Page Three

Taiwan and Arizona sign reciprocal driver’s license accord

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/31
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Romulo Huang

Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) Taiwan and the U.S. State of Arizona have recently signed a reciprocal driver’s license agreement which allows the citizens of the two sides to exchange their non-commercial driver’s license for a local license without taking a written or road test, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Monday.

On behalf of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles signed the accord with the Department of Transportation of Arizona on Aug. 28, the MOFA said.

The signing of the agreement, which went into effect immediately, is aimed at making the lives of Taiwanese citizens living in Arizona more convenient, the MOFA noted.     [FULL  STORY]

Nationalists also fought the Japanese, Beijing concedes

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-31
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

China’s top Taiwan affairs official on Sunday acknowledged the Kuomintang’s contribution to C830C0129H_2015資料照片_N71_copy1China’s War of Resistance against Japan during World War II.

Zhang Zhijun, head of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told visiting former KMT chair Lien Chan that the KMT took the lead in fighting occupying Japanese forces on the front line while the Communist Party of China played a “leading role from behind the enemy line” during the 1937-1945 war against Japanese invasion that became a theater of World War II.

“This is our view of that period of the Chinese history,” Zhang was quoted by Chang Jung-kung, former deputy secretary general of KMT, who is now Lien’s aide. The PRC government has traditionally played up the role of Communist guerrillas in the war of resistance and airbrushed the contribution of the regular Republic of China army under Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, which did the majority of the fighting in China. To watch any of the countless movies or TV dramas about the war on Chinese television is to get the impression that Mao’s Communists defeated the Japanese single-handed.     [FULL  STORY]

DPP defends Tsai’s housing policy from KMT critics

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 01, 2015
By: Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday defended Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) social housing proposal in the face of criticism from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, saying that while Tsai’s housing platform might not solve all the nation’s housing problems, it is a brave first step.

“The first step to resolving Taiwan’s housing issues is to provide a stable housing option other than buying property, and then come up with a set of integral strategies to combat structural issues surrounding the purchasing of homes,” DPP Policy Committee deputy executive director Shih Keh-he (施克和) said.

The KMT criticized the DPP presidential candidate’s proposal made on Sunday to create 200,000 social housing units that would only be available for rent to those who are unable to afford to buy their own homes. The KMT caucus called the plan an empty objective that could never be realized.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei councilors ask EasyCard chairman to resign over dispute

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-30
By: By Ku Chuan and Christie Chen, Central News Agency

Taipei, Aug. 30 (CNA) Taipei city councilors on Sunday called on Tai Chi-chuan , chairman of EasyCard Corp., to resign over the controversy surrounding the company’s use of a Japanese porn star’s photos on the cover of its stored value cards.

Forty-two of the 63 Taipei city councilors have voiced opposition to the release of the cards, but Tai and EasyCard spokeswoman Lin Hsiao-chi have no regard for the council and should immediately step down from their posts, bellowed Wang Chih-ping of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) at a press conference. KMT councilor William Hsu , meanwhile, noted that government shares account for 40 percent of the company’s shares.

Hsu demanded that the representatives of government shareholders in the company disclose their positions on the issue, threatening to freeze the review of city government budgets if these representatives do not make their stances clear.

Wang and KMT councilor Wang Hong-wei also criticized Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je for shirking responsibility, blaming Ko for backing Tai and pointing out that it was Ko who asked Tai to double the company’s revenues.     [FULL  STORY]

Exiled Chinese dissident questions survival of CPC-controlled China

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/30
By: Chang Chu-ling & Bear Lee

Taipei, Aug. 30 (CNA) An exiled Chinese dissident questioned Sunday the ability of China’s 201508300020t0001communist government to survive for another eight years.

“Many countries like England, France, Germany and Russia, transformed themselves into a republic system after experiencing tens of years of dictatorship rule,” said Xin Haonian (辛灝年), founder of the council for restoring the Republic (of China) on the mainland, in a speech in Taipei.

For example, Russia went through 74 years of totalitarian rule between 1917 when the Russian Empire was overthrown in the February Revolution and the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, “thus I would say that there is still a question of whether the CPC-controlled China, which has existed for over 66 years, can sustain itself for eight more years.”     [FULL  STORY]

More people in Taiwan using messaging apps instead of calling

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-30
By: Ho Ying-wei and Staff Reporter

More than 44% of mobile phone users in Taiwan seldom used their phones to make calls

Smartphone users on the subway in Taipei. (Photo/Yang Chao-yuan)

Smartphone users on the subway in Taipei. (Photo/Yang Chao-yuan)

because they use social networks and instant messaging apps, according to a survey on internet broadband usage in Taiwan published Aug. 27 by the Taiwan Network Information Center.

The survey was conducted nationwide among people aged 12 and over, with a sample of 3,155 respondents.

Internet users over the age of 11 account for 83.7% of the total number and they mainly use go online with ADSL or VDSL broadband.

Meanwhile, 88.8% of users have broadband connections at home.

The internet is most widely used to visit social networking sites, as indicated by 60.1% of the respondents in the poll, and for instant messaging, as 56.3% said, an increase from 51.5% last year.     [FULL  STORY]

Hung Hsiu-chu pushes Tsai for live TV debate

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 31, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday challenged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to a TV debate, and urged Tsai to respond to difficult issues — especially those related to cross-strait ties.

Hung made the comments during a visit to an urban renewal project in New Taipei City alongside New Taipei City Mayor and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫).

In response to media queries over whether she would feel confident about taking on Tsai in a public debate, Hung said that every candidate should take the opportunity to discuss their ideas.     [FULL  STORY]

Wang supporters do well in KMT election

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Supporters of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng won the highest number of seats on the ruling Kuomintang’s Central Standing Committee, making it highly likely he could return to the Legislative Yuan in the January 16 elections, reports said Saturday.

A total of 32 members of the 39-seat CSC were up for election by 1,597 party delegates Saturday. The group meets each Wednesday afternoon with the party chairman in charge to discuss current affairs and reach major policy decisions.

Of the 32 original CSC members, 26 or 81 percent were re-elected Saturday, while some of the six newcomers had served on the body in the past, reports said. The term for the newly elected members has been extended from one to two years. The top vote getter was Mega Securities Chairman Liu Ta-pei, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

Century-old Fugueijiao lighthouse opened to public

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/29
By: H.S. Huang and Lillian Lin

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) The century-old Fugueijiao (富貴角) lighthouse located on the 201508290012t0001northernmost point of Taiwan was officially opened to the public starting Saturday and visitors to the lighthouse will receive a stamped souvenir certificate featuring the lighthouse.

The Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications sponsored a hiking event around the lighthouse, inviting people to appreciate the beautiful scenery and learn about the history of the lighthouse.

The 14.3-meter Fugueijiao lighthouse was built by Japanese for the construction of a submarine cable between Taiwan and Japan, and also to serve as a navigation aid. In 1962 the tower was renovated into a octagonal building with black and white stripes.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan boy who punched painting unwittingly sparks art debate

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-29
By: CNA

An Italian professor of medieval art has suggested that a controversial painting on display in

Flowers by Paolo Porpora. (Photo/TST Art of Discovery Company)

Flowers by Paolo Porpora. (Photo/TST Art of Discovery Company)

Taipei has a style more typical of Mario Nuzzi than his 17th century Italian counterpart Paolo Porpora.

When asked by CNA for her opinion on the painting of flowers in a vase, Stefania Macioce of Sapienza University of Rome said the work showed the influence of the Flemish painting style, representative of Nuzzi (1603-1673), rather than Porpora’s more Baroque touch.

The painting, identified in the The Face of Leonardo, Images of a Genius exhibition as Flowers by Paolo Porpora (1617-1673), gained worldwide attention after a young Taiwanese boy tripped and accidently punched a hole in it on Sunday.

As the painting was being restored, questions about the painting’s origins were raised when a picture of it from a catalogue of Italian auction house Casa d’Aste Della Rocca showed it as the work of Nuzzi.

The Italian curator of the exhibition Andrea Rossi said the auction house had it wrong, but Macioce and a private collector in Naples, Achille Della Ragione, are not so sure.     [FULL  STORY]