/17
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—A hidden Japanese-made reservoir in Kaohsiung, southern

Taiwan was unveiled to the outside world via media reports on Wednesday after being deserted for more than 70 years.

Kuo Chi-ching (郭吉清), chairman of an old city culture association (舊城文化協會提供) in Kaohsiung, said on Wednesday that the association revisited a gigantic underground water reservoir on Mount Banping (半屏山) in Kaohsiung on December 14 last year. Kuo said that the association received an approval after applying to authorities for exploring the site near the closed CPC Kaohsiung Oil Refinery where the rumored underground water reservoir existed.

Members of the association’s staff arrived at the entrance of the hidden reservoir beside the Banping Mountain Nature Park with the assistance of CPC technicians. The entrance is a 20-meter long tunnel and at the end of the entrance is an almost vertical air shaft of about 10 meters tall, according to Kuo.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/17
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Jan. 17 (CNA) China’s aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, entered Taiwan’s air

defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the early hours of Tuesday, sailing just west of the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Wednesday.

In a press statement, the MND said the vessel exited the ADIZ around noon on Wednesday going northwest and there was no cause for alarm.

According to the ministry, Taiwan’s military was monitoring the situation the whole time and had detected nothing unusual.

The MND said it has been monitoring the Liaoning since it set sail on Jan. 4, accompanied by a number of other combat vessels, from its home port of Qingdao in Shandong province. It sailed through the Taiwan Strait the following day, continuing south into the South China Sea.    [FULL  STORY]

SUPREME COURT: Instead of the civil and criminal sections deciding final appeals and definitions, a panel would offer a decision to the original judge on which to base the ruling

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 18, 2018
By: Hsiang Cheng-chen and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Judicial Yuan said its proposal to establish a “grand chamber” within the Supreme

Court might be the turning of a new page in the history of the judiciary.

The Judicial Yuan yesterday proposed draft amendments to the Organic Act for Courts (法院組織法) and the Organic Act for Administrative Courts (行政法院組織法) that would create the chamber if passed.

The establishment of a grand chamber would improve the transparency and rulings of final appeals, Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Lu Tai-lang (呂太郎) said.

The current method of arriving at a final verdict through deliberation by the criminal and civil sections of the Supreme Court is not academically sound, Lu said.
[FULL  STORY]

PROTECTION? Opponents say the Council of Agriculture would be less equipped to handle water pollution cases, while others say that the legal authority would help

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 17, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday staged a protest against a draft

amendment that would transform irrigation associations into government entities, with thousands of farmers shouting objections outside the Legislative Yuan.

The Legislative Yuan yesterday reviewed a Council of Agriculture draft amendment to the Organic Regulations for Irrigation and Water Conservancy Associations (農田水利會組織通則) which seeks to convert the associations into official agencies and abolish the election of association heads.

Standing with KMT lawmakers on a stage on Jinan Road outside the Legislative Yuan, KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government plans to expropriate the 17 associations’ private property by force and trickery.    [FULL  STORY]