Page Two

Cross-strait diplomatic truce likely to continue: ex-foreign minister

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/18
By: Tang Pei-chun and Y.F. Low

Taipei, June 18 (CNA) Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) predicted on

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊), CNA file photo

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊), CNA file photo

Saturday that Beijing will continue to maintain its diplomatic truce with Taiwan for some time under the new administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who has dealt with China cautiously.

Although Beijing is not satisfied with Tsai’s cross-Taiwan Strait policy as outlined in her inaugural address, it should be able to see that Tsai is rational after Health Minister Lin Tzou-yien’s (林奏延) low-profile performance at last month’s World Health Assembly, Ou said in an interview with CNA.

Given that Tsai has adopted a cautious approach toward cross-strait relations, Ou said he believed the president will exercise a high degree of restraint during her upcoming visit to Panama and Paraguay.    [FULL  STORY]

FDA confirms check on Canadian beef products

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 19, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed it sent officials to check on the safety of Canadian beef amid reports that a ban on Canadian beef products is to be lifted next month.

Taiwan banned imports of Canadian beef products in February last year following the confirmation of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) — better known as mad cow disease — in a cow in Alberta.

Food Safety Division head Pan Chih-kuan (潘志寬) on Friday said that Canada, hoping to get the ban lifted, last year asked that risk assessment be conducted.

The FDA sent officials to Canada in November last year to check on its beef, reporting no problems, Pan said, adding that the results of the visit were submitted to the Executive Yuan.     [FULL  STORY]

Taoyuan steps up to prompt refinery relocation

The China Post
Date: June 19, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) on Saturday announced that the special municipality’s government has set up a team whose role is to speed up the relocation of state-run oil supplier CPC Corp.’s (中油) refinery in Taoyuan, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported.

Cheng claims the corporation had promised to relocate the refinery 13 years ago, and Taoyuan residents deserve to see that promise pan out.

When CPC Chairman Lin Sheng-chung (林聖忠) visited the local government and mentioned the company had given the local community a sum of more than NT$10 million, Cheng told him Taoyuan residents were not beggars and offering money was a joke, the CNA said.     [FULL  STORY]

Macaque’s NT$50 ‘payment’ has zoo calling out public

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-17
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, June 17 (CNA) Taipei Zoo felt compelled on Friday to urge the public not to throw things to or at animals after a Formosan macaque made a “payment” to a keeper during feeding time.

A macaque recently tossed back a NT$50 (US$1.54) coin to a keeper when it was given food, the first time the keeper had encountered such an experience in his over 30 years caring for the zoo’s animals.

Primates are not the only animals that have food and other objects thrown toward them by visitors, the zoo said, noting that coins, plastic bottles and wood sticks have been found in the alligator enclosure, which were probably thrown at the animals to make them move. These foreign objects can harm the animals, according to the zoo, citing a macaque that once had a bottle cap stuck inside its cheek, where it usually stores food.

To help visitors better understand the animals and promote the concept of conservation, the zoo said its keepers have formed a band that will give pop-up performances.     [SOURCE]

Edible fats supplier sentenced for hiding products’ origins

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/17
By: Chang Jung-hsiang and Y.F. Low

Taipei, June 17 (CNA) The head of an edible fats supplier in Tainan was sentenced on Friday to a jail term of six years and six months by a district court for deliberately concealing the origins of his products.

The man sentenced was Wu Jung-he (吳容合), owner of Hsin Hao company, which supplied lard to Cheng I Food Co., a subsidiary of disgraced food maker Ting Hsin International Group, between 2012 and 2014 for processing into lard-based cooking oil products, according to a verdict issued by the Tainan District Court.

The lard, however, was imported from Vietnam and Hong Kong as reported to customs as animal feed-grade fat to evade the 20 percent import duty on edible lard and avoid inspection by the authorities, the verdict said.

The court could not confirm if the imported lard was in fact for use in animal feed or in consumer products, but it found that Wu could not ensure the safety of his products.     [FULL  STORY]

Translation project expands reach of Taiwan literature

Taiwan Today
Date: June 17, 2016

Sixteen books by Taiwan authors have been translated into English, French, Japanese, Korean

Novelist Li Ang explains the importance of expanding international readership of local authors at National Museum of Taiwan Literature June 7 in Tainan City, southern Taiwan. (Courtesy of NMTL)

Novelist Li Ang explains the importance of expanding international readership of local authors at National Museum of Taiwan Literature June 7 in Tainan City, southern Taiwan. (Courtesy of NMTL)

and Swedish as part of efforts by National Museum of Taiwan Literature in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City to expand the international reach of local literature.

“These translations enable Taiwan’s national treasures to be enjoyed by our foreign friends,” NMTL Director Chen Yi-yuan said earlier this month at a museum-staged event announcing publication of the newly translated books.

Since 2011, the NMTL’s translation project has seen 101 volumes rendered into nine languages. One of the most impressive works was in Swedish by Göran Malmqvist, a Sinologist and member of the Swedish Academy that decides the annual Nobel Prize in literature. He translated an autobiographical novel set in Beijing by the late Lin Hai-yin before she moved to Taipei City in the late 1940s.

Prominent novelist Li Ang thanked the NMTL for producing the English version of “The Lost Garden,” one of the feminist writer’s major works presenting a Taiwan family saga exploring local history and the heroine’s sexuality. Published by Columbia University Press in New York, the fictional piece was co-translated by Howard Goldblatt, an acclaimed translator of Mandarin-language works such as the novels of Mo Yan, a 2012 Nobel Prize in literature winner from mainland China.

Li attaches great importance to systematic translation efforts playing a central role in putting Taiwan authors on the global stage. “Similar efforts have been promoted and backed with large-scale funding in such countries as South Korea,” she said.     [FULL  STORY]

Ko aide linked to reporter amid leaks

‘UNCANNY’:A ‘Next Magazine’ report said that Chang Yan-chin was able to predict the Taipei mayor’s whereabouts because of a ‘double agent’ providing leads for her

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 18, 2016
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Accusations arose on Wednesday linking a Taipei City official’s pursuit of a female reporter to a controversial polygraph test the city administration conducted in response to reports of leaked information.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) earlier this week told the Taipei City Council that the polygraph test was to find out who was behind an alleged leak regarding the Taipei Dome construction impasse with Farglory Group (遠雄集團) and that Huang Tzu-wei (黃子維), former secretary to Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮), was fired because he refused to take the test.

However, reports emerged saying that the test was a power-play aimed at removing a secretary who frequently provided information about Ko’s personal schedule to a female reporter who he was romantically interested in.

Ko later back-tracked, saying that Huang left “for other reasons.”
The city government said that three out of 18 officials suspected of leaking survey results were asked to take the test, including Huang.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei to see return of double-decker buses by year-end

The China Post
Date: June 18, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI–The Taipei City Government unveiled Friday the design of a fleet of eight double-decker

A model of a double-decker is seen on display at a press conference where Taipei City officials announced Friday, June 17 a plan to introduce the buses for tourism purposes. The city will start operating two double-decker bus routes by the end of the year. (CNA)

A model of a double-decker is seen on display at a press conference where Taipei City officials announced Friday, June 17 a plan to introduce the buses for tourism purposes. The city will start operating two double-decker bus routes by the end of the year. (CNA)

buses that will hit the road for tourists by the end of this year.

A model of the double decker bus was unveiled when the city government signed an agreement with San Chung Bus Co., which will work with Sampu Travel Service and the e-go transportation group to operate two tourist bus routes.

The buses will have 49 seats on the upper level, the back half of which will be open-top, and 10 seats on the lower level, according to the city’s Department of Information and Tourism.

The two routes will take visitors to attractions in the city, such as Taipei 101, Ximending and the National Palace Museum, on two-hour trips that have been planned and await regulators’ approval, the department said.

The maximum ticket price is expected to be set at NT$300 (US$9.27) per trip, the department added.     [FULL  STORY]

Ma Ying-jeou’s Great SOPA Whitewash

The former Taiwanese president had a golden opportunity to give hope to embattled journalists in Hong Kong. He blew it.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/16
By: J. Michael Cole

Barred by the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration from traveling to Hong Kong to attend the

Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像

Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像

Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) 2016 Awards gala dinner on June 15, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) delivered his scheduled address via videoconference, during which he emphasized the many values that are shared by the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan. However, Ma’s version of history papered over many of the problems that have haunted the Special Administrative Region in recent years.
Conceived in Taiwan and born in Hong Kong, the former president, who stepped down on May 20, pointed to press freedom as a barometer of societies. “Freedom of the press and standards of professional journalism have always indicated the cultural level of modern societies,” Ma said, adding that they “also reflect core values that Taiwan and Hong Kong share and uphold.”

Referring to the Martial Law period in Taiwan, Ma, who as an alleged “professional student” on U.S. campus may have played a role in state repression, said that as freedom of the press was restricted in Taiwan, “we would go to bookstalls to sneak a peek at banned books smuggled in from Hong Kong.”     [FULL  STORY]

Ruling DPP mulls adopting new party constitution

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-16
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member on Thursday delivered a proposal signed by 32 6762107party representatives to the DPP headquarters that calls for the party to adopt a new party constitution to reflect President Tsai Ing-wen’s statement of maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and replace the doctrine of Taiwan independence in the current version.

DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng said that DPP’s basic value and position that Taiwan’s future should be decided by Taiwanese people will never change.

Wu Tsu-chia, vice chairman of the my-formosa.com news Web site, delivered the proposal to the DPP headquarters. He said that he planned the proposal with former DPP legislator Julian Kuo, and that 32 party representatives have cosigned the proposal.

The proposal calls for the party to empower the Central Executive Committee to rewrite a new party constitution in 2016 based on Tsai’s “maintaining status quo” statement to replace the article 1 of the party constitution of 1991 that calls for the establishment of a “Republic of Taiwan,” the “Resolution on Taiwan’s Future” in 1999, and the “normal country resolution” in 2007, and to reflect the current situation and the party’s image of devoting to maintaining peace and stability across the Strait.    [FULL  STORY]