Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/31
By: Sophia Yeh and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 31 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen ( 蔡英文) said Monday that a long-term

care program is a major policy contributing to social stability, and she urged everyone to pitch in to make it a success.

Tsai discussed the planning and preparations for the long-term care program at a weekly Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) policy coordination meeting, also attended by the heads of 13 cities and counties controlled by the DPP.

Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) cited Tsai as saying after the meeting that Taiwan is an aging society and that long-term care has become a pressing issue.    [FULL  STORY]

‘RED LINE’:DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin said that no party has the right to negotiate treaties, amid speculation that the KMT chairwoman is set to propose a peace treaty with China

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 01, 2016
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday called on Chinese

Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) not to sign any agreements with China, amid speculation that Hung might propose a peace treaty at a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) today.

Ahead of the annual forum between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing today, the caucus reiterated that it is a party-to-party event and warned Hung not to cross the “red line” by proposing bilateral agreements without government authorization, DPP caucus chief executive Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said.

According to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), Taiwanese individuals and organizations are prohibited from entering into any political agreement with China unless authorized by the government, Wu said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 1, 2016
By: Joseph Yeh

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan and Japan conducted the first-ever dialogue on maritime

affairs in Tokyo on Monday, during which they discussed issues including whether Taiwanese fishermen may operate freely in Okinotori, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said.

They were reportedly unable to reach an agreement on fishing rights.

Delegations from the two sides exchanged views on three topics during the meeting: fisheries cooperation, emergency relief operations at sea and marine scientific research, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement.

According to MOFA, the Taiwanese delegation was headed by Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), chairman of the Association of East Asian Relations (AEAR, 亞東關係協會).    [FULL  STORY][

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/30
By: Chao Li-yen and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Oct. 30 (CNA) A dolphin found grounded on a beach in Da’an District in

Taichung has been rescued by the Taiwan Cetacean Society and other experts who were called in to help.

Coast Guard officials said they received a call at 1:30 p.m. that a 150-cm dolphin was stranded on the beach. After initial checks revealed several bruises on its belly, Cetacean Society staff were asked to help.

Society officials said the bruises might have been caused while the dolphin hit reefs near the coast.

Conservation expert Chiu Shu-min (邱淑敏) suggested that the dolphin remain on the beach before more has been known about its injuries and reasons for its grounding have been determined.    [FULL  STORY]

6EXCHANGE:Critics of the KMT’s ‘peace policy’ have said it is an attempt by Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu to move the party closer to the ‘one China, same interpretation’ concept

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 31, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

The majority of Taiwanese support the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) new policy

platform that aims to end cross-strait hostility through a peace accord, despite it sparking heated debates within the party, the results of KMT surveys released yesterday showed.

KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said a survey conducted by a private polling center at the KMT’s behest on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29 found that 51.5 percent of the 1,078 respondents supported the KMT’s new policy platform, while 20.2 percent did not.

“They were asked whether they think the KMT should put forward a ‘peace-centered policy platform,’ one that endeavors to further the [so-called] ‘1992 consensus’ based on the foundation of the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution and actively explore the possibility of putting an end to cross-strait hostility through a peace accord,” Hung told a news conference at the KMT headquarters in Taipei.

Hung said another telephone-based poll carried out from Oct. 21 to Tuesday last week that queried more than 600,000 Taiwanese also yielded a similar result.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 31, 2016
By: Angela Chu

“Traveling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller,” said Moroccan

scientist and scholar Ibn Battuta, who was deemed the greatest traveler of premodern times. Leaving his homeland at the age of 21, he traveled from Morocco to as far as India and China, along the way documenting his explorations, which extended for nearly three decades.

Of all our encounters throughout the course of life and all the stories that we come to learn to tell, those that we amass while traveling to exotic locales are without a doubt the most enchanting ones we have to offer. The act of traveling is magical unto itself. The idea of boarding a bus, ship or plane and then setting foot on some land far, far away always makes my stomach churn, but also makes my heart skip with joy — a joy of knowing that from these excursions, we gain so much more than what we imagined would be in store for us.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 30, 2016
By: The China Post news station

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Taipei West Bus Station officially went down in history on

Saturday after 60 years of operations.

Taipei City Public Transportation Office said that, starting Sunday, all buses using Building A of the station would pick up passengers at North 1 and East 3 gates of Taipei Main Station.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je and the vice chairman of Kuo Kuang Motor Transport, which constructed the bus station, were present at a press conference marking the official closure of the bus station.

They expressed gratitude to Kuo Kuang for carrying out various measures to facilitate the closure of the station and thanked other bus companies using the station for their cooperation.    [FULL  STORY]

Annual parade is largest gay event in Asia

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/10/29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer