Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-06
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford said on Wednesday that the Ministry of Finance (MOF) will form a task force to investigate Panama Papers files in connection with Taiwanese clients to understand if any of them were involved in tax evasion.

Chang said that the task force will begin with those who have strong possibility of committing tax evasion and will exclude government officials, scholars and individuals.

The reason to exclude them is because they usually are not very rich people and therefore have low possibility of using tax heavens, Chang added.

Some Taiwanese enterprises set up offshore companies for the purpose of indirectly investing in China during the era when direct investment in China was not legally allowed, while some set up offshore companies solely for the purpose of evading tax, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/06
By: Sophia Yeh and Lilian Wu

Taipei, April 6 (CNA) President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Wednesday that her administration will step up exchanges and communication with the Chinese government and will commit to maintaining peaceful and stable relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

“This will be an important task of the new administration,” Tsai was quoted as saying in a news release by her Democratic Progressive Party after she met with Richard Armitage, a former U.S. deputy secretary of state, and other former foreign officials.

Taiwan will cooperate with the United States on such substantive issues as humanitarian assistance and climate change, as part of its efforts to become a responsible member of the international community, Tsai said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 07, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) yesterday said there is a schedule

for executions and there would be no rush to carry them out on the nation’s 42 death-row inmates.

“We do not have a timetable for carrying out capital punishment,” Luo said at a meeting with top judiciary officials to discuss the cases.

“The review process is ongoing for these cases,” Luo said at a press briefing after the event. “They will undergo review on a case-by-case basis. We have proceeded in a prudent manner and must ensure there has been no miscarriage of justice before going on to the next step.”

The three vice ministers of justice along with the head of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office attended the meeting.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/06
By: Stanley Cheung and Elaine Hou

Hong Kong, April 6 (CNA) A Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Taiwan to

Hong Kong developed what appeared to be a problem with the plane’s hydraulic system but managed to land safely, the airline said Wednesday.

A warning signal appeared after the plane took off from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Wednesday morning, carrying about 300 passengers, the Hong Kong-based air carrier confirmed.

The airline told CNA that it then asked Hong Kong airport authorities to make emergency preparations for the flight’s landing.

The plane landed safely at the airport in Hong Kong around the noon and there were no casualties, the airline said.    [source]

Morning News USA
Date: APR 6, 2016
By: Precious Silva

Things are not looking good for China as Vietnam and Taiwan each made

moves against the country. Vietnam seized a Chinese vessel while Taiwan denied joining forces with China or pushing for similar interests in the disputed South China Sea region.

Territorial dispute has escalated in the South China Sea region as Vietnam seized a Chinese vessel, detaining a captain and two sailors in the process. Furthermore, Taiwan recently denied that even with China’s interest over forging the country, it will not pursue such because of its independent foreign policy.

According to The Guardian, Vietnam seized the Chinese vessel, citing that the ship breached its waters. China has been under fire for pushing its territorial claims in the region. State-run Thanh Nien News reported that the seizure happened last Saturday. The organization also emphasized that it was rare for Vietnam to make such a move against a powerful nation like China. This has escalated tensions between Hanoi and Beijing consequently.

Vietnamese fishermen also said previously that Chinese officials have harassed and attacked them while at sea. Last May, ships from both countries collided because China tried setting up an oil rig in the disputed region. Vietnam coastguard claimed that the ship’s crew “admitted that they had entered deep [into] Vietnamese waters to refuel several other Chinese boats which were fishing illegally there.” The vessel also contained more than 100,000 liters of diesel oil.     [FULL  STORY]

Liquidate Fighter Fleet, Procure SAMs, If Taiwan Wants To Survive

Defense News
Date: April 5, 2016
By: Wendell Minnick, Defense News

TAIPEI — Radical changes in Taiwan’s air defense order of battle that include

the retirement of all the indigenous defense fighters and Mirage 2000-5 fighter aircraft with cost savings moved to the procurement of a substantial number of mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems are among the recommendations in a think tank report.

The report, “Air Defense Options for Taiwan: An Assessment of Relative Costs and Operational Benefits,” suggests that Taiwan downsize its fighter fleet and increase investment in SAM systems. The Rand Corp. study tests this strategy against three vignettes that span the range of conflict, from air sovereignty to disarming strikes and invasion air defense.

Rand crunches the numbers in the 172-page report with reckonings that make this paper hard to ignore against political hype inside Taipei and the sexy fighter aircraft tradition in the Taiwan air force that goes back to the Flying Tigers of World War II.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-05
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC), which operates the Taipei Metro System, said on Tuesday that the Zhongshan Metro Mall will be open to other vendors besides bookstores when the current lease ends in March next year.

TRTC President Yen Pang-chieh said that stores at the TRTC-run Taipei Metro Mall and East Metro Mall are mostly profitable because of the bustling crowds. But the Zhongshan Metro Mall, which is an underground passageway connecting the Zhongshan and Shuanglian MRT stations and caters to bookstores, is a different story because most of the stores were in the red due to failure to bring in crowds over the years.

Actually there are many tourists above the underground mall, including the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department stores on Nanjing East Road and many unique coffee shops, fashion accessories and apparel stores and hair salons located along the surrounding alleys, Yen said, adding that if only we could bring them to the Zhongshan Metro Mall.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-05
By: Chia Lee, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwanese citizens will soon find it even easier to enter the United States due to an

agreement signed between the representative bodies of the two countries, the American Institute in Taiwan announced Tuesday.
AIT and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) signed a joint statement Monday regarding cooperation on an International Expedited Traveler Initiative, which outlines how the two institutions will work together to expand U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Global Entry program and Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency’s (NIA) E-gate program to include eligible travelers from the U.S. and Taiwan, AIT announced Tuesday.

Taiwan becomes the seventh country in the world, and the second in Asia to join the program, along with the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, the Republic of Panama, South Korea and Mexico.

Both the U.S. CBP’s Global Entry program and Taiwan’s NIA E-gate program will grant pre-approved, low-risk travelers expedited entry upon arrival at selected ports of entry.     [FULL  STORY]