Want China Times
Editorial
Date: 2015-08-21

Following the student-led Sunflower Movement last year that made cross-strait economic

and trade issues too hot to touch for the government, Taiwan has seen a decline in its exports to China and negative growth in Chinese visitor arrivals for the first time ever in the second quarter of the year.

These figures could be the result of Taiwan’s economic slowdown and are not necessarily related to the current stalemate in cross-strait relations. It is undeniable, however, that Taiwan is losing the momentum of advancing cross-strait economic and trade ties with China, a problem pointed out by People First Party (PFP) chair James Soong when he announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election in recent days.

Since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, cross-strait relations have improved markedly and the further development of ties and increasing economic integration is an irreversible trend regardless of which political party takes power in Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

‘NOT MY HOMELAND’:KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang said that an ancestral land is where one’s ancestors existed, adding that the former president’s ancestors were from China

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 22, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus criticized former president Lee

Teng-hui (李登輝) for saying Taiwanese fought for Japan, which was then their motherland, in World War II and told him to return to what he sees as his native homeland.

Lee’s office director Wang Yan-chun (王燕軍) responded that the KMT is using the subject to turn public attention away from its incompetence and lagging public support.

Lee is reported to have said in an interview with a Japanese magazine that insofar as Taiwan had been part of Japan, Taiwanese did not fight in China’s War of Resistance Against Japan as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) recently said at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Republic of China’s (ROC) war against Japan.

The KMT caucus in a news conference fumed over Lee’s remarks, calling him “a bandit who sold out his nation,” “Hanjian [traitor to the Han people]” and “Japan’s running dog.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/21
By: Chen Wei-ting and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Aug. 21 (CNA) As the outer rim of Typhoon Goni approaches the waters off

Taiwan’s southeastern coast, a land warning is expected in the early hours of Saturday, depending on the storm’s movement, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said on Friday.

The center of the typhoon is currently 320 kilometers south-southeast of Eluanbi, the southernmost tip of Taiwan, and moving at a speed of 6-14kph in a north-northwesterly direction, the bureau said, adding that Goni was expected to move north and then northeast.

The typhoon’s storm circle is approaching southeastern Taiwan, posing a threat to shipping in the Bashi Channel and the sea off eastern Taiwan, the bureau said.

With a radius of 200km, the storm’s maximum sustained winds were estimated at 173kph, with gusts of up to 209kph, weather bureau’s data showed.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/21
By: Chou Yung-chieh and Y.F. Low

Jakarta, Aug. 21 (CNA) Eighty-two Taiwanese nationals suspected of fraud have been arrested in Jakarta in a cross-border operation by Taiwanese, Indonesian and Chinese police.

The 82 people were among a group of more than 90 fraud suspects rounded up by police in a simultaneous operation in various parts in Jakarta recently, according to Indonesian police.

It was the largest number of Taiwanese suspects ever arrested in a single operation in Indonesia.

During the operation, police also seized guns as well as cash in different currencies and diamonds worth 5 billion Indonesian rupiah (NT$118.9 million), police said.

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-20
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A pressurized gas tank left in the cargo of a returning China Airlines Flight CI-003 from

San Francisco raised the panic button at the Taoyuan International Airport as police and a bomb crew raced over to the tarmac to inspect the suspicious cargo, reports said Thursday.

Preliminary investigation showed that the cylinder is a fuel tank used for dolly trucks at the San Francisco airport, according to China Airlines.

The suspicious object was initially spotted by ground personnel of Taoyuan International Airport Services Co., the major ground handling service provider at Taiwan’s main international gateway.

The unit load device (ULD) carrying the tank was immediately towed to an apron to be examined before a bomb crew arrived.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-19
By: Sophia Yang/Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) raised its travel alert level for Thailand from

yellow to orange late Tuesday, advising travelers to postpone any visits to the country.

Monday’s rush-hour blast left 22 dead, including two Hong Kong and four Chinese citizens, and injured more than 100 at Erawan Shrine in Bangkok. Six Taiwanese tourists were injured in the explosion including a family of three surnamed Chang who returned to Taiwan late Tuesday for further medical treatment.

According to Taiwan’s tourism bureau, a total of 275 Taiwanese in 14 groups are traveling in Thailand, and MOFA is assisting injured tourists to exit the country.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/19
By: Cheng Chi-feng and Maria Tsai

Kaohsiung, Aug. 19 (CNA) A Formosan mountain dog, which is famous for its sensitivity

and cleverness, was found to be dull in a drug user’s house in Kaohsiung on Wednesday, due to the long-term influence of drug, police said Wednesday.

The Formosan mountain dog, whose number is in the decline, normally is a sensitive and fierce hunter in mountainous area. They are mostly trained as guard dogs and rescue dogs.

However, this dog owned by the 20-year-old drug suspect surnamed Tang, showed no reaction at all when police started to search Tang’s rented house at Xinxing District of the southern Taiwan city, police said.

Police said that the dog may have breathed in over dose of drug smokes in the long term, causing the loss of its natural sensitivity.     [FULL  STORY]