Page Three

Dutch dredging company secures major deal in Kaohsiung

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-16
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, Aug. 16 (CNA) Van Oord, a contracting company from the Netherlands, has been awarded the dredging contract for Kaoshiung Intercontinental Container Center Phase II, valued at approximately 130 million euros (US$144 million).

Van Oord has already started preparations for the new Kaohsiung terminal, which is scheduled to be completed by January 2018 and will involve the dredging and reclamation of 37 million cubic meter of sand for the extension of Kaohsiung Port, the Rotterdam-based company said in a statement on Aug. 13.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s untapped tourism draw: its extensive mountains

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/16 14:45:10
By: CNA staff writers Elizabeth Hsu and Chang Shu-ling

Experienced mountaineer Lin Yi-hua (林乙華) has traveled to distant parts of the globe to

Hikers on a mountain summit in the Central Mountain Range. Photo courtesy of Lin Yi-hua

Hikers on a mountain summit in the Central Mountain Range. Photo courtesy of Lin Yi-hua

explore some of the world’s best known mountain ranges.

But even after hiking and climbing in India, the Caucasus region, Kyrgyzstan, Argentina, and South Korea, nothing mesmerizes her more than the peaks seen in her homeland of Taiwan.

“When you’re on the top of a mountain (in Taiwan), what hits your eyes instantly are layers and layers of volatile clouds,” Lin says. “The spectacle sticks in your mind and lingers there even when you’re scaling mountains overseas.”     [FULL  STORY]

DPP whip Ker defends the use of cross-party negotiations to resolve deadlocks

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 17, 2015
By: Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday defended the use of cross-party negotiations, which are often criticized for being non-transparent, as a necessary tool with a legal basis to facilitate political communication.

“Cross-party negotiation is actually regulated by Article 68 of the Act Governing the Exercise of Legislative Power (立法院職權行使法), and, while many people call it ‘secret chamber negotiation,’ there are actually quite a lot of people in the ‘secret chamber’ when a cross-party negotiation takes place,” Ker said during a talk with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) at an event for National Hsinchu Senior High School alumni. Both men are alumni of the school.     [FULL  STORY]

Ko auctioning off his Chinese Taipei jersey

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-16
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je is auctioning off the number 66 Chinese Taipei baseball

Ko auctioning off his Chinese Taipei jersey. Central News Agency

Ko auctioning off his Chinese Taipei jersey. Central News Agency

jersey he wore in support of the nation’s little league team, who embarked on a quest for championship in the United States on Saturday, reports said Sunday.

The Dongyuan Elementary School Baseball Team, after defeating their rivals from South Korea in the Asia-Pacific tournament of the Little League Baseball (LLB), has earned them a ticket to the LLB World Series in the U.S., which is set to take place in Williamsport, Pennsylvania from August 20 to 30.

Ko said the fund generated from the auction will go to support the young athletes, adding that it was not the school’s first trip to the LLB World Series, where it had won the nation’s last championship trophy in 1972.     [FULL  STORY]

Green Party, Social Democratic Party to form political union

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/16
By: Lee Ming-tsung and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Aug. 16 (CNA) Taiwan’s Green Party and Social Democratic Party (SDP) will form a political union and jointly field national candidates to increase their chances of winning some legislator-at-large seats in the Legislature next year, officials of the two parties said Sunday.

Green Party Secretary General Hsu Po-jen (許博任) and his SDP counterpart Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) said they were finalizing the joint strategy in a bid to break through the stranglehold of the two political camps that are increasingly inclined towards the business community.

During media interviews, Hsu and Yeh said that since their parties share similar values — such as workers’ rights and higher taxes for big corporations — they will join forces to get past the electoral threshold and form a real opposition in the parliament to monitor government performance.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan regrets Japanese politician’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-15
By: By Elaine Hou, Central News Agency

Taipei, Aug. 15 (CNA) Taiwan expressed regret over a visit by a Japanese lawmaker to a controversial shrine for Japan’s war dead on behalf of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Saturday, the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo honors Japanese war dead, including executed Japanese World War II war criminals.

It is seen by several countries in Asia as a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism. Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement of regret Saturday after Japanese lawmaker Koichi Hagiuda of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), also an aide to Abe, visited the shrine earlier in the day. The ministry said it hopes Japanese politicians will learn from history, reflect on Japan’s past actions and take into consideration the hurt feelings of the people in countries that suffered from Japanese aggression during the war.

It also called on Tokyo to promote and develop friendly relations with neighboring countries in an effort to maintain peace and stability in the region. Hagiuda said he paid respects to the souls of those who sacrificed their lives in the war and that he visited the shrine on behalf of Abe in his role as head of the LDP, foreign media reported.

U.S. missionary remembered for saving women during Rape of Nanjing

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/15
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Aug. 15 (CNA) An American missionary who came to China in the early 1910s is 201508150020t0001best remembered in Taiwan for her efforts to care for and protect many women and children during the Rape of Nanjing by Japanese soldiers in 1937 during the Republic of China’s War of Resistance against Japan that ended in 1945.

The heroic acts of Minnie Vautrin have been a focus of a series of events in Taiwan in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war that will run through October.

As part of the commemoration, the government invited her great grandniece, Cindy Vautrin, to Taiwan for a weeklong visit that concluded Saturday.

On behalf of her great-great aunt, Cindy Vautrin received a medal from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) earlier this week in recognition of the U.S. missionary’s acts during the war.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei exhibition marks 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender

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Chinese soldiers armed with Chinese swords during WWII. (File photo/Xinhua)

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-15
By: CNA

An exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Republic of China’s war against Japan in 1945 is being held at Academia Historica and the Armed Forces Museum in Taipei from Aug. 15 to Nov. 28.

President Ma Ying-jeou was set to attend the opening ceremony of the special exhibition, titled From War To Peace in Chinese, as a special guest.

Also set to be in attendance were descendants of the martyrs of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese front of World War II, history experts and scholars and private collectors of cultural and historical relics related to the war, according to the organizers.

The show is being organized by Academia Historica, the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Education to mark the conclusion of the war of resistance against Japan, which coincided with the end of World War II, and the end of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Civil servants found to be breaking law

PRACTICALITY TAKES PRECEDENCE:Control Yuan President Chang Po-ya said that the severity of infractions would be taken into account when considering punishment

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 16, 2015
By: Lee Hsin-fang and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

More than 1,000 civil servants nationwide have been found illegally doubling as managers and board members of private companies, an investigation by the National Audit Office and the Ministry of Civil Service said.

Control Yuan President Chang Po-ya (張博雅) said that the Control Yuan would only look into the more severe infractions or higher-level civil servants, which include all normal offices of the 10th pay-grade and above, adding that each of those infractions would be investigated thoroughly.     [FULL  STORY]

Martyrs’ Shrine `impressive:’ descendants of WWII Soviet pilots

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/14
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) Descendants of two Soviet pilots who died fighting for the 201508140034t0001Republic of China during the War of Resistance against Japan that began in 1937 visited the Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei Friday, saying that they were impressed and touched by the site.

Evgeny Opasov, son of pilot Constantin Opasov, said through an interpreter that he was “touched” to visit the shrine, which honors ROC military personnel and foreign soldiers and officers who helped the ROC in the war against Japan, among many others.

He told local reporters after touring the shrine that he really appreciated the visit and was pleased to meet with Taiwanese senior military officers.

Andrey Matveev, grandson of late Soviet pilot Nikolai Matveev, said that it is very important that Taiwan has such a site to remember those who sacrificed their lives in the eight-year war.     [FULL  STORY]