Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/07
By: Claudia Liu and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, June 7 (CNA) Kuomintang Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said Sunday the ruling

party has one presidential hopeful who has qualified for the primary, which will be held in accordance with the KMT’s rules, despite an indication by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng that he would be willing to compete if drafted.

“Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) is now the only contender,” Chu told the press, when asked to comment on a statement by Wang earlier in the day that triggered speculations about a possible draft by the KMT.

Chu said he was pleased and grateful to hear Wang express his willingness to run if he is drafted by the KMT as a contender, but the party’s procedures must be followed.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus News
Date: June 6, 2015
By: Abhishek Chaudhary

This footage was shot in Taiwan recently, by Wei Cheng Jian.

He encountered this strange creature while fishing in a port in Penghu, and shared the clip to his Facebook page soon afterwards.

The strange creature could be a Ribbon worm.

The green creature could be a ribbon worm, which are mostly found burrowed in the sea.

Ribbon worms usually live in tropical and sub-tropical regions, and some venture onto land, to live in colder places.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-06
By: Staff Reporter

WikiLeaks recently released 17 secret documents which indicated that the BRICS

countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are being excluded from the negotiations for the global Trade in Services Agreement where currently 24 patries including the US, EU, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Taiwan and Israel are involved in, reports Duowei News, a media outlet operated by overseas Chinese.

The Trade in Services Agreement aims to remove “barriers” to trade in services. It looks to ensure that services such as banking, health care and transport are deregulated and opened up to private companies. Once privatised, they would not be allowed to be nationalised again. BRICS countries, however, were not invited to participate in those negotiations, Duowei News said in the report.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/06
By Elaine Hou

Taipei, June 6 (CNA) Taiwan’s Army will send a mechanized infantry platoon to Hawaii later this year to observe a U.S. military training session that will feature eight-wheeled armored combat vehicles, a local newspaper reported Saturday.

The platoon will also pay attention to the strategic deployment of such vehicles, the Chinese-language United Evening News reported.

Ministry of National Defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Luo Shou-he (羅紹和), however, declined to confirm the newspaper report.

According to the report, the Army’s mechanized infantry brigades are in the process of replacing their aging armored vehicles with the locally developed eight-wheeled CM-32 “Clouded Leopard.”     [FULL  STORY]

OUTREACH:Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen urged Taiwanese in the US to have confidence in Taiwan, adding that only the DPP could unite the nation

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 07, 2015
By: Chris Fuchs  /  Contributing reporter

As part of a 12-day tour with visits to six US cities, Democratic Progressive Party

(DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) addressed nearly 1,000 Taiwanese-Americans and others in New York City on Friday night, who came out to show their support for her and her campaign for next year’s presidential election.

“This is a city filled with hope,” Tsai told the mostly Taiwanese crowd, with people having traveled from Boston, Philadelphia, Rhode Island and elsewhere to listen to her address.

Tsai’s stop in Brooklyn, at the Marriott Hotel near the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, came after a series of closed-door meetings over the past week with Washington officials and politicians.

US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain and Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat who is a ranking member of that committee, were among the participants in the talks, sources said.     [FULL  STORY]

‘CHINA-CENTRIC’:The groups said they would provide students protesting curriculum adjustments to mobilize their peers in staging a nationwide rally

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 06, 2015
By: Lee Shin-fang and Rachel Lin  /  Staff reporters

Pro-localization groups yesterday rallied to support a growing movement involving

students from more than 200 high schools nationwide against the implementation of “China-centric” curriculum guidelines.

Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice convener Lin Yu-lun (林于倫) said that should Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) insist that the guidelines be adopted for senior-high school textbooks on the Chinese language and social sciences in August, “we will [take the fight] to the street in July.”

“Wu Se-haw, get ready to step down,” Lin said at a news conference.

Senior and vocational high school students are planning to hold a rally in Taipei next month against the policy, Action Coalition of Civics Teacher spokesperson Huang Yi-chung (黃益中) said.

The groups said that they would provide the students with the resources to arouse and mobilize their peers nationwide in the build-up to the rally, including legal assistance should the young people face prosecution over their actions.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-05
Editorial

China and South Korea officially signed a free trade agreement June 1, leading to calls for Taiwan’s government to push through stalled cross-Taiwan Strait trade talks.

Taiwanese panel maker Innolux said Taiwan needs to speed up negotiations with China over a trade-in-goods pact to further boost the competitiveness of the local flat-panel sector, while former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Hong Chi-chang urged his party, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, to stop blocking the legislative review of cross-strait agreements.

Although DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, who will represent the party in the 2016 presidential elections, instructed members of her party to push through a draft act governing cross-strait agreements April 20, efforts have been stalled, allegedly because of criticism from pro-independence media outlets.

As a result, some people have compared Tsai to current president Ma Ying-jeou, since both political leaders have failed to push forward the legislation that has been on the legislative agenda for over a year.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/05
By: Emerson Lim and Lilian Wu

Manila, June 5 (CNA) A fire broke out at a Taiwan-invested plant in Batangas province in the Philippines on Friday, resulting in losses of about 200 million pesos (US$4.42 million), according to an initial estimate.

Firefighters said the fire broke out at the plant about 6 p.m. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

The plant, located at First Philippine Industrial Park, produces plastic injection molds.

It has operated in the Philippine for many years.

There was no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.