SOUTH CHINA SEA:The government wants to differentiate Taiwan’s claims from China’s to avoid the impression that the two have a unified stance, a source said

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 15, 2016
By: Chung Li-hua / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has reached an internal resolution on Taiwan’s

territorial claims over the South China Sea, which stresses the nation’s sovereignty over islands in the area, but makes no mention of the so-called “U-shaped line” and “historical waters,” a Presidential Office source said yesterday.

The government wants to differentiate Taiwan’s claims from China’s and avoid the impression that Taipei and Beijing have a unified stance on the issue, said the source, who asked not to be identified.

The U-shaped line — also known as the “11-dash line” — was featured in the “Location Map of the South China Sea Islands” drawn up by the Republic of China (ROC) government in 1947. After the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party changed it to a “nine-dash line.”

After the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday ruled that Beijing’s claims of historical rights over the area based on its nine-dash line were invalid, the Ministry of the Interior and the Mainland Affairs Council issued statements stressing the ROC’s sovereignty over the South China Sea islands.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 15, 2016
By: John Liu

Up to six Eastern European suspects were implicated in the recent First Bank ATM heist, and

three of them, along with the stolen cash, are likely to be still in Taiwan, Taipei City Police said Thursday.

Three suspects have left the country — two of them Russian nationals. There may be more people involved, and no Taiwanese suspects have been identified, the police confirmed.

The suspects worked in two teams of three. One group remotely hacked the ATMs, while the other team physically collected the cash from the machines.

A similar act was carried out by an Eastern Europe ring years ago, and the police are not ruling out a connection with the crime committed over the weekend.

Surveillance video shows that the suspects managed to take out cash without operating the ATMs. The police have identified the escaped Russian nationals as Berezovskiy, 34, and Berkman, 28.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/13
By: Chu Tse-wei and Romulo Huang

Taipei, July 13 (CNA) The National Immigration Agency said Wednesday that it has been

extending a helping hand to immigrants who had suffered during Typhoon Nepartak which hammered eastern and southern Taiwan last Friday.

Ho Jung-chun (何榮村), acting director general of the NIA, accompanied by officials of other governmental entities, visited foreign nationals residing in the southeastern county of Taitung which was ravaged by the storm, and offered NT$10,000 (US$311) in relief funds to each family of new immigrants affected, including those from China, the NIA said in a statement.

In addition, Ho told the immigrants that his office is to introduce more social resources to help them rebuild their houses destroyed by the typhoon, which brought heavy rain and the strongest wind in 61 years to the county, it added.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: July 13, 2016

The documentary series “Medical Elite,” part of the “Taiwan Revealed” programs produced by

Discovery Channel in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, premiered at Taipei Guest House July 12, highlighting some of the nation’s world-leading health care breakthroughs and its active role in international medical relief efforts.

“Taiwan Revealed: Medical Elite” consists of two 60-minute episodes introducing medical innovations such as an improved therapy for Pompe disease and the world’s first stool color card screening for biliary atresia. The first is slated to be broadcast on Discovery Channel across Asia-Pacific July 20 and the second July 27, while the series is expected to reach about 200 million households in 36 countries and markets throughout the region.

“In the past, the international community helped Taiwan eradicate several communicable diseases. Today, as a nation with advanced medical resources, Taiwan is returning the favor,” Vice President Chen Chien-jen, a distinguished epidemiologist, said at the premiere. “Our country has been transformed from a recipient to a provider of international medical assistance, with many medical professionals contributing their expertise to help promote the universal human right to health care.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-13
By George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taoyuan City Government aims to unleash a wave of excitement in the summer by holding the Northern Cross Outdoor Festival from July 16 to July 31 to engage participants in activities ranging from bungee jumping, river tracing, mountain training to star gazing.

The city’s Department of Tourism announced the festival with the theme of “10 mountain and country exploration activities,” which will take place at Cihu, Jiaobanshan, Little Wulai, and Lalashan, four scenic locations along the Northern Cross-Island Highway.

The highway links mountainous areas in Taoyuan City and Yilan County and is a popular route for getting away from city hustle and bustle.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
2016/07/13 23:35:26
By: Wang Hong-kuo, Chu Che-wei and Kay Liu

Taipei, July 13 (CNA) A Latvian man who entered Taiwan as a tourist has been identified as the third suspect in hacking First Bank’s automatic teller machines (ATMs) to acquire cash, police said Wednesday.

The Latvian man, identified by his last name Andrenjes, has not left Taiwan, according to immigration records, and the number of suspects involved in the theft case should be more than four, police said.

Information about Andrenjs was released after police reviewed surveillance videos that recorded the theft of more than NT$80 million (US$2.49 million) through 38 ATMs at several of the back’s branches.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: July 13, 2016

The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration’s award on the Philippines-

initiated South China Sea Arbitration, including apparently incorrect statements regarding Taiping Island in the Nansha (Spratly) Islands, has severely jeopardized the legal status and relevant maritime rights of the South China Sea islands, over which the Republic of China (Taiwan) exercises sovereignty, and is unacceptable to the ROC government, Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong said July 12.

The Office of the President, as well as other ROC government agencies including the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has strongly rejected the outcome of the arbitration.

“The arbitral tribunal did not formally invite the ROC to participate in its proceedings, nor did it solicit the ROC’s views,” Yeh said during a news conference at MOI headquarters in Taipei City. “Therefore, we assert that the decision has no legally binding force on the ROC.”     [FULL  STORY]

NO EFFECT ON TIES:The minister of foreign affairs told lawmakers that, despite Washington’s recognition of the ruling, it understood why Taipei had dismissed it

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 14, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) yesterday said that President Tsai

Ing-wen (蔡英文) has not ruled out visiting Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) in the South China Sea, which has been categorized by an international tribunal ruling as a “rock.”

Lee made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei, which reviewed the potential effects of a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Tuesday over territorial disputes between the Philippines and China.

Due to similarities between Taiwan’s territorial claims and those of China in the South China Sea, Itu Aba was brought up in testimony at the hearings, despite Taiwan not being party to the case.     [FULL  STORY]