Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/04
By: Romuo Huang

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) Under criticism from his co-partisans, as well as from the opposition camp, former vice president and former ruling Kuomintang’s (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) returned to Taiwan Thursday night from his controversial visit to Beijing.

In addition to meeting Chinese President and Communist Party of China General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) Wednesday, Lien attended the massive military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the War of Resistance against Japan’s aggression (1937-1945) earlier Thursday.

Upon arriving at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Lien declined to answer questions raised by reporters but only waved his hand and smiled.

Lien and his wife left rapidly the airport through a VIP channel in a bid to avoid facing a great number of protesters gathered at the Second Terminal of the airport, most of them are members of the youth group of the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-03
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen cited President Ma Ying-jeou’s

regret over former vice president Lien Chan’s presence at the Chinese military parade Thursday, as the nation celebrated the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II.

“His conduct is way off the line and beyond the government stance,” Chen cited.

In his opening speech during the Republic of China (Taiwan) Armed Forces Day ceremony on Thursday, which also coincides with the mainland’s celebration, Ma again reiterated that “it was the R.O.C., not the Chinese communists, that led China to victory in its War of Resistance against Japan 70 years ago.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/03
By: Lillian Lin

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) The German newspaper “Die Welt” reported Thursday in a WWII retrospective that “most independent historians agree that the forces of the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), led the fight against Japan” in China.

Saying that most of the fighters in the Second Sino-Japanese War were not seen at China’s celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the victory over Japan, the report pointed out the reason: “Because they are Nationalists, they do not fit into the communist worldview.”

The report quoted interviews with some WWII veterans, including 97-year-old Sun Yibai, who once worked as an interpreter for the “Flying Tigers” squadron.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date:2015-09-03
By: CNA

Taiwan’s 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 numbers by 300,000.

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]

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 04, 2015
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The number of dengue fever cases reported in the past four months has jumped

to more than 4,000, marking the worst summer outbreak in the nation since the government started keeping systematic track of the disease in 2003, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.

As of Wednesday, the total number of dengue cases reported since May 1 had reached 4,343, compared with 3,704 in the same period last year, the CDC said.

“The situation might ease up after this month if we can effectively get things under control,” CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.

Chuang said cooler weather in autumn might slow down the breeding of mosquitoes that transmit the disease.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-02
By: Staff Reporter

New vein visualization technology developed by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology

Research Institute (ITRI) was just one of the many cutting-edge technologies on display during the research institute’s ITRI Bio Day, reports our Chinese-language sister paper China Times.

Aug. 30 marked the inception of the exhibition, which showcased 41 of the latest biomedical innovations from the institute.

ITRI has invested considerable resources into the development of tomorrow’s latest technologies and has a solid foundation in fields such as medicine, photoelectronics, communications and machinery, said chair Tsai Ching-yen. In anticipation of programs rolling out next year from the Executive Yuan to promote and incentivize the development of a bio-based economy, ITRI has already constructed a platform for medical technology and the creation of medical devices, he added. The company has both direct and indirect investment in 30 factories to push the production of biotechnology.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Tapei 101 is among the tallest man-made structures in the world. Here’s how ingenious engineering saved the tower during last week’s typhoon.

vocativ.com
By Joshua A. Krisch

When Typhoon Soudelor raged off the coast of Taiwan early Saturday morning, widespread destruction was inevitable. But a single tower, one of the tallest in the world, escaped the storm unscathed. Tapei 101 survived.

The key to the 1,667-foot tower’s resilience is an 18-foot, 728-ton globe suspended between the 87th and 92nd floors. The globe functions as a tuned mass damper, which is sort of an enormous pendulum that counteracts the swaying motion of a building by shifting in the opposite direction.

Los Angelese Times
Date: September 2, 2015
By: Julie Makinen

Maj. Tao Shin-jun, a 97-year-old veteran of China’s fight against Japan in World

War II, tears up when asked about Thursday’s military parade in Beijing marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the conflict. It’s not that Tao is sentimental – he’s angry.

“The Chinese Communist Party didn’t defeat Japan; this is very painful to see,” he said in his office in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, its walls adorned with numerous “war hero” accolades and commendations. “During those eight years, it was us Nationalists who were fighting – the Communists were not doing battle with the Japanese. They were trying to get Nationalist soldiers to defect to their side.”

Thursday’s commemorations in Beijing will be the largest staged on the mainland to mark the war’s end. But the high-profile event has cast an uncomfortable light on how the Communist-led government takes liberal credit

for leading China’s long struggle against Japanese troops — not just at events like the parade but in museums, history books and in film and television series.

Scholars outside of the mainland agree it was the Nationalist Party-led forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek that did the vast majority of the fighting against the Japanese, with Communists engaging in much more limited action.

The spectacle in Beijing and the Communists’ self-serving version of the wartime record have  sown dismay and frustration in Taiwan, an island 100 miles off the mainland’s southeastern coast with a complex history that reflects Asia’s tumult in the 19th and 20th centuries.     [FULL  STORY]