The next U.S. president-elect should visit Taiwan: Chiang

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/19
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Young Taiwanese legislators were asked Saturday what they would want to

ask United States President-elect Donald Trump if they could, and the topics ranged from a travel invitation to his hair.

Much like most of the rest of the world, Taiwanese were stunned when the brash and unpredictable real estate developer defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the November 8 election.

At an event Saturday, young Taiwanese lawmakers from several parties were interviewed about a range of topics, and one of those what would they ask the next U.S. president if they ever had the chance of meeting him.

Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Su Chiao-hui, a daughter of ex-Premier Su Tseng-chang, said she would wish him “good luck” and tell him not just to make grand statements, but also to study the heart of the issues.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/19
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, Nov. 19 (CNA) Taiwanese society needs to have multiple voices heard, Claire Wang (王婉諭),

the mother of a young girl who was killed in an apparently random attack in Taipei in March, said Saturday after she accepted an invitation from the government to take part in the country’s judicial reform.

In a Facebook post that day, Wang wrote that as a family member of a crime victim, she had accepted the offer to join a preparatory committee, convened by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), that will be assigned to organize a series of national conferences on judicial reform.

After her daughter’s death, her family chose to stay in Taiwan instead of leaving, because “we still have hopes that it can become a better place,” Wang said.

She said society needs to hear multiple voices, and then people need to progress to having empathy and respect for each other.

Wang noted that her family has been treated with courtesy in the courts, but quickly added that the treatment they received should not be an exception but the norm, and that her family will work to ensure that it becomes the norm by participating in the process of judicial reform.    [FULL  STORY]

HIDING FROM CHINA?Reports that meeting secrecy was due to worries about Beijing prompted a delegation member to say that it would ‘not provoke an antagonist’

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 20, 2016
By: Lin Liang-sheng and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, in LIMA, with staff writer

People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), the nation’s representative to the APEC

leaders’ summit in Peru, met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) on Friday, and was expected to later meet other ASEAN leaders.
The two held private talks on Friday afternoon in the capital, Lima, in the company of Soong’s daughter and Lee’s wife.

Lee was the second APEC representative Soong spoke with since he arrived on Wednesday after he met US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday to discuss APEC issues.

Following the meeting with Kerry, the pair issued a joint statement announcing plans to set up an “APEC women and the economy sub-fund.”

The fund is to support the key pillars of the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy — access to capital and markets; skills and capacity building; women’s leadership; and innovation and technology.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 20, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A bomb squad was called in to the Taoyuan airport Saturday after ground crew

stumbled on what they believed to be a broken bottle containing gunpowder.

However, after a short investigation, the substance was determined to be a less dangerous propellant, according to the Aviation Police Bureau.

The bottle was part of a cargo shipment containing eight bottles that was transported to the airport via Japan Airlines for transfer to Malaysia, the police said.

Cargo-handling staff found the bottle on Saturday morning, with some of the powder having spilled out of the broken container and onto the ground.

A bomb disposal squad was dispatched to deal with the case, and it soon found the substance in question to be a smokeless propellant powder with what they considered to be a safe ignition point.

The engineers then destroyed the powder by placing it in a vessel of water.    [FULL  STORY]

ALL THE WAY:KMT New Taipei City Councilor Yang Chun-mei said President Tsai Ing-wen should apologize as well, or the nation’s Aborigines would ‘take to the streets’

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 19, 2016
By: Tseng Wei-chen, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) yesterday bowed in apology in

the Legislative Yuan for using a pejorative term about Aborigines on Wednesday, after an online apology and a statement failed to appease Aboriginal lawmakers and civic groups.

A proposal by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus to turn Chiu over to the legislature’s Discipline Committee was voted down by the DPP caucus yesterday, after which KMT lawmakers demanded an apology from Chiu.

Chiu walked to the center of the legislative chamber and bowed, saying “sorry” first to KMT lawmakers and then toward the audience mezzanine where reporters are seated.

KMT legislators Sufin Siluko (廖國棟), an Amis Aborigine, and Yosi Takun (孔文吉), a Sediq, and other Aboriginal lawmakers on Thursday criticized Chiu, saying her apologies were “insincere and unacceptable.”

During a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee on Wednesday, the KMT caucus asked to have Council of Agriculture officials report on the government’s plan to lift a ban on Japanese food imports from prefectures surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant meltdown, while DPP lawmakers said that a budget bill for the council should be given priority, leading to an argument between the two sides.

According to Sufin, Chiu said told KMT lawmakers: “There is no use talking to you huan-a[番仔, ‘uncivilized person’].”    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 19, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Hundreds on Thursday called for the president and premier to resign, accusing the

ruling party of “selling out Taiwan” and “poisoning our children” in its push to ease a ban on food imports from Japan’s radiation-affected regions.

Protesters organized by the Kuomintang (KMT) demonstrated in front of the Executive Yuan early Thursday, as party councilors from across the country took turns addressing the crowd.

“We are humans, and humans don’t eat radiation-contaminated food,” the crowd chanted with Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介), who accused that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of betraying its promise to safeguard Taiwan’s food safety.

“We all remember clearly which party strongly protested against nuclear power in the past, but who’s about to feed poisonous food to our children now!” Hsieh said.    [FULL  STORY]

A Bulgarian man was nabbed trying to use a forged credit card to withdraw money from a TCB bank ATM on Thursday

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/18
By: Central News Agency

A Bulgarian man was arrested in New Taipei on Thursday while he was trying to withdraw money from

a bank’s automated teller machine with a forged credit card, city police said Friday.

The New Taipei City Police Department said that based on its preliminary investigation, it suspected that the man is a member of a foreign-based criminal ring, which uses forged credit cards to steal money from ATMs.

Police began monitoring Taiwan Cooperative Bank (TCB) branches after receiving a report from the bank Thursday about several credit cards that had been seized by its ATMs because of failed transactions.

Not long after, police and TCB security guards noticed some suspicious behavior at one of the bank’s ATMs in New Taipei and arrested the Bulgarian man who was trying to make a withdrawal.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/18
By: Y.W. Wang and Flor Wang

Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) A jobless and mentally ill man reportedly frustrated with life was arrested by police Friday evening for waving a knife on board a subway train on the Songshan-Xindian Line of the Taipei Metro system.

The man, identified by his surname Wu, 50, was subdued by MRT security guards after they spotted him muttering to himself about Christianity and brandishing a knife on board the train.

MRT security personnel later found he had four knifes and a tweezer inside his backpack.

No passenger was injured but the chief of the Nanjing Fuxing MRT Station was injured by the tweezer while scuffling with Wu. Wu was then taken away by policemen to a police precinct on Chang An East Road for further questioning.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: November 17, 2016

Thomas Debass, acting special representative for global partnerships at the U.S. Department of State,

highlighted the important role that the private sector and civil society can play in advancing foreign policy objectives at a seminar Nov. 16 in Taipei City.

Titled Harnessing the Power of Public-Private Partnerships, the event was held under the Taiwan-U.S. Global Cooperation and Training Framework, a platform launched in June 2015 for expanding collaboration between the two sides on regional and international issues. In his address, the U.S. official emphasized the effectiveness of such partnerships in promoting common interests across areas including corporate innovation, economic growth and sustainable development.

According to Debass, since its inception in 2008 the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships has worked with over 1,100 groups and mobilized more than US$1.7 billion in public and private sector resources to enhance diplomacy and development outcomes. He urged Taiwan and the U.S. to cooperate on boosting civil society involvement in GCTF initiatives.

“The burden of engaging under GCTF should not just be on governments,” Debass said, adding that private sector and civic organizations in Taiwan such as the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei and startup companies should be actively encouraged to participate in related workshops and activities.    [FULL  STORY]