Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-28
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) announced Tuesday that it will launch a searchable database on May 9 with information on more than 200,000 offshore entities. The database will likely be the largest ever release of secret offshore companies and the people behind them.

The data comes from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the top players in the offshore world, and includes information about companies, trusts, foundations and funds incorporated in 21 tax havens, from Hong Kong to Nevada in the United States. It links to people in more than 200 countries and territories.

According to the ICIJ, when the data is released, users will be able to search through the data and visualize the networks around thousands of offshore entities, including, when possible, Mossack Fonseca’s internal records of the company’s true owners. The interactive database will also include information about more than 100,000 additional companies that were part of the 2013 ICIJ Offshore Leaks investigation.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 28, 2016

Changhua County is the latest municipality in Taiwan offering same-sex

couples the right to record their partnerships at household registration offices, underscoring the nation’s increasingly liberal approach to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender demographic.

Although the record is not legally binding, it does represent a strong step forward in raising public awareness and understanding of LGBT issues. Changhua’s commencement of the service earlier this month sees it join the ranks of Hsinchu County, as well as Chiayi, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei and Taoyuan cities—all of which implemented similar measures over the past year.

Reva Lin, an official from the Civil Registry Section at Changhua County Government, said the measure reflects the makeup of the central Taiwan municipality’s population of 1.28 million, the seventh largest on the island.

“Three couples were waiting for us to open on our first day,” Lin said. “We respect and understand the needs of these people, and are working with local activists to ensure Changhua is at the forefront in providing equal and fair treatment for residents.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/29
By: Tyson Lu and Kay Liu

The excavation of a site in Taitung City that holds artifacts from a period 2,300 to 5,300 years ago in Taiwan led to the establishment of the National Museum of Prehistory in 2001.

The site, spread over an estimated 80-100 hectares, was discovered after the construction of a new railway station began in 1980 and is the largest archaeological site ever found in Taiwan.
In an excavation area of around 10,000 square meters, more than 20,000 pieces of jade, pottery and stone tools, and 1,600 slate coffins were unearthed.

One of the jade designs, depicting two people carrying an animal aloft, was found in some of the coffins and is believed to have been an earring. The design was adopted as the museum’s emblem.     [FULL  STORY]

OPEN DOORS:Joining a US free-trade agreement proposed for the trans-Pacific region would require Taiwan to make concessions and convince other nations to let it join: AIT

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 29, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Kin Moy yesterday said that the

decision to open the Taiwanese market and allow the import of US pork containing ractopamine residue should be made by the nation’s leaders in consultation with the public, but added that adjustments are necessary to build trade ties with the international community.

Moy made the remarks at a question-and-answer session after he gave a speech, titled “US-Taiwan Relations: Our Shared Future,” at the National Chengchi University, the first time he had visited a university in Taipei to interact with students.

The speech came at a time of growing public discontent over president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) reported plan to open the nation to US pork containing ractopamine residue, an additive that enhances leanness, which has been regarded as a major hurdle to Taiwan’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“There has been a lot of media attention on this issue, but our position has not really changed at all. You have to put this into a larger context: overall trade,” Moy said in response to a student’s question regarding his opinion on the import of ractopamine-laced US pork.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/04/27
Compiled and translated by Shin-wei Chang

According to a recent online poll in China, 85% of Chinese support using force to unify with

Taiwan. What is more, 60% support unification, even at the cost of waging a total war.

On April 25, state-owned Global Times and the Shanghai Academy of Social Science launched an online survey on the unification issue.

China Times reports, tens of thousands answered the questionnaire within a day. There were 25 questions, asking whether people support using force, what is the best timing for doing so, the scale of a possible war, whether the US would intervene in the war and what citizens would be willing to sacrifice to achieve unification.

It turned out that 96% of the participants recognize Taiwan as part of China. More than 60% support the unification at the cost of waging a total war – as opposed to a war being isolated to specific regions.

Moreover, 39% would sacrifice their lives to reach unification.

In addition, 82% of respondents think the number of supporters for Taiwan’s independence will only increase in time, and nearly 60% of them say the best timing for carrying out the unification by force is within the next five years.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/27
By: Chen Wei-ting and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, April 27 (CNA) Taiwan experienced its hottest temperature in a low-lying area this year

when the mercury hit 35.8 degrees Celsius in Taitung County on Wednesday afternoon, a Central Weather Bureau official said.

A weather station in Dawu Township in the southeastern county recorded the new high for the year at 12:31 p.m., said Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典), the bureau’s Weather Forecast Center director, on his Facebook page.

Though a high for the year, the temperature fell short of the historical high of 38.6 degrees for Dawu Township set in April 2006.

The previous high recorded this year in Dawu Township of 34.9 degrees came on April 21.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 27, 2016

Taiwan called on Japan to respect the rights of Taiwan and other countries to navigate and fish

in disputed waters surrounding Okinotori in the western Pacific Ocean following the seizure and subsequent release of one of the country’s fishing boats, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs April 27.

The Dong Sheng Ji No. 16, a Pingtung County, southern Taiwan-registered vessel, was detained April 25 by Japan Coast Guard while operating 150 nautical miles east-southeast of Okinotori. The fishing boat and its crew were released April 26 after payment of a 6 million yen (US$53,973) security deposit.

MOFA said the deposit paid to Japan by the ship’s owner does not indicate that the government implicitly accepts Japan’s claim to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone surrounding Okinotori.

The legal status of Okinotori has not been decided by the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Japan unilaterally claims an exclusive 200-nautical-mile EEZ extending from the nine-square meter Okinotori.

During a national security meeting at the Presidential Office April 27 in Taipei City, President Ma Ying-jeou said the incident violates the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.     [FULL  STORY]

POLITICAL AGENDA:The KMT chairwoman accused the DPP of breaking its promises and focusing on bringing down the president and the KMT, instead of public issues

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 28, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday accused the

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of letting its political agenda against the KMT and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) take precedence over public interests, following several groups’ request that Ma be barred from leaving the country as he may have to face potential prosecution.

“We regret to see Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) — who sometimes speaks in his capacity as the DPP spokesman, while at other times, as the DPP’s lawyer or a private citizen — file various unsubstantiated charges against Ma yesterday [Tuesday] and request that the president’s right to leave the country be restricted after his term ends,” Hung wrote on Facebook.

Hung was referring to a move by Huang, the Taiwan Forever Association, the Northern Taiwan Society and the Taiwan Association of University Professors on Tuesday calling on the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office to launch investigations into alleged power abuse and corruption by Ma and to bar him from leaving the country.

Ma’s presidential immunity from prosecution is set to expire on May 20, when he is due to hand over power to president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

Hung said the DPP has reneged on many of its pledges and policies, including the party’s attempt to avoid any “state to state” dictum from its proposed bill on monitoring cross-strait agreements, its alleged plan to open the nation’s doors to US pork containing ractopamine residue and its welcome for more Chinese tourists to Taiwan.     [FULL STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Premier Simon Chang slammed Japan Tuesday over its detention of a Taiwanese fishing crew based on claims over a reef which was only “three tatamis large.”

The Japanese coast guard stopped the Tung Sheng Chi No.16 fishing boat from Pingtung County early Monday, claiming it had been just 150 nautical miles from the coral reefs of Okinotori, which is 9 square meters large.

Taiwan has disputed Japan’s interpretation that the island can be inhabited, thus claiming a 200-mile exclusive economic zone in which it can detain fishing vessels from other nations.

Chang said Tuesday the Taiwanese ship had been operating in international waters, and Japan had no right to board it and detain the 10-member crew. He reportedly said Okinotori was only “three tatamis large,” a reference to the Japanese straw mats which are also used as a unit of measurement.

International law recognized the area as a reef, but certainly not as an island, the premier said.     [FULL  STORY]