Taiwan News
Date: 2015-10-27
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A similar pattern emerged Monday, as Kuomintang Chairman and presidential candidate

Eric Chu went yapping about how he will prevail in the January elections under the pretext of perseverance, words that bear similar rhetoric often played out by President Ma Ying-jeou, who blew sunshine up his own backyard as he welcomed a group of visiting delegates from the Sino-American Certified Public Accountants Association (SACPAA) at the presidential office.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity and self-importance, those with narcissistic personality disorder overestimate their abilities and inflate their accomplishments, often appearing boastful and pretentious.

Not to coin Ma or Chu about as having such proclaimed narcissism, but looking at the rate the country is rolling to a decline (economically), the two party heavyweights appear to live in denial – not to mention that Ma also blabbered how his administration has done a lot to narrow the rich-poor divide over the years, as proven by figures provided by Taiwan’s Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-27
By: CNA

A former Cabinet member was ordered Tuesday to compensate Tsai Ing-wen, chair and

presidential candidate of Taiwan’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party, for making a controversial allegation against her during her 2012 presidential campaign.

Christina Liu, former head of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), was ordered to pay Tsai NT$2 million (US$61,700) in compensation in a ruling issued by the Taipei District Court. The case can be appealed.

Liu and other ruling Kuomintang politicians attacked Tsai for her role in the government’s investment in biotechnology company TaiMed Biologics in 2007, when Tsai served as the company’s chair. The project was approved by the then DPP administration while Tsai was vice premier in the first half of 2007. Tsai then stepped down from her post and became the company’s chair four months later, which the Kuomintang said violated revolving-door laws.

As the company’s chair, Tsai had her family invest in TaiMed to bridge a cash shortfall and the KMT charged that Tsai and her family made an illicit gain of at least NT$10 million (US$308,000) when it sold the stake not long afterward.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/26
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 26 (CNA) China has in recent years continued to upgrade several major weapon systems to complete preparations for a reliable fighting force that can attack Taiwan by 2020, the Ministry of National Defense has said in an annual report on Taiwan’s security.

Though China has said repeatedly that it hopes to solve disputes between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait through peaceful means, it continues to ramp up combat readiness, and its desire to take Taiwan by force has not changed despite the warming of cross-strait ties.

An advanced copy of the report, which is scheduled to be published Tuesday, said China has dramatically upgraded its early warning, command and control, battleground reconnaissance, airplane and vessel navigation, communications encryption and precise striking capability.      [FULL  STORY]

Yahoo News
Date: October, 26, 2015
By: AFP

Taiwanese marine biologists have discovered a mass of plastic bags and fishing net in

the stomach of a dead whale, underlying the dangers posed by floating ocean trash.

The 15-metre (49-foot) mature sperm whale was spotted stranded off the southern town of Tongshi on October 15.

Coastguards and scientists returned it to the ocean but three days later it was found dead around 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.

Marine biologists from a local university who conducted an autopsy over the weekend found a mass of plastic bags and fishing net sizeable enough to fill an excavator bucket.

Professor Wang Chien-ping, head of the whale research centre at National Cheng-Kung University, said the garbage was probably a major factor in the death.

Wang told AFP the whale could have suffered heart or lung disease and multiple infections.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-10-26
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

President Ma Ying-jeou denied criticisms saying the wealth disparity in Taiwan isn’t as

bad as it appears, reports said Monday.

“There are those that criticize incessantly about our widening wealth gap, but the fact is we have done a lot to narrow the rich-poor divide over the years,” Ma said during an official reception at the presidential office on visiting delegates from the Sino-American Certified Public Accountants Association (SACPAA).

The president said he has helped promote the island’s prosperity, international diplomacy and peaceful resolution across the strait since assuming office seven years ago.

Under his administration, he went on to say that the government has endeavored to bring Taiwan’s economic growth rate to 3.77 percent last year, the highest among the Asian tigers.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/26
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 26 (CNA) Taiwan has to improve its fishing practices and eliminate illegal

behavior or face trade sanctions from the European Union, environmental group Greenpeace warned Monday.

Greenpeace reported in early September that a Taiwanese fishing vessel, the Shuen De Ching (順得慶) No. 888, was illegally harvesting shark fins and throwing the bodies of the sharks into the sea near Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific.

The European Commission issued a yellow card to Taiwan on Oct. 1, warning it risked being identified as an uncooperative country in the fight against “illegal, unreported and unregulated” (IUU) fishing.

Greenpeace said Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency sent officials to check on the Shuen De Ching after the ship’s return to Taiwan and found that it had falsely recorded its fish catch, cut fins off sharks and thrown their bodies into the sea, and violated the ban on fishing for black sharks.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-26
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

The “return” of Taiwan to the Republic of China in 1945 is a historical fact, the head of

Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, Eric Chu, said Sunday, adding that he hoped the ruling and opposition parties would stop arguing over the issue.

Chu, who is also New Taipei mayor, made the statement when attending a commemorative event to mark Taiwan Retrocession Day on Oct. 25 in New Taipei.

Chu, who is the KMT candidate in the presidential election in January, told reporters that the people of Taiwan should face history together, including the period from Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945) to retrocession, when the Japanese governor-general of Taiwan turned over power to authorities of the Kuomintang (Nationalist) government of the Republic of China.

Chu also said he believed how the opposition Democratic Progressive Party views this period of history to be important. The DPP appears almost certain to claim the presidency on Jan. 16 next year and could also gain a parliamentary majority for the first time in legislative elections held on the same day.     [FULL  STORY]

‘RIDICULOUS’:One Transportation Committee member said the company holds a public tender every year, only to hire security guards from its own aviation security firm

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 27, 2015
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

Lawmakers serving on the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee yesterday froze

50 percent of the budget allocated for Taoyuan International Airport Co (TIAC), citing the company’s broken promise to not pay the head of the TPE Aviation Security Co (桃園機場保全股份有限公司).

The aviation security firm is a TIAC reinvestment and was created to handle the specific security requirements of an international airport.

When proposing its own aviation security firm, TIAC said that the firm’s president and chairman would not receive compensation. However, lawmakers found that this was not the case.

The aviation security firm is managed by Hu Ching-fu (胡景富), a former chief secretary of the National Immigration Agency who is the company’s president and acting chairman.     [FULL  STORY]