FASCIST?Former president Ma Ying-jeou said the KMT should hold an international press conference to highlight its plight and the DPP’s ‘green terror’ tactics

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 21, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Several former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairmen yesterday said they are willing to help the party

with its financial predicament and to initiate a peaceful protest, adding that the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee has abused its power.

KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) held a closed-door meeting with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) at KMT headquarters.

The meeting, also attended by KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) and Secretary-General Mo Tien-hu (莫天虎), started at about 10:30am and lasted for about one and a half hours.

Mo said Hung and Chan briefed the former KMT chairmen on the party’s situation and a series of measures it plans to adopt to address its financial situation, such as reducing expenses, initiating a small donation scheme and making salary adjustments for party staffers.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 21, 2016
By: Stephanie Chao

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Ex-President Ma Ying-jeou has been summoned to testify in court on Nov. 8 over his

involvement in a classified information leak in a 2013 wiretapping scandal, according to a Taipei District Court statement released Thursday.

It would be Ma’s first court summons since he departed from office in May. The question remains whether he will become the Kuomintang’s (KMT) first retired president to be jailed under criminal charges.

Ma is scheduled to attend court at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 8, the Taipei District Court statement read.

The wiretapping controversy was triggered by Ma’s attempt to remove Wang Jin-pyng from the legislative speaker post in 2013.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) filed a lawsuit against Ma, charging him with instigating the leaking of secrets and for the act of leaking secret itself. Former Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) has also been charged with several offenses, including leaking secrets, defamation, leaking personal information, providing false statements, malicious persecution and suppression of evidence.     [FULL  STORY]

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign affairs has issued a press release saying, ‘Such practices are not only unethical but also unprofessional, insensitive to the feelings of the Thai people and offensive towards Thai cultural traditions.’

The News Lens
Date: 2016/10/20
By: Olivia Yang

International news outlets — including Taiwan’s — on Oct. 13 scrambled to report the death of Thailand’s

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning monarch. However, a number of Thai people are not happy with how some Taiwanese outlets have reported on the matter.

Headlines reading, “Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dead, Is The ‘Thaksin Curse’ About To Come True?” (泰皇拉瑪九世駕崩 皇室不過九代「塔克辛詛咒」即將應驗？), along with reports centering on locals “wailing on the streets,” have sparked criticism from Thai nationals in Taiwan. Several media outlets also spent a lot of time reporting on President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) misspelling Thailand in the condolence card at the Thai representative office.

In the midst of such problematic coverage, Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release on Oct. 15:

“It has been found that some big foreign media have been reporting erroneous or false information and accusations that are of a manipulative and provocative nature. This is highly inappropriate, especially during this period of national mourning. Such practices are not only unethical but also unprofessional, insensitive to the feelings of the Thai people and offensive towards Thai cultural traditions.

[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: October 18, 2016

Memorial services are being held in cities across Taiwan to mark the passing of Thailand’s King

Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died Oct. 13 at the age of 88.

Thai nationals, as well as many Taiwanese, have been paying tribute to the king at ceremonies in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City, central Taiwan’s Taichung City, as well as Kaohsiung and Tainan cities in the south. President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister David Tawei Lee paid their respects Oct. 17 at the Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei.

TTEO provided portraits of King Bhumibol to the Taoyuan City Government’s Department of Labor, which is holding a service lasting until Oct. 30 in the main hall of the old Taoyuan railway station. Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan attended the memorial Oct. 16, conveying his condolences to the late king’s family and the people of Thailand.

Just two days before, the mayor had participated in a Thai cultural event, where he spoke of the city’s close ties with Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states as well as its efforts to improve the lives of Thai immigrants. Cheng said Taoyuan City, which has the largest population of Thai foreign workers and new immigrants in Taiwan at 15,964 and 2,271 respectively, is very multicultural and a city of passion.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-18
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

“When I was small, my father used to take me there for elevator rides,” an octogenarian citizen said, pointing at the building of Hayashi Department Store in Tainan City.
The classic department store building, known to older Tainan people as “The Five-Stories-House,” is located in downtown Tainan at the intersection of Zhongyi Road and Zhongzheng Road. Before it was reopened in 2014 as a department store again, it had been deserted for decades.

In fact, Hayashi Department Store played an important role in the development of Taiwan’s department store industry.

The department store was founded by Japanese businessman Hayashi Houichi. It formally opened on December 5, 1932 during Japanese rule, just days after the first department store in Taiwan, Kikumoto Department Store, opened in Taipei City.

Thus Hayashi Department Store became the second large department store in Taiwan, as well as the largest department store in southern Taiwan, equipped with facilities such as an elevator, hand-rolling gates, lamps, lightning rods and flush toilets, which were all very advanced back in the early days. It is also the only department store in Taiwan that has a Japanese shrine on its rooftop.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/18
By: Sabine Cheng and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 18 (CNA) National Palace Museum (NPM) officials said Tuesday that the museum has asked for a correction after the sponsor of the Global Fine Art Awards nominated one of its exhibitions, but described the nationality as “China (中國).”

Portrayals from a Brush Divine: A Special Exhibition on the Tricentennial of Giuseppe’s Arrival in China was held last year to celebrate its 90th anniversary.

But the sponsor, Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization, listed the NPM as being in China on its official website.

Museum officials said they have asked the sponsor for a speedy change from China to “Republic of China (Taiwan).”

Inclusion in the award does not come from registration, but is decided by the sponsor.  [SOURCE]

‘TITANIC PROJEcT’:The DPP and the Chinese Communist Party both have ‘red lines,’ but Taiwan will find a way out of the predicament, KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng said

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 19, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “historical fact of the 1992 meeting” model has failed to provide a

“script that could endure examination” and resolve the cross-strait stalemate, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), the former legislative speaker, said yesterday.

Tsai has since her inauguration avoided mentioning the so-called “1992 consensus,” instead referring to a “1992 meeting,” which she said is an undeniable “historical fact.”

Wang said there is a “serious lack of mutual trust” between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Communist Party, as each holds its own unalienable core interests that have turned into “red lines” that cannot be contradicted by the other side.

“Taiwan’s cross-strait strategic planning will find the most advantageous way out of this limited space. It is a titanic political project and as the DPP has become the ruling party, it should not shun its responsibility to solve the predicament,” he said.   [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 19, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

The Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) warned on Tuesday of electricity shortages as the country’s

operating reserve dived to the eighth lowest in history, triggering an orange alert.

According to official records released by Taipower, the company only has a 2.88-percent operating reserve of just 902 Megawatts, the second lowest figure in the past 10 months

An orange alert is triggered when Taipower’s operating reserve falls below 6 percent. A red alert — when the reserve falls below 900 megawatts — may see the firm impose emergency restrictions on electricity use.

Air conditioning at the Executive Yuan was shut down for two hours on Tuesday to conserve energy and lead by example, officials said.

In a social media post Tuesday, Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen (張景森) urged citizens to conserve energy.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: October 17, 2016

PHILATAIPEI 2016 is set to inspire the imaginations of stamp lovers from home and abroad during its Oct. 21-26 run at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1. (CNA)
The World Stamp Championship, or PHILATAIPEI 2016, opens Oct. 21 for the first time in Taiwan, serving as an outstanding platform for international philatelic exchanges and raising the country’s profile on the global stage.

Organized by state-owned Chunghwa Post Co. Ltd, Chinese Taipei Philatelic Federation and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the six-day event at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1 brings together philatelists, stamp dealers, and representatives of philatelic federations, postal service providers and publishers from 80 nations. It also features 2,450 frames of competitive and noncompetitive stamps from 101 countries.

Chunghwa Post Vice President Wang Shu-min said the number of frames and participants at PHILATAIPEI 2016 is expected to be among the highest in the history of the quadrennial event authorized by Luxembourg-headquartered Federation Internationale de Philatelie, the world governing body for philately. Launched in 2004, the championship’s previous hosts are Singapore in 2004, Israel in 2008 and Indonesia in 2012.     [FULL  STORY]