The China Post
Date: October 19, 2016
By: Joseph Yeh

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) declined to confirm Tuesday whether former Foreign Minister

Mark Chen (陳唐山) was scheduled to meet with the Dalai Lama at the Forum 2000 conference in Prague.

MOFA spokeswoman Eleanor Wang said Chen, who served as foreign minister from 2004 to 2006 under the previous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, is attending the international conference as a special envoy of President Tsai Ing-wen.

Amid local media reports that Chen was planning to meet with the Dalai Lama, who had been invited to the forum to deliver a speech on Wednesday, Wang said the ministry had no comment.

“We have no comment on possible interactions between invited guests during the forum,” she added.

Wang’s comments came after a report made by Chinese-language online news provider Storm Media (風傳媒) late Monday that Chen would hold a one-on-one meeting with the Dalai Lama during the forum, which is scheduled for Oct. 16-19.  [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: October 17, 2016

The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology’s unmanned aerial vehicle sits in a display area at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1 in this undated photograph. NCSIST displayed the UAV, as well as dozens of other cutting-edge products, at the Japan International Aerospace Exhibition Oct. 12-15 in Tokyo. (LTN)
A Taiwan delegation comprised of four companies and led by National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology participated for the first time in this year’s Japan International Aerospace Exhibition Oct. 12-15 in Tokyo, showcasing a variety of Taiwan’s domestically developed defense systems and aerospace technologies.

The NCSIST is the primary research and development organization of the Ministry of National Defense, producing defense systems such as the Tien Kung and Tien Chien missiles. According to the institute, it is working to expand its presence in the international defense technology community by participating in exhibitions to display its well-developed products and form global partnerships.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-17
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) announced on Monday that beginning Oct. 20 it will adopt a new annual train schedule, with adjustments including addition of new trains and curtailing of travel distance or suspension of existing trains.

According to a train schedule change plan the TRA announced in September, the TRA will add two daily Shulin-Taitung and Nangang-Chaozhou express trains on weekends while enforcing curtailing of the travel distance or suspension of trains with low seat occupancy rates during the off-hours, affecting a total of 86 trains.

According to the TRA, the two additional Shulin-Taitung Tze-Chiang Express trains, Train Codes 418 and 443, run from Friday to Sunday, and the run time for the trip is about four hours, while the two new Nangang-Chaozhou Tze-Chiang Express trains, Train Codes 133 and 110, also operate from Friday to Sunday.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/17
By: Hsu Chih-wei and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) The organizers of the first museum dedicated to Taiwanese “comfort women”

said Monday that they are still soliciting donations from the public, as they are NT$10 million (US$314,505) short of the needed funds.

The Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, the driving force behind the museum, said that when the facility opens Dec. 10, it will be a new milestone in the human rights movement for Taiwan’s comfort women, but the money needed to run it will be a heavy burden.

Since the museum started to solicit public donations early this year, it has collected NT$9.72 million, which includes subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, as well as donations from home and overseas.

But as the software and hardware for the museum, as well as the operating expenses for the first year, will require about NT$20 million, it is facing a shortage of half the needed funds.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-16
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Crown Prince Chalet in the Gold Museum in Jinguashi, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, is a Japanese-style mansion located in an old mining village with an atmosphere reminiscent of Japanese colonial era.

The mansion is tucked securely and almost secretively on one side of a trail leading up to an old mining site, where mining equipment and tunnels from the mining era are preserved for tourists to see. The wooden mansion, which overlooks the mining village of Jinguashi, the surrounding mountains and the sea in the distance, is made of cypress, red sandalwood and cherry wood, and joined together with mortise and tenon joints, typical of Japanese structures from the period. The home has attracted many architecture scholars to visit and study.

The staff at the Gold Museum said there are mysteries surrounding the purpose and usage of the Crown Prince Chalet. According to local elders and research by scholars, the mansion was built in the 1920s during the Japanese Colonial era, the museum said, adding that the total area of the wooden mansion is about 369 pings with the main structure occupying 141.5 pings. A ping is the equivalent to 3.306 square meters.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/16
By: Sophia Yeh and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Oct. 16 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Sunday her administration will start next

year to carry out one of her promises — to launch a national project aimed at developing a north-south provincial highway into a “Hakka Romantic Avenue” to promote the culture of Taiwan’s Hakka ethnic group.

Under the plan, measures will be taken to promote the industrial economy and improve the ecological and cultural landscapes of 16 Hakka towns in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Taichung cities and counties along the 438.7 kilometer-long highway.

“The new government’s building the national Hakka Romantic Avenue along the Provincial Highway 3 is a very important governing mission,” said Tsai at the Hakka Yimin Festival in Taipei Sunday.

Work will begin next year to carry out the national project, Tsai said, noting that different ministries and government departments, as well as local governments, will be mobilized to help promote Hakka culture and local economic development along the provincial highway.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 17, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday warned against any “willful interpretations” of

the “one China, different interpretations” framework, in a remark clearly aimed at Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱).

The so-called “1992 consensus” and “one China, different interpretations” have played key roles in maintaining stable and peaceful cross-strait ties, and there is no room for “one China, willful interpretations,” Wu said in a speech to retired KMT members at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.

His speech was titled “The party’s current situations and the direction of our efforts.”
“During my term as premier, a local elected representative of the Democratic Progressive Party asked me why then-Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) did not honor the ‘one China, different interpretations’ policy and interpret ‘one China’ as the Republic of China when he visited Taiwan,” Wu said.

Wu said he replied that by that logic, Taiwanese visiting Beijing would have to interpret “one China” as the People’s Republic of China, which Wu said is not “one China, different interpretations,” but rather “one China, willful interpretations.”    [FULL  STORY]