Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-12
By: Liu Ping and Staff Reporter

Recent article in The Washington Post and The Washington Times have attempted to pull the rug out from under Chinese president Xi Jinping and his trumpeting of China’s victory over Japan during World War II over recent weeks, stating that the Republic of China (ROC) government under Chiang Kai-shek contributed greatly to Japan’s defeat in the war, our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily reports.

A Sept. 4 editorial in The Washington Post commented on China’s military parade on Sept. 3, marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Japan in World War II, stating that, “As a commemoration of World War II, Mr. Xi’s parade was mendacious. Though China contributed greatly to the allied victory, the fight was led by the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek, a fact unacknowledged in the propaganda trumpeting the Communist Party’s role. As a gathering of leaders, the event was an embarrassing flop.”

The Washington Time piece was entitled “Taiwan’s remembrance of World War II victory–Aggression might be forgiven but will never be forgotten” and was penned by Taiwan’s representative to the US Shen Lyushun. It stated that today’s ROC in Taiwan is the direct and legitimate successor to the government of Chiang Kai-shek, who died in Taiwan in 1975 while acting as ROC president.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/12
By: Chen Wei-ting, Liao Jen-kai and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Sept. 12 (CNA) The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation urged the public on Saturday to donate blood as reserves at its blood bank in Tainan were running especially low amid an outbreak of dengue fever there.

The latest data on the foundation’s website showed that Tainan was in urgent need of three types of blood — A, B and O — and its supply of AB type of blood was also running low.

Reserves of several types of blood in Kaohsiung and Hsinchu were also running low.

Foundation official Li Lei (黎蕾) said blood banks around Taiwan currently have enough blood for 6.3 days, slightly below the minimum safety reserve of seven days.     [FULL  STORY]

CONSTRUCTION:A Kaohsiung court found fault with the county for approving Miramar’s request based on an EIA review that differed from the original project

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 12, 2015
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

The Kaohsiung High Administrative Court on Thursday ordered the Taitung County

The Miramar Resort Hotel site in Taitung County is seen on Thursday. Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times

Government to revoke its approval of Miramar Resort Hotel Co’s application to resume construction of a hotel at Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣).

The court said that the county government based its approval on an environmental impact assessment (EIA) review made in 2012, which it said was a different case from the original hotel project and should not have been used as the basis for the county’s judgement.

The construction project dates back to 2004, when the county government signed a build-operate-transfer contract with the developer to construct a six-hectare hotel complex on the beach.      [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-11
By: Staff Reporter

A group of young grave robbers from Yunlin county in central Taiwan has been sentenced to

Ringleader Cheng Ho-jen is detained by police after looting graves in Yunlin county, Feb. 23, 2013.

prison after breaking into at least 127 graves across the island and making off with items worth at least NT$10 million (US$300,000), reports our Chinese-language sister paper China Times.

The ringleader, 24-year-old Cheng Ho-jen, was sentenced to five years in prison.

The work of the “Generation E” team, all under 24 years of age, was described as sophisticated and professional. They would pinpoint targeted graves using location services on their smartphones during the day before sweeping through the cemetery at night.

The group apparently performed their own ceremony “apologizing” to the dead before relieving them of their valuables.

In 2013, the group looted around 80% of the tombs in one cemetery in Yunlin county, over 30 graves. Their activities became known when an older woman seeking a place to relieve herself sank her foot into a grave that had been dug up, prompting a police investigation that uncovered the group’s existence.     [FULL  STORY]

The New York Times
Date: SEPT. 10, 2015
By: AUSTIN RAMZY

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The people of Taiwan appear poised to elect their first female president.

Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party is the front-runner in the presidential campaign underway in Taiwan. Credit Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

Two of the three leading candidates in the January election, including the nominees of both major parties, are women.

Women have led other Asian nations, but they have largely followed in the footsteps of male relatives. Not in this case. Rather, analysts say, the race reflects the fact that Taiwan does a better job of putting women into political office than just about anywhere else in the world.

The island “amazed me when I first started looking at it,” said Joyce Gelb, a professor emeritus at the City University of New York who researches women in politics. “It’s second only to the Scandinavian countries, which are the bellwethers of women’s representation. I think it’s very impressive.”

Explanations for the rise of women within Taiwan’s political class abound, including the matriarchal traditions of some Taiwanese aboriginal tribes and the promotion of women’s education during the Japanese colonial period.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/11
By: Chen Chi-chung and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Sept. 11 (CNA) Academia Sinica said Friday its scholars have identified a key protein

Wang Chung-ju (王中茹, second left) and her team

function in corn reproduction, which may help improve crop quality.

The findings were published in the latest edition of the scientific journal “The Plant Cell” under the names of Wang Chung-ju (王中茹), an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology at Academia Sinica, and her research team.

Wang and her research team found that a protein called DSY2 plays an important role in the reproduction of corn.

The team discovered that DSY2, which is located on chromosome axes, is required during a specialized cell division to exchanges parts of DNA from paternal and maternal chromosomes to create a new combination.

The recombination provides genetic diversity and is the molecular basis of crop breeding.     [FULL  STORY]