“SLAP IN THE FACE’:Tseng Wen-sheng said it is the KMT’s fault Kaohsiung is not a high-tech hub like Taipei, as the party designated the municipality a center of heavy industry

Taipei Times
Date:  Apr 13, 2015
By: Ko You-hao and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Kaohsiung City Government officials yesterday rebutted Premier Mao Chih-kuo’s (毛治國)

comments that southern Taiwan lacked job opportunities in the high-tech sector, saying the central government must shoulder some of the blame.

When visiting the Kaohsiung Software Park and experiencing first-hand some of the products yesterday, Mao said that a friend living in southern Taiwan told him that his son had recently gained a university degree but was unable to find a job in the technology industry in southern Taiwan.

The friend said that if his son looked for a job in northern Taiwan, he would have to dip into his retirement fund to help, Mao said, adding that his friend asked whether the government would be able to do something about the matter.

Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Hsu Li-ming (許立明), the city’s Economic Development Bureau Director Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) and a number of southern Taiwan university deans, present at the talk, appeared unhappy on hearing the comment.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-12
By: Chuang Shu-chung and Staff Reporter

A research paper on a battery that can be quickly recharged, penned by a team of researchers

from Taiwan, China and the United States, was recently published in Nature, but reports on opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait painted different stories of the breakthrough.

Stanford University, Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and China’s Hunan University all announced the publication of the research published by the journal on April 6.

According to the research published in Nature, the aluminum-based battery developed by the team can be fully charged in one minute and can withstand more than 7,500 cycles without capacity decay.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/12
By: Chen Shu-fen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 12 (CNA) Three blind elementary school students completed all challenges in the Little Ironman triathlon games held in the central Taiwan municipal city of Taichung Sunday, winning media applause.

The 12-year-old Yang Tzu-ling (楊紫羚), 10-year-old Lin Ssu-chia (林思嘉) and seven-year-old Liang Yu-han (梁瑜涵) finished the events of cycling, swimming and running that were specially designed for blind athletes in the Shen Shih Cup (神獅盃) Little Ironman Triathlon, organized by the Lions Club of Shen’gang District of the city and the district’s Athletic Association.

The triathlon was attended by more than 200 elementary school students for challenges including a 5-kilometer cycling race, a 1.3-kilometer running race, and a swimming race that is divided into three groups: 50 meters for the 5th-6th graders, 25 meters for the 3rd-4th graders, and 15 meters for the 1st-2nd graders.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-11
By: CNA

Chao Tien-lin, director of Taiwan’s major opposition Democratic Progressive Party’s

Department of Chinese Affairs, returned to Taiwan on Friday after a trip to China during which he had the chance to meet Beijing’s top negotiator with Taipei.

Chao told the media that the trip was very successful and that it would be good to have more exchanges with China.

He said he will brief DPP chair Tsai Ing-wen on the visit.

Chao, who is also a legislator, made the trip in his capacity as a board member of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), a semi-official intermediary body dealing with cross-Taiwan Strait affairs in the absence of official ties.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-11
By: Staff Reporter

Jason Hu, vice chair of our parent group Want Want China Times and former Taichung mayor,

was named the winner of Visionary of the Year for 2015 by New York-based think tank the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) on Thursday.

He will accept the award and deliver a keynote speech at the 2015 Intelligent Community Awards Dinner during the think tank’s annual summit to be held from June 8 to 12 in Toronto, Canada. During which, mayors, chief administrative officers, chief information officers and economic development officers from around the world will exchange ideas on using information and communication technology to build a prosperous and sustainable community.

The former mayor of Taiwan’s central city Taichung won the award for increasing the city’s broadband accessibility, generating a workforce with digital and vocational skills by fostering alliances between universities and high-tech industries and building the Calligraphy Greenway that has become a center for culture, arts and commerce as well as the National Taichung Theater which is an opera house and a performing arts center. His effort transformed Taichung from an industrial city to a place with a vibrant culture and sustainable growth and he helped the city to win the 2013 Intelligent Community of the Year, said ICF.     [FULL  STORY]

The Straits Times
Date: Apr 10, 2015
By: Vishal Ranjan And Sonu Trivedi For The Straits Times

How is China to deal with Taiwan and Hong Kong, the site of spurts of pro-democracy

protests? One key approach is to put people, not politics, first

In the latter half of last year, the Communist Party of China, the assorted political elite and the wider strategic community could not have remained unperturbed by the turn of events in their own backyard.

In a way somewhat reminiscent of Tiananmen, Hong Kong’s central business district fell siege to a wave of pro-democracy protests spearheaded by the student community – and joined by the local citizenry – paralysing daily business and non-business activities alike.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-10
By: CNA

One hawksbill sea turtle and six green sea turtles were released into the sea Wednesday by

their caregivers at a sea turtle shelter in Penghu, an island group off the southwestern coast of Taiwan, drawing nearly 200 spectators.

The sea turtles were all rescued and brought to the Penghu Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center at different times over the years after being found injured or in poor health, according to center staff.

The hawksbill turtle, for example, was taken to the center in April 2009 after its shell was penetrated by a speargun, they said.     [FULL  STORY]