Fiocus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/31
By: Wang Cheng-chung, Chen Chun-hua and Jay Chen

Taipei, May 31 (CNA) Resorting to the same tactics that the other main party adopted when it was in opposition, lawmakers of the Kuomintang (KMT) occupied the podium of the legislative chamber Tuesday to block Premier Lin Chuan (林全) from delivering his first policy report since coming to office.

Lin has to sign a pledge not to lift a ban on U.S. pork containing leanness-enhancing drugs or food products from nuclear affected areas in Japan before KMT lawmakers would allow him to speak, said Lin Te-fu (林德福), a KMT caucus whip.

The premier was due to outline the new government’s policies in an oral report to the Legislative Yuan after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power on May 20. In the presidential and legislative elections in January, the DPP also won a majority in the legislature for the first time.

When the DPP was in opposition over the past eight years, its lawmakers successfully blocked the ruling KMT from passing laws or the premiers of the time from making their report on several occasions.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-27
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Kuomintang Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu made a loss of NT$420,000 (US$12,900) during her aborted presidential election campaign last year, according to figures released by the Control Yuan Friday.

She originally passed all the tests to become the KMT candidate in this year’s January 16 presidential election, including primaries, but her poor performance in most opinion polls was one of the reasons named for the party to replace her with its then-chairman, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Liluan Chu, at a congress late last year. He nevertheless went on to suffer a devastating defeat against the opposition leader, Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.

Chu resigned from the KMT leadership after the debacle and party members elected Hung to succeed him.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/20
By: C.L Chen and Flor Wang

Taipei, May 20 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) showed maximum flexibility and good will on cross-Taiwan Strait ties based on the existing reality in her inaugural address, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Friday.

To demonstrate her determination to deal with cross-strait affairs pragmatically, the president said she wanted to develop consistent, predictable and sustainable relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the MAC said in a statement issued in response to comments by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) earlier Friday.

Although Tsai pledged in the speech that she will continue to promote stable and peaceful ties with China, the TAO expressed dissatisfaction with her comments.

While noting that Tsai said the two sides “arrived at various joint acknowledgments and understandings” in 1992, the TAO said she did not clearly recognize the “1992 consensus” or agree to its core meaning.     [FULL  STORY]

NO ‘CONSENSUS’:The president acknowledged talks in 1992 found common ground, but did not explicitly endorse the ‘1992 consensus’ as Beijing demanded

Taipei Times
Date: May 21, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Transforming the nation’s economic structure; improving the social safety net; social fairness

and justice; regional peace and stability and cross-strait relations; and the diplomatic and global challenges Taiwan faces were the five main points President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) talked about in her inauguration speech yesterday.

Acceptance of the so-called “1992 consensus,” which Beijing had been trying to browbeat Tsai into acknowledging in the speech, was not mentioned.

After Tsai and Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) were sworn in at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, Tsai delivered her inauguration speech, first lauding “the democratic institutions of this country, which have allowed us to accomplish Taiwan’s third transition of political power through a peaceful electoral process.”

Democracy and the people were the main themes throughout the speech that followed.

The future of the nation lies with the younger generation and “to change young people’s predicament is to change the country’s predicament,” she said.     [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: May 20, 2016
By: J.R. Wu AND Faith Hung

Taiwan’s new president urged China on Friday to “drop the baggage of history” in an

otherwise conciliatory inauguration speech that Beijing’s Communist Party rulers had been watching for any move towards independence.

President Tsai Ing-wen was sworn in with Taiwan’s export-driven economy on the ropes and China, which views the self-ruled island as its own, looking across the Taiwan Strait for anti-Beijing sentiment that could further sour economic ties.

Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has traditionally favored independence, won parliamentary and presidential elections by a landslide in January and takes over after eight years under China-friendly Nationalist Ma Ying-jeou.

Tsai, Taiwan’s first female president, said Taiwan would play a responsible role and be a “staunch guardian of peace” in its relationship with China.

“Cross-Strait relations have become an integral part of building regional peace and collective security,” she told thousands outside the presidential office.

“The two governing parties across the Strait must set aside the baggage of history and engage in positive dialogue for the benefit of the people on both sides.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/15
By: Chao Li-yan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) enjoys the highest

popularity among the nation’s top 12 political leaders, followed by Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te (賴清德), according to an opinion poll released Sunday.

In the survey conducted by the Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR) aimed at determining the “favorability” of politicians, Chen took the top title as in last year’s poll by scoring a favorability rating of 76.5 percent, while Lai came in second with 67.9 percent.

Coming in third was President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) with 64.8 percent, followed by Premier Simon Chang (張善政) with 56.6 percent, and Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) with 48.3 percent.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s approval ratings have dropped in the polls, but in an interview with Chinese-language ‘Liberty Times’ (the ‘Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) staff reporter Chen Hsiao-yi, Ko said that while his policies are headed in the right direction, their priority should be rethought, which would help boost his ratings

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 18, 2016

Liberty Times (LT): What are your thoughts about the recent drop in your

approval ratings?

Ko Wen-je (柯文哲): It is only to be expected. We are a group of su ren (素人, “plain people,” ie, not politicians by profession) and that the administrative “team” was hastily slapped together. The upside is the diverseness of the group, but the downside is that such diversity takes time to develop into a cohesive whole.

Among the local governments’ administrative teams, we have one that spans both sides of the political spectrum, including deep-blue and deep-green supporters. As such, while Taipei could be said to be the least affected by political strife across party lines, the city’s administrative team has also spent a lot of time in our first year “meshing” and “engaging.”

Politics requires professionalism. As an individual with no prior political experience, I appointed too many individuals like me as bureau and department heads. The result was that while we are on the right track, but we did not implement our policies in the right order.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President-elect Tsai Ing-wen on Friday announced the

choices for ministers of the Mainland Affairs Council, Foreign Affairs, and National Defense.

Both Tsai and Premier-designate Lin Chuan, who attended the news conference, will be sworn in on May 20 with the new government team.

Katherine Chang, a veteran diplomat and chairwoman of the Coordination Council for North American Affairs, will head the Mainland Affairs Council, the Cabinet body in charge of China policies. Tsai started her steep political ascent in the same position in the administration of President Chen Shui-bian. Chang represented Taiwan in several countries, including Great Britain, Australia and the Netherlands.

David Lee, a veteran of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of the Kuomintang administrations of the 1990s, will take over as foreign minister, Tsai said. His deputy would be Soochow University professor Wu Chih-chung, the French-educated son of former Vice Premier Wu Rong-I, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]