The China Post
Date: June 29, 2016
By: Joseph Yeh

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) pledged reforms within the military

to make sure that the recent incident of a killing of a dog by soldiers will not happen again after animal lovers protested in front of the Defense Ministry on Tuesday afternoon.

Facing protestors in front of the ministry around 2 p.m. in Taipei, Feng said the R.O.C. Armed Forces will soon register all the dogs raised within military units so that they can be better taken care of amid a recent dog-killing incident involving a group of soldiers that led to public outrage.

Feng also noted that the military will ask all units across the country to hold lectures on animal protection as soon as possible to make sure all military personnel understand the importance of protecting the lives of all creatures.

He also said the military could reconsider the punishments it imposed on the soldiers allegedly responsible for the death of the dog, as many protestors believe they were too lenient.     [FULL  STORY]

The strike by China Airline flight attendants ended after management agreed to employee demands. Now more unions are threatening to strike.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/27
By: Bing-sheng Lee

The success of the China Airlines (CAL) flight attendants strike last week is inspiring similar

actions by other labor unions.

The strike has already spurred employees from other companies and unions, including Mandarin Airlines, Chunghwa Post Workers’ Union and Chunghwa Telecom Workers’ Union, to prepare their own strikes, say Kuomintang legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and DPP legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀).

Ho Chen Tan (賀陳旦), minister of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), says MOTC and the Ministry of Labor will review labor policies and work to strike a balance between the benefits of management and employees.

Last week’s strike by the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union and CAL flight attendants saw a sit-in in downtown Taipei, a huge amount of local media coverage, the sacking of the airline’s chair, and a four-and-a-half-hour negotiation. CAL conceded to the seven demands that the union and flight attendants made.     [FULL STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 28, 2016
By: Hsiao Ting-fang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday passed a review of a proposed

amendment to Article 17 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to require Chinese spouses to pass civic tests as a condition for obtaining citizenship.

The proposed amendment would require the Ministry of the Interior to set the criteria for the tests, while the length of the currently stipulated residency requirements for naturalizing Chinese spouses would remain unaltered on a provisional basis, but could be subject to change in future legislative negotiations.

The committee on June 13 passed the amendment in committee review, but the deal collapsed when a procedural flaw led to mutual recriminations, with pan-blue and pan-green caucuses mobilizing their lawmakers to prepare for a contentious vote.

However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) intervened to calm tensions, brokering a deal to revisit the bill yesterday and avert a confrontation on the legislative floor.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: June 28, 2016
By: Christine Chou

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Consumers’ Foundation (CF, 消基會) filed a class-action lawsuit Monday

on behalf of nearly 100 family members of victims who were injured or killed in the Formosa Fun Coast explosion last year.

The day marks exactly one year since the deadly dust explosion that occurred June 27, 2015, when colored cornstarch powder used for party effects ignited, engulfing partygoers in fire.

“The explosion injured almost 500 people. Among them, 15 people lost their lives. We stand here today, with a heavy heart, to represent 98 plaintiffs seeking the justice they deserve,” CF Chairman Alan Lu (陸雲) said.

The compensation being sought in the suit, which targets 12 defendants, including multiple company heads allegedly responsible for the accident, amounts to more than NT$2.6 billion.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 27, 2016

Liberty Times (LT): Taiwan’s economic performance has been weak in recent years and even if

annual economic growth can be kept at 1 percent this year, it would still be lower than the global average by a considerable margin. What accounts for the nation’s tepid economic growth?

Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正): Part of the problem is the global economy, which is unlikely to improve in the near future. Many research institutes have made downward adjustments to their global economic growth estimates for this year and next year.

As a result, Taiwan’s economy is unlikely to grow next year. While a decline in export volumes is contracting, it might not contract fast enough.

Unfortunately, domestic demand is also weak… Investment has fallen from between 18 percent and 19 percent 10 years ago to between 16 percent and 17 percent, with negative investment growth across the board, including the private and public sectors and state-owned enterprises.

Unless President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration takes action to boost domestic demand, GDP growth next year is unlikely to improve.     [FULL  STORY]