American Buddhist Net

July 30, 2008

TAIPEI - FOUR Taiwanese men who drifted at sea for five days after their fishing boat sank were rescued on Wednesday, Taiwan's coast guard said.

The fishermen were pulled from the water by a Chinese fishing boat off Peiao in China's southeastern Fujian province, the coast guard said, adding that the men were hospitalised in the mainland.

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July 29, 2008

TAIPEI (Taiwan) - TAIWANESE police have arrested 12 Chinese men for posing as Buddhist monks to swindle money.

The Immigration Bureau says that wearing monks' robes, the Chinese raised about 1 million New Taiwan dollars (S$44,722) during their 10-day stay in Taiwan.

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Sat, 19 Jul 2008

Taipei - Taiwan police have cracked a criminal ring that has been swindling money by encouraging people to donate Buddhist gowns to change their fates, a newspaper said Sunday. The five members of the ring were indicted Saturday on charges of fraud by the Taipei Prosecutors' Office, the China times reported.

The five defendants claimed to be able to tell other people's fortunes and to change their fates.

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The Hualien-based relief organization sent cash cards and goods for daily use to homeless families in the states hardest hit by recent flooding

Saturday, Jul 05, 2008

Taiwan’s Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation launched a large-scale delivery of daily necessities to flood-hit Midwestern US states to help victims get through the difficult times, a spokesman for the foundation said yesterday.

The delivery this weekend is part of the foundation’s efforts to help ease the suffering of those left homeless by flooding, who are either waiting to return home or wondering where their future shelters will be, the spokesman said.

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July 4, 2008

TAOYUAN (Taiwan) - TAIWANESE lion dancers and singers in traditional costumes on Friday gave a warm welcome to the first Chinese tourists to arrive here on a direct regular flight in nearly six decades.

Mr Liu Shaoyong, the chairman of China Southern Airlines who personally piloted the flight from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to Taiwan, gave a triumphant thumbs-up as he landed the Airbus A330.

Jets of water then doused the plane, in a traditional ceremony that symbolises washing the dust from travellers.

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Jonathan Adams
Published: July 3, 2008

TAIPEI: Outside a popular tourist site in Taipei on a baking-hot morning recently, Gao Mingzhu, 56, a visitor from Beijing, took a break in the shade and posed as his tour group companion took a picture.

Six meters, or 20 feet away, 10 members of Falun Gong, the spiritual group outlawed as an "evil cult" in China, were greeting the newly arrived Chinese tourists and trying to pass out promotional flyers and newspaper articles.

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2008-07-01 08:44:10 -

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Chinese tourists arriving in Taiwan this week may meet face to face with followers of the spiritual group Falun Gong but tourism authorities will try to prevent any possible confrontations, an official said Tuesday.

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Tue, 01 Jul 2008

Taipei - A Taiwan Buddhist monk has been sentenced to 80 days in jail for masturbating in public, a newspaper said Tuesday. Chen Poh-ming, 42, masturbated in front of a female guide on February 16 while visiting the Paper Museum in Puli, central Taiwan, the United Daily News reported. He performed the lewd act while wearing a yellow monk's robe.

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By Wu Cenxi
Epoch Times Taiwan Staff
Jun 29, 2008

TAIPEI, Republic of China—Beijing has recently put pressure on Taiwan to remove displays about the persecution of Falun Gong and repression in Tibet from popular tourist attractions.

They hope to accommodate more than 3,000 mainland tourists starting in July, but lawmakers called on the government not to self-censor.

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The China Post news staff
Jun 24, 2008

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Dr. Chuang Kuo-jung, a Chengchi University assistant professor who bad mouthed Ma Ying-jeou and his deceased father in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, changed his mind again yesterday, announcing he would go to a Buddhist temple to repent on Tuesday.

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06/22/2008
MELISSA WEAVER

Tzu Chi disaster relief volunteers always bow in respect when handing blankets to disaster victims, who "teach us to appreciate what we have," said volunteer Sherry Shih.

The Buddhist nonprofit group has grown to more than 5 million supporters worldwide with chapters in 30 countries since its inception in Taiwan 42 years ago. With almost 10,000 supporters in the San Francisco Bay Area, the organization is looking for volunteers in Santa Cruz to establish a local chapter.

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Sunday, Jun 22, 2008

A total of 14,841 temples and churches were officially registered with the government as of the end of last year, statistics compiled by the Ministry of the Interior showed. Some 78 percent of the country’s officially registered 11,651 temples, or 9,137 temples, were Taoist, while close to 20 percent were Buddhist, statistics showed. In terms of cities and counties, Tainan County had the highest number of religious buildings, with 1,234 temples and churches, followed by Kaohsiung County with 1,135 and Pingtung County with 1,067. As of the end of last year, there were 3,190 churches across Taiwan, with 2,468 Christian churches and 688 Catholic churches, the same tallies showed. Taipei City had the most churches with 428.

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June 19, 2008
By KEITH BRADSHER and EDWARD WONG

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan called on Wednesday for a rapid expansion of economic relations between Taiwan and mainland China over the next year or two that would go far beyond the weekend charter flights and increased tourism announced last Friday.

Mr. Ma said he wanted broad access to the mainland market for Taiwanese financial services businesses, an end to double taxation by government agencies in Taipei and Beijing and the removal of investment restrictions.

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June 16, 2008
By Benjamin Kang Lim, Reuters

BEIJING -- A Chinese economist whose contrarian views have previously caught the leadership's eye has suggested Beijing revise its "one country, two systems" formula for Taiwan and consider a federation or confederation.

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PRAISE INDEED: The Tibetan spiritual head said that, despite obstacles, he was keen to visit Taiwan again and lauded the nation’s development and democracy

By Loa Iok-sin
June 16, 2008

The Dalai Lama gestures during an interview with the “Taipei Times” at his residence in Dharamsala, India, on June 6. PHOTO: LOA IOK-SIN, TAIPEI TImeS
From politics to the Olympics, human rights to life during half-a-century of exile, the Dalai Lama shared his views on a variety of topics during an interview with the Taipei Times at his residence in Dharamsala, India, on the morning of June 6.

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By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING, June 13 (Reuters) - China and Taiwan signed a landmark deal on Friday to launch regular flights between the long-time rivals as politics was put aside in favour of practicalities in the first such talks in almost a decade.

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Compare to Tibet-China talks which have gone nowhere and appear to be no more than a delaying tactic used by Beijing. ABN
___________________

BEIJING, China (AP) -- Negotiators from Taiwan and China launched their first formal talks in almost a decade Thursday, aiming to forge agreements on charter flights and tourism to build confidence between the long-estranged rivals.

Taiwan's delegation Thursday also planned to discuss what additional help the island could provide for China's earthquake relief efforts. The talks are scheduled to run through Friday at a state guesthouse in western Beijing.

The 19-member Taiwanese team is being led by Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the quasi-governmental Straits Exchange Foundation, and includes two vice Cabinet ministers -- the highest-ranking Taiwanese officials ever to participate in bilateral talks.

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Mark O’Neill
04 June 2008

Hsing Yun seeks to make reunification Buddhism’s sixth precept – at least for Beijing

china-hsing During a crowded six-day visit to China, the chairman of Taiwan’s Kuomintang met many important people including President Hu Jintao, Politburo Standing Committee member Jia Qinglin -- and an 81-year-old Buddhist monk named Hsing Yun, one of the world’s most influential Buddhist leaders and a man courted by politicians in both Taipei and Beijing.

Beijing in particular is promoting Hsing Yun, who welcomed the Kuomintang leader Wu Poh-hsiung, the Kuomintang leader, to his sprawling temple and library complex next to a lake and bamboo forest in Yixing, near Nanjing.

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Wed May 28, 2008
From Terry Frieden

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Chinese woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping a spy provide the Chinese government with U.S. military secrets about arms sales to Taiwan.

Yu Sin Kang, a Chinese citizen living legally in the United States, admitted serving as an intermediary for the delivery of classified information from agent Tai Shen Kuo to the Chinese government.

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Thursday, 29 May, 2008

TAIPEI: Taiwan police are investigating the mysterious deaths of three Thai workers in their sleep but suspect they died from eating raw meat rather than being possessed by ghosts, as their fellow workers fear, a paper said yesterday.

The three male workers died in the past month, causing fear among their fellow 400 Thai workers in the Tong Yang Group in Tainan City in southern Taiwan, some of whom suspect the trio were possessed by ghosts, the United Daily News reported.

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Tue May 27, 2008

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwan man grieving over the death of his girlfriend climbed inside a morgue freezer to be with her and was only pulled out alive half an hour later, media and an official said on Tuesday.

The 41-year-old man was discovered on Monday when workers detected an unusually high temperature in the freezer and realized the hatch was not securely fastened.

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By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: May 21, 2008

A Nationalist, Ma Ying-jeou, took office as Taiwan’s new president on Tuesday and used his inaugural speech to repeat campaign promises to seek closer economic relations with mainland China and an eventual peace accord.

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By Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI, May 15 (Reuters) - Taiwan, normally hostile to China, has offered its earthquake-hit neighbour one of its biggest outpourings of aid to demonstrate gratitude for help it received when it suffered a similar disaster in 1999.

Taiwan's government is offering T$2 billion ($71 million), so much that one lawmaker is questioning the source of the funds, for relief in China's Sichuan province, where a magnitude 7.9 quake on Monday has killed at least 15,000.

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15-05-2008
By Manote Tripathi

Taiwanese anaesthetist Wen Yung Ho quit the medical profession a decade ago, at age 36, believing he could help more sick people as a novelist. He was probably right.

Ho's name is now known in almost every household in Taiwan, and most of his books hit the top of the bestseller chart.

"...In the real world, bad things exist, and you have to face reality. My point is that mainstream values sometimes lead nowhere. Technology, wealth and power don't always guarantee happiness. It's easy to lose your original intent as a doctor amid the lure of wealth and power.

"The most important thing about being a doctor is helping people," Ho said. "But if you're a doctor and you seek only to earn the money or acquire power, you'll be an unhappy doctor."

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Wed, 14 May 2008

Taipei - Several Taiwan lawmakers on Wednesday urged China to accept Taipei's search and rescue teams, saying China should not reject overseas aid workers for political reasons. "The most important thing now is to rescue survivors. We hope China can put aside political considerations and accept Taiwan's search and rescue teams," Pan Meng-an, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said.

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