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Taiwan short films win two golds at 2016 Travel Weekly Magellan Awards – video

Travel Weekly Magazine’s Magellan Awards is a program popularly dubbed as the Oscar of the travel industry.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/01
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan tourism promotion short films On the Menu: Taiwan and 10-Day Taiwan Island have both won gold medals at the 2016 Travel Weekly Magazine’s Magellan Awards, a program popularly dubbed as the Oscar of the travel industry.

The two award-winning films were shot by a Los Angeles, California-based tour design company, Super Value Tour, whose videos featuring food and travel in Taiwan earned two gold in the category of Promotional Video.

The Travel Weekly Magellan Awards honors outstanding travel professionals in a broad range of industry segments, including hospitality, travel destinations, cruise lines, online travel services, airlines and airports, travel agent and agencies, tour operators, and ground transportation.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan vows to protect its fishermen’s rights near Okinotori

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/01
By: Tai Ya-chen, Tang Pei-chun and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Nov. 1 (CNA) The Taiwan government vowed Tuesday to protect the country’s fishing rights in 201611010016t0001the waters near Japan-controlled Okinotori Atoll and said it will continue to hold dialogue with Japan to address the issue.

Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said the government remained firm on Taiwanese fishermen’s rights to operate in waters near Okinotori and had made that stance clear in its talks Monday with Japan on cooperation in maritime affairs.

The bilateral dialogue on maritime affairs was “just the beginning” and Taiwan is hoping for a resolution to the issue, he told reporters on the sidelines of an international conference in Taipei Tuesday.

His comments followed talks between Taiwan and Japan in Tokyo the previous day, during which Taiwan argued that it had the right to fish in the open sea around the atoll, while the Japanese maintained their claim to an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that extends 200 nautical miles from the atoll, which lies 1,600 kilometers east of Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Government to collect suggestions on judicial reform

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 02, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

The Presidential Office yesterday urged people to voice their opinions about a plan by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to push for judicial reform as it launched a Web site to collect suggestions from the public.

The unveiling of the Web site (justice.president.gov.tw) coincided with the inauguration of new Judicial Yuan appointees — President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力), Vice President Tsai Chung-tun (蔡炯燉), and Council of Grand Justices members Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄), Chang Chiung-wen (張瓊文), Chan San-lin (詹森林), Huang Chao-yuan (黃昭元) and Huang Juei-min (黃瑞明).

“Everyone is concerned about the progress of the government’s judicial reform,” National Security Council adviser Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正) told an afternoon news conference. “With the swearing-in of Judicial Yuan heads and five grand justices today [yesterday], there are still three stages to go through before a national affairs conference on judicial reform can be held.”

Lin said the first stage is soliciting public opinions, which the office plans to accomplish through the Web site, where people can post their opinions and suggestions concerning the issue of judicial reform.    [FULL  STORY]

Maritime talk with Japan was key first step: FM

The China Post
Date: November 2, 2016
By Joseph Yeh

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Foreign Minister David Lee (李大維) Tuesday said the inaugural Taiwan-Japan

Chou Shyue-yow (周學佑), deputy director-general of MOFA's Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, speaks during a regular news briefing in Taipei on Tuesday. (Joseph Yeh, The China Post)

Chou Shyue-yow (周學佑), deputy director-general of MOFA’s Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, speaks during a regular news briefing in Taipei on Tuesday. (Joseph Yeh, The China Post)

dialogue on maritime affairs Monday was the first step toward resolving the long-term issue of whether Taiwanese fishermen could operate freely in waters near the Japan-claimed Okinotori.

Taipei and Tokyo held the meeting on maritime affairs in Tokyo on Monday, during which they discussed issues including whether Taiwanese fishermen may operate in Okinotori in the Pacific Ocean without the risk of being arrested by Japan.

The two sides were unable to reach a consensus over the matter but did agree to hold a new round of working-group level meetings as soon as possible to address the issue, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Asked to comment on the meeting, Lee told reporters in Taipei that “having a dialogue over the issue is still much better than no dialogue at all.”    [FULL  STORY]

European Parliament group delegation visits Taiwan

Taiwan Today
Date: October 31, 2016

A delegation from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) is visiting

A delegation from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group is in Taiwan Oct. 29 to Nov. 4 on a fact-finding visit. (CNA)

A delegation from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group is in Taiwan Oct. 29 to Nov. 4 on a fact-finding visit. (CNA)

Taiwan to learn more about the country’s economic and political developments, as well as cross-strait relations, while promoting Taiwan-EU ties, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oct. 30.

Led by European Parliament Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki, the group comprises four other members of the EP: Nikolay Barekov, Hans-Olaf Henkel, Bernd Kolmel and Bernd Lucke, as well as Stephen Woodard, deputy secretary-general of the ECR.

During their weeklong stay until Nov. 4, the group will be received by Vice President Chen Chien-jen and Legislative Yuan President Su Jia-chyuan, as well as attend a banquet hosted by MOFA Minister David Tawei Lee. It is also scheduled to meet with representatives of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Mainland Affairs Council, and visit Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei and European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Temperatures set to plunge in northern Taiwan this week

The new wave of cold air is expected to last till Thursday, the weather bureau said.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/10/31
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Northern Taiwan is facing a wet and chilly week as temperatures are set to plunge and clipboard01rain on its way, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Monday.

As northeasterly winds strengthen, northern, northeastern, and eastern parts of Taiwan will see the lowest temperatures hit below 20 degrees Celsius starting tomorrow, with brief periods of showers likely during the afternoon.

The new wave of cold air is expected to last till Thursday, the weather bureau said, bringing also heavy rain across Taiwan starting late Monday.

As northeasterly winds pick up, daytime highs in northern Taiwan are expected to run below 26 degrees, and nighttime temperatures to drop below 20 degrees.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan, Japan fail to reach accord on fishing near Okinotori Atoll

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/31
By: Tai Ya-chen and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Oct. 31 (CNA) Taiwan and Japan were unable to reach agreement Monday on fishing rights in the sea near Okinotori Atoll at a meeting on maritime affairs held in Tokyo, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

Taiwan argued that it had the right to fish in the open sea surrounding the atoll but the Japanese insisted on their claim of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that extends 200 nautical miles from the atoll, which lies 1,600 kilometers east of Taiwan, according to a MOFA statement.

Taiwan protested Japan’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on April 25 in the sea 150 nautical miles east-southeast of the atoll and demanded the return of a 6 million yen (US$54,000) deposit paid to Japan to secure the boat’s release, according to the MOFA.

It said then the atoll could not be considered an island under international law and therefore did not generate an EEZ.    [FULL  STORY]

Military urged to release, develop its unused bases

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 01, 2016
By: Aaron Tu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The legislature’s Budget Center has called on the military to release 191 unused bases for development to avoid waste, saying maintenance is likely to cost taxpayers about NT$26.19 million (US$829,322) in the coming fiscal year.

The findings, published by the center in a report, said that due to military cutbacks between 1997 and 2014, the total number of armed forces personnel fell from 460,000 to 210,000, with many barracks becoming unused and redundant.

The Ministry of National Defense has been amalgamating its camps, establishing barracks that house personnel from all three branches of the military and relocating away from cities, the report said.

Empty bases must have guard patrols to deter crime and regular sanitation sweeps to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, as multiple infestations have been reported at the sites, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

New digs

The China Post
Date: November 1, 2016
By: CNA

p16aCNA — Some 100 peacocks from a peacock garden at Sun Moon Lake were relocated to a smart ecological park in Xinpu Township of Hsinchu County on Monday, Oct. 31. They were first situated in a small wooden house so they could get accustomed to the environment and then were released into a 20-hectare park one month later.   [FULL  STORY]

INTERVIEW: Former minister unravels ‘1992 consensus’ mystery

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 31, 2016

Former Mainland Affairs Council minister Chen Ming-tung recently spoke with ‘Liberty Times’ (sister paper of the ‘Taipei Times’) reporter Tzou Jiing-wen and said that the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ is a fabrication, and that Beijing’s unwillingness to accept the sovereignty of the Republic of China is what has ultimately led to the current impasse in cross-strait relations

Liberty Times (LT): Since the transfer of power on May 20, China has used the so-called “1992 consensus” as the precondition for continued cross-strait dialogue. What are your thoughts?

Chen Ming-tung (陳明通): On July 20, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) published an article titled The Origins of the 1992 Consensus, which to my knowledge is the first time the Chinese Communists explained, in any detail, their assertion of the existence of the so-called “1992 consensus.”

From the perspective of rational dialogue, we welcome such explanations, but I must emphatically state that its conclusion that “since then, both sides have acknowledged a consensus that was formed following the negotiations and that consensus was known as the ‘1992 consensus’ at a later time,” is an erroneous assertion that does not agree with historical facts.    [FULL  STORY]