Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/10
By: Yang Shu-min and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 10 (CNA) The European Commission is concerned about the

illegal fishing practices of a Taiwanese fishing ship, the head of the Fisheries Agency said Saturday.

Tsay Tzu-yaw (蔡日耀), director-general of the agency, said the EU 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.

He said the EU wanted to learn about the measures the agency will take to discipline the ship involved in the illegal practices.

At issue was a Pingtung-registered vessel, the Shuen De Ching No. 888, which Greenpeace reported as having illegally harvested shark fins and thrown the bodies of the sharks into the sea near Papua New Guinea in early September.     [FULL  STORY]

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

Maintaining the status quo in cross-Taiwan Strait relations has become a

consensus in Taiwan, President Ma Ying-jeou is expected to tell the people of Taiwan later Saturday in a speech during an annual National Day ceremony in Taipei.

The consensus proves once again that his administration’s policy on China over the past seven years has become the mainstream in public opinion, he says, disputing criticism that his policy has sold out Taiwan’s interests in favor of China.

In the speech, the president compares running the country to building a highway.

“Our progress may not have been quick enough but our direction is correct, our planning thorough and our foundation solid so that those who come after us can make big strides as soon as they get on the road,” Ma says.     [FULL  STORY]

‘RESOLUTE, BUT RATIONAL’:The KMT presidential candidate told supporters to demonstrate in a respectful manner after violence erupted during Wednesday’s protest

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 11, 2015
By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Supporters of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung

Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday gathered outside KMT headquarters in Taipei.

Hung addressed the crowd after she returned from Double Ten National Day celebrations held outside the Presidential Office Building, saying that she “will not back down” amid rumors she is to be replaced as the party’s presidential candidate.

More than 200 supporters started to gather in front of KMT headquarters in the morning, donning red and waving the Taiwan national flag.

The congregation was said to be organized by Lin Cheng-chieh (林正杰), the head of Hung’s “out-of-the-party supporters’ club,” who is also a democracy activist-turned pro-unification commentator and former Chinese Unity Promotion Party chairman.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/09
By: Shen Ju-feng and Maria Tsai

Taipei Oct. 9 (CNA) A leisure farm in eastern Taiwan will launch a series of tourism events that feature weddings between scarecrows and wooden “husbands,” starting in mid-October.

The idea emerged after Toucheng Leisure Farm (頭城農場) in Yilan County recycled several trees blown down by recent typhoons and turned them into wooden “men,” some of which were used to give visitors directions and others as art installations.

Because wooden “men” and scarecrows symbolize the spirit of frugality in rural areas, the leisure farm said it decided to hold weddings for them every weekend starting on Saturday, not only to promote local tourism but also to advocate the importance of recycling and reusing resources.

The weddings will be held in green rice paddies, and the bride, which is made of straw, will walk through a carpet composed of wood dust with the help of the leisure farm’s staff and be given away by a group of people to the groom.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-09
By: CNA

Japanese media reported Thursday that Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman and

presidential candidate of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday both denied a media report of an “unexpected encounter” between them at a Tokyo restaurant earlier in the day.

Jiji Press reported that Abe and Tsai had met by chance at a restaurant near the prime minister’s residence at lunch time Thursday.

Abe, his parliamentarian brother Nobuo Kishi, and governor Tsugumasa Muraoka of their hometown Yamaguchi Prefecture had a 90-minute lunch together, and Tsai “very likely” had an “unexpected encounter” with Abe during that period, Jiji said.

The speculations were fueled by Tsai’s meeting with Kishi and Muraoka during her visit to Yamaguchi the previous day.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/09
By: Chiu Chun-chin and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Oct. 9 (CNA) A devotee to the national flag of the Republic of China living in the northern municipality of Taoyuan has decided to continue this year an annual flag-raising ritual he has maintained for two decades, despite damage caused by two typhoons in the past two months.

Typhoon Soudelor, which hit Taiwan in early August, and typhoon Dujuan in late September, blew down scaffolding he had installed to hold the national flags in places close to his home in Pingzhen District and swept away thousands of other flags in the area’s streets, 75-year-old Chang Lao-wang (張老旺) said Friday.

The damage at first frustrated him, making him want to give up the tradition of holding his flag-raising ceremony on Oct. 10, the ROC’s National Day, Chang said.     [FULL  STORY]