Indonesian migrant worker couple flees on e-bike with safe containing NT$2.08 million in Taoyuan, Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/21
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An Indonesian woman stole her employer's safe containing NT$2.08 million (US$68,000) and tried to make away with the loot on an e-bike with her boyfriend, but they were soon captured by authorities.

On Monday (Nov. 18), Tsai Hsiao-yueh (蔡效岳), chief investigator of the Taoyuan County Police Bureau's Luzhu Precinct, said that police at 8 p.m. on Saturday (Nov. 16) received a report that a safe had been stolen from a home, reported CNA. The department immediately formed a special team and began to review surveillance footage.

Police found that a couple riding a red e-bike had been spotted at the scene of the crime and began tracking it. After tracing the vehicle's movements on over 100 cameras, they tracked down a vehicle behind a factory in Luzhu District, reported ETtoday.

However, officers discovered that the bike was green in color and began to think that they had followed the wrong vehicle. After carefully inspecting the bike, officers noticed that the paint was still wet and that traces of red were still visible, leading them to suspect that it was the same bike ridden by the suspects, reported Liberty Times.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/21
By: Tsai Chih-ming and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Nov. 21 (CNA) A team of students from National Chung Cheng University won a silver medal for developing a fast screening device that detects the African swine fever virus (ASFV) at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) in the United States earlier this month, the school said Thursday.

Sixteen students from five colleges at the Chiayi County-based university formed a team last year to participate in the iGEM competition held in Boston, the school said in a statement.

The Taiwan team was led by Wang Wei-cheng (王瑋晟), a student from the university's Department of Biomedical Sciences.

This year, 353 teams from universities all over the world took part in the competition, according to the statement.    [FULL  STORY]

‘QUITE ALARMING’: The bureau said that amid China’s attemps to hack government agencies, staff have not been observing protocols when handling classified materials

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 22, 2019
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The National Security Bureau (NSB) has announced that it plans to amend the Government Password

Standardization Act (政府機關密碼統合辦法) and design a new defense mechanism to shield government Web sites and systems from Chinese hacking.

The changes would step up the enforcement of regulations and offer incentives for civil servants to observe rules for protecting classified materials, the bureau said.

Local and overseas government units were found to be lax in managing and safeguarding information, and have an outdated concept of security, the bureau said, adding that overseas personnel do not observe necessary security protocols when handling classified materials or equipment.

Some personnel even use classified equipment for personal use, which increases the risk of leaking classified information, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 20 November
By: Paula Chao

President Tsai Ing-wen and her running mate William Lai have formally registered their candidacy for

next year’s presidential election.

On Tuesday, the two went to the Central Election Commission to file their paperwork to run.

At the Central Election Commission Tuesday, President Tsai Ing-wen was met with cheers. She said her reelection bid is particularly significant because of Chinese efforts to crack down on Hong Kong protesters and meddle in Taiwan’s elections.

Tsai said, “Our entering the presidential race is aimed at demonstrating two important values. Taiwan is a democracy and political parties can compete freely. There are protections of human rights [in Taiwan]. Most importantly, people have the freedom to elect their own president and vice president.”      [FULL  STORY]

Explore Taiwan’s Hakka culture through the ongoing Romantic Route 3 Arts Festival. First stop: Beipu.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/11/20
By: Syrena Lin

Beipu (北埔), the Hakka capital of northern Taiwan, is a small village in the Hsinchu county and home to around 10,000 people, mostly of Hakka origin.

Traditionally, Beipu is known for its well-preserved Hakka culture with local flavors. When we think of Beipu, things like Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea, Lei Cha (擂茶), dried persimmons, and cold springs come to mind, but Beipu offers more than that.

Most people in Taiwan may have stopped by Beipu during their road trips, but the ongoing Romantic Route 3 Arts Festival (浪漫台三線藝術季) will revitalize their impressions of this small town. As one of the destinations featured by the festival, Beipu is showcasing contemporary art exhibitions with the theme “The Upcoming Past" throughout its old street and countryside areas.

What is “Romantic Route 3” about?

The festival aims to encourage travelers to explore a Hakka city on their own as if they’re on a scavenger hunt. They won’t be spending time in museum buildings, but will rather discover artworks in narrow alleys, by a temple, or out in a rice field.    [FULL  STORY]

Strange Taiwanese ship could be prototype for new phased array radar system to detect Chinese missiles

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/20
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Photos have recently surfaced apparently showing a naval vessel prowling the waters off the coast of southern Taiwan with a massive newly mounted radar tower on top, leading to speculation among netizens that it could be a new domestically produced radar ship.

Recently, several photos have circulated online that show the amphibious landing ship Kao Hsiung (LCC-1) with a large, octagonal radar tower protruding from its deck as well as a vertical launch system.

According to a UDN report, the Kao Hsiung, which is a part of Taiwan's 151st Fleet, was decommissioned from its role as an amphibious tank landing ship and handed over to the National Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) to carry out various system tests.

Some netizens have recently posted photos and discussed the changes made to the vessel on the popular online forum Mobile01. F. S. Mei (梅復興), director of the U.S.-based Taiwan Security Analysis Center, wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday (Nov. 19) that the photos indicate the vessel has been outfitted with phased array radar.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/20
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) Taiwanese cyclist Tsao Yao-wen (曹耀文) said Tuesday he will never visit China again, after his "horrifying experience" of being arrested, interrogated and held in custody there for four days on suspicion of espionage, during a cycling tour from China to Mongolia earlier this year.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Tsao said he was arrested by Chinese soldiers on May 31 at the border between Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of northern China, on suspicion that he was spying for Taiwan.

Tsao said the soldiers, from what he vaguely recalled as the "3XX Brigade's 12th Battalion," later took him to a nearby military camp, where all of his identification and travel documents were confiscated, and he was photographed and questioned.

His interrogators asked him to list every school he had attended and give the dates, from kindergarten to university, and to name his teachers at all levels, Tsao said.    [FULL  STORY]

ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE? The project in Penghu’s Dacang Island was scrapped in 2015 as it had bypassed an EIA and public hearings — problems that it has yet to address

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 21, 2019
By: Liu Yu-ching and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Penghu County Commissioner Lai Feng-wei’s (賴峰偉) plans to revive a Matsu statue project that

was halted in 2015 have drawn the ire of an environmentalist group for “causing a rift among Penghu residents.”

Lai recently announced five possible locations for the statue and called on residents to “rally together” behind the project, which was originally planned to be the centerpiece of a tourist attraction on Dacang Island (大倉島).

The Dacang site was picked in 2011 by then-Pingtung County commissioner Wang Chien-fa (王乾發), who envisioned a 66m bronze statue of Matsu, but the project was scrapped in 2015 after it was found the planners had bypassed an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and public hearings, and that it could damage Penghu’s ecosystem.

With the project suspended, the completed bronze statue has remained at a warehouse in Changhua County’s Dacun Village (大村).    [FULL  STORY]

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

Premier Su Tseng Chang has been diagnosed with temporary facial palsy due to a viral infection

triggered by overwork. Su took Monday off. He is planning to curtail his work schedule in the coming days.

As the legislative and presidential elections are heating up, the premier has been busy campaigning for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and for his daughter as well, who is running for legislator.

At a campaign rally for his daughter Saturday, Premier Su Tseng-chang looked a bit odd. The left side of his face was distorted, which is a symptom of temporary facial palsy.

Neurologist Lien Li-ming says facial palsy is caused by a viral infection due to a lack of enough rest.
[FULL  STORY]

2019 Golden Horse Awards

The News Lens
Date: 2019/11/19

Underground Film

I still believe movies are shot at 24 frames per second, and I'm willing to live in this romantic lie while using my words to give more people a bit of joy between lies and reality. 

Last year, Taiwanese director Fu Yue’s (傅榆) documentary Our Youth in Taiwan won the 55th Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary. In her acceptance speech, Fu said, “I hope that one day, our country can be treated as an independent entity.” Her comment, along with many political factors, has led to China’s boycotting of the 2019 Golden Horse Awards.

The absence of Chinese films, however, highlighted the vibrancy of Southeast Asian films, granting even more possibilities for the development of Sinophone cinema.

To recount Malaysian-born filmmakers who earned their reputation in Taiwan, we can think of directors like Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), Lau kek-huat (廖克發), and Tan Seng Kiat (陳勝吉). Their works have incorporated Malaysian and Taiwanese elements, breaking boundaries and creating something unique in itself.

But among the Golden Horse contestants this year, a Taiwanese director did something out of the norm — he filmed a Malaysian story in Malaysia instead. We’re talking about writer-director Tom Lin Shu-yu (林書宇) and his latest film The Garden of Evening Mists.    [FULL  STORY]