U.S. retailer reveals no details about card policy

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/19
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwanese branch of U.S. supermarket chain Costco expelled a member

for returning 86 percent of his purchases to the store, reports said Saturday.

Costco Wholesale Corporation runs 12 stores across Taiwan which customers can visit if they hold a valid membership card.

One cardholder reportedly complained online that he had been expelled from the program and his card rendered invalid because he had returned 86 percent of his purchases.

Costco management replied Saturday that the person in the case was not the first customer to lose the right to use his card. Every cardholder had signed an agreement which included the provision that the company could either refuse or accept him, management said.

However, no specific threshold had been established for the return policy, Costco said. Each case was being evaluated on its own merits, according to the company.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/19
By: Liu Te-chan and Rolumo Huang

Bangkok, Nov. 19 (CNA) Taiwan’s Control Yuan President Chang Po-ya (張博雅) participated in the 11th World Conference of the International Ombudsnan Institute (IOI) that concluded Saturday in Bangkok, at the head of a four-member delegation.

Chang said that during the meeting, which began Nov. 16, she shared her experiences with the delegates from other countries on the operation and tasks of her office, as well as the structure and functions of the Control Yuan, one of the country’s five branches of government, including the impeachment, censure, supervision, audit and investigation of government officials’ conduct.

Chang said she also exchanged experiences with foreign ombudsmen, which gave her a better understanding of the operation of foreign supervisory agencies and strengthened her personal friendships.    [FULL  STORY]

CONTENTIOUS:Past hearings were hastily announced and conducted for show, critics said, while suspicions have emerged Japan is looking to dump food in Taiwan

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 20, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Cabinet is to hold two public hearings on lifting a ban on food product imports from four Japanese

prefectures, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said yesterday.

Public hearings on the issue are to be held in Taipei and Kaohsiung next month, Hsu said, adding that the Cabinet wants the hearings to be broadcast live on TV, but it has yet to work all the details out.

The exact time, venue and other details will be announced at a Cabinet meeting tomorrow, Hsu said.

The remarks follow a report published in the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday which said that in order to avoid giving the public the impression that the government is seeking to hold the promised three extra public hearings on the issue in a hasty manner, the Presidential Office and the Cabinet had reached an agreement to postpone the hearings.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 20, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI — “The Road to Mandalay” (再見瓦城) by Myanmar-born Taiwanese director Midi Z (趙德胤)

won the award for best international feature film at the 36th Amiens International Film Festival in France on Friday.

The last time a film by a Taiwanese director won an award at the festival was in 1992, when Ang Lee (李安) won the Best First Film award at the festival with his film “Pushing Hands” (推手).

“The Road to Mandalay” centers on the life and love of two illegal migrants, who struggle to survive in Thailand after fleeing the civil war in Myanmar.

It is Midi Z’s fourth feature film and a joint production of Taiwan, China, Myanmar, France and Germany. The film won the FEDEORA Award for Best Film at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival in September.

After winning the award on Friday, the 33-year-old director thanked his eldest sister, who he said inspired the storyline of the film, as well as Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: November 18, 2016

The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) announced the inclusion of Taiwan scholars Chiang Ann-

shyn and Chu Yun-han on its list of 40 newly elected fellows during the Italy-based institution’s 27th General Meeting Nov. 14-17 in Kigali, Rwanda.

Both honorees are distinguished members of Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top academic institution. Chiang was honored by TWAS for his contributions in the areas of biological systems and organisms, while Chu was recognized for his work in social and economic sciences.

Chiang primarily studies memory circuits within the brains of Drosophila, a genus of small flies, in the hope of increasing understanding of how genes and circuits orchestrate complex behaviors. Chu focuses on East Asian democratization and political economy and is known for launching the Asian Barometer Survey, the region’s foremost comparative survey.

TWAS praised Chiang on its website for his “outstanding contribution to our understanding of memory formation using a connectomics approach” and describes Chu as “a pioneer in developing theories and methods for studying the consolidation of young democracies through survey research.”    [FULL  STORY]

Military officers who face sentences longer than 7 years will lose retirement benefits

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Military officers who betray the country, for example by selling secrets

overseas, can lose their pension, according to amendments approved by the Legislative Yuan Friday.

The Taiwanese military has been battling a wave of cases where either retired or serving military officers passed confidential information on to China in return for financial benefits.

Officers from any service who are sentenced to at least seven years in prison or to the death penalty, or to a loss of their citizenship, will have to forfeit all of their retirement benefits, according to the revisions. The crimes falling under the new rules include selling secrets overseas, corruption, violations of the National Security Law, and rebellion, reports said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/18
By: Tang Pei-chun and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) Taiwan’s representative to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Lima on Friday that the two sides intend to set up an “APEC Women and the Economy Sub-Fund.”

The initiative was announced in a joint statement by James Soong (宋楚瑜), the chairman of the opposition People First Party, and Kerry at a breakfast celebrating the 5th anniversary of the APEC Women and the Economy declaration.

The sub-fund will support the key pillars of the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) — access to capital, access to markets; skills and capacity building; women’s leadership; and innovation and technology.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: November 17, 2016

Attendees in the first Taiwan-ASEAN Dialogue were received by Vice President Chen Chien-jen at the

Office of the President Nov. 16 in Taipei City, underscoring the importance the government places on strengthening exchanges with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations under the New Southbound Policy.

The academics, government officials and lawmakers from home and ASEAN member states such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were warmly welcomed by Chen, who praised them for their insightful contributions to the one-day dialogue held the day before in Taipei.

A wealth of ideas and suggestions were tabled during the event on the challenges and opportunities facing the region when boosting multilateral economic cooperation, as well as the development of democracy in Asia, Chen said. These are deeply appreciated, as is the call for joint undertakings in areas like maritime enforcement, humanitarian assistance and talent cultivation, he added.

Taiwan is willing and able to work with ASEAN in opening market access and sharing resources and talent, Chen said, reiterating that the two sides can also collaborate on drafting cooperative strategies for the development of the region.    [FULL  STORY]