NO RESPONSE:Former deputy legislative speaker Hung Hsiu-chu has not responded to her invitation, while a source said she would not attend the forum

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

Several civic groups affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday announced that they are to jointly hold a forum in Taipei, inviting KMT chairperson hopefuls to answer questions regarding the party’s future.

The forum, scheduled to take place on Saturday at 9am, is to be jointly hosted by the pro-reform Grassroots Alliance, Open KMT, Workers of the Closed Party and the Chong Shing Elites of the Kuomintang.

“Following the KMT’s unprecedented defeat in last month’s presidential and legislative elections, several groups founded by young KMT members, including the Grassroots Alliance, Open KMT, and Workers of the Closed Party, have joined forces and endeavored to inject new momentum into the party’s reform efforts,” Grassroots Alliance founder Lee Zheng-hao (李正皓) said yesterday.

Lee said that with the KMT’s chairperson by-election to take place on March 26, they decided to hold the forum titled “Chairperson, may I ask a question?” in an effort to subject candidates’ ideas and values to public scrutiny.     [FULL  STORY]

SAFETY:A DPP lawmaker said if fault is found with the Weiguan Jinlong complex, inspectors and regulators might be complicit in wrongdoing

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 16, 2016
By: Jonathan Chin / Staff writer

Civil servants who approved the construction and use permits for the Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan should share the blame alongside its developer for the structure’s collapse, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said on Sunday.

The 17-story, multi-building complex collapsed during the magnitude 6.4 earthquake on Feb. 6, eventually accounting for 114 of quake’s total of 116 fatalities.

Speaking on a political talk show, Wang said that the government only issues a construction permit for a project after the building’s blueprints have passed two separate reviews, one for safety and the other for aesthetics.

Prior to issuing a construction permit, the project is scrutinized in a safety review of the soundness of its structural mechanics, its weight distribution and depth, the thickness of steel rebars and the quality of materials, Wang said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 16, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said she hopes to transform the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into a party that can alter the fate of Taiwan, as the nation resumed work after the Lunar New Year holiday.

“Today is the first working day following the Lunar New Year holiday, but many Taiwanese from several industries and emergency workers helping out in post-Tainan earthquake rescue operations were either on duty throughout the holiday or had to work rotating shifts,” Tsai said on Facebook.

Tsai said the DPP was able to win both the presidency and a legislative majority in the Jan. 16 elections because of the public’s earnest aspiration for reform.

As the majority party in the legislature, the DPP must usher in the reforms it has promised, Tsai said, adding that she has instructed the DPP caucus and concerned policy groups within the party to deliberate on the promotion of reform bills and post-earthquake recovery.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Times
Date: February 16, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI — The newly completed Aviation Education Exhibition Center in the southern city of Kaohsiung not only features an exterior design shaped like a UFO, but also has something unique inside — it is the first museum in Taiwan where historically important planes are exhibited suspended from the ceiling.

The UFO exterior design is aimed at portraying the idea of an advanced high-tech aircraft carrying the older types of planes, said the center, which has on display a total 36 planes that have been retired from the Air Force, the Navy and the Army.

Nineteen of the aircraft are suspended, including an AT-6 fighter trainer, an F-84G fighter, a U-3A liaison aircraft and various other planes used between 1945 and 1967, when Republic of China forces were fighting Chinese communist forces.

Also hanging from the ceiling are an O-1 observation aircraft, a UH-1H helicopter, and three MiG fighters from China that were flown to Taiwan by Chinese defectors, according to the center.

Four other planes (one IL-28 bomber, two MiG-19s and one MiG-15) flown to Taiwan by Chinese defectors are also displayed on the ground floor, the center said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 15, 2016
By: William Lowther / Staff Reporter in Washington

President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should make maritime-strategic affairs a priority and impose her vision on Taiwan’s naval establishment, a US military expert said.

If Tsai does not take a hard line with the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) it would become increasingly, and dangerously, out of step with the times, said James Holmes, a professor of strategy at the US Naval War College.

“The problem confronting Tsai is largely cultural, although it manifests itself in strategy, doctrine and hardware ill-adapted to today’s dangers,” Holmes said.

He said the ROCN sees itself as a US Navy in miniature — a force destined to win decisive sea battles.

“Despite its self-image, the ROCN is a modest-sized, modestly capable force on the wrong end of an increasingly lopsided arms race against its deadly foe, the China’s People’s Liberation Army [PLA],” he said.     [FULL  STORY]