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One of the top stories from this past week was President Ma Ying-jeou’s visit to Taiping Island on Thursday, a trip that some critics said was tantamount to "rocking the boat" in terms of sovereignty issues in the South China Sea.
Taiping Island is a part of an island chain called the Spratly Islands. While Taiwan has effective administration over the island, the island chain is also claimed in part or in whole by China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Presidential Office Spokesperson Charles Chen said Saturday that Taiping Island is the territory of the Republic of China, which is Taiwan’s official name. Chen also defended the timing of Ma’s trip, saying that the legal status of Taiping Island is facing tremendous challenges from the Philippines.
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Also this past week, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has endorsed political heavyweight Su Chia-chyuan to take over as legislature president. The DPP now has, for the first time ever, a majority in the legislature following the general election two weeks ago.
Two other DPP contenders decided to bow out of the race, including veteran politician Ker Chien-ming, who has been the DPP's legislative caucus whip for years.
Su said he hopes the legislature as a whole will approve his nomination when it meets to discuss the issue on Monday.
Meanwhile, DPP lawmaker Chen Ting-fei has said that in the new legislative session, her party aims to speed up the progress of bills governing the transfer of presidential power, political parties, and ill-gotten party assets.
She said the DPP will also push for reforms including revisions to legislative assembly rules and changes to the organization of standing committees.
Meanwhile, the main opposition party -- the Kuomintang (KMT) – says it will focus on bills related to constituents' livelihood including things like long-term care insurance. The party is also looking to push for reforms that will increase the efficiency and transparency of the legislature and the impartiality of the legislature president.
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And finally, this past week, the Aviation Safety Council has released an accident report on the crash of TransAsia Airways flight 222. Forty-eight of the 58 people on board were killed when the flight crashed in the Penghu Islands off Taiwan’s western coast on July 23, 2014.
The report listed nine of the ten reasons for the crash as being linked to pilot error. The report said that the pilots did not follow standard operating procedure, flying below the minimum descent altitude. When the pilot missed the entrance to the runway during landing, he failed to fly back around.