Page Two

DPP calls on KMT for bipartisanship

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 01, 2017
By: Tseng Wei-chen and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday called on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to display bipartisanship after they voted to authorize funding for the first phase of the Forward-Looking Infrastructure Development Program.

The deadlock over the infrastructure plan was the most prolonged and intense legislative confrontation in Taiwanese history, DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.

Passage of the budget required calling three special sessions over two-and-a-half months, Ker said, adding that he hoped the parties would reconsider how the legislature should operate and would work together in the nation’s interest.

Although the DPP tried to communicate with the KMT at every opportunity, it could not allow it to paralyze the legislature and had no option but to push the budget through by casting a historic 2,471 votes in one week, Ker said.    [FULL  STORY]

How to Resolve Taiwan’s Brain Drain

Reversing a long-running brain drain will be an important step on the path to economic revival.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/08/31
By: By Matthew Fulco

James Grigbsy has spent the majority of his professional career in Taiwan. He worked

Photo Credit: 蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen

as a consultant here for two decades, including 15 years as an executive with Getchee (originally known as Pacific GeoPro), a location intelligence firm that advises companies on where to open retail outlets. Even as China became Getchee’s biggest market, Grigsby remained based in Taipei with his wife and two children.

For more than five years, he commuted between Taipei and Shanghai, spending at least a quarter of his time every month in China. “Taiwan offers a nice quality of life, which even today is hard to match in China,” he says. “I wanted my kids to grow up in Taiwan.”

But finally, in July 2015, Grigsby relocated to Shanghai to take a position with Adidas as senior director of retail expansion strategy for Greater China. What prompted the change of heart? He felt the time was right to take his career in a new direction and his children are nearly grown up. His daughter will begin college in the United States this fall, while his wife and son (aged 13) will move to Shanghai to join him this summer.
[FULL  STORY]

Budget for infrastructure plan finally passes

Compromise results in NT$1.85 billion being cut from original budget of NT$108.90 billion

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/31
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After much debate which included brawls, hunger strikes, and

KMT legislators protest passing of infrastructure bill. (By Central News Agency)

napping, the budget for the the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program (前瞻基礎建設計畫) has finally passed as of 1:12 a.m. on Thursday morning.

The newly budget carves out NT$1.85 billion (US$61,357,000) from the NT$108.90 billion originally allocated for the first phase of the infrastructure plan which runs from September 2017 to December 2018.

In addition to the, violent disruptions, the process of negotiating the budget went at a snail’s pace because Kuomintang (KMT) legislators proposed over 10,000 different items to be cut or frozen in the budget. With each proposed cut or freeze requiring a vote, re-vote and reconsideration, the result was that each proposal required eight rounds of voting before moving on to the next.    [FULL  STORY]

UNIVERSIADE: Foreign athletes praise Taipei’s efforts as host city

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/30
By Christie Chen, CNA staff reporter

Foreign athletes who participated in the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade, which concludes Wednesday evening, have given mostly positive reviews to the Taiwanese organizers of the games and have complimented the hospitality of the local staff and volunteers.

American Olympic swimmer Ryan Held, who won three gold medals at this year’s Universiade, was impressed by the enthusiasm of the staff and volunteers at the games.

“They’re incredibly enthusiastic. The very first morning, we went into the dining hall, everyone greeted us with a ‘Hello. Good morning. How are you doing?’ And that was just very different from Rio (the 2016 Olympics) because everyone was just kind of more quiet and wasn’t as vocal to the athletes,” he told CNA in an interview.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Universiade: Taiwan independence advocates challenge Games ban

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 31, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff Reporter

Dozens of Taiwan independence advocates yesterday successfully challenged a ban

Taiwan Nation Alliance founder Peter Wang takes off his shirt yesterday to display an alliance flag painted on his chest at the Taipei Summer Universiade closing ceremony at the Taipei Municipal Stadium. Photo: CNA

against symbolic independence flags at the Taipei Summer Universiade closing ceremony, while pension reform opponents dropped their protest plans after a public outcry.

Shouting “One China, One Taiwan” and “Taiwan is not Chinese Taipei,” members of the Taiwan Radical Wings Party, Free Taiwan Party and other groups held up their closing ceremony tickets as they worked their way slowly through a long corridor of police officers while waving green independence flags.

They were repeatedly stopped, but were eventually allowed through the security checkpoint outside the Taipei Municipal Stadium on the condition that each person carry only one flag.    [FULL  STORY]

‘Heroes parade’ to be held for Chinese Taipei athletes on Thursday

The China Post
Date; August 29, 2017
By: Special to The China Post

To celebrate Chinese Taipei’s best Universiade performance ever, a “Taiwan Heroes

(Photo supplied)

Parade” will be held on Thursday. Home team athletes including gold medal-winning weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun and gymnast Lee Chih-kai will be on the floats and will no doubt receive a rousing reception from the public all along the route.

The 2017Taipei Universiade is the largest and most elite-level sports event ever held in Taiwan. It has set off a sports craze in the country, with ticket sales exceeding 80 percent and host team athletes claiming far more than the 11 gold medals predicted. The Ministry of Education and the Taipei City Government said they were jointly organizing the parade — which will include world record-breaking and gold medal-winning athletes — in order to express gratitude to the athletes for the fighting spirit they had displayed and the moving moments they had created during the games.

Before the parade, the athletes will have an audience with President Tsai Ing-wen. They will then board a tour bus and head to the parade’s starting point. The floats will set off at 4 p.m. from Ketagalan Boulevard along an approximately 9-km-long route, which passes along Guanqian Road, Zhongxiao East Road, Songren Road and the Taipei 101 building, ending at Taipei City Hall Plaza at around 5:30 p.m.
[FULL  STORY]

DPP silent on possible conditions to alliance with Ko

DIFFERENT GAME:Most Taipei districts can elect more than one city councilor in municipal elections, and the DPP signaled it might not cooperate with the NPP next year

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 28, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday neither confirmed nor denied that a possible coalition with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in next year’s municipal and mayoral elections would require the independent mayor to refrain from supporting city councilor candidates of other parties.

According to media reports, the DPP, despite attempts to field its own candidate in the Taipei mayoral election next year, is considering renewing its alliance with Ko on condition that Ko, an independent, should withdraw his support for candidates from other parties, notably the New Power Party (NPP).

Such a condition would prevent the NPP, which is on the same side of the political spectrum as the DPP, from courting potential DPP voters, the reports said.
[FULL  STORY]

Heavy rain warning issued in Taipei, 12 other cities and counties

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-27

The Central Weather Bureau has issued a heavy rain advisory for Sunday afternoon covering 13 counties and cities throughout Taiwan.

Downpours can be expected in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung cities, Chiayi county and city, as well as Miaoli, Yunlin, Hsinchu, Nantou and Pingtung counties.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan lawmakers, experts blast Ma Ying-jeou not-guilty ruling

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/27
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Fury over a not-guilty ruling for former Taiwan president Ma

The image shows former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) (By Central News Agency)

Ying-jeou (馬英九) is spiraling through the country as the law cited by a young judge is said to be erroneously interpreted.

The China-friendly former president Ma was found not guilty of leaking classified information about a probe into top opposition lawmaker Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) dated back to 2013 which revealed the then-Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a senior member of Ma’s own political party, had spoken with judicial officials to allegedly persuade them not to file an appeal against a not-guilty verdict for Ker.

Prosecutors had charged Ma in March after a six-month probe with violating laws for divulging secrets and instigating others to engage in leaking secrets. The charge carries a maximum sentence of three years.    [FULL  STORY]

Defense minister’s overseas mission not a farewell trip: ministry

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/27
By: Liu Li-jung and Ko Lin

Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense released a statement Sunday

CNA file photo

saying that the defense minister’s trip overseas is purely diplomatic in nature and not, as dubbed by a local media outlet, a “farewell trip.”

Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) set off Wednesday on a 17-day tour of Central America and the Caribbean to strengthen ties with Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the region.

However, a report by Apple Daily called the overseas mission Feng’s “farewell trip” because in the past Taiwan’s defense ministers had only undertaken such foreign visits shortly before retiring.

The statement said such speculation was totally unfounded and noted Feng had received invitations from the commanding general of the Nicaraguan Army, Julio Cesar Aviles Castillo and Guatemalan Defense Minister Williams Mansilla Fernandez.
[FULL  STORY]