The Economic Times
Date: 25 Sep, 2015
By: PTI

BEIJING: China today firmly opposed Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman

Tsai Ing-wen’s proposed visit to Japan next month, saying that it goes against the One-China principle.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called on Japan to adhere to the One-China principle and honour its commitment to China on Taiwan-related issues.

“Japan should refrain from providing platforms for anybody in any name or pretext for spreading Taiwan-independence remarks,” Hong told a media briefing here.

Taiwan issue concerns China’s core interests, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-25
By Jocylin FC, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

FDA in Taiwan found banned products, Bisphenol A (BPA) in the production of baby

products on September 23. The products are PES, PP, and Pleasant Goat PES baby bottles by USBABY, and the PP baby bottle by BAB. EU has banned BPA in all baby products in 2011 while FDA in Taiwan also set regulations to prevent domestic manufacturers from producing or importing pacifiers and baby bottles that contains BPA.

BPA, an endocrine disruptor that behaves in a similar way to estrogen and other hormones in the human body, is used in the manufacture of food contact materials such as re-usable plastic tableware and can coatings. You can also found BPA in cash register receipts! However, residues of BPA can migrate into food and beverages and be ingested by the consumer. In Taiwan, it is commonly for food stalls and restaurants to use plastic bags and containers as food wares. The residues of BPA can also be absorbed through the skin and by inhalation when come in contact with thermal paper, cosmetics and dust.

BPA can undermine the reproduction and development of aquatic life, according to a report by the Royal Society, UK. They found that BPA has been shown to undermine the reproduction of all animal groups studied. It was also found to induce genetic abnormalities in amphibians and crustaceans. The health effects of BPA include reproductive disorders, heart diseases, diabetes, damages to brain functions and development, and cancer.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/25
By: Wan Shu-fen and Lee Mei-Yu

Taipei, Sept. 25 (CNA) Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau (CWB) announced Friday night

that Tropical Storm Dujuan has picked up strength to become a typhoon and that the bureau would likely issue a sea warning on Sunday.

As of Friday, Dujuan was located 1,100km east-southeast of Hualien, moving at a speed of 13 kilometers per hour in a north westerly direction, according to the bureau.

The maximum sustained winds reached 33 meters per second.

The CWB said it will issue a sea warning if Dujuan maintains its current path. Meanwhile, the bureau did not rule out the possibility of issuing a land warning.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-25
By: CNA

Police in Taiwan have arrested a logging crew that was illegally cutting precious wood

species such as stout camphors, incense cedars, redwoods and beeches in national forests in mountainous areas near Wulai in New Taipei.

The nine people arrested Tuesday were found to have stockpiled around 10 tons of logs from the above mentioned trees, valued at an estimated NT$100 million (US$3 million). The stock included several incense cedar burls from trees that were 700 to 800 years old.

Despite the fact that illegal logging carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, many consider it worth the risk because it is a lucrative business.

Police said illegal logging crews typically operate during the typhoon season so that they can float the logs down the rivers when there is torrential rain and mudflows. They then collect the logs along the riverbanks and smuggle the wood to buyers, according to police.

Under Taiwan’s forestry laws, people may salvage driftwood along riverbanks one month after heavy rains or a storm, if local authorities have not removed the wood by then.     [FULL  STORY]

ILLEGAL ENTRY:Activists said the authorities should have conducted a full probe to ascertain if the five were dissidents and the risks of sending them back to China

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 26, 2015
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

A Chinese woman, Yang Luo Yini (楊羅旖旎), was deported by immigration authorities

yesterday, while prosecutors in Taoyuan charged four of her Chinese associates with illegal entry after they landed on the shore of northern Taiwan in a motorboat earlier this month.

Wang Rui (王睿), Su Qianlong (蘇黔龍), Lu Ning (陸寧) and Shi Jian (石堅) were charged with violating the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) and acting as accomplices to criminal activities.

Su, Lu and Shi took a motorboat from China’s Fujian Province across the Taiwan Strait, and landed on a rocky beach in Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園) on Sept. 10, allegedly to pick up Wang and his girlfriend, Yang Luo, who had overstayed their visas and were residing at an apartment in Taipei.

However, questions remained about their motives, with the authorities saying the five Chinese nationals were suspected of spying, while Taiwanese human rights groups said they are Chinese dissidents fleeing persecution and urged the government not to deport them, and instead grant them political asylum.

Media reports said the five Chinese nationals had planned to sail on to Guam and the Mariana Islands to seek political asylum.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/24
By: Keoni Everington

Taipei, Sept. 23 (CNA) The annual Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) celebration of the harvest

moon in the Chinese lunar calendar is a time when families reunite to worship the moon and the coming of fall, and those in the Western Hemisphere will have the added bonus of a rare super blood moon this year.

The moon festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th month in the lunar calendar, which this year is Sept. 27, and there will be a three-day national holiday in Taiwan to celebrate the festival from Sept. 26-28.

●Moon gazing spots

The harvest moon is often, but not always, the largest full moon of the year, and for those in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and Africa this year it’s a super moon, which means it most closely coincides with perigee — the moon’s closest point to Earth in its orbit.

The Western Hemisphere, Europe, and Africa will also be treated with a blood moon, meaning that there will be a full lunar eclipse, giving it a deep red hue.     [FULL  STORY]