The China Post
Date: December 23, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taichung City Government Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Wang Chih-cheng (王志

誠), also known as poet Loo Han-siu (路寒袖), has offered his poetry and portraits for free to promote arts in the city.

His poems and portraits will be printed on the packaging of coffee drinks and other beverages, bureau officials said, in an attempt to incorporate more literature into people’s daily lives.

The bureau has been striving to work with leaders in various fields to promote literature and to bring awareness of culture and the creative industry, officials said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016-12-21

Lee speaks about the break off of diplomatic ties with Sao Tome and Principe (CNA)
Taiwan has stopped all of its development programs in Sao Tome and Principe after the two sides broke off formal diplomatic relations on Wednesday.

Bilateral cooperation had continued normally up through the past few weeks. Taiwan’s ambassador to the country attending the opening of a new digital center in the town of Neves as recently as December 8. It was the sixth digital center built in Sao Tome and Principe by Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry.

Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund had also run a number of programs in the West African country, including a prevention program aimed at stopping the spread of intestinal parasites, a program promoting pig farming, and a food security program. With diplomatic ties cut, the programs have been halted.    [FULL  STORY]

Penghu people keep alive tradition of ‘chicken puppy’ sweet rice dumplings

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/21 17:20
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taipei — Today marks the Dongzhi Festival, the equivalent to the winter solstice in the

Gregorian calendar. Taiwanese families traditionally reunite on this day and eat tangyuan (湯圓), brightly colored glutinous rice balls, to symbolize family unity and the passing of another year.

The winter solstice in the northern hemisphere is the shortest day of the year and is usually cold, however this year has been unseasonably warm, with today’s high in Taipei reaching a balmy 26 degrees Celsius (80 degree Fahrenheit). It is said that if it is sunny on the winter solstice, it will rain on Chinese New Year’s Day.

The process of making tangyuan involves first soaking sticky rice flour in water, then kneading it into a dough, pressing it with a stone to drain the water, and then shaping the dough into the desired shape. Lastly, the rice ball is steamed and bright food coloring is then applied. One should take caution when buying ready-made dumplings as the Health Bureau of Taichung City announced on Monday the bust of an illicit dumpling maker that used industrial red dye to color its dumplings.   [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 22, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

The Taipei Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday charged a 65-year-old man

surnamed Ko (柯) with embezzlement of lost property over money that he found on a hill in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), which was part of a NT$83 million (US$2.59 million at current exchange rates) theft from First Commercial Bank ATMs by an international criminal ring.

Ko claimed that he had accidentally stumbled upon a bag containing NT$4.54 million in cash on a hill in Xihu Park on July 20 and later reported his find to police.

According to a Chinese-language media report, key evidence for the prosecution is that Ko allegedly returned to the hill with the apparent intention of taking home another bag in a nearby trash pile, which was allegedly hidden by a Lativian man, Andrejs Peregudovs, the key suspect in the ATM heist who was arrested on July 17 in Yilan County.

Judicial investigators took Peregudovs to the hill to reconstruct his route so that they could recover the money.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 22, 2016
By: Christine Chou

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Ambassador Hotel (國賓飯店) on Wednesday responded to

recent media reports that its top executive plans to acquire McDonald’s Taiwan, stating that the acquisition was a personal investment of a member of the business-owning family.

Local tabloid Next Magazine recently reported that Ambassador Hotel President Hubert Lee (李昌霖) plans to acquire McDonald Taiwan’s franchise and assets for US$300 million, raised from personal and family funds. The purchase can be inked in January at the earliest, the report said.

McDonald’s Taiwan has denied any knowledge of the deal.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/12/20

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) minister Katharine Chang (張小月) told

reporters on Dec. 19, that the council is working on a new cross-Strait policy to replace the “1992 consensus,” the Taipei Times reports.

Chang was speaking at an Internal Administration Committee meeting in Taipei, where People First Party legislator asked her to comment on remarks from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Taiwan Studies head Zhou Zhihuai (周志懷) that Beijing “does not oppose the idea of the 1992 consensus being substituted by a creative alternative.” Chang said that the council believed that a “mindset of seeking common ground, while maintaining differences” would be beneficial to cross-Strait relations.

Beijing suspended cross-Strait communications as President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) refuses to acknowledge the 1992 consensus, which states that both Taiwan and China admit there is “one China” but with separate definitions of “China.”  [SOURCE]

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je came in last with 39.3 percent, the only leader in the poll that saw the approval rating fell below the 50 percent threshold.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/20
By: Wendy Lee, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s approval rating is the highest

among six major cities’ leaders in the latest opinion poll conducted by Taiwan Brain Trust, while Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je comes in last.

The latest poll was meant to reflect how the public view their leaders two years after the nine-in-one local election. The results have seen Kaohsiung Mayor top the list as the leader with the highest approval rating of 71.3 percent, followed by Tainan Mayor William Lai, whose approval rating stood at 67.8 percent.

Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan came in third with an approval rating of 59.9 percent, while Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung and New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu came in fourth and fifth, whose approval ratings stood at 52.5 percent and 51 percent, respectively.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/20
By: Wang Shu-fen and Ko Lin

Taipei, Dec. 20 (CNA) Pregnant passengers or drivers will no longer be subject to the

high-occupancy vehicle policy on freeways in Taiwan, beginning Jan. 1, the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau said Tuesday.

According to the bureau, pregnant passengers or drivers will only need to produce their pregnancy booklet and personal identification to police officers in case there are checkpoints on an on-ramp.

The new rule will allow pregnant women to commute more comfortably on the freeway rather than the provincial highways, it said.    [FULL  STORY]