Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/14
By: Claudia Liu and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 14 (CNA) The Central Standing Committee of the ruling

Kuomintang (KMT) passed a proposal Wednesday to revoke the nomination of its presidential candidate, Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), just three months before the presidential election of Jan. 16, 2016.

The proposal will become the only agenda on a special KMT congress scheduled for Oct. 17.

KMT Central Standing Committee member Chiang Shou-ping (江碩平) expressed thanks to Hung for stepping up and contributing to the party.

But in view of the slumping campaign of the party and worries expressed by party members at the grassroots level, as well as KMT legislative candidates, about their election prospects with Hung as the party’s standard-bearer, he had to initiate the proposal.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Source: United Daily News
Date: October 13, 2015

The number of men and women living to or over the age of 100 each year in

Taiwan is on the rise, according to a Ministry of Health and Welfare survey published Oct. 12.

As of this year, there are 3,043 centenarians in Taiwan representing 0.012 percent of the population. This number increased 44.2 percent from 2010 to 2015, surpassing the global average, approaching the level of Japan and higher than countries like Australia, Germany, Sweden and the U.S.

The study is a compilation of different reports conducted in conjunction with National Taiwan University’s Department of Social Work, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and United Daily News.

NTU professor Yang Pei-shan said there are no significant gender differences in Taiwan’s centenarian statistics, with males and females accounting for 48 percent and 52 percent, respectively.     [FULL  STORY]

Bet on its old foe backfires as Kuomintang self-destructs

The Wall Street Journal
Date:  Oct. 13, 2015
By Andrew Browne

TAIPEI—No matter how desperately China hankers for unification with

Taiwan, a strong conviction that time is on its side has long trumped its temptation to use bullying tactics to force the outcome.

Eventually, the Chinese thinking goes, the Taiwanese will come to the conclusion that their future lies in economic integration with the mainland, and that once the two economies are thoroughly enmeshed a political settlement will end an estrangement that has lasted since 1949, when the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan after losing the civil war on the mainland.

So while batteries of Chinese missiles still point toward the island, tranquility has reigned across the Taiwan Strait.

Perhaps not for much longer, as Beijing’s strategy of waiting it out now seems to be in tatters.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-10-13
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former toll collectors who occupied a freeway in a

protest against job losses will not be charged, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office announced Tuesday.

A total of 106 protesters will not be indicted even though they mobilized more than 100 vehicles for a freeway protest last October, reports said. Prosecutors argued that they did not pose a threat to public order because two lanes were still open to other traffic and because police were well in charge of the situation.

The former toll collectors have been conducting protests for years now against the level of their severance pay and against the failure of the authorities to help them find new jobs. Manual toll collection was replaced by an electronic system managed by an arm of the Far Eastern Group.     [FULL  STORY]