Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/20
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, Sept. 20 (CNA) National Education Radio (NER, 教育廣播電台) and Chengsheng

Broadcasting Corp. (正聲廣播公司) were the big winners at the 50th Golden Bell Awards for the radio industry on Saturday night, with six awards each.

National Education Radio, which received 17 nominations, won for best non-pop music radio program, best children’s program and best comprehensive program.

Meanwhile, Chengsheng Broadcasting won for best community program, best radio drama and best host for a social care program.

A total of 129 shows vied for 26 awards at this year’s ceremony, which was held at National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

Former radio presenter Lee Chi-chun (李季準) received a special contribution award from Minister of Culture Hung Meng-chi (洪孟啟).     [FULL  STORY]

Three new HSR stations to include Changhua, Miaoli and Yunlin

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-20
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Ministry of Transportations and Communications (MOTC) is expected to approve the

revised rail ticket price proposed by the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC) next month, reports said Sunday.

Three new high-speed rail stations are scheduled to become operational on December 1, with Changhua and two other HSR stations in Miaoli and Yunlin counties added to its existing North-South operating line.

The public will be able to book tickets in advance bound for these new stations beginning November 4, according to the THSRC, disclosing also that ticket prices for the bullet train system are to return to levels seen before a price hike in 2013.

The Taipei-Kaohsiung HSR price will drop to NT$1,490 from the existing NT$1,630, and tickets bound to Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin from Taipei will be priced at NT$430, NT$820, and NT$930 respectively.

The high-speed rail line will be expanded from the existing eight stations to 11 beginning in December, with 954 train services per week of operation to be increased to 964, the THSRC said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-20
By: Samuel Hui and Staff Reporter

China’s military parade on Sept. 3 in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of

World War II suggests the Communist Party is changing its United Front policy towards Taiwan under the leadership of Xi Jinping.

Unlike the event held 10 years ago to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Japan and the end of China’s eight-year war of resistance, very few retired generals of the ROC armed forces were invited from across the Taiwan Strait to attend the parade this year. Very few regular Kuomintang veterans from Taiwan attended this year’s event either. All the guests from Taiwan on Sept. 3 were either leaders of pro-unification political groups, academics or Taiwanese who went to mainland China to fight Japan, Taiwan being a Japanese colony at the time.

While many speculate that the absence of KMT generals and veterans was due to

pressure from Hau Pei-tsun, former ROC premier and head of the country’s armed forces, more notable perhaps was the push by Xi Jinping to include more Taiwanese people descended from those who moved to the island before 1949 in his United Front policy. It is no longer the “mainlanders” who retreated to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 who are the key targets of Beijing’s campaign for hearts and minds but those whose ancestors settled Taiwan many generations before and who have contributed the most to forging the distinct Taiwanese identity that is now the mainstream in the democratic era.

Lien Chan became the first sitting chair of the KMT to visit mainland China in 2005. The Communist Party, then under the leadership of Hu Jintao, viewed the Taiwan issue as an unresolved problem left over from the civil war and viewed the KMT, formerly its great enemy, as its natural partner. From Beijing’s point of view, the threat was no longer that the KMT might retake the mainland and overthrow it but that the then ruling Democratic Progressive Party might succeed in convincing Taiwan’s public that the shared cultural and historical ties across the strait did not signify the existence of a shared Chinese nation.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/20
By: Wang Hung-kuo and Christie Chen

Taipei, Sept. 20 (CNA) An Indonesian cultural festival was held in New Taipei on Sunday,

with New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) saying that he hopes the event will help more Taiwanese understand the Indonesian culture.

Jointly organized by the New Taipei city government and the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office in Taipei, the festival featured dance and music performances and offered health check-ups and massages.

The festival, which took place at the New Taipei city government civic square, attracted many Indonesian workers, new immigrants and Taiwanese nationals.

Chu, who attended the festival, said Taiwan and Indonesia are important trade partners and he hopes the annual festival will help Taiwanese citizens gain a better understanding of the Indonesian culture.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-19 11:59 (GMT+8)
By: Lo Yin-chung and Staff Reporter

Political concerns are preventing Chinese experts from coming to Taiwan to assist in the

conservation of the Queen’s Head rock at Yehliu Geopark in New Taipei, our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily reports.

The head’s thinning neck is at risk of snapping from constant exposure to the temperature, moisture and sunshine of Taiwan’s north coast. Experiments adopting nanotechnology done over the past few years to reinforce the neck and delay the rate of erosion have yet to see effective results.

While attending the cross-strait tourism round-table conference at the end of July in the northern Chinese city of Yinchuan, Taiwan’s delegation, led by Tourism Bureau director-general David W J Hsieh, was surprised by the sophisticated methods used to prevent erosion at the region’s Western Xia tombs.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei was chosen as the location of the World Anti-Communist League’s first conference in 1967, with more than 230 delegates attending from around the world

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 20, 2015
By: Han Cheung  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan in Time: Sept. 21 to Sept. 27

After nearly a year of preparations, more than 230 delegates from 64 countries and

regions descended upon Taipei on Sept. 25, 1967 to take part in the World Anti-Communist League’s (WACL) inaugural conference. Also in attendance were 12 anti-communist organizations and observers.

As a founding member of the league’s predecessor, the Asian People’s Anti-Communist League (APACL), Taiwan was chosen to host the event during a meeting to discuss the APACL’s expansion in November 1966.

A recap of the conference published by WACL stated that the league decided to meet in Taiwan because it was the “most resolute in its anti-communist position” and “showed the most vigorous anti-communist spirit.”

The APACL was started in 1954 by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) leader Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), Philippine president Elpidio Quirino and South Korean president Syngman Rhee.

By November 1966, as the APACL had expanded to Australia and Africa with 27 members, it decided to go global during a meeting in Seoul.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/18
By: K.H. Wen and Lillian Lin

Taipei, Sept. 18 (CNA) The Legislative Yuan approved a revision of the regulations regarding work permits for foreign domestic caretakers Friday, allowing them, under special circumstances, to work in Taiwan for a maximum 14 years.

After completing the third reading of a revision of the foreign workers employment law, the legislature adopted the new bill to allow foreign domestic caretakers who have worked in Taiwan for 12 years a further extension of their work permits for two more years.

Under the current regulations, the work permits of foreign workers doing family nursing jobs in Taiwan are limited to a maximum of three years, but under special circumstances, the employer can apply for a further extension not exceeding a total of 12 years.

The new bill also exempts the obligation of employers to pay the Employment Security Fee — NT$2,000 per month — for nursing helpers if the employers can prove that they are classified as low-income families.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-18
By: CNA

The Alishan Forest Railway is scheduled to fully reopen Dec. 25 following completion of

repair work on the section between Alishan and Fenchihu stations that was badly damaged by Typhoon Morakot in 2009, the United Daily News reported Thursday.

The whole rail line underwent its first test run Sept. 15, the paper said. It was the first time since Typhoon Morakot that a train had entered Alishan station, it added.

Trains have not run between Alishan and Fenchihu for six years since the typhoon, so drivers need to receive strict training and be given some time to familiarize themselves with the route, the paper cited Chang Chin-sung, chief of the Alishan Forest Railway Office, as saying.

The Chiayi Forest District Office and the Alishan Forest Railway Office will jointly hold safety inspections and testing in late October, after which a seven-day stress test will be conducted, according to the paper.     [FULL  STORY]