Taipei Times
Date: Nov 04, 2017
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) yesterday urged

the Cabinet to send an amendment to the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) proposed by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to the legislature for review soon.

Even though the EPA’s amendment is not listed as one of the 72 priority bills for this legislative session, it should be reviewed as soon as possible, Liu said during a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan, which was also attended by DPP legislators Chung Kung-chao (鍾孔炤), Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) and Hung Tsung-yi (洪宗熠).

The proposal was sent to the Executive Yuan at the end of last month, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs expressed his disagreement with some points, EPA Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Tsai Hung-teh (蔡鴻德) said.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 3, 20172
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

TAIPEI (CNA) – Two earthquakes occurred in Taitung County in southeastern Taiwan

within a minute of each other Friday morning, measuring 4.3 and 4.9 on the Richter scale, respectively, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The first quake struck at 10:48 a.m. and the second one at 10:49 a.m. and were felt across parts of Taitung, Pingtung, Chiayi, Yunlin, Tainan and Kaohsiung.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The epicenter of the first earthquake was about 36.8 kilometers north of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 5 km, according to the CWB’s Seismology Center.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-11-02

Vice President Chen Chien-jen says Taiwan is an indispensable partner when it comes

to regional peace and stability. Chen was speaking Thursday at the International Symposium on Regional Security and Transnational Crime in Taipei. The event was attended by experts and scholars from the US, Japan, India and Southeast Asian nations.

Chen said Taiwan is making every effort to enhance cross-strait security and peace. Chen said the government’s goodwill toward China has not diminished and promises have been kept for Taiwan’s part. He said Taiwan will not use confrontation nor give in to pressure. Chen said he hopes both sides of the Taiwan Strait can understand that no one side can decide the future of ties.

Chen said, “And we await some sign of goodwill from our neighbor and willingness to communicate to find a new model for cross-strait interaction.”    [FULL  STORY]

German Chancellor Merkel and British PM May are only politicians ahead of Tsai

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/02
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is the 15th most powerful

woman in the world on a list presented by Forbes Magazine which has German Chancellor Angela Merkel at No.1 and British Prime Minister Theresa May at No.2.

The two European women are the only politicians ahead of Tsai on the list, which features numerous business leaders.

Tsai comes just ahead of Chili’s President Michelle Bachelet, with Ivanka Trump, the daughter of United States President Donald Trump, at No.19. Merkel and May are joined in the top-three by Melinda Gates, the wife of MicroSoft founder Bill Gates.

Forbes writes that the most powerful women of 2017 are “a new generation of icons, game-changers and gate crashers who are boldly scaling new heights and transforming the world.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/02
By William Yen

Taipei, Nov. 2 (CNA) An annual service to remember the suffering of over 4,350 Allied

prisoners who were imprisoned in Taiwan by the Japanese government during World War II will be held at Jinguashi in New Taipei City on Nov. 12, according to the event’s organizers.

The event, which will be held at the site of the former Kinkaseki prisoner of war camp, is co-hosted by the Australian Office in Taipei with the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society.

According to the memorial society’s website, more than 1,100 British Commonwealth and Allied prisoners of war were kept captive at Kinkaseki camp between December 1942 and March 1945.

In total, Taiwan had 14 prisoner of war camps similar to Kinkaseki during the war. Conditions were inhumane, according to evidence gathered by the Society. More than 10 percent of the POWs died due mostly to disease, starvation and beatings, its website pointed out.    [FULL  STORY]

2015 DOCUMENTS:Huang Kuo-chang quizzed the heads of the Financial Supervisory Commission and Ministry of Finance about papers related to bank loans for the firm

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 03, 2017
By: Wu Chia-jung, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

The government must publish documents then-president Ma Ying-Jeou (馬英九) filed in

2015 in connection to the Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co’s loans, New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday morning.

The company, which won a contract to build minesweepers for the navy, is being investigated by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office amid allegations of fraudulent borrowing.

An investigation report issued yesterday by the Executive Yuan said that the Ministry of National Defense and state-run First Commercial Bank were negligent in rewarding the NT$35.8 billion (US$1.19 billion) contract and granting a NT$20.5 billion syndicated loan to financially unstable Ching Fu.

Huang made the request to Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and Minister of Finance Sheu Yu-jer (許虞哲) during the question-and-answer section of a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee, asking the government to respond by the end of yesterday.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 2, 2017
By Joseph Yeh

TAIPEI (CNA) – It will be difficult for Taiwan to persuade the Japanese Diet to adopt a

Japanese version of the U.S. Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), the nation’s top envoy to Japan said on Thursday in Taipei.

Fielding questions at a Legislative hearing during which he briefed lawmakers on Taiwan-Japan relations, Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) noted that the two countries are close partners on various fronts including regional security.

However, a major obstacle to achieving even closer ties, Hsieh added, is the lack of official diplomatic relations.

Hsieh said that because Japan severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan abruptly in 1972, Tokyo does not have a law like the TRA. As a result, Taipei can only operate in an unofficial capacity in Japan, which “makes things very hard for Taiwan,” he added.   [FULL  STORY]

The latest iPhone gets rave reviews

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/01
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Tourism Bureau will hand out iPhone X handsets in its

latest hot springs action after the new phone won rave reviews, reports said Wednesday.

The new and expensive phone has been described as “the best iPhone ever,” even though some reviewers point out the risk of its facial recognition system going wrong, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.

On Tuesday, Apple Inc. shares on the Dow Jones rose by 1.4 percent to an all-time record high of US$169.09 (NT$5,101), partly thanks to the success of the new iPhone model.

The FaceID facial recognition system works even when the subject is wearing sunglasses, but not when some of his facial features are vague or obscured, reports said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date 2017/11/01
By: Elaine Hou, Chen Wei-ting and Isabel Wang

Taipei, Nov. 1 (CNA) The expansion of trusted traveler programs between Taiwan and

the United States– the U.S. Global Entry program and the Taiwan e-Gate program– went into effect Wednesday.

The U.S. Global Entry allows Taiwanese passport holders to expedite their entry into the States, while travelers from the U.S. are able to use e-Gates at airports in Taiwan for faster immigration clearance.

The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) posted a video on its Facebook page Wednesday in celebration of the milestone in bilateral relations.

In the video, AIT Director Kin W. Moy and Taiwan’s Interior Minister Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) both expressed excitement over the launch of the traveler programs that will benefit not only frequent travelers to the States, but also eligible Taiwan passport holders visiting U.S.    [FULL  STORY]