‘RED GHOST’:Protesters met Lien Chan on his return from attending China’s military parade, including one who tried to throw a shoe at him

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 05, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that

former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) attendance at a Chinese military parade would be referred to the party’s disciplinary committee “for discussion.”

Responding to some KMT members’ call for disciplinary actions against Lien, who attended the military parade marking the end of World War II in Beijing on Thursday against the party’s wishes, Chu reiterated that the party was committed to upholding the truth about the Republic of China government’s role in the war and had instructed party officials not to attend the parade.

“As for some [retired] senior party officials and individual party members [who attended the parade], there are differing opinions within the party [about the issue]. Since the KMT is a democratic party, we will, in line with these opinions, have their cases referred to relevant units, such as the party’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee or the Central Standing Committee, for discussion,” Chu said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/04
By: L.J. Liu and Lillian Lin

Taipei, Sept. 4 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said on Friday that people who claimed that no Taiwanese under Japanese colonial rule had resisted against Japan failed to learn historical truths, citing the story of Lee Yu-pang (李友邦, 1906-1952), leader of a group of resistance fighters called Taiwan Volunteers (台灣義勇隊) in the anti-Japanese war from 1937 to 1945.

The President pointed out that as a matter of fact, Taiwanese resistance against Japanese broke out immediately after the signing of Sino-Japan Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, when Taiwan was ceded to Japan. That was long before the resistance war against Japanese invasion on the Chinese mainland.

Later, during the Second Sino-Japanese War in China, a group of Taiwanese also traveled to the mainland to join the effort to defend China against Japan’s aggression, Ma pointed out.     [FULL  STORY]

ocus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/04
By: Oscar Wu and Y.F. Low

Los Angeles, Sept. 3 (CNA) A federal judge in San Francisco has refused to

relinquish U.S. jurisdiction in a dispute over ownership of a collection of historic documents belonging to two late Republic of China presidents, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), U.S.-based Courthouse News Service reported Thursday.

The documents, which include the personal diaries of the two late presidents, were loaned to Stanford University in 2004 by Ching-kuo’s daughter-in-law, Chiang Fang Chih-yi (蔣方智怡).

Taiwan’s Academia Historica and eight descendants of the two presidents have claimed rights to the papers.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-04
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former Vice President Annette Lu went to the Supreme

Prosecutors Office Friday to sue ex-Vice President Lien Chan for treason over his presence at China’s military parade.

Lien returned to Taiwan late Thursday after having attended the parade marking the 70th anniversary of the victory over Japan despite warnings from President Ma Ying-jeou and other Taiwanese officials and politicians not to do so.

Lien betrayed his country and his people, so everybody should start legal action against him, and he and his wife, Lien Fang Yu, should be barred from leaving the country, Lu said.     [FULL  STORY]

NEARING CAPACITY:A Green Citizen Action Alliance member said that Taipower’s proposal is just a means to extend the service life of nuclear plants

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 04, 2015
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

Environmental groups yesterday rallied in front of the legislature in Taipei to

protest Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) multi-billion US dollar project to reprocess highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods overseas, demanding lawmakers axe The company’s budget proposal at an ad hoc meeting today.

Taipower requested a budget of NT$11.25 billion (US$342.98 million) to manage 1,200 used fuel rods, or 8 percent of its total used rods, by international companies in June, but the legislature froze the budget for three months from June 11.

The budget proposal is to be reviewed by a special legislative panel today.

The 1,200 spent rods include 480 rods from the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) and 720 rods from the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in the city’s Wanli District (萬里), Taipower said.     [FULL  STORY]

UPI
Date: Sept. 3, 2015
By Ben Hooper Contact the Author

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Sept. 3 (UPI) — A friend of an Australian man in Taiwan shared video of his daily disappointment when the sounds of an “ice cream truck” turned out to be a garbage truck.

Redditor jackoman23 shared a video on YouTube of an Australian man in Taiwan following the music of an “ice cream truck” but instead discovering a garbage truck.

“It’s the ice cream truck, every day at 4 o’clock,” the man says, before revealing the shot of the garbage collection truck.

“My mate recently went to Taiwan, and his hopes get crushed every day

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-03
By: Staff Reporter

Kuomintang honorary chair Lien Chan’s trip to Beijing to attend the military

parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day has split political and public opinion in Taiwan, says Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet.

Lien, who was KMT chair between 2000 and 2005 and vice president of Taiwan from 1996 to 2000, met with China’s president and Communist Party chief Xi Jinping on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s parade, which will be attended by heads of state from 30 nations. It is the third time the two have met, with the previous meetings taking place in February 2013 and February last year.

On Tuesday, Lien was quoted as saying that China’s war of resistance against Japan between 1937 and 1945 was the joint effort of the Kuomintang (Nationalist) government and the Communist Party of China, which runs contrary to the KMT’s long-held assertion that it was the Nationalist Revolutionary Army that led the charge against the Japanese, with the Communists playing a minor role. The version of history that the PRC teaches its citizens is broadly the converse.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/03
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense said Thursday that it will continue to closely follow the development of China’s military might after Beijing announced at a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II that it will cut troop levels.

China has a 2.26 million-strong military, and its plan to cut troop levels by 300,000 follows other advanced countries’ experience in reformatting ground forces to improve the efficiency of combat operations, the ministry said.

But noting the lack of China’s transparency in its military development, the ministry said that “it is necessary to closely monitor follow-up developments.”     [FULL  STORY]