The News Lens
Date: 2016/12/16
By: Hsu Chia-yu

Special Event

2016 Taichung LGBTQIA Pride Parade: Our Diverse Rainbow City / Dec. 17 / Taichung People’s Park

The battle for marriage equality in Taiwan moves to Taichung this Saturday, with a Pride Parade set to kick off at 1:30 p.m. in People’s Park. Supporters hope to show that the issue has traction in the Taiwanese heartland outside the capital.

Music

A Bird and a Bell and I – Cheng Bi 2016 Taipei Concert / Dec. 16 / Legacy Taipei
Cheng Bi (程璧) is a singer-songwriter based in Tokyo and Beijing. After meeting Shuntaro Tanikawa (Poet), Kensaku Tanikawa (Musician), Tien Yuen (Poet), Shine Yukawa (Musician) she was inspired to start songwriting. Her music is said to be “the closest voice to the poem.” It is Cheng’s first concert in Taiwan. She will perform well-known songs such as “Poetry Meets Songs” and “I Want to Waste Time with You,” and new song “A Bird and a Bell and I.”

Honey L Days 1st World Tour 2016 in Taiwan / Dec. 18 / The Wall Live House, Taipei
Honey L Days is a Japanese rock duo with a wide variety of musical compositions. Their songs have featured in many movies, theater productions and advertisements. The Taiwan show is Honey L Days’ first stop on their inaugural world tour.

Theater

Comedians Workshop – 沙士芭樂 / Dec. 18 / Zhongli Arts Hall, Taoyuan
Comedians Workshop (相聲瓦舍) is a popular crosstalk troupe in Taiwan, and it is well-known for its innovation of the artform. Its plots are typically full of black comedy and criticism of society. The new drama (沙士芭樂) is in memory of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, and it features Shakespeare’s well-known stories.

The man was found lying in the sand and clothed only in underwear.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/16
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Another body of one of the crew members has been found on a beach near New

Taipei’s Laomei Green Reef on Friday afternoon, a week after their fishing boat capsized near New Taipei’s Shimen District, according to media reports.

The police were contacted Friday afternoon after the body of a man was discovered on a beach near Laomei Green Reef in New Taipei. The man was found lying in the sand and clothed only in underwear.

The body was later identified by police as one of the Chinese crew members, Chen You-sheng, reports said.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/12/15

The Spanish and Chinese police arrested a group of telecom fraud suspects in a joint operation in

Spain on Dec. 13, and 39 Taiwanese citizens were among the 240 arrested, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The group, which consisted mostly of Chinese, have allegedly made phone calls impersonating Chinese law enforcement personnel and caused “significant losses” for people in China, China Radio International reports.

MOFA has instructed the Taiwan representative office in Madrid to help the Taiwanese suspects when being questioned by Spanish police, based on principles of reciprocity, dignity and upholding human rights, CNA reports. The investigation is ongoing and the number of suspects is expected to increase. It is the latest in a series of international telecom fraud cases involving Taiwanese this year.   [SOURCE]

Chinese state-run tabloid suggests the ‘use of force’ in response to Trump’s apparent Taiwan Bargaining Chip

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/15
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

In a flustered response to the unprecedented phone call between U.S. President-elect Donald Trump

and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and Trump’s subsequent statements calling into the question the “one China” policy, a major Chinese state-run tabloid suggested that the time may have come to use force to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan.

The Chinese government was severely agitated by Trump’s direct phone call with the president of Taiwan, breaking with decades of US-China diplomatic protocol going back to 1979, for which it had issued a formal complaint. Scarcely a week later, it was broadsided by his subsequent interview with Fox News questioning why he should be bound by the “one China” policy, again breaking with U.S.-China protocol dating back to the Shanghai Communique of 1972. For the regime in Beijing and the Tsai administration in Taiwan, his next comment was ominous: “unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/15
By: Wang Shu-fen and Lee Hsin-yin

Taipei, Dec. 15 (CNA) Taiwan and Australia have agreed on an open sky policy that removes

restrictions on bilateral flight services stipulated in their previous aviation pact signed in 2006, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said Thursday.

The new agreement, which took effect as it was announced, could support the government’s “New Southbound Policy” — which is aimed at enhancing Taiwan’s relations with countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Australia and New Zealand — by allowing airlines in Taiwan and Australia to operate unlimited services between the two countries, the CAA said.

Under the previous agreement, Taiwanese carriers provided 6,000 seats per week on flights to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, the CAA said, explaining that this capacity is becoming barely enough for Taiwanese carriers.   [FULL  STORY]

MILITARY STRENGTH:The former vice president also opposes plans to build an all-volunteer military force and instead called for drafting men and women to serve

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 16, 2016
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

Amid increased tension between the US and China, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮)

yesterday renewed her call for a referendum to declare Taiwan a neutral country, while urging the government to draft both men and women to serve in the military to boost the nation’s defense capabilities.

As the unpredictable policy of US president-elect Donald Trump could upset stability in the Asia-Pacific, Taiwan has to become a permanently neutral country to seek peaceful relations with other nations, Lu told a press conference in Taipei.

The political environment in South Korea and the Philippines — traditional US allies — has also changed dramatically, and Taiwan should declare itself a peaceful and neutral nation to avoid potential regional conflicts, Lu said.

The Legislative Yuan is expected to complete its review of and approve draft amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) to lower the thresholds for launching and approving a plebiscite, making it possible to launch a referendum next year to proclaim Taiwan as a peaceful and neutral country, Lu said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 16, 2016
By: Stephanie Chao

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Tsai Ing-wen praised the Obama administration’s handling of Taiwan-U.S relations,

while vowing to maintain regional peace under Donald Trump’s presidency, at a closed-door meeting with foreign dignitaries on Thursday.

The President expressed “gratitude” toward the Obama administration, citing its “long-standing support and cooperation,”

Tsai added that such support and cooperation had fostered close and stable relations.

Tsai said she hoped close cooperation between Taiwan and Washington would continue under Donald Trump’s presidency.

Attendees at the event included Wendy Sherman, former U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs.

As they greeted each other, Sherman told Tsai that she “hoped to shake hands with the first female president of my own country,” eliciting laughter from other attendees, in a video of the event provided by the Presidential Office.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/12/14
By: TNL Staff

A gay woman is reported to have committed suicide after taking part in the marriage equality rally,

which was held in Taipei on Dec. 10 and drew more than 200,000 people.
A Facebook post, which has since been removed, detailed the incident. It was published by social activist Wang Yi-kai (王奕凱), who referred to the woman as “a friend,” and has been widely reported in Taiwan Chinese-language media today.

According to Wang’s Facebook post, media reports showing the woman attending the rally were seen by her family. The woman’s, family, which had long been ashamed of the woman’s sexual orientation, decided to shut the woman in her room. She was later found dead.

Wang says he removed the post. He refuses to reveal the woman’s identity in fear it would expose the identity of the woman’s parents.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/14
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Supreme Court judges on Wednesday hear a debate on whether a man who has been sentenced to

death by a lower court for killing his ex-wife and daughter should “live or die” for the crime he committed.

According to the court verdict, Lee Hung-chi tried to take his two daughters away from his ex-wife, surnamed Chen, when she was taking them to a kindergarten on a morning in April, 2014. After some pushing and shoving, Lee killed his ex-wife with a knife in front of the kindergarten with a crowd of people watching, and then took his six-year-old daughter with him.

The next morning Lee and his daughter were found committing suicide by burning charcoal in his car in a mountainous area in Hsinchu County. Lee survived after being rescued, but his daughter died after treatment.

The Kaohsiung District Court held that Lee could be recidivated and therefore sentenced him to 15 years in prison for killing his ex-wife, but gave him a life imprisonment sentence for killing his daughter.    [FULL  STORY]