‘BLIND SPOT’:A delegation from the Belgian parliament visited the EPA, after which the head issued a statement supporting Taiwan in the fight against climate change

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 14, 2017
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter, with CNA, BONN, Germany

Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) was not

able to attend a climate change conference in Germany on Sunday due to objections from China.

The 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is being held at the UNFCCC Secretariat headquarters in Bonn, Germany, from Monday last week to Friday.

Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made advance arrangements for a Taiwanese delegation headed by Lee to attend the meetings, Lee was not allowed to enter the venue.

“Taiwan hopes to reach out to the world and hold dialogue with other nations,” Lee told the Central News Agency. “It is the world’s responsibility to have Taiwan take part in [these] meetings, because the existence of Taiwan’s 23 million people is an irrefutable reality.”    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 13, 2017
By: William Yen

TAIPEI (CNA) – A military marching band from a girls’ high school in Taipei was one of

the main attractions at celebrations to commemorate the 152nd birthday of Dr. Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), founding father of the Republic of China (R.O.C.), in Taipei on Sunday.

The Taipei Jingmei Girls’ High School Military Band captivated the audience at National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall with their mastery of sword twirling when they saluted the heads of the ceremony and went on to impress with their precision rifle drills.

In addition to the military drills, the band was also equipped with a full compliment of drums, trombones, saxophones and flutes.

Chen Hsun-hui (陳勳慧), the school’s military instructor, said the students were honored to be invited to perform at the event. “The Republic of China exists Because of Sun Yat-sen,” Chen added.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-11-12

Taiwan’s representative to APEC, James Soong, encouraged APEC leaders to use

peace as a vehicle for achieving prosperity. His comments came during a luncheon on Saturday, the final day of the two-day APEC Leaders’ Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam.

Soong later spoke at a press conference on Saturday night about what he had expressed to the leaders earlier in the day. “History is like a mirror, not a rope,” he said. “We have seen the past lessons of history, and should take them as a warning.” The most important thing, he said, is that people should not see history as a rope binding their hands and feet, but instead should cut the rope so that everyone can work together.

When asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s response to the analogy, Soong said that everyone had heard the remarks. He said that all of the leaders were sitting close together, their headphones were working, and that the interpreters had translated every word. He said that no further explanation was necessary.    [FULL  STORY]

At the end of the day, I felt the trip was worth every penny I paid at the gate even though there were some miscalculations on my part.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/12
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Trying to catch a glimpse of the canopy of yellow leaves formed

by the Taiwan Beech forest, I drove for three hours from Taipei to Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area (太平山國家森林遊樂區) on Friday (Nov. 10), and at the end of the day, I felt the trip was worth every penny I paid at the gate even though there were some miscalculations on my part.

Friday was a beautiful day weather-wise and I was happy in the morning when the pictures of a sea of yellow leaves on tall Taiwan Beech trees against blue skies came into my mind. I left Taipei around 8:30 a.m., which turned out to be a bit too late for taking such a long trip. The traffic on National Highway No. 5 was light. I exited the freeway from the Yilan ramp to connect to Provincial Highway No. 7 via Yilan City. As the highway led me out of the city and into the countryside, the views along the country road were scenic.

I stopped over at Yingshih Village to check on Fan Fan Wild Hotspring (梵梵野溪溫泉) and found it was overflowed by the river after torrential rains slightly changed the course of the river. It took me about one hour to do the exploration.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/12
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Nov. 12 (CNA) The 20-year efforts to recover the once “little-known” history of

prisoners of war (POW) captured by Japan during World War II and interned in POW camps on Taiwan have borne fruits as a book about their stories is to come out next year.

Hundreds of people on Sunday gathered at the site of the former Kinkaseki POW Camp in Jinguashi, New Taipei City as Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society held the 20th Remembrance Day service to pay tributes to former POWs who had suffered or perished in Taiwan.

Greeting the family members of those POWs was the typical damp weather for northeastern Taiwan. Ann Buckles, whose father Frederick West was with Royal Engineers of British Army, told CNA that retracing her father footsteps let her feel what he went through.    [FULL  STORY]

SIDELINE SESSIONS:The president’s envoy, James Soong, had tea with Singapore’s prime minister and a 30-minute talk with Japan’s leader before flying back to Taiwan

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 13, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA, DA NANG, Vietnam

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday met Taiwan’s special APEC envoy

James Soong (宋楚瑜) for 30 minutes on the sidelines of the two-day meeting the APEC leaders summit in Da Nang, Vietnam.

Abe told Soong that Japan and Taiwan share common values, close economic ties and people-to-people interactions, and that he looked forward to further strengthening their unofficial ties, according to a news release from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Abe also said Japan would work to deepen the cooperation and exchanges with Taiwan on the basis of informal, but substantive relations, according to the news release.

It said Abe and Soong agreed that the two nations must continue to deepen their substantial links in a wide range of areas.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 12, 2017
By: Elaine Hou and Kuan-lin Liu

DA NANG, Vietnam (CNA) – Taiwan must speed up its policy reforms in order to be

ready to join a newly proposed regional trade deal, should the opportunity present itself, a spokesman for Taiwan’s delegation to this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit said Saturday.

The newly proposed Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a new iteration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership following the U.S.’s formal withdrawal in January, sets up a framework for regional trade and cooperation to benefit all members involved.

According to John Deng (鄧振中), key adviser and spokesman for Taiwan’s delegation to the APEC summit, Taiwan has always been interested in joining bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation programs.

It must therefore “continue to prepare, and even speed up its preparations” for CPTPP membership, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Flush with the success of shooting footage at the Pride parade in Taipei, The News Lens sat down with young German filmmaker Lucie Liu to discuss her vision for ‘taipeilove*’, a documentary asking how it feels to be gay in Taiwan, both for her protagonists and the people closest to them.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/11/11
By: David Green

Lucie Liu, 24, is in the midst of filming taipeilove*, a documentary that seeks to answer

the fundamental questions: How free, safe and open can gay and lesbian people be in Taiwan and how have social perceptions around their sexuality changed?

Inspired by the event’s of the 2016 Pride parade in Taipei, Munich-born Liu set out to reflect the changes coursing through Taiwan as its LGBTQ community and the society that surrounds it continues its landmark journey towards equality.

For even as the country celebrates the May 24, 2017, decision to lift the constitutional block on same-sex marriage, bringing the party to the streets over the Oct. 28 Pride parade, significant traditional, cultural and religious barriers remain.   [FULL  STORY]

Zhushan in Nantou County hit by at least 11 tremors Saturday

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/11
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A magnitude-5.1 earthquake Saturday evening was the worst

of 11 tremors which struck Central Taiwan near the township of Zhushan (竹山) in Nantou County during the day.

No casualties or major damage was immediately reported.

The quake struck at 20:22 p.m. 17.2 kilometers under the surface, and was felt almost across the whole of the island, the Central Weather Bureau said.

In Caoling (草嶺) in Yunlin County, the tremors reached an intensity of 5 on Taiwan’s seven-point scale, the same as during a magnitude-4.4 quake about an hour earlier.

Zhushan was first hit by a tremor during the early hours of the morning Saturday, followed by two others, but seismic activity did not pick up again until after 7 p.m., when nine more quakes struck in a range of magnitude between 3.3 and 5.1   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/11
By: Elaine Hou and Kuan-lin Liu

Da Nang, Vietnam, Nov. 11 (CNA) Taiwan must speed up its policy reforms in order to

be ready to join a newly proposed regional trade deal, should the opportunity present itself, a spokesman for Taiwan’s delegation to this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit said Saturday.

The newly proposed Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a new iteration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership following the U.S.’s formal withdrawal in January, sets up a framework for regional trade and cooperation to benefit all members involved.

According to John Deng (鄧振中), key adviser and spokesman for Taiwan’s delegation to the APEC summit, Taiwan has always been interested in joining bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation programs.    [FULL  STORY]