The News Lens
Date: 2016/07/07
By: J. Michael Cole

By putting it in the same category as Donald Trump, European nationalists and

Rodrigo Duterte, Tim Ferguson provides an image of Taiwan’s democracy that is unfair in the extreme.

There is something about Forbes magazine and Taiwan that I’ve always struggled to explain, and that’s the publication’s apparent dislike for the island nation’s democratic achievements. Time and again, Forbes has published articles, many of them alarmist, that unashamedly present the democratic choices that the Taiwanese make as an impediment to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, or to its economic prosperity.

Forbes renewed its assault in its current issue with an op-ed by Tim Ferguson titled “Asia Can Avoid Unprofitable Passions Of Nationalism.” In his piece, the author makes it very clear that he dislikes European nationalists and politicians like Donald Trump, whose candidacy he describes as “grotesque,” as well as the democratic decision surrounding Brexit, which he likens to a “political craze.”      [FULL  STORY]

Taipei, Kaohsiung also close offices and schools Friday

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-07
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Most local governments in Taiwan declared Friday a day off

from work and school due to the expected onslaught of Super Typhoon Nepartak, which was supposed to cross the island overnight.
Taipei City, New Taipei City and Keelung City in the north announced the decision to shut down offices and schools at 8 p.m. Thursday after most of the central part of the island had reached similar conclusions. Kaohsiung, the largest city in the south also decided to do so.

The only areas to rule against closures were the islands of Kinmen and Matsu close to the coast of China’s province of Fujian. Offices and schools there would operate normally during the morning, though a decision on what to do about Friday afternoon would follow, reports said.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/07
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Elaine Hou

Taipei, July 7 (CNA) Taiwan’s military has response measures in place and will

respond appropriately to any developments following an upcoming ruling by an international court on a dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said Thursday.

Feng said that Taiwan is continuing to monitor developments regarding the South China Sea, including any moves being taken by related countries such as China, and he expressed hope that no conflicts will arise.

He was responding to questions from lawmakers during a hearing at the Legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, on the Defense Ministry’s preparations for the possible escalation of tension in the region following the ruling, which is expected to be released next week.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 08, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday called for conditional sharing of

historical documents stored on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, as he commemorated the lives lost during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Ma made the remarks at the launch of a 13-volume book series featuring historical documents from the Republic of China’s (ROC) eight-year war against Japan between 1937 and 1945.

“During my meeting with [Chinese President] Xi Jinping (習近平) on Nov. 7 last year, not only did we talk about international relations and China’s military deployment, we also touched upon the topic of cross-strait sharing of historical documents,” Ma said in a speech at the ceremony held at National Chengchi University, whose Humanities Research Center published the book series.

However, Ma said such exchanges should be conducted based on a precondition that both sides should make public their historical files without any “restricted zones,” adding that both Academia Historica and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Party Archive have been made available to the public.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 8, 2016
By: Seamus Boyle, Special to The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Celebrated novelist Neal Wu (吳子雲) makes his foray into the

world of film with a vibrant and colorful adaptation of his most popular story, “At Café 6” (六弄咖啡館), to be released next Friday in theaters near you.

In explaining his motives behind choosing “At Café 6” as the story to adapt from his vast bibliography, Wu revealed that a simple Yahoo search took him to a review site where his readers almost unanimously clamored for “At Café 6” to be adapted into a movie, inspiring him to repay his longtime fans with the film.

In order to produce a truly authentic look at Taiwan’s “coffee shop culture,” and to weave a romantic narrative around it, Wu drew on him own personal history. When he was a high school senior, Wu spent much of his time in what then was a relatively new phenomenon: internet cafés. He humorously recalled the beginnings of his humorous, romantic coming-of-age novellas as largely comprising “things I wanted to say to my girlfriend.”     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 7, 2016
By: CNA

CNA — Elephant sculptures are displayed at the Chianti Avenue Plaza of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store’s Xinyi Place in Taipei on Wednesday, July 6. The sculptures are just some of the artworks featured at the Elephant Parade Exhibition held at the plaza from Tuesday, July 5 to Sept. 30.     [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-06
By: Jennifer Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Council of Agriculture (COA) has implemented from July 1 the “Definition and Guideline of Friendly Eggs Production System” to ban battery cages in Taiwan.

According to COA statistics, there are an estimated 1,700 poultry farms keeping up to 3.6 million hens in Taiwan, which supply between 1.8 million to 1.9 million eggs each day, and an equivalent of 68 billion of eggs annually. Unfortunately, 99 percent of chickens are kept in closed cages of A4 size.

Switzerland, a member of the European Union (EU), is the first EU country to ban the raising of egg-laying hens in battery cages on January 1, 1992, followed by Germany in 2010. The European Commission has adopted the Council Directive 1999/74/CE regulations to protect the hens since 1999 and later in 2012 implemented a total ban in the Europe Union.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/06
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Romulo Huang

Taipei, July 6 (CNA) The number of foreign arrivals to Taiwan increased last year by 5.3 percent to

10.44 million but visitor spending decreased by an annual 1.6 percent to US$14.39 billion, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Wednesday.

The average length of stay for each visitor to Taiwan in 2015 was 6.63 nights, a decrease of 0.02 nights from the previous year, the DGBAS data showed.

The average daily spending by each visitor was US$208, representing a decrease of 6.3 percent from 2014, the DGBAS said.

Daily spending by visitors from Japan and China averaged US$228 per person, a drop of 6.5 percent and 6 percent, respectively, from the previous year, the DGBAS said. Average daily spending by visitors from the United States fell 22.7 percent to US$164 per person, according to the data.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 7, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

Taiwan welcomed 30 young leaders from the U.S. and Canada between June 6 and 24, according to

a press release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), which organized the program.

During the three-week Mosaic Taiwan 2016 Program, the fellows had the opportunity to participate in a series of events marking Dragon Boat Festival.

The fellows raced dragon boats, balanced eggs at noon, wrapped rice dumplings and many other cultural activities arranged by the government.

The program gave them firsthand experience of Taiwan’s traditions and beautiful scenery, according to MOFA.

On June 9, the day of Dragon Boat Festival, the program participants watched an exciting and colorful dragon boat race in Dajia Riverside Park. At noon, they painted eggs and mingled with locals.     [FULL  STORY]