The News Lens
Date: 2017/09/23
By: TNL Staff

‘Good Eye Taipei’ recommends unique hotels and hostels in Taipei.
Taipei is home to uniquely regenerated old spaces — inviting the new while preserving the old. A few hotels around the city are also doing the same, bringing its visitors back to historical eras with vintage-themed interior designs.

“Good Eye Taipei,” a new bilingual Taipei city guide, introduces hotels and hostels in the city for nights away from home.    [FULL  STORY]

Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou were unable to shake off their image

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/23
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The negative image of Taiwan’s presidents, in particular of

Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), influenced the election results of their successors, former National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) said Saturday.

He was speaking at the start of a two-day seminar about Taiwan’s democracy and its direct presidential elections, which started in 1996.

The corruption scandals surrounding Chen by the end of his final and second term in 2008 were perceived as negative by a majority in society, which meant that no matter how his Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate in that year’s presidential election, Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), adapted his strategy, he was unable to shake off Chen’s influence, Chiou said.

A similar phenomenon occurred in the 2016 presidential election, when Ma’s image of ineptitude contributed to the crushing defeat of his Kuomintang’s (KMT) presidential candidate, Eric Liluan Chu (朱立倫), according to Chiou.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/23
By: Justin Su and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Sept. 23 (CNA) The Ministry of Education (MOE) has decided that classical

Chinese will account for 35-45 percent of the Chinese language curriculum at senior high schools in Taiwan from 2019, after discussion divided along party lines.

At the end of two rounds of voting, the MOE’s curriculum review council settled on classical Chinese taking up 35-45 percent of Chinese language courses in public high schools, a 10 percentage point reduction from an earlier proposal made by the National Academy for Educational Research.

Speaking to CNA, both Democratic Progressive Party legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) and Kuomingtang (KMT) legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) expressed regret over the decision, though for different reasons.    [FULL  STORY]

DIVISIVE:Supporters of the cut said memorization does not help students understand poetry, while opponents claim ancient literature is the basis of today’s spoken language

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 24, 2017
By: Rachel Lin, Wu Po-hsuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Ministry of Education’s curriculum review committee yesterday voted to reduce

the proportion of classical Chinese content in senior-high school curricula to between 35 percent and 45 percent.

The decision followed a meeting earlier yesterday, in which the committee voted to abolish a conclusion reached on Sept. 10 to set the proportion at between 45 and 55 percent.

Other proposals at the Sept. 10 meeting included the elimination of classical Chinese from curriculum guidelines; leaving the decision to teachers; decreasing the proportion to between 40 and 50 percent or 30 and 40 percent; and setting the content level at 30 percent.

However, as no consensus could be reached, the committee at that meeting had opted for a proportion of 45 to 55 percent suggested by a National Academy for Educational Research committee.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-09-22

President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday met Senator Steve Daines from the US state of

Montana. The meeting comes a few days after the Senate passed a new defense bill that includes a call for a new look at military exchanges between the US and Taiwan.

Tsai said at their meeting that Taiwan and the United States share the common goal of wanting to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

The president also said Taiwan is one of the biggest markets in Asia for Montana’s exports of farm produce. A procurement delegation from Taiwan has recently been in the US and announced plans to buy more soybeans, corn and wheat from the state. She said last year Taiwan imported goods worth US$57 million from Montana. Taiwan was the second-largest importer of wheat from Montana in Asia, after Japan.    [FULL  STORY]

The former anchor said the purpose of the exhibition is to raise public awareness of the right to euthanasia.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/22
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In order to promote the legalization of euthanasia in Taiwan,

85-year-old former TV sports anchor, Fu Da-jen (傅達仁), opened an art exhibition Thursday at Taipei City Hospital Zhongxing Branch.

“I have seen many elderly patients suffering from long-term illnesses,” said Fu, adding that “that is why I held this exhibition as a way to call for legalizing euthanasia.”

Cheng I (鄭貽), the wife of Fu, told CNA that it had taken her a long time to understand the idea of euthanasia and to accept her husband’s advocacy.

Having gone through several surgeries due to health problems and not wishing to become a burden for his family, the former anchor said he was under palliative treatment, and that he would continue to raise public awareness of euthanasia rights until he dies.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/22
By: Fan Ching-yi and Kuan-lin Liu

Hanoi, Sept. 22 (CNA) The family of a Vietnamese migrant worker who was shot and killed by police in Taiwan took his ashes back to Vietnam Friday.

27-year-old Nguyen Quoc Phi’s death at the hands of a Hsinchu police officer has raised many questions, not only amongst other migrant workers and labor rights activists in Taiwan but also from his family.

Nguyen’s father Nguyen Quoc Dong rushed to Taiwan from Vietnam on Sept. 5 after hearing the news of his son’s death.

In the time that he has been here, Nguyen Quoc Dong, along with his daughter Nguyen Thi Thao, who was already in Taiwan, have demanded that the government and police fully investigate the killing.    [FULL  STORY]

‘BASELESS REPORTS’:A Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker said China has been pressuring Singapore to end military exchanges to limit Taiwan’s international space

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 23, 2017
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter, with CNA

The Presidential Office yesterday declined to comment on media reports that

Singapore would stop sending troops to Taiwan to participate in a long-running joint military exercise, saying only that the government greatly values its friendship with Singapore.

“The government greatly values its long and strong friendship with Singapore. The Presidential Office has no comment on baseless news reports,” Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said in response to media requests for comment on Singapore’s rumored plan to end military exchanges with Taiwan.

Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) also declined to comment on the news, calling it speculation.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 22, 2017
By: The China Post

A petition calling for President Tsai Ing-wen to pardon her predecessor Chen Shui-

bian has received overwhelming support from local government chiefs and lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

All DPP local government chiefs and over 86 percent of DPP lawmakers have signed the petition, according to its organizer, which announced that it will propose for Chen’s pardon at the DPP’s national convention on Sept. 24. The former president is currently on medical parole while serving a 19-year jail sentence for bribery.

While local DPP politicians and lawmakers widely supported the pardon proposal, the president and senior DPP figures are taking a more muted approach. DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming, despite his long-term support of Chen, said that the petition is not the best way to help the former president. The Presidential Office has been mostly quiet on the petition issue. Local Chinese newspaper the United Daily News quoted unnamed President Office sources as saying that even if the DPP approves the proposal at the national convention, pardoning Chen will not become the government’s policy.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 22, 2017
By: The China Post

The newly inaugurated Taipei City Police Department Commissioner Chen Jia-chang

has yet to meet with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, who described Chen’s appointment by the central government as a disrespectful ambush.

Chen, the former Taichung Police Commissioner, was appointed to replace Chiu Feng-kuang (邱豐光), who was promoted as the deputy director-general of the National Police Agency.

While Ko was not happy with Chiu’s handling of the security at Universiade opening ceremony, in which protesters breached police perimeters and blocked the entry of athletics for 20 minutes, Ko was apparently angry over the central decision of naming Chiu’s replacement without consulting him in the capacity of Taipei Mayor, which was the norm in Taipei police chief appointments. Ko said Wednesday that he was notified by the central government only 30 minutes before the official announcement, which he said felt like “ambushed” and “disrespected.”    [FULL  STORY]