Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-18
By: Luis Ko, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

Confined by the weather during a typhoon night and bored by the inundation of unpleasant news such as disasters, verbal attacks from the U.S. presidential election campaign trail, territorial conflicts, terrorist attacks, class confrontation, commotion caused by video games, global climate change and environmental pollution, I felt like saying something again.

In fact, regardless of gender, age, race, religion and nationality, just a handful of “rulers” are enough to change the human society, to lead people to tell right from wrong, and to affect the development of the human kind.

However, controversies and turmoil are bound to happen as long as “unfairness, injustice and inequality” exist in a society or nation; therefore, if we wish for a peaceful nation, we need to eliminate anything that comes into conflict with “fairness and justice.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-17
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) announced early Saturday that the North Link connecting Hualien and Shulin and the East Coast line from Hualien northward have been suspended and would not assume operation until 6 pm Saturday due to the approach of the typhoon.

TRA said that passengers for trains should check for its latest updates.

The rest of the TRA services, including the West Coast Line, the East Coast Line from Hualien southward, the South Link Line and the Alishan Railway Line, remain normal operations, but are subject to changes due to weather conditions, according to the TRA.

Typhoon Malakas is expected to bring strong winds and torrential downpours in northern and northeastern Taiwan Saturday after noon, the weather bureau said, though the typhoon eye is unlikely to make landfall in Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/17
By: Elaine Hou and Kuo Chao-he

Taipei, Sept. 17 (CNA) Taiwanese passports rank as the 29th most powerful in the latest global passport index, which was recently cited in the World Economic Forum website.

The index assessed which countries have the most powerful travel documents by measuring the number of countries that can be visited without applying for a visa.

At the top of the ranking are Germany and Sweden, with holders of German and Swedish passports being able to visit 158 countries without having to apply for a visa.

Last year, the United States and the United Kingdom shared the top spot, but this year’s ranking puts the former at the fourth position and the later at the second spot, said the article on the World Economic Forum website.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 18, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The heads of eight cities and counties controlled by non-Democratic Progressive

Party administrations arrived in Beijing Saturday to promote tourism.

Beijing officials are expected to host a welcome dinner on Sunday for the delegations from New Taipei, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Hualien, Taitung, Nantou, Kinmen and Lienchang.

“We are not giving up any markets,” New Taipei Deputy Mayor Yeh Huey-ching said before departing for Beijing.

Yeh said he would also use the Beijing trip to promote agriculture and the cultural and creative industries in his city.

The campaign reflects opposition parties’ skepticism over Tsai Ing-wen’s “New Southbound Policy.”

The new policy plans to strengthen ties with Southeast Asia in an effort to ease the economy’s over-reliance on China.

ut Tsai’s refusal to openly support the so-called “1992 consensus” has already soured cross-strait relations, resulting in a sharp drop in tourists from China.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 17, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI–Premier Lin Chuan (林全) will lead Taiwan’s economic revitalization based on

three principles — innovation, employment and distribution, according to a Cabinet report.

Lin will lead his Cabinet to make the report and answer legislators’ questions as the Legislature begins a new session that day.

To re-engineer the overall development model for Taiwan, Lin said the Executive Yuan will speed up the upgrading of industries by increasing investment in the nation’s infrastructure, promoting talent recruitment and retention programs and loosening economic and financial regulations.

Another priority for the Cabinet administration will be the establishment of a social safety net to realize social justice, according to the report, which notes that ways of achieving this policy goal will include promoting urban renewal projects, strengthening food safety rules, raising the quality of long-term care programs for seniors and the disabled, and implementing pension reforms.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-16
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Premier Lin Chuan paid a rare visit to the offshore island of Kinmen Friday to inspect the damage caused by Typhoon Meranti.

The storm left a trail of destruction to homes and farmland in Southern Taiwan but also on Kinmen, which lies just off the coast of China’s Fujian Province. It is relatively rare for senior government leaders to visit the island.

Lin and President Tsai Ing-wen toured damaged areas in Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County on Thursday, the day after the typhoon raged through.

In Kinmen, the premier was told by the county government that 5 million trees, plants and hedges had been destroyed or damaged by the storm. Reconstruction would need at least NT$2.35 billion (US$74 million), the local authorities said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/16
By: Tony Liao and Christie Chen

Washington, Sept. 15 (CNA) Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

introduced a Taiwan Travel Act on Thursday that seeks to lift restrictions and allow all high-level officials of Taiwan, including its president, to visit the United States.

The bill, introduced by representatives Steve Chabot, Brad Sherman and Ted Poe, states that “it should be the policy of the United States to encourage visits between the United States and Taiwan at all levels.”

“Over the past decades, United States-Taiwan relations have suffered from a lack of communication due to the self-imposed restrictions that the United States maintains on high-level visits with Taiwan,” according to the text of the bill.

The proposal advocates a policy of allowing all high-level officials of Taiwan to enter the United States or U.S. embassies and consulates under conditions that demonstrate respect for such leaders.     [FULL  STORY]