Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-17

President Tsai Ing-wen has pledged to boost development in central Taiwan. The

president was speaking on Monday at the opening ceremony of the Asia Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in the central city of Taichung.

Tsai said the government will work to upgrade both the local industry and the living environment in central Taiwan. The president said the region boasts several unique industries that can offer new business opportunities, including: smart machinery, green energy, the aerospace industry, as well as new agriculture.

Tsai also spoke about land scarcity, which has been an obstacle facing businesspeople interested in investing in Taiwan. She said that since taking office last May, her administration has been working to solve that problem.    [FULL  STORY]

An astonishing 32 percent of Taiwanese children and teens reported at least one form of mental disorder in new study

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/07/18
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Nearly 30 percent of children and teens in Taiwan suffer from

some form of mental illness, according to a study on child and adolescent mental disorders, the first of its kind ever carried out in the country.

A survey was commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on 10,122 students in the third, fifth and seventh grades in 69 schools in 19 counties and cities around Taiwan from 2013-2016, and the results were published by Susan Kao (高淑芬), a professor in psychiatry at the College of Medicine of National Taiwan University.

The survey was the first national epidemiological study on child and adolescent mental disorders in Taiwan and was aimed at determining prevalence rates and risk factors for mental disorders among Taiwanese youth.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/17
By: Huang Kuo-fang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) A terminally ill patient had his dream come true when he

graduated from a Chiayi school from his hospital bed last week.

Hsu Fu-hsiung (許富雄), 73, started kidney dialysis six years ago. He was admitted to Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital in Chiayi early this month after a fall, his son, Hsu Meng-lin (許夢麟), said.

The son said his father’s blood pressure became unstable when undergoing kidney dialysis, and his body could no longer tolerate it. His father agreed to cease dialysis and moved to a palliative ward on July 11.

Hospital officials said that according to their experience, a terminal kidney patient can only survive for one or two weeks after stopping dialysis.    [FULL  STORY]

STAY OF EXECUTIONThe KMT chairperson faces asset freezes and detention if the KMT refuses to comply with the committee’s request, which the party says is an ‘illegal order’

Taipein Times
Date: Jul 18, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has refused to pay Cabinet-ordered compensation

of NT$864.88 million (US$28.43 million) for selling properties appropriated from the Japanese colonial government, with the party saying that the properties were legally acquired and that it would appeal the order.

The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee on June 15 ordered the KMT to pay for 458 properties appropriated from the former Japanese government, which were later sold or expropriated.

The payment was due yesterday and failure to meet the deadline could result in the freezing of assets and detention of the KMT chairperson, who acts as the party’s legal representative.

The KMT yesterday said it would launch an administrative suit against the committee’s “illegal order.”

The former Japanese properties were transferred to the KMT to compensate the party for its wartime expenses during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the party said.

The transfer was approved by a high-level decisionmaking body joined by top government and military officials and KMT dignitaries during the post-war period, and therefore the transferred properties were not ill-gotten, it said    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 17, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Beijing has lodged a stern complaint with the U.S. government over a

bill that would strengthen military ties between the United States and Taiwan, Reuters reported.

The National Defense Authorization Act for the 2018 fiscal year, which the U.S. House passed Friday, supports expanded military exchanges with Taiwan and changes long-standing policy to allow U.S. Navy ships to make port calls here.

“China has already lodged stern representations with the United States about this,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang was quoted as saying.

“Negative content” in the bill was in violation of the “One China” principle, Lu added.

The act included several “sense of Congress” clauses that urge — but don’t force — U.S. lawmakers to seek expanded cooperation with Taiwan in training and other exercises as well as to review in a timely manner requests from Taiwan for arms and other defense assistance.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Dqate: 2017-07-16

With just a little over one month remaining before Taipei plays host to the 2017

Universiade, authorities are gearing up to mobilize some 5,000 police officers to maintain public safety.

The Taipei police force is tasked with overseeing safety at the games. It says that police will be stationed at the athletes’ village in Linkou, as well as at all of the venues for the games. The security team will draw from police departments throughout northern Taiwan, providing about 2,000 officers at both the opening and closing ceremonies. Another 3,000 officers will fill rotating shifts each day for the duration of the games.

Police presence will also be bumped up at popular tourist areas and crowded districts while the games are under way between August 19 and August 30.  [FULL  STORY]

Official records state around 140,000 people were tried by military courts with as many as 8,000 executed during the 38-year crackdown. Many believe the actual numbers are higher.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/07/15
By: By Amber Wang, Agence France-Presse

When saxophonist Chen Shen-ching was jailed during Taiwan’s “White Terror” political

purges, it was music that helped him hold on to his sanity.

Banned from taking his instrument into prison he scrawled songs on scraps of paper and memorized them during his 12 years behind bars.

As the island prepares to mark 30 years since martial law was lifted and it began its journey to become a vibrant democracy, Chen is one of a number of creative Taiwanese who want to ensure those dark days are never forgotten.

Now 75, he continues to sing his prison songs at political rallies and human rights events.    [FULL  STORY]

However, whichever sites you selected to visit from the map, you absolutely don’t want to miss these two places—the Longshan Temple and the Lukang Old
Street.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/07/16
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–Lukang is a historic township located in northwestern Changhua

County on the west coast of Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait. In March 2012, it was named one of the Top 10 Small Tourist Towns by the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan.

The township office lists more than 30 sites on an updated tourist map it published, all of which are indeed worth visiting. However, whichever sites you selected to visit from the map, you absolutely don’t want to miss these two places—the Longshan Temple and the Lukang Old Street (Butou Street and Yaolin Street).

 

Lukang Longshan Temple

Before getting briefed on these two places, readers should have a general knowledge of

this historic township in the first place. The township’s name “Lukang,” literally meaning “port of deer,” came from the port’s trade of deerskins during the Dutch period. During the Qing Dynasty, the depth of Lukang’s harbour and its proximity to Fujian Province on mainland China made Lukang an important trading port. During Lukang’s heyday from 1785 to 1845, the city’s population reached 20,000, making it Taiwan’s second largest city after current Tainan and was larger than Bangka (now a district of Taipei , then the island’s third-largest city.

The subsequent silting of the harbor and the city’s refusal to allow railroads to pass through the city led to losses in trade in commerce, which, in turn led to Lukang’s decline relative to other cities, which were experiencing considerable urbanization and population growth. This same decline, however, averted the modernization processes that demolished historical buildings in Tainan and Taipei, leaving Lukang preserved as it was in its heyday.

The Lukang Old Street (Butou Street and Yaolin Street)

In the past, Lukang streets were developed along the old Lukang Stream. Butou Street and Yaolin Street were the earliest market streets where shipping firms and trade business were conducted, mainly with Mainland China. In 1784 Lukang Harbor was opened as an official harbor, and quickly many shipping firms developed on Butou Street and Yaolin Street. These two classical old streets are actually connected together and close to Zhongshan Road, the main thoroughfare of Lukang. Once setting foot on the long brick pavement flanked by the old exquisite stores and houses, visitors could have the illusion that they were walking on a Qing Dynasty street.  [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/16
By: Yeh Tzu-kang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, July 16 (CNA) A second Japanese encephalitis case has been confirmed

in Chiayi County, bringing to 14 the total number of such cases in Taiwan this year, health officials of the southern Taiwan county said Sunday.

The patient was a 57-year-old man and resident of Shuishang Township, who developed a fever and a stiff neck and temporarily lost consciousness on July 7 and sought emergency treatment at a hospital.

He was confirmed to have been infected with Japanese encephalitis on July 14. He is now being treated in an intensive care unit.    [FULL  STORY]

BIG DIFFERENCE:The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) reported assets worth NT$700m last year, recording NT$800m in revenue and NT$510m in

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 17, 2017
By: Chen Yu-fu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) remained the nation’s richest political party

last year with NT$18.1 billion (US$595.06 million) in reported assets, despite posting losses totaling NT$800 million since 2015, its financial statements to the Ministry of the Interior show.

Last year, the KMT posted an income of NT$1.48 billion and expenditures of NT$2.07 billion, its financial disclosures show.

Since 2006, political parties and organizations have been obliged to disclose their financial statements to the ministry in accordance with the Guidelines for the Financial Declarations of Political Parties and Political Organizations.

The financial declarations are considered public information and the reports are to be made available later this month on the ministry’s Web site.

The KMT’s assets continue to dwarf those of the nation’s other major parties, including the Democratic Progressive Party, which had a reported worth of NT$700 million last year, recording NT$800 million in income and NT$510 million in expenditures, its statements show.    [FULL  STORY]