Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/02
By: Yang Sz-ruei and Ko Lin

Taipei, March 2 (CNA) Phalaenopsis orchids from a Taiwanese-run orchid breeder in

southern Taiwan have been awarded top honors at this year’s international orchid show, which opened in Tainan on Friday.

Also known as moth orchids, the Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids.

Char Ming Agriculture Co.’s white moth orchid hybrid, dubbed “Lee1287,” managed to beat out nearly 1,400 entrants at this year’s competition.

The entries were grouped into six different groups based on orchid species — Cattleya, Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis, Vanda, Dendrobium, and Oncidium.    [FULL  STORY]

BALANCE: The premier said that the system for retired personnel would be adjusted to provide them a reasonable quality of life without overloading the nation’s finances

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 03, 2018
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

There have been no changes to the Executive Yuan’s plan to implement military pension

reform alongside cuts for civil servants and public-school teachers that were approved by the Legislative Yuan on July 1 last year, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.

Lai made the remark at a legislative question-and-answer session after New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) asked him whether a delay in finalizing the Cabinet’s proposal on military pension cuts, originally due on Thursday, meant that the scheduled July 1 implementation would also be postponed.

Lai on Tuesday said that the Cabinet, following discussions with the Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus on Monday, decided to postpone its processing of a military pension reform bill, as there were still issues to be resolved.    [FULL  STORY]

Legislation aimed at forging closer ties between the US and Taiwan, which China highly condemns

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/01
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China expressed anger and dissatisfaction on Thursday after the

United States Senate passed the Taiwan Travel Act and said some of the clauses violated the “One-China” principle, which they claim is the foundation of China-US relations.

The US Senate passed the Taiwan Travel Act by unanimous consent, as it had also passed the House of Representatives in January without any opposition.

The act states that the US should allow its officials at all levels to travel to Taiwan to meet with their Taiwanese counterparts as well as permit high-level Taiwanese officials to enter the United States “under respectful conditions” to meet their American counterparts. The bill also strongly encourages stronger economic and cultural ties and urges Taiwanese representatives to conduct business in the United States, as reported by Reuters.     [FULL STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/01
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, March 1 (CNA) Taichung City has been chosen to host the 2019 Global Forum on

Modern Direct Democracy, an annual forum that brings together international experts, activists and government officials to discuss participatory democracy, human rights and other issues.

Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bruno Kaufmann and Joe Mathews, co-presidents of the forum, in the city on Thursday to announce the decision.

Lin stressed the efforts that Taichung has made to promote direct democracy, saying the city has promoted participatory budgeting since 2015, allowing citizens to discuss and propose projects deserving of public funding.

Taichung has also established the country’s first Youth Affairs Committee to involve young people in policy making and set up an international NGO center in Wufeng District to keep in touch with global NGO networks, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

TOILET PAPER: As international pulp prices have been slowly falling, government officials pointed to fierce competition in the marketplace and the possibility of price collusion

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 02, 2018
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

Reports of a potential sharp rise in the price of toilet paper might have been the result of

deliberate price manipulation, the Cabinet said yesterday as it vowed to prevent price collusion and reassured the public that there is a sufficient supply of toilet paper at reasonable prices.

Media reports of a price hike and panic buying by the public might have been the consequence of a deliberate attempt to drive up prices, and is being investigated by the Fair Trade Commission and the Consumer Protection Committee, Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) said at a Cabinet news conference attended by top finance officials.

Price competition between the nation’s three toilet paper manufacturers is fierce, Shih said, adding that the market presents strong motivation for price collusion because if only one manufacturer announced a price hike, it would likely lose out on sales.

It is likely that the companies deliberately fanned the fears of consumers by spreading reports of a price hike, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-02-28

More than half of Taipei residents are satisfied with the performance of their mayor, Ko

Wen-je. That is according to a new survey released by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation on Wednesday.

Foundation chairman You Ying-lung says that 55% of respondents expressed satisfaction with Ko’s performance over the last three years. Close to 40% say they are dissatisfied. He also said that Ko, an independent, currently has more support than candidates from both major parties in Taipei’s upcoming mayoral election.
[FULL  STORY]

China’s military and its aviation companies are the obvious winners in the conflict, which played well to domestic audiences on both sides of the Strait.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/02/28
By: Mark Wenyi Lai

Early morning on Jan. 4, China announced that it would begin using the new aviation

route M503, connecting its most important economic hubs of Shanghai and Guangdong.

Later that day, the Taiwan government, citing national security, demanded China scrap the route, which it said was too close to the middle line of the Taiwan Strait. China refused to do so and Taiwan, in return, rejected more than 176 flight applications from Chinese airlines scheduled to bring Taiwanese back home during the Chinese New Year holiday. Various analyses from academics, news outlets and observers have offered explanations from political, security and international relations perspectives. This article however will look at the M503 aviation route incident from a structural point of view and offers an alternative way of understanding contemporary cross-Strait relations.

Cross-Strait relations hit a deadlock, as both sides wanted respect but weren’t willing to give it.    [FULL STORY]

Target believed to be Fubon Group construction firm

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Police were questioning a suspect Wednesday to search for a

link between three similar shooting incidents near the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei City.

Nobody was injured in any of the shootings, which occurred near a complex housing an Eslite bookstore, the Taipei New Horizon shopping mall, a hotel and the offices of a construction company linked to the Fubon Group. Previous theories have suggested that the shootings were connected to a dispute with the company.

Around 3 p.m. Tuesday, a man in a black suit fired three shots outside the complex and then left the scene in a taxi, reports said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/28
By: Chiu Kuo-chiang and Flor Wang

Taipei, Feb. 28 (CNA) Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Wednesday that a set

of measures put forth by China to court Taiwan’s people is just a renewed effort to offer benefits in exchange for political loyalty toward Beijing.

“We are aware that the other side of the Taiwan Strait has again unilaterally announced measures regarding the rights of Taiwanese people to study and work there,” the MAC said, adding that it will keep close tabs on follow-up developments and their possible implications for related sectors in Taiwan.

According to the MAC, mainland China has not changed its stance toward Taiwan and has been applying greater pressure on the country. The so-called “Taiwan-friendly” measures repeatedly put forth by Beijing are aimed at upgrading its own economic development by absorbing Taiwan’s resources and obtaining political loyalty from Taiwan’s people, the MAC said.    [FULL  STORY]

JUST A NUMBER: With the passage of time people are able to assess right from wrong, Ma Ying-jeou said, acknowledging that the massacre was traumatizing for Taiwanese

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 01, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he hopes that continued efforts

would be made to uncover the truth behind the 228 Massacre, as there is insufficient evidence that former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was the mastermind.

Ma made the remarks during a visit to a temple near the 228 Peace Memorial Park in Taipei with Hsu Kuang (徐光), the daughter of 228 victim Hsu Cheng (徐征), a teacher of Mandarin who was taken from his home in March 1947 and never heard from again.

Although official records put the number of deaths and missing persons from the time of the massacre at only 865 — a far cry from the tens of thousands of victims estimated by some historians — what matters is not the number, but rather that the Incident caused Taiwanese tremendous trauma, Ma said.

The government has paid nearly NT$7.2 billion (US$246 million at the current exchange rate) in compensation to the families of 228 victims, which is a worthwhile expenditure, he said.    [FULL  STORY]