Driverless public transit to ease late night traffic demand, could take on passengers next year

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/21
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taipei City Government is planning on launching autonomous city buses next year to help satisfy public transportation needs for passengers after midnight, according to the Taipei Department of Transportation (DOT).

The project was first introduced by Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in 2017 but was quickly put on hold after drawing criticism for the traffic problems it might create. Since then, the Taipei City Government has examined and revised the plan for the self-driving vehicles and plans to conduct road tests in the first half of 2020, reported Liberty Times.

DOT Director Chen Shyue-tair (陳學台) said that autonomous city transit will mainly be used to fill the transportation gap between 12 and 5 a.m. when human-driven buses and MRT trains have stopped operating. He added that the buses will undergo trial runs between East Gate and Xinyi District before free test rides are made available to passengers.

According to the Taipei City Traffic Engineering Office, the autonomous bus proposal still needs to be reviewed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). It said that each bus can accommodate 12 passengers and that a conductor will be on board to ensure the vehicle is functioning properly.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/21
By: Liu Kuan-ting and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) Of the 113 legislative seats up for grabs in Taiwan's Jan. 11 elections, perhaps none are being watched more closely than the battle in Taipei's third district, in which opposition Kuomintang (KMT) incumbent Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) will try to hold his seat against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) challenger Enoch Wu (吳怡農).

Both candidates are seen as rising stars in their respective parties, with Chiang, a great-grandson of former President Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), often tipped as a future candidate for Taipei mayor, while Wu, a nephew of former DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-ren (吳乃仁), has gained a high profile since his entry into the race four months ago.

Taipei's District 3, which is comprised of the Zhongshan and Songshan districts, is seen as KMT-leaning, although less so than other areas of the city, which has long been a stronghold of the party.

Chiang Wan-an (left) shakes hands with a visitor at a Taipei market.

In 2016, Chiang won his seat against a divided opposition, with only 47 percent of the vote.
[FULL  STORY]

‘LITTLE CONCERN’: Wecare Kaohsiung founder Aaron Yin accused Han Kuo-yu of lying to city residents and taking advantage of regulations to benefit himself

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 22, 2019
By: Wang Jung-hsiang, Tsai Ching-hua and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

Hundreds of thousands of people yesterday took to the streets to call for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-

yu’s (韓國瑜) removal from office.

Shouting slogans such as “Recall Han Kuo-yu,” “Liberate Kaohsiung” and “Hang in there, Taiwan,” the group set off from the Kaohsiung Cultural Center at about 2pm and marched toward the waterfront in Yancheng District (鹽埕).

The protesters formed a human snake stretching nearly 1km along Wufu First Road, aerial images showed.

Some carried banners or wore clothing bearing text, such as one that criticized the city’s economic performance since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayor took office, despite his promise to “make people rich.”
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 20 December, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

The transportation ministry is still deciding whether it will revoke the operating license of Far Eastern Air Transport. Deputy transportation minister Wang Kwo-tsai says that the current situation is very serious, and officials from the Civil Aeronautics Administration are still deliberating.

Far Eastern Air Transport abruptly announced on December 12 that it was ceasing operations due to financial difficulties.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei prosecutors have raided multiple travel agencies for allegedly facilitating the illegal entry of Chinese government officials into Taiwan.

Taiwan News
Date: December 20, 2019
By: Nick Aspinwall   

Taiwan raided six travel agencies earlier this week for allegedly forging documents to facilitate the entry of Chinese government officials into Taiwan, the latest development in a case involving one of the island’s most notorious pro-unification figures.

Taipei authorities raided the offices of Huaxia Dadi Travel Service and five other companies. The Taipei District Prosecutors Office says the six agencies aided around 2,000 Chinese government officials seeking to enter Taiwan.

Huaxia Dadi is run by Chang Wei, the son of China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) founder Chang An-le, the former head of the Bamboo Union criminal gang popularly known as “White Wolf.”

Last week, authorities raided five locations and detained 10 suspects over allegations the agencies had helped more than 5,000 Chinese citizens enter Taiwan between January 2017 and June 2019.
[FULL  STORY]

Demosisto Chairman Ivan Lam had also been invited to observe January elections

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A court in Hong Kong on Thursday (December 19) barred democracy activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) from leaving the territory to observe Taiwan’s January 11, 2020 elections.

The Demosisto secretary general was slapped with a travel ban after he was arrested over a June 21 siege of police headquarters during protests against the extradition law. The authorities later also barred him from running in the November 24 local elections, which turned into a triumph for the supporters of more democracy.

On Thursday, Wong visited the Eastern Law Courts to file another appeal against the travel ban, mentioning he had been invited to observe Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections in January and to speak at an Oxford Union event at Oxford University in Great Britain the following month.

Demosisto Chairman Ivan Lam (林朗彥) said he was also planning to travel to Taiwan, while activist Agnes Chow (周庭) told the court several universities in Japan had invited her to speak, but the judge turned all appeals down, the Central News Agency reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/20
By: Chiang Chin-yeh and Matthew Mazzetta

Washington, Dec. 19 (CNA) One hundred and sixty-one members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter Thursday to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, urging him to open negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement with Taiwan.

The letter, signed by more than one third of the 435 House members across party lines, said an agreement would create jobs in the U.S. and reaffirm the country's continuing commitment to Taiwan.

Noting that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act that sets the framework for U.S.-Taiwan relations, the House members put forth economic and ideological arguments for pursuing such a bilateral trade deal.

In economic terms, Taiwan has become the U.S.' 11th largest trading partner, the 8th largest export market for U.S. agricultural products, a major purchaser of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports, and the supplier of a significant percentage of the semiconductors used by U.S. manufacturers, the House representatives wrote.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 21, 2019
By: Chiu Chun-fu and Huang Chien-hua  /  Staff reporters

Ahead of marches today for and against Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), National Police

Agency (NPA) Director-General Chen Ja-chin (陳家欽) yesterday said that he would personally direct 3,200 police officers to maintain peace and order in Kaohsiung, vowing to arrest instigators of violence.

Chen said that he would be accompanied by other agency officials to ensure public safety by monitoring the Wecare Kaohsiung rally by a coalition of civic groups that aim to recall Han, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate in the Jan. 11 election, and the “Rise of the South: Kaohsiung’s Glory” parade in support of Han, organized by the KMT.

The two marches are to take separate routes in Kaohsiung’s north and south inner city areas, 3.8km apart at their closest, while organizers on both sides have estimated that they would be joined by at least 10,000 participants and possibly up to 100,000.

Confrontations that could lead to violence might occur when people head toward the assembly points for the marches and when dispersing afterward, as rival groups might come in contact on Kaohsiung MRT metropolitan railway trains, officials said, adding that the likely flash points would be Zuoying Station, Kaohsiung Main Station and Formosa Boulevard Station.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 19 December, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Six days remain before Christmas, and 23 days before the elections. In today’s Taiwan Insider we’ve got both the holidays and the elections on our mind! We’ll take a closer look at the three candidates’ televised platforms and how they’re faring in the polls. Plus we’ll show you two fascinating holiday-related destinations. 

The 2020 presidential election might yet be the first time that immigration is front and center at an election in Taiwan. So, where do the presidential candidates stand on immigration?

The News Lens
Date: 2019/12/19
By: Yu-chin Tseng

Immigration is an important issue. It forms a major component of election platforms and influences voting in many countries. In the United Kingdom, Brexit was heavily shaped by migration and border control issues. In the United States, immigration policy is Donald Trump’s signature issue. In Germany, refugee, asylum, and immigration topics have dominated politics since the opening of borders to refugees in 2015. However, these issues are still new to Taiwanese voters and were never core parts of party platforms in Taiwanese elections. The 2020 presidential election might yet be the first time that immigration is front and center at an election in Taiwan. So, where do the two major party presidential candidates stand on immigration and what are their policies?

The rising importance of immigration to elections

Both the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) candidates have proposed new measures to address “new immigrants” – predominantly marriage immigrants in Taiwan – whom now amount to 550,000. Of these new immigrants, 270,000 are eligible voters, half of whom are originally from China; the others are mainly from Vietnam and Indonesia.

In the 2016 election a naturalized Taiwanese citizen of Cambodian descent, Lin Li-chan (林麗蟬), won a seat in the Legislative Yuan through as a party list candidate, becoming the very first legislator who migrated to Taiwan through marriage. Having the first and only new immigrant legislator on its side, the KMT has over the past four years presented itself as the legitimate representative of the growing community of settled migrants and their children.    [FULL  STORY]