Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/07
By: H.H. Lu and Lillian Lin

Taipei, July 7 (CNA) A professor of China Studies at Harvard University said Tuesday at an international symposium in Taipei that it was China’s Nationalist government and not the communists who fought the Japanese for eight years.

Giving an analysis on the ROC’s eight-year (1937-1945) war of resistance against Japan and the wartime foundations of China’s emergence as a great power, William C. Kirby said that the war cost the lives of millions of Chinese citizens and that of the soldiers who died in the fighting, more than 90 percent were Nationalist troops.

“The Nationalist endurance and ultimate victory of this eight-year struggle assured the survival of China as a nation-state,” he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-07
By: CNA

Taipei Zoo’s newest giant panda, Yuan Zai, celebrated her second birthday on Monday,

with the zoo closing her enclosure for the day so that her keepers could carry out birthday celebrations and serve her a homemade cake.

Yuan Zai was born at the zoo on July 6, 2013, the first giant panda cub to be born in Taiwan. She was born through artificial insemination to parents Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, two pandas given to Taiwan in December 2008 by China. Under an agreement reached by the two sides, the panda cub is Taiwan’s to keep.

Last Saturday, Taipei Zoo threw Yuan Zai a birthday party, serving her a cake made by a local bakery. Monday’s homemade cake contains all of Yuan Zai’s favorite fruits and vegetables, including carrots, grapes, bamboo leaves, apple and pineapple. It was prepared by the panda’s keepers.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/06
By: Kelven Huang, Chen Ching-fang and Romulo Huang

Taipei, July 6 (CNA) Just days after Taiwan rejected the help of Japanese doctors,

President Ma Ying-jeou welcomed foreign medical workers to Taiwan to help treat people who sustained severe burns from dust explosions at a party at a New Taipei water park.

“Although the law prohibits foreign doctors from practicing in Taiwan, there are exceptions to these laws, especially at this most critical moment,” Ma said in a national security meeting on the aftermath of the disaster.

Upon learning of the June 27 explosions, both the Association of Medical Doctors in Asia and the Japan Medical Association offered to send 10 doctors and 50 nurses to Taiwan to provide assistance.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare declined the offer, however, because foreign doctors are not allowed to practice in Taiwan without a Taiwanese medical license.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-06
By: CNA

The still-to-be-confirmed presidential candidate for Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, Hung

Hsiu-chu, moved Sunday to clear up a quote she believes has been taken out of context, saying, “If the Republic of China does not exist, what does exist?”

In a TV interview on July 2, Hung was quoted by some media as saying that she could not talk about the existence of the Republic of China because talking about the ROC’s existence alongside the existence of the People’s Republic of China would be seen as advocating “two countries” inside a constitutionally stipulated “one China.”

Both the ROC Constitution and the PRC Constitution state that there is only one China. Controversy has centered around their overlapping sovereignty claims, as the PRC government claims sovereignty over Taiwan, an island it has never ruled, while the ROC includes the “mainland area” in a law governing relations between people on either side of the Taiwan Strait.     [FULL  STORY]

FUELING THE FIRE:A teachers’ group said Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers have failed in their duty to supervise controversial curriculum adjustments

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 07, 2015
By: Rachel Lin and Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

In an apparent attempt to petition Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) over a set

of controversial adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines, a high-school student yesterday managed to break through a police cordon in front of the ministry’s building in Taipei, but was handcuffed and detained.

Yu Teng-chieh (游騰傑), who was later released, participated in the demonstration with a group of Taoyuan high-school students rallying in front of the ministry yesterday in an ongoing protest organized by students nationwide against curricular adjustments.

Rather than Wu, K-12 Education Administration inspector Hsu Chen-hsing (許陣興) heard the grievances, but students threatened to stage another protest at dusk if the ministry failed to respond to their request by 5pm yesterday.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/05
By: Tang Pei-chun and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, July 5 (CNA) Foreign medical doctors cannot be directly involved in treating

victims of the color powder blast of June 27, a senior health official said Sunday, citing Taiwan’s law.

Taiwan’s medical centers and hospitals are allowed to invite foreign medical experts to visit Taiwan to provide consultations on how to treat the victims, but the law does not allow them to get directly involved in the treatment, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) said.

Foreign personnel could join Taiwan’s medical teams to participate in medical treatments but the services and procedures for patients should be performed and supervised by local attending physicians, Lin said, adding that foreign medical personnel can only offer low-level medical services.     [FULL  STORY]

BLOWBACK:The Chinese Nationalist Party has urged presumptive candidate Hung Hsiu-chu to tone down her remarks about cross-strait relations, party sources said

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 06, 2015
By: Shih Hsiao-kuang, Chen Yan-ting and Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters is getting impatient with unilateral

discourse on China issues from presumptive party presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and plans to speak with her soon, party sources said.

During a TV interview on Thursday, Hung said her “one China, same interpretation” formula aims to have Beijing recognize the existence of the “government” of the Republic of China (ROC), rather than the “existence” of the ROC, which would constitute a “two-state theory.”

Hung’s formula is apparently at odds with the so-called “1992 consensus” — a supposed tacit understanding between the KMT and Beijing that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-04
By: CNA

The Republic of China armed forces staged a military display on Saturday to mark the

70th anniversary of the ROC’s 1945 victory in the War of Resistance against Japan.

The event, which took place at an Army base in Hukou, Hsinchu county, was presided over by Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou and attended by senior government officials, foreign officials posted in Taiwan and many others.

In his address, Ma praised the contribution of ROC soldiers and officers who fought in the war and said they will never be forgotten.

He also added that Chiang Kai-shek led the ROC military in the eight-year war, fighting numerous battles before eventually securing victory.     [FULL  STORY]