Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-18
By: CNA

New Taipei mayor Eric Chu on Friday expressed hopes that mechanical problems on a rapid

transit line connecting Taiwan’s main airport and the greater Taipei area will be solved as the project reported yet another delay the previous day.

The project matters a lot to many people, Chu said, urging the authorities to fix the problems as soon as possible.

Originally set to start operations by the end of this year, the project has been experiencing system instability since March, when related system stability work should have already been completed.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/18
By: C.C. Hsieh, P.N. Ling and Lillian Lin

Taipei, July 18 (CNA) The Executive Yuan on Saturday rejected an accusation by I-Mei Foods

Co. (義美) general manager Luis Ko (高志明) that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) informed authorities in China of irregularities in I-Mei products in July, hurting the company’s sales to China.

Cabinet spokesman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) received a petition from Ko earlier this week in which Ko said the FDA’s move was making it hard for I-Mei exports to China to clear customs there.

The FDA denied the accusation, saying it did not give its Chinese counterpart any information on recent food inspection at I-Mei factories, in which it found nine-year-old pre-packaged Lunar New Year dishes.

The I-Mei items in question that were long past their expiration date were not for export and were definitely not being sold to China, a Food and Drug Administration spokesman said Friday.

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-18
By: CNA

About 800 Taiwanese tourists have applied for e-visas to the Philippines since the new online

visa system was launched July 1 in an effort to make travel to the neighboring country easier, according to the Philippines’ representative office in Taiwan.

The Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system allows Taiwanese passport holders aged 15 and over to apply online for a visa to visit the Southeast Asian country for tourism purposes.

Successful applicants are granted a multiple-entry visa for a stay of up to 30 days, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taipei said Thursday.

From July 1-14, about 800 Taiwanese passport holders applied for tourism visas to the Philippines via the new online system, MECO told CNA.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/17
By: S.P. Yeh and Lillian Lin

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairwoman and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen said Friday she will consider making the agreement on carbon emissions reduction to be adopted at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference a policy.

Together with Lee Yuan-tseh, the former president of Academia Sinica, Tsai held a dialogue with students at the Global Initiatives Symposium in Taiwan.

Lee raised the issue of climate change and the pledge of many countries to sign an agreement to reduce carbon emissions at the Paris summit scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 12.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-17
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Akira Higashiyama, a Taiwanese-born writer who now lives in Japan, has won the semi-annual

Naoki Prize, a Japanese literary award for popular literature. He was honored at the award presentation ceremony Thursday evening in Tokyo.

The 47-year-old author, who is known as Wang Chen-hsu in Chinese, in his award-winning novel depicted a family saga based on the tragic stories of his grandfather during the years of hostile confrontation between the Nationalist Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.

He said that he chose Higashiyama as his Japanese forename, because the Kanji of the name (東山) is the inverse of his ancestral hometown of Shandong (山東) on the Chinese mainland. He chose the surname Akira, as the first Kanji in the name (彰) is the same as the Taiwanese city of Changhua (彰化) where he lived during his early childhood.     [FULL  STORY]