Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/04
By: Chen Chi-ching and Chi Jo-yao

Taipei, Oct. 4 (CNA) A volunteer cleanup effort to help protect the coral reefs around the offshore Penghu County yielded more than 800 kilograms of abandoned fishing nets on Thursday, the Marine National Park Headquarters (MNPH) said Friday.

The ghost nets, as they are called, were piled on the coral reefs off the coast of Dongji islet in southern Penghu, scuba divers reported last week, according to the MNPH.

At that time, however, the MNPH could not take action, due to the strong winds and choppy seas caused by Typhoon Mitag, said Hsu Shao-liang (徐韶良), a park management official.

When the waters became calm on Thursday, the MNPH assembled a group of 10 marine conservation volunteers, who traveled to the reefs in two boats to remove the nets, Hsu said.
[FULL  STORY]

CAUGHT: The bottle manufacturer allegedly underreported the amount of organic solvents and ink it used and turned off its air pollution control facilities to save money

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 05, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Nineteen workers at the nation’s biggest bottle manufacturer, in Taichung, were prosecuted yesterday

for discharging gases with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and underreporting emissions, while the firm was required to pay pollution fees of more than NT$125.86 million (US$4.06 million).

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday issued separate statements on the case to tout their joint effort in the case.

The prosecutors’ office said that the investigation was closed on Sept. 20, and 19 workers were prosecuted, including the company’s owner, surnamed Tai (戴), and its general manager, surnamed Tsao (曹).

While the company was only named by its first Chinese character, Hung (宏), in the prosecutors’ office’s statement, local media reported that it is the nation’s largest manufacturer of beverage bottles.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 03 October, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

The government has ordered agencies in charge of bridge maintenance to submit plans for the inspection of old bridges. That’s after a 21-year-old bridge in Yilan County collapsed into a fishing harbor Tuesday, killing six.

On Thursday, President Tsai Ing-wen that plans should be submitted quickly, and that work will begin as soon as possible to repair any bridges that need to be strengthened in the short term
[FULL  STORY]

Hong Kong's Pro-Democracy Movement

The News Lens
Date: 2019/10/03
By: Milo HsiehCampus assault on Hong Kong students is becoming a pattern in Taiwan.

A Hong Kong student was physically assaulted by a Chinese student studying at I-shou University (義守大學) in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on September 13. Yet another fight broke out a week later between Hong Kong and Chinese students at a Taipei university due to clashes over a “Lennon Wall” in support of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

At I-shou University, a Chinese student attempted to choke a Hong Kong student for setting up a small Lennon Wall on the door of his dorm room. In the more recent assault in Taipei, a Hong Kong student was injured and sought out medical attention on his own, according to Liberty Times.

These attacks on Hong Kong students, who were peacefully voicing their opinions through harmless acts like putting up post-it notes, are meant to silence pro-democracy support for Hong Kong. The violent and coercive responses from the Chinese students and visitors are clearly motivated by political reasons rather than simply having differing opinions.

Taiwan Solidarity Union urges the government to arrest the Chinese students who have vandalized Lennon Walls and assaulted Hong Kong students on college campuses, September 27, 2019.
[FULL  STORY]

Huang accuses professor of profiting in two capacitiesTaiwan News
Date: 2019/10/03
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – After six foreign workers died when a bridge in Yilan County collapsed, the lack of inspections has come into view, with New Power Party legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) slamming private companies trying to make money out of the process.

The same team surrounding Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology (UCH) Professor Chen Ming-cheng (陳明正) had won three bids for inspection of the Nanfang’ao harbor bridge which collapsed Tuesday (October 1), Huang said.

However, Chen had won the bids in his capacity as head of an engineering-related firm, and immediately transferred the bid to the UCH center he chaired, the Liberty Times quoted Huang as saying Thursday (October 3).

During this process, Chen made a profit of more than NT$6 million (US$193,000) while using his students to help complete the project, the legislator alleged.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/03
By: Flor Wang and Miao Chung-hen

Taipei, Oct. 3 (CNA) A case involving a Chinese exchange student, who allegedly ripped down messages that had been posted at a Taiwan university in support of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, has been handed over to prosecutors for further investigation, police said Thursday.

Hsinchu City police said they received a report from National Tsing Hua University's student union about a woman holding a pink umbrella, who had committed an act of vandalism on the school campus before entering the university library.

With the help of video footage, police said, they were able to identify the female Chinese student, who was seen at 12:55 p.m. on Sept. 30 tearing down several messages that had been posted on a wall on the school campus in support of the ongoing democracy movement in Hong Kong.

During initial questioning, the woman said she had torn down the messages because they contained radical comments, police said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘UNTIMED BOMBS’: Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-jin said that of the nation’s 29,811 bridges, 21,526 managed by local governments were of most concern

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 04, 2019
By: Hsiao Yu-hsin and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA1

The Nanfangao Bridge (南方澳橋) in Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳), which collapsed on

Tuesday, was only inspected once — by the county government — in the 21 years it was open, said Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC) chairman Wu Chung-rung (吳宗榮), whose resignation was provisionally accepted yesterday.

After construction of the bridge was completed in 1998, it was turned over to the Keelung Port Bureau — the predecessor of the TIPC’s Port of Keelung — Wu told the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee in Taipei.

State-run TIPC was created in 2012, but since then the bridge was only inspected “that one time” by Taoyuan’s Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology, he said, referring to an inspection commissioned by the Yilan County Government and carried out by the university in 2016.

Of the 17 bridges under the company’s jurisdiction, one is the Nanfangao Bridge, three were built last year, five have been inspected and eight have never been inspected, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 02 October, 2019
By: Jake Chen

Bejing is unlikely to end the cross-strait trade agreement unilaterally. That was the word from Economics

Minister Shen Jong-chin on Tuesday.

Shen was referring to ECFA, or Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement. The trade agreement between Beijing and Taipei took effect in 2010. It aims to promote cross-strait trade by reducing tariffs and commercial barriers.
[FULL  STORY]

The 2019 Women Make Waves film festival takes place from 10/4 to 10/14 at SPOT Huashan Cinema in Taipei. This review is based on a complimentary media screener.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/10/02
By: CJ Sheu

A unique anthology film by eight female filmmakers from Pacific Island cultures that portrays a single yet varied fictional life story, Vai (2019) captures the multifaceted experience of being a Pasifika (Pacific Islander) woman while maintaining a dexterous continuity of style and mood.

Vai is technically similar to the previous film by producers Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, Waru (2017). Both are thematically unified anthology films with long takes and predominantly Pasifika elements (actors, locations, etc.), but whereas Waru revolves around a single key incident, Vai develops linearly to paint a resonant portrait of a life well-lived. Each 10-minute segment is a one- or two-take vignette that covers a surprising amount of plot development and thematic complexity.

The protagonist is always named a variation of Vai, which means water in all the indigenous languages spoken in the film. As the source of Pasifika lifeblood and traditions, water is present in every segment, and its prominence or absence serves to symbolize the ups and downs of Vai’s life. That life, and the conceit of the film, are revealed gradually. When the film cuts from one segment to another (editing by Dione Chard), it opens on a new location and lead actress. But as each protagonist’s backstory is alluded to, we start to realize that this matriarch is the same woman who defended her home from purse seining, who dreaded her family’s first big move, who later studied abroad.

Although specific details change with each segment as if to echo the kaleidoscopic casting and locations, the overall trajectory of her life is clear and powerful. There’s also a hint of magical realism, often but not always linked to tradition and ritual. Throughout, cinematographer Drew Sturge has masterful control of the camera, going underwater or onto vehicles often in one continuous shot.
[FULL  STORY]

The tycoon says he will go to court and sue for slander those spreading malicious stories about him

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/02
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) pledged on Monday (Sept. 30) to sue those spinning stories online about his assets being frozen by the Chinese authorities and other false accusations.

The rumor mill is grinding furiously on the internet alleging that Gou has considerable debts in China. Furthermore, it is claimed his assets in the Communist state will soon be expropriated by the government, reported TVBS.

Gou quit the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and then dropped his presidential bid last month.
[FULL  STORY]