Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-03
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Tsai Ing-wen was protecting Taiwan’s sovereignty by refusing to

accept the so-called “1992 Consensus,” former Taiwanese representative in Japan Koh Se-kai said Saturday.

Relations between China and Taiwan have cooled off recently, mainly because Beijing wants Tsai, who was sworn in last May, to acknowledge the so-called consensus. According to the official version supported by the previous Kuomintang administration, negotiators from Taiwan and China met in Hong Kong in 1992 and agreed that there was only One China, but that both sides had the right to interpret the notion in their own way.

Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party have never accepted the existence of such a consensus, especially since China never mentions the part about each side being allowed to have its own version of the One China idea.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/03

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) Rain will likely continue to fall all around Taiwan throughout the next week

because of moisture brought by a low pressure system, the Central Weather Bureau said Saturday, reminding people to bring an umbrella when going outdoors.

The only exception to the rainy pattern over the next few days is likely to occur in northern Taiwan over Sunday and Monday although some brief showers are still expected in the region, the bureau said.

Relatively persistent rain is expected in southern Taiwan over the next week, it added.      [SOURCE]

Taiwan Today
Date: September 2, 2016

Tran Thi Hoang Phuong, chief instructor in the Vietnamese division of the Southeastern Asian

Languages and Cultures Program at National Chengchi University in Taipei City, is busy preparing for the start of the new academic year later this month, when she and her colleagues will welcome 59 new undergraduate and graduate students from NCCU and other universities to the school’s Foreign Language Center for two- to three-year courses in Vietnamese language, culture, economics and history.

Also known by her Chinese name Chen Huang-fong, Tran is one of the foremost teachers of her mother tongue in Taiwan and the first Vietnamese faculty member at NCCU. For more than a decade, she has been working to promote cultural exchanges and understanding between locals and Vietnamese residents of the country by offering language classes at schools as well as through television and radio programs.

Tran is now helping cultivate talent for the government’s New Southbound Policy, both through her work at NCCU and through an association she founded last year to help train new immigrants from Vietnam with academic qualifications to become language teachers. The organization also introduces them to academic institutions around the country. “Highly educated immigrants can form a significant talent pool for the initiative,” she said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/02
By: Tang Pei-chun and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) will depart late Friday on a trip to the

Vatican to attend the canonization ceremony of Mother Teresa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said.

On the visit that will last until Sept. 8, Chen will serve as President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) special envoy to the ceremony on Sept. 4, at which Pope Francis will declare Blessed Teresa of Kolkata a saint.

In a statement released Friday, the MOFA described as “significant” the visit by Chen, a devout Christian and a member of two Roman Catholic orders — the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

The statement said the Republic of China shares the values of religious freedom, democracy and human rights and support for humanitarian relief with the Vatican. During his stay, Chen will act to boost the interactions and friendship between the two countries, it said.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 3, 2016
By: Stephanie Chao

The Presidential Office confirmed Friday that it had received two suspicious packages ahead of

today’s planned protest against the administration’s pension reforms.

The two packages were eventually declared not harmful by the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), with later reports confirming the absence of explosive materials.

CIB officials told the Central News Agency that the packages contained a letter, a recording machine and batteries, and what appeared to be an appeal to the Presidential Office over perceived injustices in the judicial system.

The two packages had been delivered through the postal service and were deemed a probable threat by Presidential Office security, according to presidential spokesman Alex Huang.

Around 10 a.m., the two packages went through an X-ray inspection that showed they contained batteries, cables and circuit boards.

Concerned at the possibility of explosive devices, the Presidential Office contacted the CIB and the packages were quickly processed by the 5th Investigation Corps bomb squad.

Tsai Bids to Boost Army Morale

Also Friday, President Tsai Ing-wen presided over the 2016 Armed Forces Day and National Defense Education Day event amid the increasingly vocal discontent of veterans, retired civil servants and teachers.     [FULL  STORY]