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Tsai praised as ‘careful’ at US academic conference

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 14, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA, WASHINGTON

US academics on Friday expressed positive views about President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approach toward China during a conference in Washington, with some saying she has been dealing with Beijing in a careful and relatively conservative manner.

Tsai has been “an extraordinarily careful practitioner of statecraft,” said Patrick Cronin, a senior advisor and senior director of the Asia-Pacific security program at the Center for a New American Security, at the conference titled “The Future of US-Taiwan Relations in New Administrations.”

Every time Tsai tries to come up with a new framework for ties with China other than the so-called “1992 consensus” or proposes a new type of interaction across the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese government dismisses it, Cronin said.

That is because China does not want Tsai to “regain some new leverage” on cross-strait issues and is intent on squeezing her space even further, including by stealing Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and cutting back on the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Chiayi County commissioner in Vietnam to promote tourism

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-12

Helen Chang, the commissioner of Chiayi County, has traveled to Ho Chi Minh City,

Commissioner of Chiayi County Helen Chang (left) and Ho Chi Minh City tourism official La Quoc Khanh (right). (Photo Courtesy Chiayi County Government) (CNA)

Vietnam to promote tourism.

Chiayi County welcomed over 6.4 million tourists last year. The southern county is notable for Alishan, a mountainous scenic area popular for its forest railway, tea, and sunrise views. The county is also home to the National Palace Museum’s southern branch, and it has been designated as the host of next year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival.

Chang had traveled to Ho Chi Minh City last year, meeting with a local tourism official and reaching an agreement to promote travel and cultural exchanges between Ho Chi Minh City and Chiayi County. Her trip this time has seen further talks on promoting tourism.    [FULL  STORY]

WeMo Scooter-sharing system launches in Taipei

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/12
By: Taiwan News

A startup company has launched a scooter-sharing system in Taipei since October

(By Central News Agency)

2016, providing electrical motorcycles in the city’s Daan, Xinyi and Zhongzheng districts.

To use the service, riders need to download a mobile app, called “WeMo App,” on their mobile devices and find a scooter, called “WeMo Scooter,” nearby, and then reserve and ride the scooter and pay for the rental on the app via their smartphones.

The trial rate is NT$25 (US$0.80) for the first 10 minutes and NT$2.5 more for any additional minute thereafter via credit card. Riders can park the scooter at any public motorcycle parking spot.

The app is now available on Android systems and Apple’s ios system.
[FULL  STORY]

UNIVERSIADE: Athletes’ village opens in New Taipei

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/12
By: Lin Hung-han and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Aug. 12 (CNA) The Taipei 2017 Universiade Athletes’ Village officially opened Saturday in preparation for the arrival of over 10,000 delegates from around the world for the games.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said the village in New Taipei’s Linkou District is the first of its kind in Taiwan and was built with the concerted effort of the central government and the governments of Taipei and New Taipei.

He pledged to make the visitors feel at home.

A total of 11,397 delegates from 131 countries, including 7,639 athletes, are expected to attend the Universiade, which formally opens on Aug. 19 and runs through Aug. 30.
[FULL  STORY]

Former detainee warns over direct contact with CCP

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 13, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) abusive past still holds lessons for Taiwanese, one of the last living victims of China’s Anti-Rightist Movement said yesterday at an event celebrating the movement’s 60th anniversary, calling for Taiwan to avoid direct dealings with Beijing.

“The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] used to say the [Chinese] Communists were bandits, but that is too shallow — they are not bandits, they are Satan himself, so you should not make contact with them because they will only harm you: You cannot eat the devil, but the devil can eat you,” said Feng Guojiang (馮國將), an overseas Chinese in Indonesia, after he was targeted by the movement while studying architecture at Qinghua University and was sent to a Chinese labor reform camp for 20 years.

Feng was one of many people who took up Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) invitation to criticize the government and suggest reforms as part of the Hundred Flowers Campaign.    [FULL  STORY]

The lack of an ROC flag on the president’s military uniform spurred internet theories. Spoiler alert: they were wrong

The China Post
Date: August 12, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A video released by Ministry of Nation Defense showing President

(Screengrab via UDN)

Tsai wearing a military uniform without a national flag patch has set tongues wagging — many in fury.

The missing embroidery seemed particularly strange considering that it was present on the uniforms of Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan and National Security Council Secretary-General Yen Teh-fa, both of whom appear with Tsai in the clip.

Making the contrast even more conspicuous was the absence of the flag from the uniform of Tsai’s secretary-general, Joseph Wu.

Speculation intensified after a post about the uniforms was made to a military news Facebook page frequented by military, former military and deep-blue users.
[FULL  STORY]

Youth exchanges help cross-strait understanding: Students

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-10

Cross-strait youth exchanges help promote mutual understanding. That was a view expressed at the 2017 Taiwanese student workshop hosted by the Straits Exchange Foundation. The workshop helps prepare Taiwanese students taking up studies at universities in China.

Several students currently studying in China shared their experience at the event. Cheng Chung-chie, a graduate student at Peking University, said exchanges between young people across the Taiwan Strait are always helpful for mutual understanding.

Asked about his impression of Chinese students, Cheng said he finds them mostly very friendly. He said in his experience that their attitude towards Taiwanese students is not affected by the current tensions in cross-strait relations. Cheng said Chinese students also tend to be harder working than their Taiwanese counterparts, though Taiwanese students tend to be more creative.    [FULL  STORY]

Shipbuilder’s top executives released on bail in loan fraud case

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/10
By: Chang Che-fong, Tsai Yi-chu and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Aug. 10 (CNA) Three top executives from Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co. (CFS), the largest private shipbuilder in Taiwan, were released on bail Thursday after being questioned by prosecutors overnight in an alleged loan fraud case linked to a contract to build minesweepers for the Republic of China Navy.

CFS Chairman Chen Ching-nan (陳慶南) was freed after paying bail of NT$8 million, while his son Chen Wei-chih (陳偉志) and wife Chen Lu Chao-hsia (陳盧昭霞), who served as the company’s vice chairman and director, respectively, were released after paying NT$5 million and NT$500,000, according to a statement issued by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office.

An investigation by prosecutors found that the alleged fraud occurred when CFS was trying to obtain a NT$20.5 billion syndicated loan from a group of nine domestic lenders led by First Bank, after winning a NT$35.29 billion contract in October 2014 to build six minesweepers for the Navy.    [FULL  STORY]

Cabinet sets funds to improve toilets

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 11, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The Cabinet plans to allocate NT$4.9 billion (US$161.67 million) to improve 5,000 public toilets and modernize toilet culture by encouraging people to flush toilet paper down the toilet.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday submitted a plan to renovate public toilet facilities to improve tourism quality.

Among the nation’s 36,000 public toilet facilities, 7,000 are rated below “fairly clean,” EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said.

The agency would invest NT$4.9 billion to renovate 5,000 facilities from next year to 2024, Lee said.    [FULL  STORY]

1 person is dead and 3 are injured after a truck driver, distracted by a dropped phone, smashed into traffic

The China Post
Date: August 10, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A freeway pileup killed one person and injured three others

(Handout photo)

Thursday, after a truck driver reportedly trying to pick up his phone failed to slow down for stopped traffic.

The accident took place around 7:30 a.m. when the 65-year-old delivery truck driver, heading along National Freeway No. 1 from Keelung to Guanyin, dropped his phone onto the vehicle’s floor, local media said.

He leaned over to pick it up, taking his eyes off the road and not seeing that traffic had snarled to a halt in front of him.

The truck smashed into the back of a sedan, sending it crashing into two more cars.

A 53-year-old driver of one of the sandwiched cars died at the scene. Two people from the other cars as well as the truck driver sustained minor injuries.
[SOURCE]