Taiwan News
Date: 017/07/04
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Taipei City’s Parks and Street Lights Office (PSLO) announced that the

spectacle involving water lilies floating on the surface of water will reappear at the Shuangxi Park in an exhibition starting August 16.

Native to the tropical regions of South America, giant water lilies were introduced to Taiwan and cultivated in Tainan and Taoyuan. Taipei first held an exhibition featuring these rare plants in 2013, followed by a well-received activity in 2014 allowing individuals to “sit” on the leaves, PSLO Director Huang Li-yuan noted.

According to the Horticulture Management Division, giant water lilies are known for huge leaves capable of sustaining heavy objects. However, it takes much effort to protect the leaves from damages due to typhoons and torrential rains, as well as harassment from fish, freshwater snails, and insects. Thanks to PSLO staff’s care, the flowers have developed leaves with width of up to 130 centimeters, the division said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/04
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Lilian Wu

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) Of the 21,000 divorces registered in Taiwan in the first five months of the year,

4,326, or 20.2 percent, involved a divorce between a Taiwanese citizen and a foreign national, government statistics published Monday showed.

By nationality, divorces between Taiwanese and Chinese spouses accounted for 54.1 percent of the total, followed by divorces with spouses from Southeast Asia at 38 percent, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.

The share of transnational divorces in the first five months was consistent with the 20 percent share of total divorces in 2016 and 20.8 percent of total divorces in 2015 but down from a 26 percent share in 2010, 24.8 in 2011, 24.0 percent in 2012 and 22.6 percent in 2013.

The data also showed that around 61,000 couples registered marriages in the first five months of the year, down 2,644, or 4.1 percent, from the previous year.    [FULL  STORY]

‘FAKE REPORTS’:The Ministry of National Defense rejected reports that the ‘Liaoning’ aircraft carrier group conducted special training operations while in the Taiwan Strait

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 05, 2017
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA

The navy and air force conducted a joint exercise in the waters off Penghu overseen by a high-

ranking military officer as China’s aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and its attendant ships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, sources said yesterday.

The Liaoning group entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone at 4pm on Saturday and departed it at 9:30pm the next day, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement yesterday.

The military scrambled jets and naval vessels to closely monitor the Chinese battle group, it said.

The ministry confirmed there was an exercise off Penghu yesterday supervised by Admiral Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明), chief of the general staff.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 4, 2017
By: The China Post

President Tsai Ing-wen had canceled her Tuesday itinerary in Taoyuan “mainly because of a minor

ailment,” Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said this morning.

Tsai had been scheduled to attend a forum at Taoyuan’s National Defense University, an event organized by Taoyuan’s youth innovation center and an inspection tour along Nankang Creek (南崁溪).

She canceled all three events the night before.

The Taoyuan mayor, while escorting Premier Lin Chuan in Guanyin Industrial Zone on Tuesday, told reporters that the assorted rumors swirling about her decision to cancel were false.

Some had speculated that the president backed out of the trip after her itinerary had been leaked to the press and to pension reform protesters.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-03

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je has met with the head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun on

Monday afternoon in Shanghai. The Taiwan Affairs Office is the top Chinese body in charge of the country’s Taiwan policy in the absence of official ties.

Ko traveled to Shanghai for the twin-city forum between Taipei and Shanghai on Sunday. He is the first chief of a major Taiwan municipality to travel to China since bilateral relations began to cool a year ago.

The city government did not announce Ko’s plans to meet with Zhang until Monday morning. When asked why the meeting was not announced earlier, Ko said that Zhang had a busy schedule and that he was deferring to the arrangements made by his hosts.

The media were allowed to film preliminary remarks from the two officials before they headed into a closed-door meeting that was not open to the public.    [FULL  STORY]

To reward a 18 percent increase in sales, Taiwanese boss takes entire company on trip to Spain and Portugal

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/07/03
By: Keoni Everington,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The owner of an online shopping site announced on his Facebook page that

due to excellent sales results, he is rewarding all of his employees by taking them on a trip to Spain and Portugal for two weeks this month.

The owner of the online shopping site 486 world, who goes by the name Mr. 486 (486先生), posted an announcement on his Facebook page that because combined sales in May increased by 18 percent from the same period last year, the company will close for business to allow all employees to enjoy an all-expense paid trip with him to Spain and Portugal.

He announced that the last shipments will go out on July 14, and from July 15 onward the site will take pre-orders, with normal operations resuming on Aug 6. The post has received 11,000 likes since yesterday morning.

Netizens quickly praised the announcement:

“‘Resting for half a month’ is a hundred times better than the ‘one fixed day off and one flexible rest day’ (一例一休).”

“If Taiwan had a lot more enterprises like this, it would absolutely be able to retain talent.”

“Don’t ask if there’s enough products, ask if there are enough employees.”    [SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/03
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, July 3 (CNA) Kuomintang legislative caucus convener Lin Te-fu (林德福) on Monday led a protest against efforts by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to force through the third reading of a set of special provisions for the forward-looking infrastructure development program, which will lay the groundwork for a budget to be passed for the program’s implementation.

The KMT caucus wants the program to be returned to the Executive Yuan and re-written, Lin said, with the government’s “forward-looking infrastructure development plan” set to enter its final legislative process this week.

Unhappy with the DPP decision to force through the special budget by ordering its lawmakers to attend the legislatures’ extraordinary meetings this week, the KMT protested in front of the Legislative Yuan building.    [FULL  STORY]

UNPRECEDENTED:Cabinet members are to be present at today’s cross-caucus negotiations to answer questions from lawmakers, a first in the legislature’s history

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 04, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The review of a draft act on the government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program

was yesterday stalled as a plenary legislative session saw extended debates with opposition parties demanding that the bill be re-examined.

A cross-caucus negotiation was called immediately after the plenary session began, and the New Power Party (NPP) demanded that the draft act be returned to a legislative committee for reconsideration and that Premier Lin Chuan (林全) and the Cabinet formally report on the infrastructure program to the Legislative Yuan.

The requests were seconded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP).

NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that a formal report by the premier is necessary because it is the Cabinet that should answer for the costly projects, not the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 4, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A recent merger between the Hong Kong-listed HMV Digital China Ltd. and the

Taipei-based Hualien Media International will help bring the best of entertainment content from Hong Kong and Taiwan to all Chinese-speaking markets, chairmen of both companies said in a meeting with local press in Taipei on Monday.

George Hsieh (謝國樑), chairman of Hualien Media — the Taiwanese entertainment group behind local hits including the NT$2.8-billion megahit “Our Times” (我的少女時代) — said that making Taiwanese movies with a strong appeal in the Chinese-speaking market had long been his goal.

He said this goal was built into the name of his company, which literally means “uniting the Chinese-speaking world.”    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-02

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said Sunday in Shanghai that the current impasse in cross-strait relations can

be overcome and that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait both “belong to one family.” The mayor was speaking at the opening of the 2017 Taipei-Shanghai City Forum. He dedicated half of his six-minute speech to relations between Taiwan and China.

Ties between Taiwan and China have stalled since President Tsai Ing-wen took office last year. That’s because Beijing has insisted that she accept the “1992 consensus” which it says forms the foundation for cross-strait exchanges. So far, Tsai has declined to do so.

The so-called “’92 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding reached in 1992, that there is only one China, with each side free to interpret what that means. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory despite the fact that the two sides have been ruled separately for nearly 70 years.

In his speech on Sunday, Ko said that both sides have to work hard to achieve mutual respect, cooperation and understanding. He said that the current deadlock can be broken if the two sides make improving welfare of the people their common goal. He said that increasing exchanges and cooperation between the two sides can help construct a cross-strait community with a common destiny.    [FULL  STORY]