The China Post
Date: June 15, 2016
By: Joseph Yeh

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The U.S. top envoy to Taiwan on Tuesday recommended that both sides of the

Taiwan Strait make use of “creativity, flexibility and patience” when handling cross-strait issues, and argued that maintaining two-way dialogue is important for resolving problems.

Asked to comment on cross-strait issues, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Kin Moy said that the U.S. believes creativity, flexibility and, most importantly, patience are required for both sides of the Strait to engage in dialogue since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took power on May 20.

“I think that in any kind of relationship, especially when it is new, there is process and time (needed) … so that both sides can become familiar with the other,” Moy said, during a roundtable press conference in Taipei.

When both sides do become familiar with one another, there will be more “confidence and predictability” in their relationship, he noted.

“For us as diplomats, we are always looking for different ways that may not have been tried before to meet each other’s needs,” Moy added.
Asked to comment on whether President Tsai Ing-wen’s recognition of the existence of a “1992 meeting,” but not necessarily a “1992 Consensus,” in her inaugural speech is an example of such creativity and flexibility, Moy said he would not go into specifics.     [FULL  STORY]

Is the relationship coming to an end? Has Beijing embarked on a policy of disciplining Taiwan for making the ‘wrong’ choices? It’s simply too soon to tell.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/13
By: J. Michael Cole

The million-dollar question that has been asked in recent months is whether Beijing would “punish”

Taiwan for having made what it considers the “wrong” decision in the January 16 elections by electing Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party. Since then, there have been many hints suggesting that this might be the case, and media, always on the lookout for drama, have feasted on those. But is Beijing truly embarking on a course of action that could only succeed in alienating the Taiwanese?

Two areas that seem to have been selected by Beijing to discipline Taiwan are tourism and education.

In the first instance, various reports have interpreted a drop in tourist arrivals from China following the elections as evidence that new restrictions have been implemented by China to hurt Taiwan’s economy. Last year, more than 4.1 million Chinese visited Taiwan, generating an estimated US$9.7 billion in tourism revenue. According to the Chinese-language United Evening News, the first phase of Beijing’s new policy, which reportedly came into force on March 20, the monthly quota of 150,000 visits to Taiwan was cut by one-third, or 50,000. Citing unnamed “tourism insiders,” the paper said that this is to be cut by another 25,000 in July and 25,000 in October. By then, the total number of approved Chinese tourists to Taiwan would be about 2 million, or half the total for 2014.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-13
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister Wu Hsin-hsing
China has restarted the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU) and openly denounced Taiwan’s new government, said Wu Hsin-hsing, minister of Taiwan’s Overseas Community Affairs Council, on Monday.

At the Legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng asked Wu whether a “truce” of overseas community affairs is currently taking effect as did in the previous government.

In answering Lo’s question, Wu said that the work of overseas community affairs is to serve overseas Chinese and will never have a “truce” as did in the previous government.

Pursuing the issue, Lo asked whether China has been proactively taking measures to win overseas Chinese over.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/13
By: Kuo Chu-chen and Lilian Wu

Taipei, June 13 (CNA) An animal blood bank has been launched at a university in southern Taiwan to

help animals in urgent need of blood transfusions.

The center, set up by the Department of Veterinary Medicine at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, is the first of its kind in Taiwan. It is patterned upon animal blood banks at the University of California, Davis and Thailand’s Kasetsart University.

The center gave a demonstration of how to take a blood donation from a dog at the launch of the center.

A three-year-old, 21-kg mixed breed was making its first blood donation, with its owner at its side to comfort him.   [FULL  STORY]

MOVING AHEAD:President Tsai Ing-wen’s government should take the initiative and contact overseas leaders to explain its stance, KMT Legislator John Wu said

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 14, 2016
By: Tseng Wei-chen / Staff reporter, with CNA

China has stepped up efforts to promote cross-strait unification after the inauguration of President

Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government on May 20, Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission Minister Wu Hsin-hsing (吳新興) said yesterday.

Wu said that Beijing has reactivated the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, a government-backed organization, and has convened a series of meetings with overseas leaders and compatriots in different regions and “openly condemned” Tsai’s government.

“The Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission has taken note of the trend and its development, and is mapping out contingency plans,” Wu said.

He made the remarks at a legislative hearing in which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) asked if China has been actively wooing overseas Chinese.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-12
By: Central News Agency

More than half of new graduates and people discharged from military service say they are willing to accept jobs as dispatch workers to begin the work lives, according to a survey by the yes123 job bank network.

The online survey found that 55.1 percent of respondents said they would become dispatch workers if they could not find a regular job with benefits within a certain time after starting their job search, while 64.6 percent said they would accept a job as a contract worker.

Dispatch workers are employed by staffing agencies, usually at low pay levels with minimum standard benefits, and then “dispatched” to various temporary jobs as needed.

Contract workers are usually hired directly by the companies they work for on a fixed-term basis.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/12
By: Sophia Yeh, Claudia Liu, Justin Su, Tai Ya-chen and Evelyn Kao
Hong Kong. (CNA file photo)

Taipei, June 12 (CNA) The Cabinet and various political parties on Sunday expressed different

opinions on the Presidential Office’s decision to turn down an application by former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to visit Hong Kong for an award ceremony.

The Presidential Office said earlier in day that it had rejected Ma’s application for permission to visit Hong Kong to deliver a speech at an award ceremony and dinner that will be hosted by the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) on June 15.

The application was rejected on the grounds that Ma had had access to huge volumes of classified national security information as president and that it was less than one month since he had left office.

The task force assigned to review the application also took into consideration the difficulty involved in controlling the risks of a former president visiting Hong Kong, which is a highly sensitive area in terms of Taiwan’s national security, a government spokesman said.     [FULL  STORY]