UNCONSTITUTIONAL? 6A KMT official said that if passed, the legislation would cause panic among more than 2 million Taiwanese who are working or studying in China

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 31, 2019
By: Lin Liang-sheng and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

A vote on an anti-infiltration bill is likely to take place at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei today after

cross-caucus negotiations yesterday failed to reach a consensus.

During yesterday’s talks, which lasted about six hours, Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said that when the bill is brought up today, each caucus would be given an opportunity to speak and to vote on it.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Secretary-General Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of rushing the procedure to manipulate the elections on Jan. 11.

The KMT places great importance on national security and is opposed to foreign infiltration of the Republic of China, but it opposes passage of the bill before the elections, Chang said.
[FULL  STORY]

Whoever wins January’s election will have to effectively manage the global, indiscriminate forces of climate chaos.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/12/30
By: Sally Jensen

Scientists have recently revealed that the planet may already have exceeded a series of climate tipping points, ominous news for small island nations that are particularly susceptible to drastic weather changes. 

Extreme weather is taking its toll on Taiwan, whose urban areas over the past century have experienced double the global average temperature rise. Rising sea levels could submerge one-third of Greater Taipei within two generations. Typhoons are becoming increasingly frequent and intense, devastating vulnerable communities in southern Taiwan.

In 2018, Taiwan already saw a reduced output of lychees, longans, and persimmons, as well as unreliable honey harvests. Coastal development is eroding millennia-old coral reefs, hampering the tourism industry. A blast of cold current in December of this year killed 29 people in the Taipei metropolitan area in just a few days. 

Farmfields in Hualien are increasingly prone to damages from climate change. 

Only swift adaptive measures and serious political concern for climate threats over the next few years will keep the island’s head above water. The upcoming elections in January offer an opportunity for Taiwan to tackle these threats with urgency.    [FULL  STORY]

NTUT professor assigned 1,000-word essays to Tsai supporters, 10-word essays to those favoring Han

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/30
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) political science instructor Chen Kai (陳愷) has been accused of assigning homework assignments to students based on their political stance and spreading propaganda in a class group chat, according to CNA.

In an article posted on social media site Dcard on Saturday (Dec. 28), an NTUT student shared screenshots of a class group chat led by Chen, saying the professor was discriminating against supporters of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

The screen captures shows Chen asking students who support Tsai to turn in 1000-word essays, whereas those in favor of Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) only had a 10-word limit on their essays.

Chen was also accused of hinting that Tsai was a lesbian and of making fun of her for refusing to come out of the closet, reported Liberty Times. NTUT students have posted comments supporting the accusation, adding that Chen is not the only teacher from the university's political science department to force their political orientation on their students.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/30
By: Jeffery Wu and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 30 (CNA) Social media giant Facebook is scheduled to open a 'war room' in its Taipei office "sometime after" Jan. 1 ahead of Taiwan's Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections as part of the company's ongoing efforts to fight disinformation, a source familiar with the business told CNA Monday.

The war room will bring together representatives from Facebook's policy, legal, security teams and content moderators as political campaigning ramps up in the final weeks of the election, according to the source.

The war room will allow its members to discuss matters face-to-face, speeding up decisions to crack down on fake accounts and combat the spread of fake news on its platforms, the source said.

The war room will also stay in close contact with Taiwan's Central Election Commission, related law enforcement authorities and the campaign headquarters of all three teams of presidential and vice presidential candidates, it added.    [FULL  STORY]

While welcomed by many in Taiwan, the new economic equation will be a delicate pursuit for its next president, says Roy Chun Lee.

Channel News Asia
Date: 29 Dec 2019
By: Roy Chun Lee

TAIPEI: It has been another challenging year for Taiwan filled with both excitement and concern.

Two key factors that shaped the development of 2019 were the US-China trade war and the upcoming Taiwan presidential election.

In terms of economic performance, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) forecasts Taiwan’s GDP growth to be one of the highest in the East Asian region, reaching 2.33 per cent.

While trade performance has declined throughout the year, domestic investment in the manufacturing sector has soared to a historic high, contributing to GDP growth.
[FULL  STORY]

The San Francisco Chronicle
Date: Dec. 29, 2019
By: AP (Associated Press)

Taiwan's 2020 presidential election candidate Han Kuo-yu of the Nationalist Party (KMT) speaks

during a televised policy debate in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019. Taiwan will hold its general elections on Jan. 11, 2020. (Pool Photo via AP)Photo: AP

3of3Taiwan's 2020 presidential election candidate James Soong of the People First Party speaks during a televised policy debate in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019. Taiwan will hold its general elections on Jan. 11, 2020. (Pool Photo via AP)Photo: AP

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Sunday that the self-governing island's democracy remains under direct threat from rival China, underscoring her calls for closer ties with the U.S. and other allies.

Tsai was speaking at a televised debate against Han Kuo-yu of the main opposition Nationalist Party and veteran politician James Soong of the People's First Party. Elections for president and the legislature are set for Jan. 11. Most polls show Tsai leading in her quest for a second four-year term.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/29
By  Central News Agency

A new book that gives a voice to migrant workers and their stories of exploitation and abuse under Taiwan's private broker system was launched at a press conference in Taipei on Saturday.

The "Migrant Worker's Storybook of Employment Agents," published by the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT), explores the real-life accounts of 15 migrant workers who were allegedly abused and exploited by their brokers while working in the country.

One of the authors, identified only as Wiwin, a 24-year-old migrant worker from Indonesia, said her father pawned his rice paddy for US$1,824 so that she could pay US$1,672 to an employment agency in Jakarta to secure a factory job in Taiwan.

After problems with her paperwork in which the Indonesian broker registered Wiwin as a caregiver, her Taiwanese broker still arrangedfor her to work in a local factory, but the conditions were abusive.

"I would have never imagined that the brokers in Indonesia and Taiwan could have done this to me. I ended up working huge hours from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m," Wiwin said.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/29
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 29 (CNA) Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Kuomintang (KMT) lashed out at media questions and its behavior at Sunday's televised presidential debate, which also saw plenty of personal vitriol between Han and incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

Han blasted Apple Daily and Sanlih E-Television over what he felt was the ongoing smear campaign he has been subject to since he successfully ran for Kaohsiung mayor in the second half of 2018.

In Sunday's debate, five media representatives each asked the candidates a question in the second part of the debate, after the opening statements, and it was a question by the tabloid-like Apple Daily, the largest newspaper in the country, that set him off.

Apple Daily editor-in-chief Tsai Jih-yun (蔡日雲) brought up a payment Han made to a woman surnamed Wang (with whom he allegedly had an extramarital relationship) and asked him how he could convince people he was somebody who was trustworthy and they could vote for.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 30, 2019
By: Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Environmental groups joined forces and braved the rain in Taipei yesterday to march against air

pollution and call for measures against it.

The march was co-organized by more than a dozen groups, including Air Clean Taiwan (ACT), South Taiwan Air Clear, the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions, the Alliance for the Rescue of Datan Algae Reefs, the Taiwan Academy of Ecology and the Taiwan Tree Protection Coalition.

Several political parties were also represented at the march, including the New Power Party, the New Party and the Taiwan People’s Party.

At about noon, demonstrators gathered outside the Environmental Protection Administration building, where the vice presidential candidates of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spoke to them before the march began.
[FULL  STORY]

• Xiang Xin and his wife Kung Ching, who were taken away by investigators on November 24, instruct lawyers to send letter to city’s representative office
• Prosecutors began investigating the pair after allegations were made about the company by self-proclaimed former Chinese spy Wang Liqiang

South China Morning Post
Date: 28 Dec, 2019
By: Laura Zhou

Two executives of a Hong Kong-listed company who have been detained for a month in Taiwan amid spying allegations are seeking help from the Hong Kong government.

China Innovation Investment Limited said in a statement on Friday that its chief executive Xiang Xin and his wife Kung Ching, an alternate director, had instructed their lawyers to send a letter seeking assistance to the Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office – the city’s representative office in Taiwan.

The statement said Xiang and Kung hoped to “resolve the issue of restrictions on the basic human rights of Hong Kong permanent residents through official channels”.

China Trends Holdings Limited, another company owned by Xiang, issued a similar statement on Friday.2   [FULL  STORY]