The China Post
Date: September 4, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

More than 110,000 civil servants and supporters took to the streets in Taipei Saturday, protesting what

they say is the government’s defamation of public sector workers in ongoing pension reform efforts.

The demonstrators set off from four separate starting points, eventually converging in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard (凱達格蘭大道) around 3 p.m.

The organizers — the Pension Reform Oversight Coalition (監督年金改革行動聯盟) — claimed more than 250,000 people took part in the protest, but official police figures put the number at 117,000.

Retired Gen. and former Premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) appeared at the protest alongside his son, Kuomintang (KMT) Deputy Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).

In an interview with local reporters, the pair called on the Tsai administration to “look after, respect and honor” public sector workers.

Protesters along the route cheered the former premier as he joined the march with his son.

The younger Hau charged the government with deliberately triggering class conflict in the name of reform.     [FULL  STORY]

The Executive Yuan and negotiators from the Ministry of Economic Affairs will now be in charge of implementing the policy.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/09/02
By: J. Michael Cole

One day after news that New Southbound Policy Coordination Office head James Huang (黃志芳) is to

become Taiwan’s representative to Singapore, reports emerged on Friday that the Office, a major initiative of the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration, was to be absorbed by the Executive Yuan. Later on Friday evening, a spokesman for the Presidential Office added precisions to the initial reports.

Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), director of international affairs at the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP), told reporters on Friday that the Office was to be merged with the EY. The EY was to work with trade negotiators from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to implement the New Southbound Policy.

Since Tsai’s inauguration on May 20, the Office had operated on reduced staff due to budget constraints, with some officials loaned part-time from other units.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date 2016/09/02
By: Liu Chien-pang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) All YouBike stations in six counties and cities in Taiwan resumed normal operations at Friday noon after repairs of a glitch in the system were completed, the company that operates the public bicycle rental service said.

The glitch was caused by software damage during a system update, shutting down the YouBike on Wednesday.

The breakdown resulted in the malfunction of 17,317 rental stations in Taipei, New Taipei, Hsinchu, Taoyuan, Taichung and Changhua and affected 140,000 people around Taiwan, including 100,000 to 110,000 users in the greater Taipei area.

YouBike Co. said it will compensate users for the inconvenience caused by the problem by allowing people to rent YouBikes free of charge for the first hour on Friday and Saturday, the company said.     [FULL  STORY]

MOVIE TROPE?DPP Legislator Tsai Yi-yu said that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is always hiding in the shadows at major events, like a character in a martial arts film

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 03, 2016
By: Chen Yu-fu, Lee Hsin-fang and William Hetherington / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday urged the organizers of a protest over

plans for government pensions to refuse help from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to avoid politicizing the event.

An alliance of retired and active military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers is to take to the streets in Taipei this afternoon to protest what it called the “stigmatization” of public-sector pensioners.

The alliance said that the protest was organized to appeal for “respect for dignity and an end to defamation of character,” as well as being “a call for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to stop the bullying of state employees.”

Public-sector pensioners are often depicted as enjoying generous retirement benefits and are wrongly blamed for the problems in the pension system, the groups said.

The KMT was expected to mobilize members of its Huang Fu-hsing military veterans’ branch, its Department of Women’s Affairs and its Department of Youth Affairs and said it would set up three support stations along the protest route.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 3, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

Local game developer XPEC Entertainment Inc. (樂陞科技) and many of its stock loan traders are

being investigated for illegal short selling and insider trading, the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office said Friday.

The largest foreign acquisition plan in the history of Taiwan game developers fell apart Wednesday when Japan-based Bai Chi Gan Tou Digital Entertainment Co (百尺竿頭數位娛樂) abruptly announced that it would not be able to deliver the required payment of over NT$4.6 billion by the deadline.

Investors affected by the incident staged a protest at the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Friday, calling on the Investment Commission to investigate alleged wrongdoing of CTBC Bank, the intermediary company in the acquisition deal.

Investors urged the FSC to look into possible fraud in the case and to help shareholders seek justice and compensation from the Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center (投保中心).

Later Friday, the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office said a special team — set up recently for such cases — would investigate whether illegal short selling occurred during the acquisition process and, if so, whether insider trading had been involved.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-02
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – OBI Pharma Inc. Chairman Michael Chang appeared for questioning by prosecutors Friday as the investigation into the alleged insider trading case which brought down a president of the Academia Sinica was reportedly close to completion.

Wong Chi-huey, the head of Taiwan’s most prestigious research body, saw his resignation approved last May after allegations that he had knowledge about negative test results of a new cancer drug from OBI Pharma and went on to sell shares owned by his daughter before the announcement. Wong maintained his innocence, but the allegations led to his resignation before the end of ten years at the helm of the Academia Sinica.

Chang, who was banned from leaving the country after his release on bail of NT$1 million (US$31,000), was seen at the Shilin District Prosecutors Office in the company of an attorney Friday afternoon.

The media speculated that prosecutors were reaching the end of their investigation and would soon announce whether charges would be forthcoming.     [FULL  STORY]

The Tsai administration has appointed a new head for the Straits Exchange Foundation in hopes for improving cross-Strait exchange.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/09/02
By: Mo Tz-pin

Former foreign minister Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) has been appointed as the new chairman of Taiwan’s

Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), a semi-official organization set up by the Taiwanese government to handle daily affairs between Taiwan and China.

The SEF works closely with its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS). Some communication mechanisms between the two sides have been suspended since June as Beijing attempts Taipei to recognize the “1992 consensus.”

Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) announced the appointment on Wednesday.

Previously a representative of Taiwan to the U.K., Tien, 78, is currently chairman of the Institute of National Policy Research. He has spent many years researching international affairs and China. Tien has also served as a top advisor to the Chinese National Federation of Industries in Taipei, working closely with the Taiwanese business sectors.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/01
By: Chiu Kuo-chiang and Christie Chen

Weifang City, China, Sept. 1 (CNA) Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office

(TAO), said Thursday that cross-strait relations are facing a “grave challenge” as the current Taiwan government has refused to recognize the “1992 consensus” and its core meaning.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has adopted a “vague attitude” toward cross-strait relations, and has refused to acknowledge the “1992 consensus,” which means at the core that both sides belong to one China, Zhang said.

“(This has) undermined the political foundation for peaceful development of cross-strait relations,” Zhang said at the opening of a cross-strait innovation forum at the 22nd Shandong-Taiwan Economic & Trade Fair in Weifang City in Shandong Province.

However, he said, there will be no major changes to China’s Taiwan policy.     [FULL  STORY]