Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/13
By: Yin Chun-chieh and Kay Liu

Zhuhai, China, May 13 (CNA) Taiwanese officials who traveled to China to investigate a telecoms fraud case on Friday visited the Taiwanese suspects detained in the mainland after they were deported there by Malaysia last month.

The Taiwanese delegation, led by Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪), director-general of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Justice, visited the suspects at two detention centers in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.

Chen told reporters after the visit that the Taiwanese suspects were largely in good health, but three of them have received medical treatment — two for heart problems, and one for hernia.

The delegation that arrived in Guangdong on Thursday also watched the questioning of one Taiwanese suspect via a video link, and have been negotiating with Chinese authorities on how the two sides can jointly collect evidence and conduct the investigation.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: May 13, 2016

National Taiwan Museum and EasyCard Corp. jointly released May 11 new transit cards featuring depictions of the Yellow Tiger Flag, the banner of the short-lived Republic of Formosa. (CNA)

A set of transit cards featuring depictions of the Yellow Tiger Flag, the banner of the short-lived Republic of Formosa established in 1895 to resist Japan’s colonization of Taiwan, was jointly released May 11 by Taipei City-based National Taiwan Museum and EasyCard Corp., operator of the capital’s smartcard payment system.

The set of three smartcards was issued in the wake of the Ministry of Culture’s announcement April 19 that a reproduction of the flag in the NTM’s collection had been named a national treasure, Taiwan’s highest designation for cultural antiquities.

Only three copies of the original Yellow Tiger Flag are known to have been produced. One of these, believed to have been flown at a coastal fort in Keelung City on Taiwan’s northern tip, was taken to Japan after the republic fell. The item in the NTM’s collection is a replication of that flag produced by Japanese painter Untei Takahashi in 1909 for the institution, which was set up the previous year during Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945) as Taiwan’s first modern museum.     [FULL  STORY]

ESCAPE TO US?Activists blasted the decision, saying Ma Ying-jeou should be banned from leaving the country to secure evidence in potential corruption cases against him

Taipei Times
Date: May 14, 2016

President Ma Ying-jeou speaks at an event in Yilan County yesterday. Photo: Chiang Chih-

hsiung, Taipei Times

Lawyers Huang Ti-ying (黃帝穎) and Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) yesterday panned the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for rejecting a request by several civic groups to prohibit President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) from leaving the country amid allegations of abuse of power and corruption.

Huang, along with the Taiwan Association of University Professors, the Taiwan Forever group and the Northern Taiwan Society, on April 26 lodged a formal complaint with the Taipei office against Ma.

They accused Ma of profiting the Farglory Group (遠雄集團) in the scandal-dogged Taipei Dome project during his term as Taipei mayor and instigating former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) in 2013 to leak details in a controversial wiretapping investigation of former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), while questioning reports of unexplained increases in his personal wealth while in office.

The groups asked the office to ban Ma, who is to step down on Friday next week, from leaving the country to secure potential evidence.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-13
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei issued a statement that reiterates its

unequivocal opposition to capital punishment on behalf of the EU member states on Thursday following the latest execution of the convicted Taipei metro killer Cheng Chieh.

Cheng, the student who stabbed four people to death and injured 22 on the Taipei metro, was executed Tuesday evening, just 18 days after his death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court.

“We recognize the serious nature of the crimes committed on May 21, 2014 in Taipei, and the suffering of the victims and their families. We express our sincere sympathy to all those who suffered because of the committed crimes,” according to the statement.

The statement went on to say, “however, the EU reiterates that the death penalty can never be justified as it has no deterrent effect, and calls for its universal abolition.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/13
By: Chen Wei-ting and Elaine Hou

Taipei, May 13 (CNA) A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rocked northern Taiwan on Friday

afternoon, just a day after two other temblors exceeding magnitudes of 5 hit the same area off the island’s northeastern coast.

A magnitude 4.0 aftershock occurred 19 minutes later with an epicenter just two kilometers from the previous quake, according to Central Weather Bureau data.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The magnitude 5.1 quake, which struck at 4:24 p.m., was centered just off the coast of Yilan County 21.8 kilometers east of the Yilan County government complex.

Its focus — the location where the earthquake begins — was 15.9 km, bureau data showed.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: May 12, 2016
By: William Lowther / Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

Beijing does not want to see president-elect Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文] and the Democratic

Progressive Party (DPP) succeed, a leading US-Asia expert said on Tuesday.

“It is not in their interests to have them succeed and this will shape the approach that Beijing takes to Taiwan in the future,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“If Tsai does well, if she succeeds, if the economy does well, the DPP might be the dominant party in Taiwan for a very long time to come — and that is an outcome China really does not want to see,” she said.

She was addressing a roundtable conference at The George Washington University’s Sigur Center for Asian Studies on “Prospects for the Tsai Ing-wen Administration.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-12
By: George Liao, Taiwan News Staff Writer

Rocks fell from a cliff face on the Turtle Island as a 5.6-magnitude quake hit off Taiwan’s northeast coast at 11:17 a.m. on Thursday.
The shocking scene was witnessed by all the crew members and tourists on a sightseeing boat cruising around the island at the time of the tremor.

A tour guide on the boat surnamed Chien was quoted by media as saying that the boat took 74 tourists to the island for sightseeing, and after they left the island, the boat was circling around the island to give passengers better views of the famous outlying island off the coast of Yilan from different angles.

Chien said as the boat was sailing to an area near the cliff at the “head” of the turtle-shaped island, he and many passengers received earthquake warning messages from their cell phones, and the skipper noticed that the propeller blades had caught something, and then they saw rocks falling from the face of the cliff before their eyes.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/12
By: Worthy Shen, Huang Li-yun and Lilian Wu

Taipei, May 12 (CNA ) The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) on Thursday warned of aftershocks

over the next three days and the possibility of other earthquakes similar in magnitude to the 5.8 temblor that struck Taiwan earlier in the day.

The quake, which struck at 11:17 a.m. was centered 19.7 kilometers southeast of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 17.5 km under the ocean floor, the CWB said.

The highest intensity was recorded in Nan’ao, Yilan, at six, but only for 0.2 seconds, while other major areas in Yilan recorded an intensity of five, the CWB said.

In Taipei, the quake got up to an intensity of three for about 12 seconds.

Chang Chien-hsing(張建興), a senior technical specialist at the CWB, said the magnitude 5.8 quake was amplified in the Okinawa trough and lasted a long time – 42.2 seconds in Taipei — because it was shallow.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Chiayi County Government has planned to introduce electric motorbikes and electric shuttle buses to relieve weekend traffic congestion in areas around the glass “Blue High Heel Church” in Budai Township.

The Southwest Coast National Scenic Area Administration spent (SCNSA) NT$23.17 million to construct the uniquely shaped church, which is located in the Chiayi Budai Seascape Park. Comprised of 320 glass panels and 1,269 steel rods, the 17 meter tall and 11 meter wide glass structure has become a tourist attraction after its opening in February this year.

Even though the dazzling structure has a strong touch of glamour in appearance, it was actually inspired by the Blackfoot disease, a horrible epidemic that plagued the southwestern coast of Taiwan in the early 20th century and caused many women in the area to undergo amputations. The SCNSA said the blue heel stands in memory of all those girls “who lost their dreams of walking on a red wedding carpet in an elegant high heel.”     [FULL  STORY]