Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/07
By: Elain Hou

Taipei, Aug. 7 (CNA) Beijing is nervous about Taiwan’s presidential election in January, because it recognizes that the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could win, a former U.S. State Department official said earlier this week.

“Beijing is obviously nervous about the prospect of the victory of the DPP,” said Evans J.R. Revere, who served as principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific Affairs before retiring from the State Department in 2007, when asked about Taiwan’s next presidential election during an interview with CNA.

The latest polls show DPP chairwoman and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) leading in a three horse race against ruling Kuomintang candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-06
By: Xinhua and Staff Reporter

The ongoing 48th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian

Malaysia’s foreign minister Anifah Aman, left, meets Brunei’s foreign minister Mohamed Bolkiah at the 48th ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Aug. 4. (Photo/Xinhua)

Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is not a proper platform for discussing the South China Sea issue but an important one for promoting regional cooperation.

Top of the agenda of the meeting is the establishment of the ASEAN Community and the Post-2015 Vision, as the ten-nation bloc is in the final stages of realizing the goal of establishing an ASEAN Community that involves a plan to create a common economic, political-security and socio-cultural region by the end of this year.

In this sense, participants of the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and following meetings need to discuss regional cooperation in such fields as trade and economy, communication, and non-traditional security in East Asia.

Beijing feels that multilateral forums have never been an appropriate place for discussing specific bilateral disputes, and attempts to do so can not help resolve the underlying issues as proven by past experiences. On the contrary, hyping up the South China Sea issue will make the already tense situation there worse.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 06, 2015
By: Lin Yi-chang and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Recent photographs uploaded by amateur photographers finally decoded the mysterious

Chiayi Taking Off, a landmark by a highway interchange in Chiayi County, is seen in a photograph taken from a drone on Friday last week. Photo courtesy of the drone’s owner

adornment supposedly representing the “rise of Chiayi County” adjacent to the Siangho Interchange of National Expressway No. 82, which seemed for all intents and purposes to be intended for aerial viewing from its inception.

Viewed from the ground, the monument, which the county government said was a swinhoe pheasant, is a single length of blue-colored metal, curved slightly upward at either end.

The pedestal on which it rests is decorated with representations of Alishan (阿里山), the iconic Alishan Forest Railway trains and other tourist attractions, with pottery pieces made in Singang Township (新港).     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-05
By: CNA and Staff Reporters

Descendants of American presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight

Mary Jean Eisenhower poses with a photo of her grandfather Dwight D Eisenhower at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, Sept. 16, 2013. (Photo courtesy of the Grand Hotel)

Eisenhower, as well as other foreign nationals who made contributions to the ROC cause during World War II, are set to attend a series of events in Taiwan in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

The Republic of China government has invited David Roosevelt, grandson of President Roosevelt; Mary Jean Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Eisenhower; and Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of President Truman, among other foreign nationals, to attend the commemorative events in Taiwan scheduled to take place from mid-August to late October, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.

President Ma Ying-jeou has said that the three presidents made great contributions to the ROC’s efforts in countering Japanese aggression during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), which started earlier than but merged into the wider conflict of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis powers were defeated by the Allies. Roosevelt and Truman served as president during the war, while Eisenhower was the supreme Allied commander in Europe. His main contribution to the security of the ROC came when Taiwan was under strong threat of Communist invasion from mainland China in the 1950s. As president, Eisenhower signed the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty in 1954.     [FULL  STORY]