Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-12
By: Staff Reporter

Washington may take a long and hard look at its Taiwan policy during the upcoming

interagency policy reviews of the US relationship with Taiwan since defending the country against China has become costly and Tsai Ing-wen, the opposition candidate who is the nailed-on favorite to win the country’s presidency next year, has yet to express a clear stance on cross-strait issues, says an opinion piece in Tokyo-based magazine the Diplomat.

As it moves towards becoming a superpower, China has been consistent in its opposition to the US security commitment to Taiwan, the article said. The country’s military budget increased for the 24th consecutive year this year by 10% to reach US$141.5 billion. The focus of the People’s Liberation Army centers on preventing the US intervening in a cross-strait conflict, the article said.

Although cross-strait ties have seen improvement since 2008, it has become a consistent trend for people in Taiwan to increasingly identify as Taiwanese and not Chinese over the past two decades, according to the Election Study Center at Taipei’s National Chengchi University. A poll conducted in 2013 showed nearly 40% of people in Taiwan would opt for de facto independence even if it may lead to war with China, the article said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 13, 2015

Scientists have finally solved the mystery of a milky rain that **coated** cars and raised

eyebrows across a wide swathe of North America’s Pacific Northwest region this February. A Washington State University team said they had determined that dust from the dry bed of a shallow lake some 772 kilometers from where the rain fell was to blame for the unusual precipitation.

The rain left a trail of powdery residue across a nearly 322-kilometer stretch of eastern parts of Oregon and Washington State, leaving scientists and residents **perplexed** about its origins. Some scientists initially **speculated** that an erupting Japanese volcano was the source of the powdery white substance. Others blamed wildfires, and some thought that a Nevada dust storm was the cause.     [FULL  STORY]

24-hour water stop for parts of New Taipei, Taoyuan

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-11
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Tuesday slammed Taipei

City Mayor Ko Wen-je over the high turbidity of drinking water in the wake of Typhoon Soudelor.

Residents of Taipei and New Taipei found that after the typhoon battered the area last weekend, tap water had turned light yellow. Ko accused the central government of being responsible as its allegedly poor conservation work upstream of the Nanshi Creek had turned water at purification plants turbid.

Economics Vice Minister Yang Wei-fuu said Tuesday that the Taipei City water authorities were at fault because they had chosen to use the dirty water from the Nanshi Creek as a supply for the purification plant.

Yang, who spent a significant part of his career at the Water Resources Agency, said that it was common sense for a purification plant not to use water that was too dirty and to turn off the supply because the water might even damage the equipment.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/11
By: Lee Hsien-feng and Romulo Huang

Taipei, Aug. 11 (CNA) The number of bone marrow donors through the Buddhist Tzu Chi Stem Cell Center (BTCSCC) had topped 4,000 as of Aug. 10, benefiting patients in 29 countries around the world.

The figure was released in a statement issued by the BTCSCC, an organization affiliated with the Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital in Hualien, eastern Taiwan.

Since the BTCSCC was established in 1994, the number of bone marrow donors has been increasing year by year, BTCSCC Director Yang Kuo-liang (楊國梁) said, adding that his organization handles more than 300 bone marrow donors per year.

In the first 10 days of this August alone, the BTCSCC received a total of 11 donations, Yang noted.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-11
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Taiwan has urged Japan to maintain friendly relations with neighboring countries days

before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to release a statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender in 1945 that brought the end of World War II.

“I believe everyone is taking note of Japan’s way of dealing with (the situation),” Taiwan’s foreign minister, David Lin, said Monday in response to a question on whether his ministry has information about the speech in advance and what it hopes Abe will say.

“We still hope to maintain amicable relations with Japan. We also hope that Japan, to the best of its ability, can maintain friendly relations and cooperation with its neighboring countries,” Lin said at a diplomatic event.

Abe is scheduled to give his statement on Aug. 14, the anniversary of the date in 1945 when Emperor Hirohito accepted the Allied terms of surrender (the date was Aug. 15 Japan Standard Time). The surrender was confirmed officially on Sept. 2.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 12, 2015
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Department of Education Commissioner Tang Chih-min (湯志民) yesterday said he would

make public minutes taken during a breakout session to review high-school curriculum guideline revisions if the Ministry of Education so desires, and that he, in his capacity as chairman, has expressed his willingness to make public a roster of curriculum review members who attended the session in response to a ministry survey.

Tang made the remarks following a meeting between the city government and student protesters who broke into the ministry compound on July 23 in protest of the procedure the ministry adopted in introducing the guideline revisions.

“Since it [the ministry] has asked my opinion on the information they are considering disclosing, which includes the roster, I wonder if they would ask me whether I would be willing to publicize the session minutes next. If they do, I will say: ‘Yes,’” he said.

The session was held on Jan. 25 last year, and is believed to hold key information regarding changes made to the guidelines.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/10
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Christie Chen

Taipei, Aug. 10 (CNA) Taiwanese passport holders can now obtain visa waivers, landing visas or e-visas to 148 countries and territories as five more countries and one region recently granted Taiwan such preferential treatment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

India, Qatar and Ivory Coast have included Taiwan in their e-visa system; Iran and Armenia have granted Taiwan landing visa treatment; and Somaliland, a breakaway state in Somalia, has given Taiwan visa waiver status, the ministry said.

The ministry cautioned, however, that the Iranian government reserves the right to deny landing visas to travelers if they are carrying an an Israeli visa in their passports.