Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/06
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and S.C.Chang

Taipei, March 6 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Monday that no

decision has been made on how to reform the pension system for military personnel, denying reports that the 18 percent interest rate on savings accounts will be phased out within six years.

The government has already decided that the 18 percent interest earned by teachers and civil servants on retirement accounts will be phased out in six years, but it left the military to come up with its own plan to reform the nearly bankrupt military pension system.

Some media have reported that the same approach will be followed with military personnel, and that the only retirement “advantage” military personnel will have over other public employees is a higher “income replacement” ratio.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: March 7, 2017
By: CNA

The picture shows one of the two Formosan clouded leopards housed at Taipei Zoo. Conservationists recently trimmed the cats’ habitat to allow visitors a clearer view of the endangered species. Development and illegal hunting have most likely led to the big cat’s demise, according to researchers.  [SOURCE]

Economic Times
Date: Mar 06, 2017
By: PTI

BEIJING: China will resolutely oppose Taiwan’s independence, Premier Li Keqiang said

today amid heightened tension between Beijing and the island.

“We will thoroughly implement the policies in our work report to Taiwan, uphold the ‘One China’ principle,” Li said in his work report to the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC).

“We will protect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, maintain peaceful growth of cross straits relations and safeguard .
“China will not tolerate any activity, in any form or name, which attempts to separate Taiwan from the motherland,” Li said.
[FULL  STORY]

Moreover, 8 NT$10 million uniform invoice prizes for the period of November and December last year are also waiting for winners to claim.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/05
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An amazing uniform invoice prize of NT$10 million (about

US$335,000) has yet to be claimed in Taiwan, with March 6 being the last day for claiming the super prize.

The Taxation Administration, Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Sunday urged the public to check their September and October uniform invoices for the chance to claim this life-enhancing prize. The taxation authority said the not yet claimed NT$10 million winning number is on a uniform invoice that was issued by a FamilyMart convenience store in New Taipei City to a customer who purchased a Japanese-style rice ball and a pack of milk tea during the period of September and October last year.

The Taxation Administration said the rate of the NT$10 million uniform invoice prizes being claimed since 2011 has been about 70 percent, but the rate was the highest for the period of September and October last year as 12 NT$10 million prizes have been claimed, which is equal to 92 percent, a new high record.   [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: March 6, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — University graduates seeking work expect to earn an average of

NT$31,284 a month, 0.8 percent less than what they expected last year, according to a survey released on Sunday.

Online job bank yes123’s found that monthly wage expectations this year were down by NT$254 year-on-year.

Graduate Ceiling

For job bank spokesperson Yang Tsung-pin (楊宗斌), the latest survey raises concern that NT$30,000 will become a ceiling of sorts for fresh college graduates, dissuading them from negotiating for better wages.

“For fresh graduates entering the workforce for the first time, (the survey) shows that they’re not holding high expectations to get higher wages.”   [FULL  STORY]

National Interest
Date: March 4, 2017
By: Kyle Mizokami

It would have been one of the greatest crises of postwar Asia: the revelation of a Taiwanese atomic bomb. For Taiwan, the bomb would have evened the odds against a numerically superior foe. For China, a bomb would have been casus belli, justification for an attack on the island country it considered a rogue province. Active from the 1960s to the 1980s, Taipei’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons were finally abandoned due to diplomatic pressure by its most important ally, the United States.

Taiwan’s nuclear program goes back to 1964, when the People’s Republic of China tested its first nuclear device. The test was not exactly a surprise to outside observers, but it was still Taiwan’s nightmare come true. Chinese and Taiwanese air and naval forces occasionally skirmished, and it threatened to turn into all-out war. Suddenly Taipei was confronted with the possibility that such a war could turn nuclear. Even just one nuclear device detonated on an island the size of Maryland would have devastating consequences for the civilian population.    [FULL  STORY]

Wei’s film to depict Dutch, Chinese and indigenous views of history

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/04
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖), the director of box-office smash “Cape

No.7,” is planning a trilogy of movies looking at Taiwan’s 17th-century history from three different viewpoints, reports said Saturday.

Wei, 47, is the author of some of Taiwan’s most prestigious and commercially successful movies of the past decade.

His new project, provisionally described as a “Taiwan Trilogy,” will look at the island’s history 400 years ago from the three different viewpoints of the Dutch colonizers, the ethnic Chinese immigrants, and the indigenous population, the Chinese-language Liberty Times wrote Saturday.

Wei said he planned to invest at least NT$1 billion (US$32.3 million), a sum he described as “small change” just good enough to make a B-movie in Hollywood. He said he would spread the funds out over three movies.    [FULL  STORY]