The China Post
Date: June 18, 2016
By: Christine Chou

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC, 交通部) has

welcomed suggestions made Friday by Taipei City Department of Transportation (DOT, 交通局) Commissioner Chung Hui-yu (鍾慧諭) during her last day on the job.

In an open letter, Chung told the ministry that the main reason for traffic congestion over the Dragon Boat Festival holiday was the increased number of vehicles on the road, rather than the cancellation of a nighttime toll-free policy.

“(Elsewhere, most) cities deal with congestion by restricting vehicle use and encouraging people to opt for public transportation,” but Taiwan seems to have gone in the opposite direction, Chung wrote.

Implementing toll-free policies and fixed prices encourages highway use and should be avoided, even during rush hour, she said.

Chung also told the MOTC that the only solution to congestion on Freeway No. 5 was for Yilan County to raise parking fees during holidays and to improve local public transportation.     [Full  story]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/17
By: J. Michael Cole

An Fengshan blames everything on those in Taiwan who seek to ‘secede’ from China. Unfortunately for him, the problem is a much more formidable one.

Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman An Fengshan (安峰山) on June 15 denied during a press conference in Beijing that an “anti Taiwan” sentiment had developed among Chinese citizens and argued that the negative thoughts were instead aimed at those who support “Taiwan independence.”

An did not mince his words. “Any attempt to seek secession will be unsuccessful,” he said, while rejecting recent comments by Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council that relations across the Taiwan Strait are between “neighbors.”

“The mainland [sic] and Taiwan belong to one China, and compatriots on both sides are a family, not ‘neighbors,’” he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-17
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former Presidential Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chuan left on a trip to Europe without alerting the new government, with his application having been approved by ex-President Ma Ying-jeou, reports said Friday.

The Classified National Security Information Protection Act requires top officials to ask permission to leave the country within three years after leaving office. The law was used to bar Ma from addressing a media event in Hong Kong earlier this week.

Tseng was visiting Europe from June 10 to 17 in order to attend a conference of the World League for Freedom and Democracy in Bulgaria, but the current administration of President Tsai Ing-wen was not aware of the trip, reports said.

Apparently, Ma had approved Tseng’s request on May 9, before Tsai’s inauguration on May 20.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/17
By: Justin Su and Lilian Wu

Taipei, June 17 (CNA) Taiwan took its first step toward lowering the voting age to 18 from the present 20 after a draft amendment to the Constitution passed a first reading Friday.

The draft amendment will now be sent to the Constitutional Amendment Committee for review.

The draft amendment, which was co-signed by 31 lawmakers, says that voting age restrictions stipulated in the Republic of China Constitution have not been discussed or amended during the past seven decades.

The proposed amendment notes that many democratic countries have a voting age of 18.

Japan, which had previously set its age of suffrage at over 18, lowered it to 18 in June 2014, and this shows that Taiwan’s voting age of 20 lags behind some other democratic countries, it says.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/16
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, June 16 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) saluted the national flag and the flags of the armed forces by placing her hand over her heart during a ceremonial military review to mark the 92nd anniversary of the Republic of China Military Academy in Kaohsiung Thursday.

Since she was sworn in May 20, Tsai has also visited units of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Military Police.

Tsai was paying her first visit to the academy, formerly known as the Huangpu (Whampoa) Military Academy, for the school’s founding anniversary.

Upon Tsai’s arrival, a Ministry of National Defense band played to pay tribute to her, and the president then walked toward the armed forces honor guards in a ceremonial inspection of troops.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 17, 2016
By: Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA

The Puzangalan Children’s Choir yesterday said that a shortfall in funding has been resolved

by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) donation of NT$500,000. The money came from the proceeds of Tsai’s book entitled The Tsai Faction: Lighting the Way for the Taiwanese Mile, which was published in October last year.

The group asked the public not to donate any more money as they now have enough to attend the 11th Cantemus International Choral Festival in Hungary in August.

The group said it had originally intended to use the proceeds of their July 20 performance in Guangzhou, China, to cover the expenses of the Hungary trip.

However, China rescinded the invitation for the performance, reportedly due to the group’s rendition of the national anthem during the presidential inauguration ceremony on May 20, the choir’s director-general Tsai Yi-fang (蔡義芳) said.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: June 17, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI–An American man died Thursday after slashing himself in the neck on hearing that he had

been given a four-year prison sentence for narcotics possession by a district court in Changhua County.

The man, identified as Tyrel Martin Marhanka, was pronounced dead at a hospital despite attempts to save his life.

He was 41 and is survived by a wife and two children.

Marhanka was indicted in March after he was arrested last April for growing opium poppies and cannabis in Changhua.

According to an investigation by Changhua district prosecutors, he began to grow opium poppies at a rented place in Changhua’s Yongjing Township in February 2015 after bringing 800 opium poppy seeds into Taiwan from the United States in 2011.

Before that, he had begun to grow cannabis at another rented place in April 2013, using seeds he bought online from a British website, prosecutors said.

After his arrest, Marhanka claimed he was growing the illegal plants for his own consumption and did not sell them for profit.

He was sentenced to four years in jail by the Changhua District Court Thursday.     [FULL  STORY]