Reuters
Date:  Oct 7, 2015
By: Yimou Lee and Faith Hung

Soldiers on the tiny Taiwan-held island of Kinmen regularly conduct military drills

repelling amphibious attacks by Chinese Communist troops from the mainland, but the problem may soon be free-for-all landings of Chinese shoppers and businessmen.

The war games are a reminder that this place is the front line between China and Taiwan where beaches were mined and shots traded up until as recently as the mid-1970s, and that China has not renounced force to ensure it gains control of a territory it considers its own.

“If China attacks Taiwan, we will be the first to die,” said Kinmen bar owner Sam Chen, 29, as he watched recent live-fire drills with fellow residents. “Of course I am worried about war, but I also hope Kinmen can build closer ties with China. It’s easier for us young people to make money.”

There lies the rub. Many in Taiwan, especially a newly politicized youth movement, are angry about perceived economic dominance by China, likening it to an invasion all of its own. But many also see the benefits of closer trade.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-07
By: CNA

A US defense official attending a US-Taiwan defense conference in Virginia encouraged American companies on Monday to transfer technology to Taiwan so that it can assemble its own weapons, according to a participant at the conference.

Abraham Denmark, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, was cited as having made the appeal during a speech at the three-day US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference 2015, which opened Sunday in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Denmark opened his speech by stressing the United States’ security commitments to Taiwan but that US promises alone were not enough to guarantee Taiwan’s security, and he suggested that Taiwan needed to bear its own share of responsibility.

Denmark advised Taiwan to pay more attention to defense matters, saying that Taiwan’s military spending should be sufficient to support military operations and training, according to the participant.

Denmark also encouraged American arms companies to transfer their technologies to Taiwan so that Taiwan can build its own weapons, arguing that much of the large and expensive military equipment produced by these companies was no longer meeting Taiwan’s needs, the participant said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 08, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Labor should take direct responsibility for recovering workers’ pension

obligations during corporate bankruptcies, Hualon Self-Help Association members said yesterday, adding that the partial resolution of the Hualon case should not distract from the need for broader legal reform.

“Rather than celebrating inside ministry doors, ministry officials would be better off working to gain an understanding of institutional problems,” association secretary Hsu Jen-yuan (徐任遠) said. “Right now the ministry is not willing to face the problem of how to institutionalize subrogation for pension benefits.”

Under a deal negotiated by the ministry, banks donated 80 percent of pensions owed to workers by their former employer Hualon Corp from the proceeds banks had collected from the auction of one of Hualon’s factories. Additional payments are to follow from the future sale of a separate factory.

Association members protested what they said is the ministry’s slow pace in resolving their cases, laying symbolic “award” placards for being “deceptive,” “procrastinating” and “slacking off” outside ministry doors.

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-07
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

The Central Standing Committee of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang unanimously passed a

resolution on Wednesday to call a extraordinary party congress to discuss a proposal to replace its presidential candidate, Hung Hsiu-chu.

The move is seen as the party’s first step toward replacing Hung, who was nominated at a party congress on July 19 but trails frontrunner Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party by a wide margin in the polls.

There was no immediate word when exactly the extraordinary party congress would be held, but the KMT’s information department said it hoped the meeting will take place before the end of the month.

KMT Chair Eric Chu, who is also the mayor of New Taipei, Taiwan’s biggest metropolitan area, is expected to be drafted to replace Hung at the top of the KMT ticket in the presidential election on Jan. 16, 2016.     [FULL  STORY]

PROMISE KEEPER:The KMT presidential candidate warned the party that forcing candidates to drop out of elections would shatter public trust in it

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 07, 2015
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday

reiterated her determination to run for president amid rising speculation that the party is intent on removing her, saying she would neither agree to any quid-pro-quo deals or succumb to “unreasonable forces.”

“I am sorry to have let news reports in the past two days worry my supporters. All of a sudden, what started off as a groundless rumor has become a serious issue. This is all because of my insufficient campaigning efforts,” Hung told an impromptu press conference held at KMT headquarters yesterday afternoon.

Hung said while self-reflection on her part is needed, she wants to reassure her supporters that she would adhere to the original purpose that prompted her to step forward and join the presidential race in the first place.

She said she would also continue to honor her pledges of not consenting to any terms offered in exchange for her quitting the election or bowing to pressure.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/06
By: Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) Amid growing rumors that she would be removed as the presidential candidate of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said Monday she will not step down as the party’s candidate and is in the race to the end.

“I will insist on my original intention to run for president and carry out my promise,” Hung said at a press conference in an attempt to take on the rumors.

“To this day, I still cannot believe the rumors of ‘changing Chu’ are true,” she said.

“Changing Chu” (換柱) refers to the third character in Hung’s name, which means “pillar.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 07, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

A new smartphone app aimed at checking the validity of Alien Resident Cards (ARC)

encourages discrimination, Taiwan International Workers Association (TIWA) activists said yesterday during a protest outside the National Immigration Agency (NIA) in Taipei.

Protesters shouted slogans calling for the app to be withdrawn and performed a skit in which a foreign worker was repeatedly “shot” with a cellphone mounted on a scan gun prop.

“This kind of an app treats all foreigners — especially blue-collar foreign employees — as suspects to be monitored,” TIWA member Betty Chen (陳容柔) said.

Chen said that the NIA had taken its executive authority “to the limit” by using a “loophole” in the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法) that allows anyone with a cellphone to become a “big brother.”    [FULL  STORY]