Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/28
By: Sophia Yeh and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Dec. 28 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Wednesday that state-run companies should

play a greater role in promoting the government’s New Southbound Policy and she also urged local governments to join the central government’s efforts in that regard.

Although the policy is mainly for private companies, “we perhaps can also expect state-run companies to play a bellwether role in its promotion,” said Tsai, who is also chairwoman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), during a DPP Central Executive Committee meeting.

Tsai said she hoped that state-run companies would play a more active role in this regard and lead private firms to expand their presence in countries targeted in the New Southbound Policy, according to DPP spokesman Wang Min-sheng (王閔生).

Tsai also called on the Cabinet to assess and use its resources to help implement the New Southbound Policy, which is aimed at advancing ties with countries in Southeast and South Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Daste: Dec 29, 2016
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday hit back at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)

over its recent attacks on a wide range of issues, including the government’s decisionmaking process, Japanese food imports, foreign relations and the handling of the KMT’s ill-gotten assets.

In a rare gesture, all five DPP spokespeople and a DPP lawyer called a news conference yesterday morning to rebut allegations made by the KMT.

Regarding a plan to lift the ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures, DPP spokesman Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) said that the KMT has spread false information and disrupted public hearings on the proposed lifting.

“KMT [officials] have used the hearings as a stage to campaign for their potential entrances to next year’s party chair election, and the party has deliberately fabricated rumors to slander the government,” Juan said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 29, 2016
By: Tammy Liu

The China Post and CNA — Badouzi Station (八斗子車站), located on the border of New Taipei and

Keelung, resumed services on Wednesday.

Dubbed the train station with the most beautiful scenery in Northern Taiwan, the station, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, is an extension of the Haikeguan Station on the 4.7-kilometer Shen’ao Line linking Ruifang (瑞芳), the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology (海科館) and Badouzi.

The first train at the Badouzi station got there at 10:25 a.m. on Saturday, after departing from Ruifang at 10:12 a.m., according to the TRA.

During his tenure as legislator, The China Post Chairman and Publisher George Hsieh (謝國樑) worked to promote Taiwan Railways Administration (台鐵) and to reopen the Badouzi Station in order to stimulate tourism growth in the northeast.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/12/27

As temperatures decline around the country today, the cold air mass has also carried additional air pollutants to central and southern Taiwan. The Environmental Protection Administration has warned people, especially those with allergies, in these areas to reduce the amount of time spent outdoors and encourages them to wear masks.    [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/27
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Yunlin (Taiwan News)–Yunlin County Police Bureau said Tuesday that local police began to adopt new

pop up tents to cover bodies of the deceased at crime or accident scenes in December to preserve their dignity.

The bureau held a training session to teach local police officers how to quickly and properly set up the tents on the scene.

In the past, police used pieces of white cloth to cover the bodies of victims who died at crime or accident scenes, but natural elements such as sunlight and rain could inflict secondary damage on the bodies, the bureau said.

The county police bureau purchased similar tents for the same purpose in 2013, and the tents were distributed to all the investigation teams in the county’s precincts, the bureau said. But the previous version was heavier and needs two to three people to spend 10 to 15 minutes to set up, the bureau said, adding that such tents are more suitable for body examination on the scene.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/27
By: Yang Shu-min and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Dec. 27 (CNA) Foreign fishermen hired to work on Taiwan’s deep-sea fishing ships, supported by representatives of a civic group, staged a protest outside the Council of Agriculture (COA) on Tuesday to demand that the Labor Standards Act apply to them.

The Taiwan International Workers’ Association and these foreign fishermen called a news conference outside the COA to draw attention to the lack of human rights afforded foreign fishermen working on deep-sea fishing ships and their desire to be covered by the Labor Standards Act to protect their working rights.

Two fishermen prepared a “sweatshop” seafood soup and presented a petition to drive their point home.

A fisheries official responded, however, that getting these workers included under the labor law would be difficult.    [FULL  STORY]

‘STRONGER SENTIMENT’:A survey conducted by the Taiwan Thinktank showed increasing support for using the title ‘Taiwan’ instead of ‘the ROC’ in official matters

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 28, 2016
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

About half of Taiwanese said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should refer to herself as “the president of

Taiwan” while visiting the nation’s diplomatic allies, marking a rise in Taiwanese identification, according to a poll released by the Taiwan Thinktank yesterday.

According to the poll, 49.4 percent of respondents said Tsai should introduce herself as the president of Taiwan — up from 39.8 percent in a May poll by the think tank — while 41.2 percent said she should refer to herself as the president of the Republic of China (ROC) — down from 44.7 percent in May.

Fifty-one percent of respondents said the nation should use “Taiwan” as its official title when participating in international events, while 34.6 percent preferred “the Republic of China” and 9 percent preferred “Chinese Taipei.”

When asked whether diplomatic missions in Taiwan should be identified as “representatives to Taiwan,” as was the case during the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), or as “representatives to [the Republic of] China,” which has been the case since former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, 55.9 percent of respondents said the missions should be referred to as “representatives to Taiwan,” while 26.8 percent said they should be referred to as “representatives to China.”    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 28, 2016
By: Yuan-Ming Chiao

Premier Lin Chuan on Tuesday rebutted rumors about his possible resignation and added that there

were no plans to reshuffle the Cabinet despite low approval ratings.

“Don’t expect me to leave (office) tomorrow — I’m staying put,” Lin told reporters at a year-end press conference held at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.

The latest poll released by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation on Tuesday put President Tsai Ing-wen’s approval rating at 38 percent, the lowest in its record.

Opinion polls conducted by TVBS found the premier’s approval rating at 24 percent, slightly lower than that of President Tsai Ing-wen, which stood at 27 percent.

Saying he had always polled lower than Tsai from the time both took office, Lin said the key point was not whether his rating was high but whether the government’s policies were perceptible to citizens.   [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: December 26,2016

Taiwan and India signed a letter of intent for cooperation on railway heritage Dec. 24 in southern

Taiwan’s Chiayi City, the latest in a series of measures to forge closer collaboration between the two nations in line with the government’s New Southbound Policy, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Tien Chung-kwang, Taiwan’s representative to India, and Sridharan Madhusudhanan, director-general of the India-Taipei Association, signed the agreement on behalf of the two sides. The LOI seeks to foster cooperation between the countries on the protection, management and maintenance of their mountain railway systems.

Taiwan and India both constructed mountain railways between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, comprising such lines as the Alishan Forest Railway in southern Taiwan’s Chiayi County as well as the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the Kalka-Shimla Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway in India’s northeastern, northern and southern regions, respectively.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/26
By: Huang Tze-chiang and Ko Lin

Singapore, Dec. 26 (CNA) As part of the government’s efforts to promote its “New Southbound Policy,” the Ministry of Culture has earmarked a budget of US$600 million to attract international filmmakers and TV crews to produce their future projects with counterparts in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Culture Yang Tzu-pao (楊子葆) said Monday.

Mulan (木蘭少女), a musical that made its global debut this month in Singapore, is a great example of collaboration between performers from Taiwan and abroad, Yang commented during a visit to the city-state.

“The Singapore adaptation features artists from both sides, a cultural exchange where each can learn and improve from one another,” he said, expressing his hope that the initiative will also entice other international filmmakers, directors and script writers to work with Taiwan in the future.   [FULL  STORY]