Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-24
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Mixed feelings have been expressed on a lawmaker’s proposal to set up a central-government controlled “metro police bureau.”

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Chi-ming has proposed a motion that aims to establish a police bureau that is responsible for maintaining security and order in the country’s metro systems.

A female Taipei City resident surnamed Hung said that she welcomes the proposal because the establishment of a metro police bureau at the central government’s level would make travelers feel safer while riding a metro in Taiwan.

However, a New Taipei City resident surnamed Chang opposes the proposal, saying that the proposed metro police bureau, if becomes reality, would waste taxpayers’ money just like the National Police Agency’s (NPA) Railway Police Bureau, which has hundreds of police officers who have nothing to do on a regular basis. Chang questioned that with very few random killings so far, why waste lots of money on setting up and maintaining a metro police bureau within the NPA?     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/24
By: Claudia Liu, Lu Hsin-hui and S.C. Chang

Taipei, April 24 (CNA) Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) questioned on

Sunday President-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s position on importing American meat containing leanness-promoting drugs and accused her of “not attaching importance to public health.”

As people become more familiar with her position on importing beef and pork containing traces of ractopamine from the United States, “they will hold her accountable” for establishing an import policy that accounts for health risks to consumers, Wu said.

Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which defeated Wu’s Kuomintang (KMT) in both the presidential and legislative elections in January and will take power next month, dismissed Wu’s accusations.

“The general public has stereotyped Wu as a man with a glib tongue whose statements are often ‘wrong to the point of being ridiculous.’ So we will simply not respond to his latest remarks,” said DPP spokesman Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍).     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 25, 2016
By: Su Fang-ho and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Ministry of Justice “abetted the escape” of Tseng Chao-jung (曾昭榮), who

was indicted for allegedly scamming NT$12.2 billion (US$377.4 million at current exchange rates) from investors, by setting his bail at NT$1 million, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Karen Yu (余宛如) said yesterday.

Yu, accompanied at a news conference in Taipei by a dozen investors who said they had been defrauded by Tseng’s “cabal of con artists,” characterized the ministry’s handling of the case as a “dereliction of duty” and accused the government of leaving the victims “high and dry.”

From 2011 to 2014, Tseng and his cohorts allegedly sold through his corporations Tebao Co (德寶公司) and Shuanying Co (雙盈公司) what he claimed were unlisted shares of Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活) and Taiwan Taxi Co (台灣大車隊) to more than 3,000 people for a total of NT$12.2 billion, Yu said.

Yu said that the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office wrongfully acquiesced to Tseng’s request for bail on Feb. 24, 2014, allowing him to flee and leaving no assets behind with which to compensate victims.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-23
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The United States Republican National Committee approved a motion supporting Taiwan at its spring meeting in Hollywood, Florida, reports said Saturday.

Coverage of the item by the media was poor mainly because the meeting has been dominated by the party’s rocky road toward the November 8 presidential election.

The motion congratulated Taiwan on electing its first woman president, Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, who will be sworn in on May 20. The document also emphasized the importance of the Taiwan Relations Act in safeguarding Taiwan’s security.

The motion, under the theme of “confirming strong support for the Republic of China” was adopted unanimously, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 24, 2016
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A senior government official yesterday warned that the mausoleum of former

president Chiang Ching-kuo (將經國) might be in danger due to its proximity to a faultline.

The bodies of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo were not buried. Chiang Ching-kuo’s body was preserved at a mausoleum in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪) and Chiang Kai-shek’s remains were entombed at a mausoleum in Tzuhu (慈湖).

Both mausoleums are old and require a lot of money to repair, said the official, who declined to be named, adding that repairs last year to the Chiang Ching-kuo mausoleum cost NT$13.2 million (US$408,289), while the Tzuhu mausoleum cost NT$10.4 million.

The official said that Chiang Ching-kuo building has cracks and has leaked since its commissioning in 1988 and the structure is slowly deteriorating.     [FULL  STORY]

The New York Times
Date: APRIL 22, 2016
By AUSTIN RAMZYAPRIL 22, 2016

In a joint meeting, Chinese and Taiwanese officials discussed cooperation in the investigation and trial process of the 45 Taiwanese citizens charged with telecommunications fraud. By CCTV, via REUTERS on Publish Date April 22, 2016. Photo by Yin Gang/Xinhua, via Reuters.
HONG KONG — Forty-five fraud suspects from Taiwan who are suspected of cheating mainland Chinese by telephone from a base in Kenya have admitted guilt and will soon face trial, according to the Chinese police, the state news media reported on Friday.

The suspects were deported from Kenya to China this month, stirring concern in Taiwan that Beijing was using its international clout to control the fate of the accused.

Officials from Taiwan visited the Beijing detention center where the suspects were being held on Thursday, and they met with Chinese officials to discuss visitation rights and treatment of the detainees. Only some of the suspects have seen a lawyer, according to Xinhua, China’s state-run news service.

Some of the suspects had been tried for fraud in Kenya and acquitted, while the others had not yet faced trial when they were deported. Because the victims of the purported telephone hoaxes were overwhelmingly from the mainland, Chinese officials demanded that the suspects be sent there, along with Chinese citizens also accused of involvement in the alleged fraud ring.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Beleaguered Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey phoned to request a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou without mentioning an offer of resignation, the Presidential Office said Friday.

The nation’s top academic has become embroiled in an alleged insider trading scandal surrounding the sale of shares in biotechnology firm OBI Pharma Inc. before news of failed tests emerged.

Wong, who also holds United States citizenship, was barred from leaving Taiwan after being listed as a defendant in cases involving corruption and breach of trust.

At 1:50 p.m. Friday, Wong phoned the president to apologize to him over the affair, while also expressing the hope he could soon meet Ma to explain the case, presidential spokesman Charles Chen told the media.     [FULL  STORY]