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Taiwanese Legislator Denied Entry Into Hong Kong, Third Since August

Legislators say China’s growing influence on Hong Kong is behind the city’s immigration authority’s denial of their visa applications.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/09/26
By: Mo Tz-pin

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Karen Yu’s (余宛如) application for a Hong Kong entry

Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像

Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像

visa was refused on Sept. 24, making her the third DPP legislator to be denied entry into the city since August.

Yu was invited to the 2016 Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) held in Hong Kong Sept. 25-27 as one of the speakers. The legislator applied for a visa two weeks ago but was informed today that the application was turned down
.
The legislator participated in the 2015 Milan SEWF and 2014 Seoul SEWF. Yu says she is sorry she could not take part in the event this year to share Taiwan’s social enterprise experience with the world, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported.

Yu’s name is still on the speakers’ list and the SEWF has yet to make any comment.     [FULL  STORY]

Poll shows drop in support for Tsai

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-26
By: Wendy Lee, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The latest public opinion poll shows that 44.7 percent of Taiwanese people feel satisfied with President 6773882Tsai Ing-wen’s handling of major issues, a 7.6 percent drop
compared with last month’s poll.

Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation published the survey results on Monday, which showed a drop of 7.6 percentage points from last month in the satisfaction level that Taiwanese people have over President Tsai Ing-wen’s handling of major issues.

The drop was even more acute if compared with the same poll in May, when President Tsai was sworn into office, showing a decline of 25.2 percentage points.

Premier Lin Chuan fared worse, with the poll revealing that 40.9 percent of Taiwanese people don’t think his administration is capable of solving problems, against 34.6 percent who think otherwise.     [FULL  STORY]

Rain forecast around Taiwan as Typhoon Megi approaches

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/26
By: Wang Shu-fen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) Rain is expected across all areas of Taiwan on

The circle on the right indicates the expected position of Typhoon Megi at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The circle on the right indicates the expected position of Typhoon Megi at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Monday as Typhoon Megi takes aim at the island, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.

In parts of northern Taiwan and the northeastern county of Yilan, intermittent rain had already started in the morning and heavier rainfall can be expected in the afternoon, the bureau said.

Rain will also begin in the eastern counties of Hualien and Taitung as well as in mountainous areas of central and southern Taiwan later in the day, according to the CWB.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, Megi was centered 670 kilometers east-southeast of Hualien, moving at 21 kilometers per hour in a west-northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, the bureau’s data showed.     [FULL  STORY]

Cross-Strait Watch No. 6

An overview of the past week’s developments in cross-Strait relations.

The News Lens
By: TNL Staff

A tense week in cross-Strait relations closed with news that China appears to have blocked Taiwan’s

Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像

Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像

access to an important international air safety meeting.

Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has refused to invite Taiwan to attend its upcoming triennial assembly, despite the U.S. and other countries lobbying on Taiwan’s behalf. Taipei has protested the decision. Taipei also revealed this week that two of its officials was excluded from a United Nations conference on the global fishing industry, ostensibly due to pressure from China.

Despite official communication channels between Taipei and Beijing being frozen, senior representatives from eight Taiwan municipalities controlled by opposition Kuomintang (KMT) have visited China for talks with Chinese officials and to promote tourism and agricultural produce.

The talks were covered by state television in China and the eight representatives stated they recognize the “1992 consensus,” which Beijing has set as a precondition for cross-Strait exchanges.     [FULL  STORY]

Migrant worker reported missing when crossing river

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-25
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

One of four migrant workers who were crossing a river in Changhua County to a sand bar to catch fish 6773865was reported drowning and missing on Sunday morning.

Fire Bureau of Changhua County received a report at 10:23 a.m. that one of the four migrant workers was drowning and went missing when they were crossing the Wu River in Hemei Township, Changhua County.

The county’s fire bureau dispatched 11 members of personnel, two boats, and five vehicles to search for the missing worker along the banks of the river.

According to police and the fire bureau, the missing migrant is a 37-year-old migrant worker from Thailand, who wears a blue long-sleeved shirt and khaki long pants. As of 2:30 p.m., the bureau had not found the missing worker and the search was continuing.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan to track Typhoon Megi with radiosondes

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/25
By: Wang Shu-fen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 25 (CNA) Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau will attempt to track an approaching typhoon

From Central Weather Bureau website

From Central Weather Bureau website

on Monday, the day before the storm is forecast to sweep through the island, the bureau said Sunday.

It will undertake a six-hour observation mission starting at 5 a.m. when an aircraft takes off from Taichung Airport to drop radiosondes with parachutes into the peripheral winds of Typhoon Megi and along its projected course, the bureau said.

The mission will be the 76th time Taiwan has carried out a typhoon observation project with parachuted radiosondes. The project, named “Dropwindsonde Observation for Typhoon Surveillance near the Taiwan Region (DOTSTAR),” is also known as “Wind Chasing.”

According to the weather bureau, the mission will be performed by an Astra jet airplane, which will fly up to an altitude of 13,000 meters before releasing the parachute radiosondes.     [FULL  STORY]

Eviction fight reaches Ketagalan

The China Post
Date: September 26, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

Protesters on Ketagalan Boulevard roared, chanted and cried on Sunday afternoon as they pleaded

An 84-year-old resident whose house in Kaohsiung was demolished last week sits on Ketagalan Boulevard on Sunday, Sept. 25. (CNA)

An 84-year-old resident whose house in Kaohsiung was demolished last week sits on Ketagalan Boulevard on Sunday, Sept. 25. (CNA)

with the Tsai administration to halt land expropriation projects and return them to their homes.

“One hundred days since the new government took office, nothing has changed,” demonstrators said. “Forced evictions have continued and the housing rights of a few have been sacrificed for the sake of major corporations.”

Thousands of victims of forced evictions and supporters from more than 60 civic groups participated in the event, which was organized by the Taiwan Alliance of Anti-Forced Eviction, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Treasure Our Island Organization.

The civic groups represented residents from across the nation whose properties have been expropriated, primarily in Kaohsiung and New Taipei.

“We have been made domestic refugees,” said professor Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮), a veteran land justice activist and the director of the Treasure Our Island     [FULL  STORY]

Typhoon Megi prompts sea warning

STORM CHASER:An aircraft will climb to an altitude of about 13km and conduct observations to better predict the typhoon’s path, the Central Weather Bureau said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 26, 2016
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The Central Weather Bureau was scheduled to issue a sea alert for Typhoon Megi as of press time last p01-160926-typhoonwebnight, as the storm gained power on its way toward eastern and southern Taiwan.

By 8pm yesterday, the center of the typhoon was 920km east-southeast of Taiwan proper, moving west-northwest at 16kph, packing winds up to 137kph.
The radius of the storm was 200km, the bureau said.

The sea alert was scheduled to issued at 11:30pm last night. Because of the approaching typhoon, the Maritime and Port Bureau said that several shipping route services would be canceled today, tomorrow and Wednesday.

A majority of the canceled shipping services are in eastern and southern Taiwan, including those between Taitung’s Fugang Fishing Port and Green Island (綠島); between Houbi Lake (後壁湖) in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼); and between Donggang (東港) in Pintung County and Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球).     [FULL  STORY]

Too late for rescue

The China Post
Date: September 25, 2016
By: CNA

p01aTAIPEI, Taiwan — A dead Formosan black bear is placed in a lifeboat by a rescue team on Saturday. The bear was spotted lying in a riverbed near Annan Waterfall in Chouhsi Township in the eastern county of Hualien on Thursday, Sept. 22. Due to the rapid water flow, rescue workers could not reach the bear until Saturday, at which time it was declared dead.     [SOURCE]

Typhoon Megi on its way

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-24
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Sea warnings could be issued Sunday evening at the earliest as Tropical

A road in Southern Taiwan, repaired 10 days after a previous typhoon.

A road in Southern Taiwan, repaired 10 days after a previous typhoon.

Storm Megi turned into a typhoon and made its way toward Southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said Saturday.
The storm was likely to envelop all of the island on Tuesday while making landfall in Taitung County, some forecasters said.

Megi, the Korean word for catfish, only just originated in the Pacific near Guam, but weather experts already predict it will turn into one of the three fiercest typhoons of the year.

Just earlier this month, Typhoon Meranti passed close to Southern Taiwan, lashing Taitung, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Penghu and Kinmen without even making landfall. Only three days later, Typhoon Malakas moved up north along the east coast.     [FULL  STORY]