Taiwan Today
Date: November 17, 2016

Taiwan International Ports Corp. announced Nov. 16 that the Ports of Hualien and Taipei have passed

on-site audits for EcoPort certification, paving the way for the two areas to join the list of Taiwan’s environmentally friendly shipping facilities.

The inspections were carried out by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance, an overseas certification organization, in cooperation with the European Sea Ports Organisation, which confers the EcoPort title on international ports and harbors that meet stringent sustainability standards.

The Hualien and Taipei seaports each have unique strengths that helped them gain accreditation, a TIPC official said.

The eastern port received praise from auditors for the fact that 79 percent of the fresh water used at the facility is recycled. Also, there has been a 98 percent reduction in tap water usage since authorities began implementing water-saving measures.    [FULL  STORY]

Hon Hai tycoon Terry Gou denies presidential plans for 2020

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/17
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Brash populist Donald Trump has only been elected president of the United States for a week, but

media in other countries have already started looking for their own version of a populist leader.

Even though Taiwan just elected its first woman president ten months ago, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Chairman Terry Gou has been identified as the potential local version of the next White House occupant.

According to Next Magazine, as the stunning results trickled in on November 9, Gou called a meeting of his top company executives, not merely to discuss the impact of the Trump victory on his business interests, but to sense whether he would be able to make it as a candidate in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election.

On Thursday, the 66-year-old tycoon quashed the reports, describing them as “nonsense.” At the time he was supposed to be chairing the meeting at the group’s New Taipei City headquarters according to the magazine story, he was actually traveling overseas, Gou said at a conference in China Thursday.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/17
By: Chen Wei-ting and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Nov. 17 (CNA) The weather across Taiwan Thursday will be mostly fair or cloudy, with brief

showers in eastern and northern mountainous areas, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

Temperatures in northern Taiwan climbed by between one and two degrees Celsius from Wednesday in northern Taiwan, and could hit 30 degrees, the forecasters said.

Temperatures in central and southern Taiwan could hit 31 degrees, while highs in eastern Taiwan could be between 27 and 29 degrees.

The public should heed the differences in daytime and nighttime temperatures, as lows could drop to between 20 and 22 degrees in the morning and evening hours, the bureau said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 18, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

Taiwan’s Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP, 原民會) Minister Icyang Parod received a delegation consisting of six leaders from the legislatures of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday, Nov. 16, according to a press release from the CIP.

Delegation members, led by speaker of the Guam Legislature Judith Won Pat, held discussions revolving cultural connections between indigenous peoples of Taiwan, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Talks touched on local lore of the Northern Mariana Islands’ Chamorro indigenous peoples, who migrated to the Micronesian region from more northern islands, the CIP stated.    [FULL  STORY]

Highest compensation of the year for relatives of ship captain

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/16
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The relatives of a fishing boat captain who was killed by a misfired missile

has been awarded NT$34.84 million (US$1 million), the highest state compensation of the year, the Ministry of Justice said Wednesday.

During a drill last July 1, the Navy accidentally fired a Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missile which smashed right through a fishing trawler near the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Straits.

The skipper of the Hsiang Li Sheng was reportedly killed instantly, while three members of his crew were injured.

An investigation showed grave negligence in the handling of the missile, which was fired by a lower Navy officer who had accidentally switched the system from simulation mode to combat mode without any supervision.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/16
By: Wang Shu-fen and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Nov. 16 (CNA) Taiwan authorities have reached a settlement with the relatives of almost all the

Chinese tourists who were killed in a tour bus fire on July 19, agreeing to NT$6.64 million (US$208,917) per victim, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said Wednesday.

The ministry said the relatives of 23 of the 24 victims have signed the settlement agreement and 22 of them have already received NT$6.64 million in compensation from the company with which the bus was insured.

The 23rd payment will be made when the victim’s relatives provide all the required documents, the MOTC said.

Regarding the family that did not sign the settlement agreement, they have received the NT$2 million in compulsory insurance compensation that was due to all the victims on the tour bus, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 17, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Following the Hong Kong High Court’s decision to disqualify two pro-independence lawmakers,

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) yesterday told reporters it was clear from the outset that China’s “one country, two systems” was not really a feasible formula.

Chang made the remarks on the sidelines of a two-day international conference held at the Regent Taipei to discuss China’s “institutional changes and strategic trends.”

“Only if Hong Kongers are able to take care of their own internal affairs themselves could the promise [that Beijing made over the territory’s autonomy] be said to have been made good,” she said. “Respecting Hong Kong’s democratic will would be of help to the territory’s social and economic development.”

When asked whether she considers the ruling a breach of the “one country, two systems” formula, Chang said: “From the beginning we felt that the ‘one country, two systems’ formula would not be feasible, because if a system is good enough, you only need one, not two.”    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 16, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Anti-forced eviction and land expropriation protesters besieged the Interior Ministry

and charged at an official Tuesday morning, demanding that people’s fundamental housing rights be enshrined in a new Housing Act amendment.

Both current laws and a Cabinet-drafted amendment, which has passed its first reading and is under legislative review, fail to clearly define when government plans supersede an individual’s right to housing, the demonstrators said.

“It must be stipulated clearly by law the conditions under which the government can establish what is ‘in the public interest,'” said Tien Kei-fung of the Taiwan Alliance of Anti-Forced Eviction, which organized the protest.

Members of the alliance and 10 other civic groups, numbering nearly two dozen in total, joined the demonstration, seeking to defend what they say are illegal land expropriations plans that will see people’s homes and factories taken from them to make room for development.

In a joint statement, the participants called for more resources to ensure people can exercise their right to appeal land expropriation decisions.    [FULL  STORY]