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KMT caucus says US supports Chu

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 17, 2015
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said that remarks made by former

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang, center, addresses a press conference in Taipei yesterday, discussing KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu’s recent visit to the US. Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush on the sidelines of a closed-door seminar between KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) and dozens of US academics in Washington on Friday was suggestive of US support for the KMT chairman.

KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said that Bush’s remarks that the US valued the cross-strait developments under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration since 2008 and that it would like to see it continued was what the US had been wanting to say, but could not.

“This bodes ill for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as in the US’ mind, it has already graded the KMT and the DPP based on their cross-strait policies,” Lin said.

“What people say during elections might vastly differ from what they say after becoming policymakers. To me, that is where the problems lie,” Bush said. [FULL STORY]

Tsai pledges to improve nation’s working environment

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-15
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen promises that her

Tsai vows to improve work environment. Taiwan News

government will set a tone of being supportive of youth welfare if she is elected, reports said Sunday.

Tsai posted a campaign video on her Facebook page in the morning claiming that she will seek to tackle the issue with low pay and income inequality, stressing that a stable career path for the nation’s youth will no longer be unattainable.

The video, which depicts a young female from out of town budgeting on her expenses after moving to Taipei, explains the story of the nation’s grim employment sector where salaries have remained stagnant amid rising costs of living.

Reflecting on the subject, the DPP presidential contender said one of her goals in running for president is to create an efficient government that will help to resolve Taiwan’s working environment, including long working hours and unreasonable pay.

“I hope to find a country where everyone is entitled to live and work in peace and contentment,” Tsai said on social media. [FULL STORY]

NTU hosts beam-raising ceremony for cancer hospital

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/15
By: Jalen Chung and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Nov. 15 (CNA) A beam-raising ceremony to mark the completion of the structural frames for a cancer hospital was held Sunday at the Gongguan branch of National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) in Taipei.

The ceremony was presided over by Terry Gou (郭台銘), chairman of the Foxconn Group, in his capacity as founder of Yong Lin Health Care Foundation — the major donor for the hospital’s construction — and NTU President Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池).

At at ceremony, Yang thanked Gou for the largest-ever donation he has made to NTU, and expressed his confidence that construction of the hospital will be completed and will start providing services on a trial basis in 2018 as scheduled, to become the best cancer hospital in the Chinese world and a global top-tier cancer treatment institute.

In response, Gou said that with two-thirds of the construction work having been completed, he will increase his donation if needed and if doing so would accelerate the construction work. [FULL STORY]

Chu might return with US questions about Xi meet

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 16, 2015
By: Tzou Jiing-wen and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) could be bringing back some uncomfortable questions from Washington for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) about his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore when Chu returns from the US today.

According to sources, the most recent claims by the Ma administration about the meeting are that China brought up the possibility of a meeting in September, indicated that there had been close contact in preparation for the summit for at least two months.

However, the Presidential Office’s official announcement on Nov. 4 that a meeting had been scheduled came only after the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) published an online exclusive the previous night.

The US government was notified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the American Institute in Taiwan on Nov. 3 about the meeting, while the Japanese government was informed on Nov. 4, the sources said.

Cheng Li, the director of the John L. Thornton China Center and a senior fellow in the foreign policy program at Brookings Institution in Washington, reportedly said very frankly during Chu’s visit to Brookings that the US was notified very late, “we of course would like for more transparency, more understanding,” and wanted to know why. [FULL STORY]

Tsai emphasizes communication

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-14
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – If the Democratic Progressive Party wins the election, the next

Tsai emphasizes communication. Central News Agency

government will be the Cabinet in history most adept at communicating, presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen said Saturday.

The opposition leader has been ahead in virtually all opinion polls for the January 16 presidential election for months.

She made the statement during a campaign outing on behalf of a DPP legislative candidate in the New Taipei City district of Xindian.

The biggest problem was that the people of Taiwan did not have any confidence in the country, in the government, and in politics, she said. Politics was seen too much as confrontation and the exchange of interests, according to Tsai. If the DPP returned to power next year, politics would unite people instead of dividing them, she said.

Malaysian Dep PM says must defend sovereignty in South China Sea dispute

AsiaOne
Date: Nov 14, 2015
By: Reuters

KOTA KINABALU, MALAYSIA – Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister said the country must

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Photo: The Star/ANN

defend encroachment of its sovereignty in a veiled swipe at China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, as tensions flared ahead of a regional meeting that Beijing will attend.

Without directly referring to China, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi questioned why land was being reclaimed on coral areas close to Malaysia’s shores. “If our country is threatened or being encroached, we Malaysians should rise to defend our country,” he told a gathering in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island.

Beijing, which claims almost the entire energy-rich South China Sea through which US$5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes to yearly, has stepped up land reclamation and construction in disputed islands and reefs. [FULL STORY]

Ma-Xi meeting highlights importance of cross-strait development: Jerome Cohen

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 15, 2015
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore on Nov. 7 is set to impact upon the engagement between Taiwan’s next leader and Beijing, and redirect US attention to the importance of cross-strait development, according to a US academic.

New York University School of Law professor Jarome Cohen said the summit’s immediate impact would be on the presidential and legislative elections slated for Jan. 16.

“It will result in higher priority to cross-strait relations in the developing electoral dialogue and make voters give somewhat less attention to often-decisive domestic issues,” Cohen said, adding that he believes this might boost the floundering Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — which is trailing behind the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the polls — to a “modest, but insufficient extent.”

However, he said that the more important impact on Taiwan goes beyond the elections.

Cohen said that the Ma-Xi meeting has had a favorable effect on cross-strait relations, “not by strengthening the impact of Ma’s already-conciliatory policies of the past seven years, but by helping to limit their expected erosion when he leaves the stage.” [FULL STORY]

Tsai to reject blatant jobseekers: reports

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-13
By Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen had to

Tsai to reject blatant jobseekers: reports. Central News Agency (2015-11-13 18:04:17)

reject requests for government positions as opinion polls kept showing her as the most likely winner of the presidential election, reports said Friday.

For the past year, virtually every survey has shown Tsai in the lead for the January 16 election. Even last month’s decision by the Kuomintang to replace its presidential candidate and pick party chairman Eric Liluan Chu failed to make a dent in Tsai’s support, and neither did last weekend’s summit between President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

As a result, more and more prominent personalities have approached Tsai in the hope of meeting her and receiving the promise of an appointment once the new president is sworn in next May 20, reports said.

The opposition leader has reportedly instituted three principles to handle the phenomenon. She will not have dinners or lunches with just anybody, she will not hold talks with just anybody, and she will not hand out jobs to those who come and ask for them directly, the China Times Weekly reported. [FULL STORY]

Coast Guard busts trespassing Chinese recreational fishing boat

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/13
By: Shen Ju-feng and Lee Mei-yu

Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) caught a Chinese

CNA file photo

speedboat operating illegally in waters off an island in the Matsu archipelago on Friday and detained three anglers.

The trespassing Chinese speedboat was found illegally fishing about 0.3 nautical miles from Xiju Island (西莒) earlier in the day.

The alleged Chinese men quickly steered the boat away when Matsu’s coastal patrol officers were about to board the boat, according to the CGA, but the Coast Guard officers pursued the boat in a high-speed chase and successfully caught up to it.

The vessel and the three anglers on board were detained on Matsu’s largest island, Nangan. [FULL STORY]

Ifo sees Taiwan’s economy improving in 2016

Taiwan Today
Date: November 13, 2015

Taiwan’s exports are expected to gain momentum in the first half of next year on the strength of an improving macro-environment, according to the latest Ifo World Economic Survey released Nov. 12. (CNA)

Taiwan’s economy is expected to pick up steam in the first half of next year on the back of an improving macro-environment, according to the latest World Economic Survey released Nov. 12.

In the report, Munich-based Institute for Economic Research (Ifo) rated Taiwan’s capital expenditure, overall economy and private consumption as “bad” in the fourth quarter of 2015, giving the country a less than satisfactory overall assessment.

During the same period, the global economic performance index dropped 6.3 points to 89.6, slightly below its long-term average, Ifo said, adding that the world economy is facing continuing uncertainty in the first half of 2016.

“Assessments of the current economic situation deteriorated only marginally, but expectations are far less positive than last quarter,” the think tank said. “The most urgent economic problems are insufficient demand and a lack of confidence in government policies. The world economy is seeing only moderate growth.”

The weakening of the economic climate in Europe, Latin America and North America is largely due to a less than positive outlook, according to the report. Meanwhile, both the economic situation and unfavorable projections caused the deterioration in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. [FULL STORY]

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