Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former Legislative Vice Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu was elected the first-ever female leader of the Kuomintang Saturday, winning more than half the votes in the first round.

All through the campaign, Hung, 67, had called for an absolute majority in order not to waste time as the KMT turns from a long-term ruling party into the main opposition. In the absence of any candidate winning at least 50 percent Saturday, there would have been a second round on April 16 between the two leading candidates.

Hung received 78,829 votes or 56.16 percent, defeating acting chairwoman Huang Min-hui, who received 46,341 votes or 33.02 percent, Taipei City councilor Lee Hsin, with 7,604 votes or 5.42 percent, and legislator Apollo Chen with 6,784 votes or 4.83 percent.

Despite the relatively good weather, the turnout was especially low at only 41.61 percent of the more than 337,000 party members eligible to vote at the 476 polling stations across the country, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-25
By: George Liu, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

Living a fast-paced 21st century lifestyle frequently means family takes a back seat to gadgets and the 24-7 job of promoting a personal online “brand.” Few are lucky enough to be able to combine their careers with family or interests. Ricky and Jerry Chang can be considered two of these fortunate individuals who get to combine work, enjoyment, and family. These two young brothers are both attending university and working as models.

Beginning in kindergarten, Ricky and Jerry have always attended the same schools. Currently, both are studying in the Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology and Department of Nutrition and Health Science at Fooyin University in the Daliao District of Kaohsiung City. The brothers have already obtained medical technician licenses and are studying for additional certification as dieticians. Given their busy academic schedule, they find time to advance their modeling careers on evenings and weekends.

Older brother Ricky has been modeling for about a year and introduced Jerry to the industry six months ago. Ricky originally began modeling to supplement his income but soon discovered his new job gave him a level of confidence he never imagined possessing. In the past, Ricky would ask one of his good friends to help him make every important decision in his life, one, because he lacked confidence and, two, as a way of shifting responsibility away from himself. This all changed after Ricky started modeling. He sees his newfound confidence as a gift he can share with people to encourage them to break out of their shells and do something new. He also truly believes that anyone can be a model as long as they work hard.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/25
By: Liu Shih-yi, Wang Cheng-chung, Wen Kuei-hsiang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, March 25 (CNA) Prosecutors looking into potential insider trading of OBI Pharma shares said Friday that the daughter of Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) sold some of her stocks in the company three months before it announced a failed trial of its new cancer drug, which sent its stock price plunging.

The Shihlin Prosecutors Office said, however, that the exact number of shares sold by Wong Yu-shioh (翁郁琇) and the flow of the funds still have to be checked.

Prosecutors have screened data supplied by the Financial Supervisory Commission on the 50 biggest traders of OBI Pharma shares prior to when the failed test was announced on Feb. 21, and Wong’s daughter was not among that group, the Shihlin office said.

The office said it would expand the list to check the top 100 traders of OBI Pharma shares during the period, without specifying how long of a period before the announcement is covered by the data.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: March 25, 2016

The first visit to Taiping Island by an international media group took place March 23, and

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou offered the same opportunity to the Philippines government.

Organized by the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the foreign contingent included 12 journalists from global news outlets like Agence France-Presse, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNN, Financial Times, Kyodo News, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.

MOFA Deputy Minister Bruce J. D. Linghu, who led the group on its one-day trip, said Taiping Island is the largest naturally formed island in the Nansha chain and capable of fully sustaining its residents.

Ma said he formally invites the Philippines government to send representatives to tour the island in an effort to help the government of the Southeast Asian nation understand that Taiping Island is an island and not a rock, as it argues in an international tribunal. He also welcomes the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague to perform a site visit.     [FULL  STORY]

FOUR YEARS:The prosecution sentenced the Ting Hsin executive and 11 others, while it said Wei Chuan Foods general manager Chang Chiao-hua was not guilty
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 26, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Senior Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) executive Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) was found

guilty of defrauding consumers and breaching food safety laws and given a four-year jail term by the Taipei District Court in a first-round ruling yesterday.

The court also ordered Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品), a subsidiary of Ting Hsin, to pay a NT$15.5 million (US$473,051) fine, while Wei Chuan Foods general manager Chang Chiao-hua (張教華) was found not guilty.

Chang was the only one of 13 defendants to escape punishment, with 11 other company employees, excluding Wei, found guilty and sentenced to prison terms ranging from five months to 46 months, most of which can be commuted to fines.

Wei’s lawyer Yu Ming-hsien (余明賢) said they would appeal his sentence.

“We regret this ruling and we cannot accept it… We believe Wei Chuan employees undertook their work by following the rules and did not break the law. We will appeal the ruling to fight for not-guilty rulings for Wei Chuan employees,” Yu said.

Legal professionals said Wei and his company got off lightly.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/24
By Huang Tzu-chiang, Jay Chou and S.C. Chang

Singapore and Jakarta, March 24 (CNA) Captain Lin Nan-yang (林喃揚) of the Taiwanese

fishing boat the Sheng Te Tsai on Thursday talked about “those 120 terrifying minutes” in the early morning of March 21 in the Strait of Malacca when his cabin and another Taiwanese boat were shot at without warning by two Indonesian official vessels.

Lin and Chen Fu-yi (陳福益), captain of the Lien I Hsing No. 116, told CNA that at 3:00 a.m. that day, when it was pitch dark, Lin got a message from Chen that two unknown vessels were sailing near Lien I Hsing No. 116, “the one farther away had its lights on while the one close to us had no lights on, creating waves that hit the waves from our boat.”

Both Taiwanese boats left Donggang in Pingtung County, southern Taiwan, in November last year. They were sailing alongside each other toward Singapore with full fish loads after operating in the open sea to the southeast of Bangladesh — 121 days after they left their home base in Taiwan.

“Without any warning,” Chen said, “the Indonesian patrol vessel turned its spotlight on us and fired four or five shots toward us and chased us for about half an hour before turning to the Sheng Te Tsai.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-24
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The skipper of the “Sheng Te Tsai,” one of the Taiwanese fishing boats fired upon by Indonesian vessels on March 21 while sailing through the Strait of Malacca en route to Singapore, recalled the incident on Thursday, saying, “It is not bad to be back alive.”

Lin Nan-yang, who hadn’t slept for three days, said after arriving in Singapore that at the time of the incident, he saw an Indonesian boat, coded “2084,” sailing alongside his steering room, and on the boat was a solider wearing a camouflage outfit and holding a rifle.

The Indonesian boat was later confirmed by Indonesian authorities as an official vessel.

Lin said he didn’t know what the man wanted or hear any request to stop his boat until he heard a barrage of shots. Only then did he realize his boat was being shot at.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/24
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, March 24 (CNA) About 800 servicemen were mobilized Thursday to take part in a large-scale disaster drill held by a local government in central Taiwan as part of an effort to improve the country’s disaster response.

The drill, hosted by the Nantou County government, simulated various disaster scenes resulting from a severe typhoon and a powerful earthquake.

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), senior Taiwanese officials, and representatives from 45 countries observed the exercise, as part of an international exchange program in the field of humanitarian assistance.

One of the scenarios, set up at the National Fire Agency’s Training Center, simulated a mudslide caused by an approaching typhoon, with four people trapped and one missing.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: March 24, 2016

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said March 23 that Taiping Island is an island

from all perspectives, and claims by the Philippines government in an international arbitration tribunal that it is a rock are groundless and without merit.

“Taiping Island can sustain human habitation, has an economic life of its own and fully meets the definition of an island as laid out in Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” Ma said.

“In addition to 12 nautical miles of territorial waters, the ROC is entitled to claim a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and a continental shelf.”

The president made the remarks while addressing members of the international media at ROC Air Force Songshan Base Command upon their return from a one-day trip to Taiping Island in the South China Sea arranged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.     [FULL  STORY]