英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

Ahead of preparatory fishery talks, negotiators from Taiwan and Japan signed two unrelated agreements today. Analysts interpreted it as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the more sensitive talks tomorrow, but officials said the close timing was simply coincidental. 

Taiwanese and Japanese officials will discuss fishery rights tomorrow. Before then, the chairman of the Japan Interchange Association met with Liao Liou-yi, head of Taiwan’s Association of East Asian Relations. They signed an agreement to mutually recognize each other’s inspections of machinery and electronics goods and an MOU on industrial cooperation. Analysts think the timing shows that the two sides want to ease tensions following the recent controversy over the disputed Tiaoyutai Islands. 

Liao Liou-yi
Association of East Asian Relations
Your question overanalyzes. This wasn’t the meaning. It just happened that the 37th trade meeting took place at the end of November. It was the original plan. We are working hard to sign MOUs and MRAs, and the timing of the two unrelated events just happened to overlap.

Fishermen in Taiwan are most concerned about fishing talks, specifically where they will be allowed to fish. For an answer, they’ll have to wait for another day.

The cabinet has announced that second-generation health insurance will begin from Jan. 1. At that time the insurance rate will fall to 4.91 percent, though some people will have to pay an additional premium on certain kinds of supplementary income. 

Second-generation health insurance begins next year. At that time, the insurance rate will fall from 5.17 to 4.91 percent, reducing revenues by nearly NT$21 billion. The government will recoup the shortfall by levying a supplementary premium of 2 percent on income outside of regular salaries. The Department of Health gave an initial estimate of premiums rising for 3 million people. The remaining 85 percent of the population will pay a lower amount.

Su Ching-chuan
KMT Legislator
The premium calculation base should be expanded, so it will include rental income, interest income and dividends. What’s wrong with that?

Eva Teng
NHI Civic Surveillance Alliance

Experts slammed the Next Media sale today at a public hearing. Outside the venue, protesters urged the government to block the sale. 

After a deal was reached to sell Next Media, the Fair Trade Commission held a public hearing. Experts turned out, fearful of a monopoly. They said Want Want China Times Group owner Tsai Eng-meng should not be allowed to gain a stake in Apple Daily, the main newspaper unit of Next Media. 

Jang Show-ling
NTU Economics Professor
In name, Tsai Shao-chung purchased a stake in the Apple Daily. In fact, it was Tsai Eng-meng who put forward the money. It will be his. He will become a cross-media monster.

The public hearing was lively. It was even more animated outside.

Yen won’t be going to jail for the first time, having been locked up in 2008 for illegal possession of firearms. Here’s a more in-depth look at this man who has been arrested as an organized crime figure, elected repeatedly to public office, and emerged as the popular leader of one of Taiwan’s most famous Mazu temples. 

This is a rare glimpse of Yen Chin-piao relaxing during his 2012 re-election campaign. He is more often thought of as a behind-the-scenes power broker at the Legislature.

In 2007 during a review of a bill, when DPP lawmakers surrounded the speaker’s podium and threw their shoes around in anger, Yen protected Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng and harshly criticized the DPP’s actions. 

But he has also made mistakes. In a vote of no-confidence against the Cabinet earlier this year, he voted for the measure by mistake, causing an uproar that forced him to apologize to the head of the Cabinet, Premier Sean Chen.

Born in 1960, Yen quickly emerged as an organized crime leader in Taichung. In 1987, he was arrested as part of an anti-crime campaign and sent to Green Island to be reformed. He entered politics after being released and won election as a ward chief in 1990, then became a Taichung County councilman, and eventually council speaker before getting elected as a legislator in 2001. He has been a lawmaker since then and has never lost an election.

Legislator Yen Chin-piao’s lengthy legal battle came to an end Wednesday. He was sentenced to 42 months in jail for spending public funds in nightclubs while serving as Taichung County Council speaker in the late 1990s. 

The verdict was final, although Yen’s lawyer said he will file a last-gasp extraordinary appeal. Yen will lose his legislative seat, to be filled through a by-election in his district within three months. Yen’s eldest son Yen Kuan-heng 顏寬恆has announced his intention to run. Also convicted in the same case was incumbent Taichung Council speaker Chang Ching-tang, and the speaker’s seat will also be up for grabs.

無黨籍立委顏清標在擔任台中縣議長期間，與當時的副議長、現任台中縣議長張清堂用公款喝花酒，昨天被最高法院判決兩人各3年6月徒刑、褫奪公權3年定讞。

全案定讞後，顏清標喪失立法委員資格，三個月內將辦理補選投票，顏清標之子顏寬恆將「代父出征」參選。張清堂也被解職，台中縣議長一職將進行改選。顏清標委任律師表示，將聲請提起非常上訴。