Page Two

Low rating due to ‘unclear’ goals

PLANNING STAGE:The Presidential Office declined to confirm a report that former premier Lin Chuan would represent the nation at an APEC meeting in November

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 10, 2017
By: Su Fang-ho / Staff reporter

Unclear national goals and directions explain President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) poor

Former president Lee Teng-hui, center, attended a fundraising dinner for the Lee Teng-hui Foundation in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Taipei Times

approval rating, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said yesterday.

Lee made the remark in a speech at a fundraising dinner for the Lee Teng-hui Foundation in Taipei.

Taiwan marked its third transfer of power last year after the public voted out the China-leaning Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), he said, adding that it was significant that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won both the presidential and legislative elections last year, as it has an absolute majority in the executive and legislative branches for the first time.

“However, what are the governing team’s phase missions and national goals and directions? Those still remain unclear, factors that have contributed to Tsai’s poor approval rating,” Lee said. “What is more worrisome is whether a China-centric regime in 2020 will make a comeback in Taiwan like in 2008 — it is a serious issue one must ponder.”    [FULL  STORY]

Ministry too passive on UN participation: alliance

DEFEATISM:Taiwan UN Alliance secretary-general William Lo said assuming that there is no way the nation will win membership is playing into the hands of Beijing

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 09, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should more proactively pursue participation in the UN, including applying for full membership, Taiwan UN Alliance members said yesterday before setting off on an annual lobbying tour in the US.

More than 20 members of this year’s delegation gathered in prayer, led by alliance secretary-general William Lo (羅榮光), a former general secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan who founded the organization 14 years ago after the nation failed to receive timely support from the WHO during the SARS epidemic.

“What the government cannot do, we can do loudly, and we will resolutely push for Taiwan’s entry into the UN,” alliance president Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) said, criticizing what he called the ministry’s lack of proactive and “positive” action.

While some have called for President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to resurrect former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) annual push for UN membership, ministry officials last week said that they intend to pursue a “moderate” path toward greater participation in UN-related organizations, such as the World Health Assembly, instead of applying for formal membership.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan ranked fourth-best country for expats

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-09-08

Taiwan has been ranked the world’s fourth-best place for working expats. That is according to InterNations, which claims to be the world’s largest expat website.

InterNations placed Taiwan second for overall quality of life. The country placed first in the category of healthcare and sixth in infrastructure among 65 countries surveyed. But Taiwan’s ranking in the category of safety and security dropped to 15th due to perceived “political instability.”    [FULL  STORY]

Potato suppliers to be checked amid food concerns

Potatoes with green patches served in fast-food outlets raised concerns about food safety

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/08
By: Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s health authorities will conduct stringent checks of

(Photo: Pixabay)

potato suppliers after reports that French fries served at fast food restaurants were found with green patches.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智) said that potatoes can turn green due to exposure to enough light. However, consuming a large amount of green potato can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea as it often contains a toxic chemical called solanine. No regulations regarding the maximum level of solanine are imposed yet, Cheng added.

To ease public concerns about food safety, fast food restaurants in Taipei and Tainan were checked for their potato wedges and no safety concerns were found, Cheng said. Moreover, Cheng urged that green potatoes shall not be sold from the upstream suppliers.    [FULL  STORY]

Wife of detained activist to leave for China Sept. 10

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/08
By: Sophia Yeh, Miao Tzung-han and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Sept. 8 (CNA) The wife of Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李

Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜)/CNA file photo

明哲), who is being held in China on charges of subversion of state power, said Friday that she is prepared to depart Sept. 10 for China to attend Lee’s trial.

Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), however, said she is still on the waiting list because all the flights to Yueyang, Hunan province are fully booked, adding that she will seek the assistance of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) if necessary.

Lee also said that former Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Li-ping (王麗萍) will accompany her on the trip.

Lee Ming-che went missing after entering China via Macao on March 19 and was later confirmed to have been detained by the Chinese authorities.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT’s Wu calls on premier to adjust workweek policy

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 09, 2017
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday called on newly inaugurated Premier William Lai (賴清德) to make adjustments to controversial policies, in particular the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” workweek.

While not introduced with bad intentions, the policy shows that the government is naive enough to think that it could “make one shoe that fits all 23 million people,” Wu said at a social event in Taipei attended by former national policy advisers who served under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

The policy is unrealistic and has caused inconvenience for employers and employees, Wu said, citing as examples nurses and bus drivers, who are required to work long hours and cannot adhere to fixed shifts.

He said he hopes Lai will make good on a pledge to make necessary adjustments to the workweek policy, adding that he is eagerly anticipating Lai’s work to address the issue.    [FULL  STORY]

Construction on Taipei Dome to resume piecemeal

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 08, 2017
By: Wu Chen-feng, Hsu Yi-ping and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday partially overruled a Taipei City

The Taipei Dome construction site in Taipei’s Xinyi District is pictured yesterday. Photo: Chung Hung-liang, Taipei Times

Government order to suspend all construction on the Taipei Dome, allowing contractor Farglory Group, which filed for the appeal, to resume work on parts of the structure.

According to the verdict, Farglory is to shoulder 75 percent of legal fees spent on the case.

On May 20, 2015, the Taipei Department of Urban Development halted all construction on the Taipei Dome, after accusing Farglory of violating safety standards and making unauthorized changes.

The suspension of work was disproportionate and unnecessary, and the order to halt construction is to be lifted for 14 items in the contract, the presiding judge wrote in the verdict.    [FULL  STORY]

MAC hires lawyer for Lee Ching-yu

ANY ASSISTANCE:Lee was about to travel to China, after the Chinese government yesterday confirmed that the trial of her husband, Lee Ming-che, was to begin imminently

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 08, 2017
By: Lin Liang-sheng and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The government has hired a lawyer for Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), the wife of Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who is being held in China on charges of subversion, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday.

The council would try to obtain permission from the Chinese government for the MAC-hired lawyer, as well as Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) personnel and private individuals to accompany Lee Ching-yu, he said.

Lee Ching-yu on Wednesday said she would go to China to attend her husband’s trial, after his court-appointed Chinese lawyer, Zhang Zhongwei (張忠偉), called to inform her of the impending trial.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman An Fengshan (安峰山) last night confirmed that Lee Ming-che’s trial was about to begin at the Intermediate People’s Court in Yueyang, Hunan Province.

The MAC is using its communication channels to initiate dialogue and has called on the TAO to facilitate Lee Ching-yu’s travel in China, Chiu said.    [FULL STORY]

As KMT Digs Its Own Grave, DPP Plans Its Burial

Will the DPP try to take over, co-opt or replicate the KMT patronage networks?

The News Lens
Date: 2017/09/07
By: Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文)

The Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) is not only rotting from the inside,

Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像

dysfunctional and wedded to a deeply unpopular ideology — the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is working to both strangle the KMT at the top, and kneecap them at the local level.

While the recent selection of Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) — native born of local roots — as KMT chairman may slow their decay, the party’s institutional flaws and ideology remain firmly in place. After WWII, the Republic of China (ROC) took possession of the then Japanese colony of Taiwan on behalf of the allied powers, and after losing to Mao Zedong’s Communists in China in 1949, the KMT-ruled one-party state fled and created a Chinese government in exile on Taiwan. After a brutal 50 years of martial law and Chinese indoctrination, the KMT slowly loosened the reins and allowed for more democratic involvement by others. Their reputation for engineering Taiwan’s economic miracle in the 1970s and 1980s, some remaining institutional advantages, local patronage networks, massive wealth and a genuine appreciation by much of the population for voluntarily giving up the one party state meant the party continued to do well electorally in the 1990s and 2000s.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese groups set to perform at Singapore indie music festival

The event is one of a kind and largest in the region

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/07
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In order to boost Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy, the

Image Courtesy of BAMID

Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development (BAMID) under the Ministry of Culture has decided to send three Taiwan groups to perform at the Music Matters indie festival that is to be held in Singapore from September 9 to 13.

According to BAMID, the lineup for Taiwan’s performers at the music festival will first feature folk rock group Chang and Lee followed by rock band Elephant Gym and finally hip hop star PoeTeK. The event is one of a kind and the largest of its kind in the region.

The director of BAMID, Hsu Yi-chun, thinks it is a great opportunity for Taiwanese performers to shine and show their talent to the outside world. The organizers will hold a separate panel on September 12 called Gateway to Taiwan which will see an invitation to industry representatives to discuss current situation of the country’s music sector.    [FULL  STORY]