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KMT petitions for court injunction to thaw frozen assets

The China Post
Date: October 1, 2016
By: Yuan-Ming Chiao

The Kuomintang (KMT) said Friday that it had requested a court injunction against the Cabinet-level Ill-

KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan, left, and Administration and Management Committee Director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展), speak at a press conference held at party headquarters in Taipei, Friday. The KMT filed for an injunction against a government agency charged with the settlement of ill-gotten party assets after the agency froze several party bank accounts last month. (CNA)

KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan, left, and Administration and Management Committee Director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展), speak at a press conference held at party headquarters in Taipei, Friday. The KMT filed for an injunction against a government agency charged with the settlement of ill-gotten party assets after the agency froze several party bank accounts last month. (CNA)

gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee (IGPASC, 不當黨產處理委員會) to challenge the agency’s decision to freeze party accounts on Sept. 21.

In a press conference, KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) said that the party had filed for an injunction from the Taipei High Administrative Court after the Cabinet committee ordered Bank Sinopac to ban account withdrawals and grant only deposits.

The KMT said that the assets freeze was preventing it from paying party employees.

IGPASC spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) cast doubt on the KMT’s claim, saying the party still had NT$85 million (approx. US$2.71 million) in assets generated from political contributions.

“If the KMT cannot be honest with its employees, how can the public trust that it will honestly handle the matter?” she stated.     [FULL  STORY]

ICAO Will Mute Mics At Mention of Taiwan: Paraguay Official

Paraguay’s representative at ICAO said they were warned against speaking for Taiwan at the assembly.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/09/30
By: ZiQing Low

After refusing to invite Taiwan and blocking Taiwanese reporters from a triennial air safety assembly,

Photo Credit：Reuters/ 達志影像

Photo Credit：Reuters/ 達志影像

the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has reportedly warned participants against “speaking out for other countries.”

The assembly is held from Sept. 27-Oct. 7 at the ICAO headquarters in Montreal.

Paraguay’s ambassador to Canada Julio Cesar Arriola Ramirez told reporters at a dinner hosted by Kung Chung-chen (龔中誠), representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada, that the ICAO secretary general had warned them that their microphones would be muted if they tried to speak on behalf of Taiwan, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reports.

However, the Chinese-language United Daily News reports that Solomon Islands Minister of Communications and Aviation Peter Shanel said he had not heard of such warnings. Shanel said that since he represented a sovereign country, no one could limit his freedom of speech.    [FULL  STORY]

Tests find carcinogen in Great Day oil

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-30
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Tests found excessive levels of the carcinogen benzene in cooking oil of the 6774021Great Day brand, the Consumers Foundation said Friday, though the Food and Drugs Administration said the levels were below the legal limit.

Over the past year, several laboratories performed tests on over a hundred cooking oil products from ten major brands, and the Great Day products came out as bearing the highest risk level, leading to the Consumers Foundation conducting more tests beginning last May, the group said.

At least three types of oil under the Great Day brand contained benzene levels over Taiwan’s legal maximum of 5 parts per billion, the foundation said. The European Union has the toughest limit of 1 ppb, Taiwan’s maximum is the same as that set by the United States, while the World Health Organization says up to 10 ppb of benzene is allowed in drinking water, according to the foundation.

However, the FDA denied that the levels found in the products had exceeded any legal limits. The manufacturer of Great Day cooking oil, Standard Foods, denied that its products were harmful, explaining that benzene occurred naturally in the environment, in water, air and even mother’s milk, a spokesperson said. The company added it did not exclude the possibility of legal action.     [FULL  STORY]

Society, system not equipped for jury trials: experts

The China Post
Date: September 30, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

Jury trials would not necessarily build public trust in the justice system, experts warned Thursday.

At a forum organized by the Association of the Judicial Human Rights, academic veterans and frontline

From left to right, Presiding Judge of the Taiwan High Court Chang Yong-hong, lawyer Sun Chen-hua and Associate Professor at Fu Jen Catholic University's School of Law Chang Ming-woei listen at the forum on Thursday, Sept. 29. (Sun Hsin Hsuan, The China Post)

From left to right, Presiding Judge of the Taiwan High Court Chang Yong-hong, lawyer Sun Chen-hua and Associate Professor at Fu Jen Catholic University’s School of Law Chang Ming-woei listen at the forum on Thursday, Sept. 29. (Sun Hsin Hsuan, The China Post)

practitioners urged the government to rethink plans for lay participation in the justice system.

The panel warned that a jury system would require a “mature society” and comprehensive regulations — both of which they say the country currently lacks — in order to succeed.

Citizen participation in the justice system has been proposed as a means of increasing impartiality and public trust.

Fervent debate has emerged across the nation, after the Tsai administration vowed reforms in the wake of polls indicating a lack of public confidence in the country’s legal system.

Associate Professor of Fu Jen Catholic University School of Law Chang Ming-woei said the idea of incorporating jury trials into the legal system had been brought up as early as 80 years ago     [FULL  STORY]

‘Meat bun auntie’ pleads with media to leave her alone

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-29
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

 

The woman in the photo featuring an auntie-like figure guzzling a meat bun while her umbrella was ripped open by Typhoon Megi said on Thursday that the international media exposure and the subsequent domestic exposure of the photo was just going too far, pleading to the media to stop publicizing the photo or her.

The photo taken by an Associated Press photo journalist was carried by the Wall Street Journal along with a story about the impact of Typhoon Megi on Taiwan. As it was an impressive and vivid photo, it enjoyed wide-spread international media exposure, which has subsequently trickled down to tremendous domestic exposure as well. A great many netizens wondered who this “meat bun auntie” was.

Local media outlets have tracked down the woman in the photo, had interviews with her and continued to write stories about her. On Thursday the woman was identified as “Little Sweet,” the nickname of a woman who has been running a fruit stall near Exit 2 of the Jingmei Mass Rapid Transit Station in Taipei for more than 20 years.    [FULL  STORY]

Bodies of three Typhoon Megi victims found in landslide

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/29
By: Chang Che-fon and Christie Chen

Kaohsiung, Sept. 29 (CNA) Rescue workers on Thursday found the bodies of three people who went missing following a mudslide in 66669119Kaohsiung during Typhoon Megi, bringing the typhoon death toll to seven.

The bodies of 86-year-old Shih Fu-yin (施福寅), his 82-year-old wife Shih Wu-luan (施吳鸞) and their 50-year-old son Shih Chia-li (施家禮) were found in a room on the first floor of their home in Kaohsiung’s Yanchao District, according to the Kaohsiung City Fire Bureau.

Wang Tsung-chan (王宗展), captain of the fire bureau’s Fourth Corps, said all three bodies were found in Shih Wu-luan’s room, meaning that Shih’s husband and son may have been trying to help her escape when the mudslide tore through their home and engulfed them.

The first floor of the two-story house was almost completely covered in rocks and mud. Backhoes were dispatched to the site on Wednesday, after the authorities received reports that the three might have been buried by the mudslide.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan, China crime pact failing: justice minister

POLITICS, DELAYS:Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang said that a delayed workshop on cross-strait law enforcement was linked to the state of cross-strait ties

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 30, 2016
By: Chen Yu-fu / Staff reporter, with CNA

A joint crime-fighting agreement between Taiwan and China has not been used to its full potential since

Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san, center, and Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Tien-chin, right, attend a question-and-answer session of a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san, center, and Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Tien-chin, right, attend a question-and-answer session of a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

the Democratic Progressive Party took power in May, Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said yesterday.

Answering questions from lawmakers at a meeting of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, Chiu said that although investigations, information-sharing and regular paperwork processing have carried on as usual, there has been a lack of administrative personnel exchanges between the two sides, with neither party participating in visits — as stipulated by the agreement — since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May.

The Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議), signed in April 2009 under the previous Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, is aimed at bolstering cross-strait crime-fighting efforts.

Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) said that a workshop for cross-strait law enforcement officers that was to have taken place in June and July has been postponed indefinitely.    [FULL  STORY]

Wenhu Line disruption

The China Post
Date: September 30, 2016
By: CNA

p01aTrains move along the MRT’s Wenhu Line (Brown Line) on Thursday, Sept. 29. Tire damage partially disrupted service later in the day. Service intervals between Wende and Huzhou Stations ran as long as 12 minutes. Service intervals ran about 4 minutes for most other stations. Repairs were still ongoing on Thursday night. Taipei Metro advised that commuters take buses during rush hour.
[SOURCE]

OP-ED: Why Is China Promoting Tourism in Taiwan?

Has Beijing’s Taiwan tourism strategy shifted?

The News Lens (Op-Ed)
Date: 2016/09/29
By: Edward White

China’s state news agency has used its official Twitter and Facebook accounts to advertise Penghu, a xpwkqmm232a15gp1jb89zkp1m2c79lgroup of outlying islands in Taiwan, for tourism.

Xinhua says, “Feel pressure and tension? Let sunshine, beach and sea waves of the Penghu Bay to relax you [sic] in S.E. China’s Taiwan.” The message was reproduced in various languages across Xinhua’s different accounts.

The statement that Taiwan is – as the possessive implies – part of China will rile or amuse many in Taiwan. However, after months of speculation that the flow of visitors from across the Taiwan Strait is slowing because of cooler ties between Taipei and Beijing, can this advertisement be taken as sign that China is once again encouraging its citizens to visit Taiwan?

China is the single biggest source of tourists to Taiwan, and as academic Ian Rowen wrote recently, “…it may seem hard to remember that just a few years ago, government officials and scholars on both sides of the Strait were hailing the growth of cross-Strait tourism as a form of reconciliation or rapprochement.”     [FULL  STORY]

One dead and five injured after man ignites a gas tank

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-29
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A man surnamed Lin ignited natural gas in his house early Thursday morning in Wanhua District, Taipei 6773978City, causing an explosion and fire that killed a woman and injured three firefighters and two police officers.

Taipei City Fire Department (TCFD) received a report at 5:10 a.m. on Thursday that a man was trying to commit suicide inside his residence on Xizang Rd.

TCFD team leader Hsieh En-chi said when they arrived on the scene, Lin, 60, had locked his house and would not answer the requests to open the door. Firefighters were later able to enter the house after Lin’s family giving them the key to the house.

Hsieh said that after they got into the house, they saw Lin and a 50-year-old woman were having an argument and the house smelled of gas. As firefighters proceeded to talk Lin into giving up his idea of causing harm to himself and others, Lin lit the gas with a lighter, and a ball of fire came rushing through in front of their eyes, which they had no way of dodging, Hsieh said, adding that the equipment on their bodies was torched and the walls of the house were blast open.     [FULL  STORY]