Page Two

Chinese actress Gong Li to chair jury at 55th Golden Horse Awards

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/17
By: Chiang Pei-ling and William Yen

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) Renowned Chinese film actress Gong Li (鞏俐) is to chair

Gong Li (鞏俐) / photo courtesy of Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee

the jury at the 55th Golden Horse Awards following an invitation from Ang Lee (李安), executive committee chairman of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, according to a press release issued by the committee Tuesday.

Lee, two-time Oscar-winning director and chair of the jury for the 2013 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, believes Gong is the right person as she is an important figure in the Chinese-language film industry and has considerable international experience, the statement said.

Gong expressed her gratitude at the invitation, willingness to accept the challenge and unreserved dedication to the cinematic arts, the press release pointed out.

The actress shot to stardom in 1988 following the release of Red Sorghum, which received the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), the press release said.    [FULL  STORY]

Ma invite not endorsement: KMT

MACHINATIONS: The DPP government has been trying to convict former president Ma Ying-jeou and his indictment is a political move, KMT Legislator Sufin Siluko said

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 18, 2018
By: Lin Liang-sheng and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) invitation to former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to talk about his indictment at the party’s Central Standing Committee today is not political endorsement, but a move to clarify the issue for KMT members, committee members said yesterday.

The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday last week charged Ma with breach of trust and contraventions of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) for his role in the KMT’s disposal of several party assets in 2005 and 2006, including Central Motion Picture Corp (中影), China Television Co (中視), Broadcasting Corp of China (中廣) and the old KMT headquarters building, during his time as party chairman

KMT Legislator and committee member Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) said that many KMT members knew that the party was at the time under pressure from the amended Broadcasting and Television Act (廣播電視法) to sell the media companies.

While party members recognize the validity of Ma’s handling of the issue, it would be good for Ma to clarify the matter, Hsu said.    [FULL  STORY]

Premier: Taiwan wants to join CPTPP

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-07-16

Premier William Lai says he hopes Taiwan can join the second round of

Premier Lai in his TV interview on the program Numbers Taiwan (CNA photo)

talks for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), also known as TPP11.

After the US pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Japan led the remaining 11 members in negotiations for the CPTPP in March. The other countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

During a TV interview on Sunday, Premier Lai said he hopes Taiwan’s domestic market can be the foundation of the nation’s economic development. He also said that the CPTPP is very important for Taiwan’s economic ties to the global economy. He said the government is preparing to participate and hopes that Taiwan can be a part of the second round of negotiations.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News: Tsai’s DPP Rejects Charter Change Proposal

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/07/16

A proposal to replace the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s pro-Taiwan independence resolutions with a provision stressing the maintenance of cross-Strait status quo has been vetoed.

Several DPP lawmakers have been pushing for a new resolution based on President’s Tsai Ing-wen(蔡英文)’s emphasis on the need to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, a position she has maintained since coming to power in 2016 while declining to accept the so-called 1992 Consensus, which China’s government insists is the cornerstone of cross-Strait relations.

The DPP legislators argue that such a resolution is needed in order to update the party’s stance on the issue ahead of November’s local elections.

The cross-Strait clause would replace the DPP’s 1991 resolution calling for the party to push for “an autonomous Republic of Taiwan” independent of China and the 1999 Resolution on Taiwan’s Futurewhich states that Taiwan is already a “sovereign and independent country ” while calling for Taiwanese to determine the political future of the island via a plebiscite.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Kinmen to host International Music Festival in late July

The 2018 Quemoy International Music Festival featuring national and international pop stars will last four days, starting July 25 

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/07/16 
By: Scott Morgan, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Houhu Seashore Park. (Image courtesy of Kinmen County government)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The 2018 Quemoy International Music Festival, featuring popular and up-and-coming artists spanning four concerts will take place in Jinning Township, Kinmen County from July 25 to August 4, reported CNA.

The second iteration of the annual music festival will kick off at 7.00 p.m. at the Houhu Seashore Park (后湖海濱公園) in Jinning Township(金寧鄉).

The festival was named “Quemoy” after the Portuguese name for the island rather than the official name of Kinmen, as a means to attract the youth, according to the Kinmen County government

Concerts will be held on July 25, July 28, August 1 and August 4.
[FULL  STORY]

Mainland Affairs Council minister heads to U.S.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/16
By: Chai Sze-chia and Flor Wang 

Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chen Min-tong (陳明通) left on a nine-day visit to the United States Monday to boost policy communication between the two countries and garner greater U.S. support for Taiwan’s cross-strait policy.

While there from July 16-23, Chen will give a keynote speech on cross-strait ties at a seminar co-sponsored by the MAC and the Heritage Foundation and will also meet U.S. officials and think tank members.

It will be the ninth seminar jointly held by the MAC and the Washington-based think tank and will come at a time when tensions between the U.S. and China are escalating and Beijing is increasingly flexing its muscles on Taiwan.

Against such a background, the U.S. needs a better understanding of Taiwan’s policy direction, and Chen’s visit is intended to improve communication between the two sides, while gaining U.S support for Taiwan’s cross-strait policy, MAC officials said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei fighting for women’s rights: VP

COMMITTED: Taiwan has improved conditions for women returning to the workforce and victims of domestic violence, the vice president told UN experts on the CEDAW

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 17, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan is committed to protecting human rights and incorporating the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) into domestic laws, even though the nation cannot attend official UN meetings, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.

Chen made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a five-day conference in Taipei, at which five international experts are meeting with representatives from both inside and outside the government to review a third report on Taiwan’s compliance with the CEDAW.

South Korean academic Heisoo Shin is chairperson of the committee that also comprises four other experts who used to be members of the UN CEDAW committee.

In 2007, Taiwan signed the convention voluntarily, and the Legislative Yuan in 2011 enacted the convention, which came into force in 2012.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s BLF mulls emerging-market enhanced active mandate

Asia Asset Management
Date: 16 July 2018
By: Hui Ching-hoo

Taiwan’s Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF) is looking to shift its asset allocation focus to emerging-market enhanced active strategies, and also raise exposure to environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, according to two top BLF officials.

BLF Director General Feng-Ching Tsay and Deputy Director General Liu Li-Ju discussed the moves in a recent interview with Asia Asset Management, where they provided an overview of plans to rebalance the portfolio of BLF’s funds and further diversify its ESG approach.

BLF, which supervises Taiwan’s labour pension funds, has focused mainly on developing absolute return strategies over the last three years.

According to Ms. Liu, these strategies are playing an increasingly important role in the current volatile market environment as they can provide more stable long-term returns.    [FULL  STORY]

Tsai rallies the DPP at national party congress, criticizes KMT for embracing the Chinese market

Formosa News
Date: 2018/07/15

Four months ahead of the year-end municipal elections, the DPP’s national party congress was brimming with campaign fever as President Tsai Ing-wen opened fire on the opposition today. She accused the KMT of seven major offenses, including embracing nuclear power and making Taiwan over-reliant on the Chinese market. She also justified her reform efforts, saying the current hardship the society is experiencing is the cross it has to bear for the benefit of the nation’s future.

When 20 DPP candidates running in the year-end town and county elections entered the auditorium, all the seated party delegates cheered.

This year, the DPP’s national party congress had a theme of “reform and promotion of the next generation.” President Tsai Ing-wen stressed her reforms over the past more than two years had been painful and criticisms of them were inevitable.     [FULL  STORY]

The unparalleled experience of my visit to Dongao in NE Taiwan

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/07/15
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Last weekend I visited a couple of charming places in Nanao Township in Taiwan’s northeastern county of Yilan, but left out Dongao (東澳), which is a part of Nanao, because of time constraint. But I have been attracted to Dongao by something unexplainable since I made a short stopover there a couple of years ago. So I went there on Saturday (July 14) on a separate trip, and the visit convinced me that the half-day I spent there was way too short.

I started driving on the National Highway No. 5 from Taipei around noon. Normally it takes only about one and a half hours to get to Dongao from Taipei by taking the first completed section of the Suhua Highway Mountain Section Improvement Project at the end of the only national highway in eastern Taiwan. But because of traffic congestion before and inside the Hsuehshan Tunnel, it took me about two hours to get there.

I turned left at the end of the first completed section of the Suhua Highway Mountain Section Improvement Project and drove another 500 meters or so to get to Dongao, which is also accessible by train. Dongao is geologically similar to but smaller than downtown Nanao lying to its south, with mountains separating the two places. Like downtown Nanao, Dongao is surrounded by mountains on the east, west and south sides, with the east side bordering the Pacific Ocean with a long charming mixed sand-pebble beach (the Dongao Bay).    [FULL  STORY]