Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/27
By: Wu Che-hao and Christie Chen

Taipei, July 27 (CNA) Exactly one month after a devastating dust explosion killed nine people and left hundreds of others in critical condition, Taiwanese people are continuing to donate money to the victims of the blast and their families.

On Monday, the Buddhist Huairen foundation donated NT$2 million (US$63,440) to an account opened by the Minister of Health and Welfare to gather funds for the victims of the June 27 explosion at a New Taipei water park.

That same day, a charity affiliated with the Lantian Academy of Classical Learning in Nantou, central Taiwan, also donated NT$1 million to the Nantou county government to help the blast victims.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-07-27
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Jobs are getting harder to come by as fresh college graduates flock to the career market

during summer seasons, according to one of Taiwan’s top human resources agencies, the 1111 job bank on Monday.

Despite the jobless figure being the lowest in 15 years in a recent survey conducted by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the job bank said the 20-to-24 group still had the highest unemployment rate of 12.27 percent in June.

In a survey conducted by the job bank on how employers feel about first-time jobseekers, the island’s corporations gave them an average of 2.1 months in terms of adaptation period, which is the time of on-the-job orientation for new employees.

Meanwhile, from a scale of a 100, the employers polled rated an average of 44 points in terms of how they perceive new entrants. Almost half of those questioned viewed them as showing “average performance” while 38 percent said their performance were unsatisfactory.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Jul 28, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber and Shih Hsiu-chuan  /  Staff reporters

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) should make public their

stances on the controversial “fine-tuning” of high-school curriculum guidelines, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, criticizing what he called the Ma administration’s unwillingness to address the controversy.

“Because the curriculum guidelines have already caused so much controversy, the premier and the president should have made their stances clear long ago,” Ko said.

“The curriculum guidelines are their problem and it is their responsibility to resolve it,” Ko said. “Because the issue has not been properly addressed and the Ministry of Education did not deal with the student protests effectively, things got to the point where the police had to come in and clean up the mess.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/26
By: Bear Lee

Taipei, July 24 (CNA) Former President Lee Teng-hui(李登輝) returned to Taipei Sunday

evening from a visit to Japan, where he made controversial remarks about the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai Islands.

Upon his arrival, he was greeted by groups of lovers and haters that were separated by police at the airport.

Scores of China Unify Party (中華統一促進黨) members, who protested Lee’s remarks, were cordoned off by police.

Taiwan Solidarity Union’s (TSU) youth league, led by TSU Chairman Huang Kun-hui, welcomed Lee home by presenting flower wreaths on him and shouting “I love You” — much to Lee’s pleasure.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-07-26
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A longstanding family feud erupted in violence outside the Kimlan Foods factory in Taoyuan’s

Daxi district when a busload of people barged into its complex and overpowered the security guards watching over the entrance, reports said Sunday.

The fight to lead the company, which involves two members of the Chung family, has been going on for some time.

The feud turned into violence when former Kimlan head Gene Chung led 20 of his men into the factory ground demanding that Chung Chun-min relinquish his current position as president, who in turn rounded 50 of his subordinates to counter the protestors.

The Daxi Police precinct has dispatched officers to the scene to disperse the violence, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-26
By: Staff Reporter

The claim made recently in Chinese media outlets that the People’s Liberation Army can

monitor the movement of US submarines as far away as Guam is unrealistic, says Colonel Wang Chih-peng, a reserve officer in Taiwan’s navy.

China began the development of its underwater listening network in 1996 under the codename Program 863, according to the Beijing-based Sina Military Network. The article made the claims that various underwater listening devices connected by undersea cables enable the PLA Navy to monitor the activities of submarines at distances of more than 15,000 kilometers. Monitoring operations can be enhanced in the future with the use of unmanned underwater vehicles, warships and the Y-8 GX8 Electronic Intelligence aircraft, the report claimed.

Colonel Wang said however that an underwater listening device cannot be longer than the length of an arm and is only capable of monitoring submarine activities withing a distance of 10 kilometers. Unlike the United States with its allies and security partners surrounding the Chinese coast, China is not able to establish such a massive underwater network anywhere close to Guam since it does not control any land in the Western Pacific.     [FULL  STORY]

With only one legislative session remaining before next year’s election, time is running out to pass a marriage equality bill

Taipei Times
Date:  Jul 26, 2015
By: Eddy Chang  /  Staff reporter

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was ecstatic after the US

Supreme Court issued a historic ruling supporting marriage equality last month. Rainbows quickly swept across social media, as an estimated 26 million Facebook users changed their profile pictures with a rainbow filter, turning colorful pictures into powerful statements.

Taiwan’s three presidential candidates also praised the landmark ruling. Independent presidential candidate Shih Ming-te (施明德) expressed his full support, promising to legalize same-sex marriage if he is elected president next year, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) didn’t make any concrete commitments.

“The ruling shows respect for differences in US society… With more dialogue and communication, true equality will come someday,” Hung said.

Tsai’s comment was almost identical, stressing that Taiwan should “reduce social division through rational dialogue.” Their statements were polite but vague.     [FULL  STORY]