Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/21
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Out of every 10 people in Taiwan, there are nearly 9 who

oppose the idea of abolishing capital punishment, mainly because they think such a move would undermine public order and deprive the authorities of a deterrent to would-be criminals, according to a poll released Thursday.

The survey by the Cabinet’s National Development Council (NDC) found that 87.9 percent of Taiwanese want the death penalty to be retained, 4.8 percent are against it, and 7.3 percent have no clear position on the issue.

In a statement, the NDC said concern over the deterioration of public order was the main reason cited by those who want the death penalty to remain on the law books.

They indicated that in the absence of the death penalty, there would be no deterrent to potential criminals, the NSC said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 21, 2016

Changhua high-speed rail station in central Taiwan was named April 12 popular

choice winner of the Architizer A-plus Awards in the bus and train stations category, further enhancing the country’s reputation as a hotbed of innovative architectural design.

Beating out more than 100 submissions from around the world, the structure reached the finals of the awards conducted by the leading U.S.-headquartered architecture database. It went on to outpoll Austria’s Vienna Central Station, the Netherland’s Arnhem Central Masterplan and Delft Station, and the U.S.’s Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center.

The greenhouse-like station is fronted by a large multipaned glass wall providing uninterrupted views of the rural landscape and enabling sunlight to stream through the spacious concourse. Curved columns channel in more sunlight, as well as natural breezes to keep the building cool all year round.

Designed by renowned Taiwan architect Kris Yao, the split-level structure incorporates the elegance of flowers and inspires comparisons with rice paddies. Flower and rice growing are signature sectors in Changhua—a county often described as the breadbasket of Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

‘GREEN GARRISON’:Lawmakers said military police assistance in relation to transitional justice investigations would be fascist and give the government full discretionary power

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 22, 2016 – Page 3　
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

A bill aimed at promoting transitional justice proposed by the Democratic

Progressive Party (DPP) caucus was yesterday discussed by the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers questioning the need for draft legislation and the ad hoc committee it proposes.

The draft legislation outlines four main missions to be carried out by the government under the leadership of a “transitional justice promoting committee” to be established under the Executive Yuan: opening up political archives, eliminating authoritarian symbols and conservation of unjustly seized sites, redressing the judiciary’s unlawfulness and restoring historical truth, and dealing with ill-gotten KMT party assets.

KMT lawmakers gathered in the front of the meeting room and shouted that the legislation is the DPP’s “green dictatorship” and part of a political feud with the KMT.

“Wasn’t Taiwan a democracy during the time when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was president? Why is the DPP calling for transitional justice only now?” KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) asked.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-20
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan and France jointly organized the “French Tech Culture 2006” event Wednesday and Thursday in Taipei City.

Culture Minister Hung Meng-chi, French representative in Taiwan Benoit Guidee, Greater Avignon president Jean-Marc Roubaud and a host of Taiwanese and French experts were present to lend their support to this example of French creativity and technology.

For several years, experts have predicted that France would host Europe’s version of “Silicon Valley,” providing lessons for Taiwan from its conjunction of fashion design, culture and history, arts and esthetics.

Hung expressed the hope that Taiwan could learn from France’s experience. The French success story shows that combining culture and technology does not push cultural development into a corner, but adds to its value, he said. Hung said he had the program at work during a visit to France last year.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/20
By: Elaine Hou and Lu Hsin-hui

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) “Eject! Eject!” a woman shouts and wakes up from a

nightmare. She is the lead in a short film produced by the Ministry of National Defense, adapted from the story of a fallen AT-3 pilot who died in a crash in the southern city of Kaohsiung in 2014.

Titled “I’m OK. Thank you,” the six-minute film begins with the widow of “Lt. Col. Chen Tzu-chiang (陳自強)” waking up from a nightmare. The teary-eyed woman then turns around to look at a bedside photo of herself and her husband.

She picks up the photo and cries, thinking of her dead husband.
Photo taken from the shooting. Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 20, 2016

A delegation of Taiwan officials arrived April 20 in Beijing to visit detained

Republic of China (Taiwan) nationals forcibly deported from Kenya and launch negotiations with their mainland Chinese counterparts on establishing procedures for handling any future criminal cases involving peoples from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in third jurisdictions.

Headed by Chen Wen-chi, director-general of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Justice, the 10-member group comprises officials from the MOJ, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation.

The delegation’s scheduled three-day trip follows the forcible deportation of 45 ROC nationals to mainland China by the Kenyan police earlier this month. In addition, 32 ROC nationals are detained in Malaysia as part of a telecoms fraud investigation. Beijing is said to be urging their deportation to mainland China after the return of 20 other suspects to Taiwan last week.

In the Kenya case, the MOJ called on Beijing to adhere to the past pattern of cooperation established five years ago after the Philippines deported 14 ROC nationals to mainland China over Taiwan’s objections. At that time, prosecutors from both sides investigated the case and collected evidence together. The deportees were repatriated to Taiwan five months later and tried under the nation’s criminal code.     [FULL  STORY]

Cebu Daily News
Date: April 19th, 2016
By: Jude Bacalso

WE were driven around by a Watermelon.

At least the driver, in limited English (always prefixed with “I’m sorry my English

is so bad” in these parts) insists on being called that.

Whether it was an unfortunate translation or an actual nickname from a childhood among cantaloupes, Watermelon made the best transporter on this road trip that brought me and our merry bunch of 10 from the Northern tip of Taipei, southward through the Eastern coastal towns of Yilan and Hualien, down to Taitung on the Southestern side, and back up in a six-hour journey to Nantou (which, in fact, is only a 2 ½ hour journey from Taipei).

We had traveled the length of the country, and not once set foot on a mall or set sight on its famous attraction: the skyscraper called Taipei 101.

“We have 300 registered leisure farms in Taiwan,” says the bedimpled Calem Ngan, who works for the Taiwan Leisure Farm Association, and is our guide on this road trip.

To the uninitiated, a leisure farm is just as it sounds: Taiwan’s strong agricultural sector takes pride in the transformation of their existing farms into learning centers for various crops and produce, complete with their own accommodations that range from quaint bed and breakfast types to sprawling digs that feature an eight-story hotel with en suite onsen-style spas.

And as expected, the dining is organic and impossibly fresh, often plucked by you in their popular DIY activities (a prerequisite to be accredited as a Leisure Farm), and cooked by the owner’s daughter herself, as in the case of Fairy Story Organic Farm in Yulin, where Yi Hsuan takes me to their backyard to pick scallions, shows me how to chop it in a large table behind the main house, and roll dough to make the town’s famous Green Onion Pancakes, the main produce in the area.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-19
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Tuesday said that support from U.S. friends will not change and the U.S. will send a senior representative to attend President-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s inauguration ceremony on May 20.

MOFA’s statement came after Hank Zuber, representative in the Mississippi House, posted on his Facebook page on Feb. 19, saying that he had received a warning letter from the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Houston.

The letter says the Chinese government doesn’t expect Zuber or other representatives to attend any inaugural ceremonies or correspondence with President-elect Tsai and that adoption of resolutions in the legislative assembly and official exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwan are also not welcomed.

According to Zuber’s post, he “coauthors supporting resolutions and meets the visiting Taiwanese delegation annually.”

The MOFA said that it has noticed the unfriendly gesture made by China’s representative in Houston.     [FULL  STORY]