The China Post
Date: October 16, 2017
By: Tsai Chia-ling and Evelyn Kao

TAIPEI (CNA) – After one month in office, Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has a nearly

70 percent satisfaction rating, which is believed to have helped boost President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) satisfaction rating toward nearly 50 percent, according to the results of a survey published Monday by the Taiwan NextGen Foundation (台灣世代智庫).

The poll was conducted Oct. 12-13 to gauge public opinion on Tsai’s constitutional reforms and other reforms, as well as an appraisal of Lai’s performance, according to the foundation.

The poll found that Lai’s satisfaction rating has reached 68.8 percent since he took office Sept. 8, with 65.2 percent of the respondents saying that Lai has superior executive ability, while 21 percent held the opposite view.

Meanwhile, 60.2 percent of the respondents said Lai has a good grasp of public opinion, while 30.3 percent expressed the opposite opinion.

The poll also shows that 63.5 percent have faith in Lai’s ability to spur economic growth, while 30.2 percent do not.    [FULL  STORY]

More scholarships offered to academic staff and students from the region.

The National
Date: October 16, 2017
By Chularat Saengpassa 

TAIWAN’S NEW “Southbound” policy will mean more educational opportunities for

people from all Asean countries, including Thailand.

“In line with the policy, our government will offer more scholarships for academic staff and students from Southeast Asian nations to boost the development of the region’s human resource,” said Taiwanese Education Minister Pan Wen-chung.

Fifteen scholarships are being granted via the Thai Ministry of Education, which is also covering Bt20,000 personal expenses per month for Masters Degree students and Bt15,000 for undergraduate students besides a Bt40,000 contribution towards the tuition fees.

“We want to help Thai lecturers, most of whom have Masters Degrees to study for their PhD in Taiwan via this scholarship scheme,” said Pan. “We are also creating a platform for Thai and Taiwanese universities to work together and we are also organising human resources training.”     [FULL  STORY]

“Each grain of rice on your plate is the accumulated hard work of farmers,” as the traditional Taiwanese saying goes. Here’s where to get your fix of the hallowed grain in Taipei.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/10/15

Taiwan is a nation founded upon rice; yet, as we become more diversified and

internationalized, so has our diet, and rice is no longer our only carb option. Yet, the culture of rice-based diets are still deeply rooted in the hearts of Taiwanese people and rice is always served at important festive meals.

For example, during Chinese New Year, sweet rice cakes and turnip rice cakes are always offered to the ancestors and gods; rice dumplings wrapped with bamboo are eaten during Dragon Boat Festivals; and rice balls for Winter Solstice. It wouldn’t be right to spend a festival without eating the appropriate corresponding rice-made food.

Here are a few places around Taiwan to try that serves delicious meals with rice as recommended by Good Eye Taipei — a new bilingual Taipei city guidE.
[FULL  STORY]

Police say evidence points in the direction of two foreigners

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/10/15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Police in Laos are looking for foreign nationals suspected of

killing a Taiwanese businessman outside a shopping mall in the capital Vientiane, reports said Sunday.

The victim, who was shot on October 7, was a Taiwanese citizen living in Laos and identified as Su Wang Tien (蘇文天), aged 60.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had asked the Taiwan representative office in neighboring Vietnam, which is responsible for affairs in Laos, to follow the case and provide assistance to the relatives of the deceased.

The two suspects had already fled to Thailand, according to a report in the Chinese-language Apple Daily.

Su had already spent decades in Laos and was about to open a new shopping mall, Sikhay Plaza, by the end of the year, which was the site of the shooting, reports said. Police reportedly suspect that a business dispute was behind the killing.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/15
By: Wang Shu-fen, Tyson Lu and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Oct. 15 (CNA) One person was killed and another injured Saturday as heavy

rains continued throughout Taiwan, causing extensive flooding and landslides.

Northern and eastern Taiwan bore the brunt of the rainstorms, with 2,000 people in Yilan stranded after a road was blocked by landslides, while a hotel in Taitung County was hit by flash flooding.

The torrential rain, caused by the combined effects of northeasterly winds and Tropical Storm Khanun south of Taiwan, prompted the Taitung County government to close schools and offices on Sunday.

A landslide in the county’s Xiangyang National Forest Recreation Area has blocked a mountain road, stranding 93 hikers who most likely have supplies for only one meal, according to Taitung police.    [FULL  STORY]

THREE GORGES TOUR:China’s Hubei Province has been inundated by autumn floods this month, and Yichang, where the rockfall occurred, has been listed as a disaster area

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 16, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Three Taiwanese were killed yesterday morning and two injured in a rockfall in China’s

Three Gorges area, the Straits Exchange Foundation said.

The five were part of a 45-person tour organized by Trans Continental Travel Service Co (東晟旅行社), a Taipei travel agency, the foundation said in a statement.

The foundation said it had contacted its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and the Mainland Affairs Council after the fatal accident occurred in Yichang, Hubei Province.

It has also formed a “1015 task force” to help and has been trying to coordinate with the Tourism Bureau and authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to provide assistance to the victims and their family members, the foundation said, adding that staff would accompany the relatives of the victims to China.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/10/14
By: Jennifer Creery

With its bustling gay nightlife and iconic annual pride parade, Taipei is one of the most LGBT-friendly cities in Asia. Attitudes towards queer spaces are unique, encouraging some of the most diverse and open spaces to celebrate LGBT culture. Here are some of the most prominent LGBT spots in Taipei.    [FULL  STORY]

Power outages reported due to downpour

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/10/14
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)— Due to heavy rain brought by Tropical Storm Khanun along

with northeasterly winds, the nation’s electricity supply has been disrupted once again, according to the Taiwan Power Company.

Since the beginning of Friday, almost 14,530 households around Taiwan have complained of power failures but almost all the houses affected by the disruption had their electricity restored by Saturday noon.

However, there are still some affected in areas such as Yilan, Hualien and Taoyuan City, according to Taipower.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/14
By: Yu Hsiao-han and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Oct. 14 (CNA) The Ministry of Labor (MOL) said Saturday that any Indonesian

nurses entering Taiwan to work will not be permitted to provide medical services unless they obtain the required local licenses.

In an interview with CNA, Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良), deputy director-general of the ministry’s Workforce Development Agency, said that if trained nurses from abroad are brought in by a human resources agency, the nurses will have to be licensed in Taiwan in order to work as healthcare professionals.

Tsai was responding to questions about a news report that 100 trained Indonesian nurses were being recruited to work in Taiwan from early next year to provide homecare to patients.    [FULL  STORY]

PRESSURE TACTICS:The Chinese ambassador to the US said the Taiwan travel act and Taiwan security enhancement act bills had ‘crossed a red line’ and were a ‘provocation’

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 14, 2017
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Prior to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ passage of a bill that would relax

restrictions on mutual visits of high-level officials from Taipei and Washington, China allegedly sent a letter to the US Congress warning against “crossing a red line,” according to the Washington Post.

In a hearing in Washington on Thursday, the committee unanimously passed the Taiwan travel act bill, which seeks to encourage visits between Taiwan and the US at all levels at a time when bilateral ties “have suffered from insufficient high-level communication due to the self-imposed restrictions that the US maintains on high-level visits with Taiwan” since the 1979 enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act.

Although Chinese pressure about Taiwan has become commonplace, Josh Rogin of the Washington Post said the article published earlier on Thursday that a threat-laden letter sent by Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai (崔天凱) to leaders of the US House’s and Senate’s foreign relations and armed serves committees in August was considered “unusual and out of line.”    [FULL  STORY]