Monthly Archives: April 2016

Taipei Mayor Ko vows to listen to voices of the people as supporters dwindle

The hina Post
Date: April 9, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI — Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) vowed Friday to listen to the

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je listens to a borough chief at a seminar for the mayor and Taipei borough chiefs in Taipei on Thursday, April 7. Ko vowed Friday to listen to the voices of the people after a new opinion poll showed the number of Ko’s detractors exceeding his backers for the first time, a city government spokesman said. (CNA)

voices of the people, a city government spokesman said, after a new opinion poll showed the number of Ko’s detractors exceeding his backers for the first time.

The mayor said he “will listen to the voices of residents, make improvements on things that have not been done well and step up communications with the people,” according to spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) in response to the poll.

Lin said the latest poll showed Taipei residents responding positively to traffic improvements, and promised that the city will humbly deal with other issues on which residents expressed dissatisfaction.

TVBS’s most recent poll conducted in the first few days of April showed 38 percent of respondents expressing satisfaction with Ko’s performance against 42 percent who expressed dissatisfaction and 20 percent who had no opinion. [FULL STORY]

MRT Random Killer Apologizes and Criticizes Taiwan Prison System

The News Lens
Date: 2016/04/08
Translated and compiled by Shin-wei Chang

Cheng Chieh, a 21-year-old who went on a killing spree on the MRT leaving four dead and 22 injured last May, was sentenced to the death penalty in both the first and second instance respectively by a district court and the Taiwan High Court.

The decision of the Supreme Court would determine Cheng Chieh’s sentence, so the court held an appeal hearing for him to examine his opinions on April 7. This is the first case for a defendant to attend an appeal hearing.

Cheng’s three-point statement

In the debate, Cheng first apologized twice to the victims and their families. He said that he would not forgive the murderer if he were the family of the victims, so he did not expect to be forgiven.

Following his apology, Cheng expressed his appreciation for the Supreme Court giving him the chance to speak out. He said he wants to be executed as soon as possible, but he chose to cooperate because his lawyer has been working very hard for his case.

Finally, Cheng criticized the Agency of Corrections for being an “agency of punishment,” and expressed his dissatisfaction with the prison system. Cheng said that most criminals are discriminated by the society, and fail to find jobs after being released. [FULL STORY]

Vice President-elect visits ex-President Chen

Kaohsiung mayor calls for pardon

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-08
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Vice President-elect Chen Chien-jen visited ex-President Chen Shui-bian Friday afternoon after Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu called for a pardon for the former head of state, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption.

The retired president, who ran the country from 2000 to 2008, left prison on medical parole in January last year after six years in detention and has since been living in Kaohsiung with his family. The new vice president, who will take office on May 20, visited him at home for an hour in the company of the mayor, reports said.

While the three politicians happen to share the same surname, they are not related. [FULL STORY]

Builders of collapsed Tainan housing complex indicted

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/07
By: Yang Ssu-jui and S.C. Chang

Taipei, April 7 (CNA) Prosecutors indicted five private builders of a housing

(CNA file photo)

complex in Tainan Thursday on charges of “genocide through professional negligence” after 115 residents of their jerry-built houses died in a magnitude 6.3 earthquake on Feb. 6.

Family members of the victims from the collapsed building complained that the maximum punishment for such a fatal crime would be just 5 years behind bars, with one saying she could not forgive the unconscionable builders and irresponsible officials — none of whom were charged — and hoped they would be jailed for the rest of their lives.

After investigating the causes of the deadly incident, chief prosecutor Chen Chien-hung (陳建弘) of Tainan District Prosecutors Office said Lin Ming-hui (林明輝), the owner of Weiguan Corporation which built the Weiguan Jinlong housing complex in 1993, and four others responsible for designing and building the housing units, were suspected of professional negligence leading to death and injury. [FULL STORY]

Braves win against Pure Youth, level series at two each

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 08, 2016
By Paul Huang / Contributing reporter

Behind seven points by Liu Sheng-yao in the game’s final minute of overtime,

The Fubon Braves’ Liu Sheng-yao, center, celebrates with his teammates after their win against Pure Youth Construction at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City yesterday. Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times

the Fubon Braves outfought top-seeded Pure Youth Construction to win 86-81 at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to take Game 4 of their series.

“The shots were there for me, so I took them and did not worry about anything else,” Liu said after an electrifying effort to breathe new life into his team.

Another loss to the Builders would have put them in the dire position of being down 3-1 in the best-of-seven semi-final series, but the result left it at two wins each.

Despite coughing up a six-point lead at the half with a dismal third quarter, Pure Youth had a chance to put the game away late in the fourth when Lin Chin-bang stole an inbound pass with 15.9 seconds remaining in regulation. Lin seemed well on his way to an easy go-ahead score, but the normally sure-handed forward blew a golden opportunity by missing the uncontested layup, sending the game into an extra session. [FULL STORY]

Taipei 101, E-Da World work with WeChat on mobile payment

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-07
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, April 7 (CNA) Taipei 101, the landmark skyscraper in Taipei’s Xinyi District, and E-Da World, one of the largest shopping malls in southern Taiwan, have been working with China’s WeChat on mobile payments, the two shopping centers said Thursday.

Since WeChat, or Weixin as it is known in China, is the flagship mobile social messaging app of Chinese e-commerce operator Tencent Holdings Ltd., the cooperation with the messaging service provider’s payment platform WeChat Payment is expected to attract Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, the two shopping centers said.

According to Taipei 101 and E-Da World, WeChat has 697 million active users. On the back of such a large customer base, business opportunities through the cooperation with the WeChat Payment platform, which is a peer-to-peer transfer and electronic bill payment system, is expected to be tremendous. [FULL STORY]

Taiwanese-American astronomer says interest keeps her going

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/07
By Rita Cheng, Hsu Chih-wei and Y.F. Low

Washington, April 6 (CNA) Ma Chung-pei (馬中珮), a Taiwanese-American

(Photo courtesy of Ma Chung-pei)

astronomer who played a key role in the recent discovery of a supermassive black hole, said Wednesday that being able to keep her curiosity and interest alive gives her patience and perseverance in her research.

Ma made the comments after the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced earlier in the day that a team of astronomers led by Ma has discovered a black hole weighing as much as 17 billion suns in an unlikely place — the center of a galaxy in a sparsely populated area of space.

While finding a gigantic black hole in a massive galaxy in a crowded area of the universe is to be expected — like running across a skyscraper in Manhattan — it would be much less likely to find one in one of the universe’s “small towns,” NASA said in a statement.mass. [FULL STORY]

Consumer price index rises 2 percent

FOOD INFLATION:The DGBAS said a rise in food costs was because of poor weather in February, and said that a core CPI of 0.79 percent indicated benign inflation levels

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 08, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

The nation’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 2 percent last month from a year earlier as cold weather continued to drive up food costs, with vegetable and fruit prices staying at a 21-year high, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

It is the second consecutive month the inflationary gauge has hit the 2 percent level, but the statistics agency dismissed concerns, saying the phenomenon would prove to short-lived once weather disruptions fade.

“Last month saw little correction in vegetable prices due to lingering supply disruptions, even though holiday demand subsided,” DGBAS Deputy Director Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) told a news conference.

Vegetable prices surged 79.1 percent year-on-year last month, little changed from an 81 percent increase in February, as humid weather and inadequate sunlight thwarted supply, Tsai said. [FULL STORY]

The perils of a long transition

Taiwan News
Editorial
Date: 2016-04-07
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Deng Nan-jung, the editor-in-chief of a magazine called the “Freedom Era

Tsai attending the memorial service for Deng Nan-jung on Thursday.
April 7, 1989.

Weekly” set himself on fire in his Taipei office as police tried to arrest him. His crime? Sedition, or publishing a proposal for a constitution for the Republic of Taiwan in his magazine.

Just a few months later, students in China would face similar repression on a much bigger scale on Tiananmen Square, yet Taiwan had always prided itself on being a “Free China,” a lighthouse in the darkness of authoritarianism.

While Deng’s actions in the face of repression have been marked by sympathizers and supporters for many years, his significance has taken 27 years to be recognized on a wider scale.

President-elect Tsai Ing-wen said Thursday that as soon as her administration took office, the next April 7 would be earmarked as “Freedom of Expression Day” for the whole country. Of course, that will not be enough to safeguard basic freedoms. Legislative proposals in the works to prevent the monopolization of the media and to restrict the involvement of political parties in the media will be the more practical sides of the same thinking, pushing through reforms to anchor the changes already achieved and make sure the gains become permanent. [FULL STORY]

YouTube Gaming launched in Taiwan

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/07
By: Jeffrey Wu and Kay Liu

Taipei, April 7 (CNA) Video site YouTube launched its YouTube Gaming platform aimed at gamers in Taiwan Thursday, as game-related content has been growing in popularity in the country.

YouTube Gaming has dedicated pages for more than 25,000 games, in addition to channels set up by gamers who share and stream their gameplay live online, the video site said.

During the launch event, three gamers who have their own YouTube channels featuring their gameplay and other game-related content — HiChocolate, RSPannie and Onityan — demonstrated how easy it is to stream mobile phone games through YouTube Gaming and interact with online viewers.

YouTube said it has become a place for gamers in Taiwan to explore and share game-related content, citing a survey conducted by its parent, Google, and marketing firm GfK, which showed 52 percent of gamers aged between 16 and 45 in Taiwan visited the video site daily during the fourth quarter of 2014. [FULL STORY]

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