Police suspect victim was target of vendetta

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/09/04
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A man was reportedly gunned down in Taoyuan, Taiwan on Wednesday (Sept. 4) afternoon, in an incident officers suspect was a vendetta between families or gangs.

Gunfire was reportedly heard in Taoyuan outside the Daping (大平) Post Office in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭區) around 2:40 p.m. A male bystander said the victim, surnamed Chiang (江), dropped to the ground as the shots were heard.

When they arrived on the scene, police and medical personnel discovered the man had lost a significant amount of blood from the gunshot wound. He was rushed to the Military Taoyuan General Hospital, but doctors were unable to save him, reports UDN.

Police said that two men in raincoats approached Chiang on the street and one of the men fired six shots, before the two assailants fled on scooter in the direction of Guanxi Township, Hsinchu. UDN reports that Chiang’s mother had just been laid to rest in a funeral the day previous (Sept. 3), and that police are investigating the homicide as a vendetta of some kind.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/09/04
By: Yeh Su-ping and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Sept. 4 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has filed a lawsuit against two academics who called into question the authenticity of her PhD certificate, the Presidential Office said Wednesday.

Tsai's attorneys have brought legal action against Ho De-fen (賀德芬), professor emeritus at National Taiwan University's department of law, and Hwan C. Lin (林環牆), associate professor at the University of North Carolina, to uphold the president's reputation and credibility, the office said.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys Lien Yuan-lung (連元龍) and Chang Jen-chi (張人志) after Ho alleged at a news conference Aug. 29 that Tsai's PhD certificate from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was fake, the Presidential Office said.

In Ho's allegations, she cited an investigative report by Lin on the authenticity of the certificate.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Intwernational
Date: 03 September, 2019
By: Paula Chao

President Tsai Ing-wen has called on the public to show their appreciation for soldiers on Armed Forces Day. Tsai was speaking on Tuesday, September 3rd, which is Armed Forces Day in Taiwan. She spoke during a meeting with representatives of the business sector that have shown their appreciation for the military.

President Tsai said soldiers deserve to be treated well as they shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty and democracy. Since taking office in 2016, Tsai said the government has strengthened military training, upgraded the armed forces’ professional skills, and poured resources into building a good environment for them.    [FULL  STORY]

How did Taiwanese become so receptive of plastic-reduction policies? It might have to do with Taiwan's education, colonial history, culture, and even religious influence.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/09/03
By: Jasmine Su

Shortly after Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) announced that plastic straws will be banned for most indoor dining venues, a Taiwanese politician posted a video on Facebook of her attempting — and failing — to drink bubble tea with a spoon.

Her video received a huge backlash from the online community, with more “angry reactions” than “likes” and multiple comments linking to videos of straws found in sea turtles.

The internet reaction offers only a small glimpse into how much plastic waste reduction has made its way into Taiwan’s public consciousness. EPA expanded its plastic bag ban last year to bar an additional 80,000 merchants from providing plastic bags for free. Since then, consumers from all age groups can be seen carrying metal straws and reusable tumblers among other trendy environmental merchandise.

Even companies outside the legal purview of the plastic straw ban, such as bubble tea stalls, are proactively shifting to plastic straw alternatives. All of this came after a series of top-down regulations restricting plastic use, but most importantly, Taiwanese companies are also responding to their highly environmentally conscious consumers.    [FULL  STORY]

Fellow passengers should monitor their health for 18 days: CDC

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/09/03
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A young woman who is the 10th case in an outbreak of measles at Taipei’s Cathay General Hospital took at least four trips on the capital’s Mass Rapid Transit system, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday (September 3).

A total of 361 people would remain under observation at least until September 20, officials said.

The 10th case in the outbreak, a woman in her twenties, had traveled on the MRT’s Bannan or Blue Line between home and work at least four times. On August 25, she boarded a train from the Zhongxiao Dunhua station to Haishan station in the New Taipei City district of Banqiao around 7:30 p.m., the CDC said.

On August 28, she took the train in the opposite direction at 6 p.m., while on August 29, she traveled from Zhongxiao Dunhua to Haishan at 7:30 a.m. and back to Zhongxiao Dunhua at 6 p.m.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/09/03
By: William Yen

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) An electronics plant in Miaoli is being investigated in the wake of a recent chemical spill that resulted in the death of a Filipina worker, an official at the Ministry of Labor (MOL) said Tuesday.

The probe will examine the details of the accident and issues related to training and safety at the factory, where 29-year-old Deserie Castro Tagubasi suffered fatal burns on Aug. 28 when she accidentally dropped a small container of hydrofluoric acid that she was carrying.

The acid splattered her legs, causing burns that resulted in her death later in the day at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, where she had been transferred from a hospital Miaoli.

Hydrofluoric acid, which is used at the electronics plant to clean circuit boards, is highly corrosive and can cause death on contact with the skin.    [FULL  STORY]

RISING THREAT: China could clamp down on Hong Kong to prevent the protests from going past Oct. 1, when it celebrates its 70th anniversary, the activists said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 04, 2019
By: Jason Pan and Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporters

Hong Kong democracy activists Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), Lester Shum (岑敖暉) and Eddie Chu (朱凱

迪) yesterday called on Taiwanese to support the territory’s fight for greater democracy and autonomy by holding a rally before China’s National Day on Oct. 1.

The trio arrived in Taiwan yesterday morning at the invitation of the Light Foundation, and visited the New Power Party (NPP) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters in the afternoon.

“The imposition of emergency law in Hong Kong is very likely, and so we urge Taiwanese to show solidarity with Hong Kong by holding a street rally before Oct. 1,” Wong said after a one-hour meeting with DPP officials.

“We would also like to see people in other countries rally for Hong Kong on a weekend before Oct. 1. It is to let the Beijing government know that although it can shut down the demonstrations in Hong Kong, people around the world are standing in solidarity with us,” he said.    [FULL  STORY]

.Tropical Storm Kajiki takes shape, Tropical Storm Lingling to bring heavy rains to Taiwan on Sept. 4, 5

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/09/03
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

.
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tropical Storm Kajiki officially formed this morning (Sept. 3), while Tropical Storm Lingling is projected to come closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday (Sept. 4 and 5), likely bringing heavy rain.

At 4 a.m. this morning, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) announced that a tropical depression in the Gulf of Tonkin has officially developed into Tropical Storm Kajiki (劍魚, marlin), the 14th tropical storm of the year. It is currently predicted to turn northeast toward and churn up the coast of southern China, but is not currently expected to affect Taiwan directly.

Tropical Storm Lingling

As of 2 a.m. this morning, the center of Tropical Storm Lingling was located at 18.9 degrees north latitude and 124.0 degrees east longitude, moving northwest at a speed of 18 kilometers per hour (kph). The storm is packing maximum sustained winds of 82.8 kph with gusts of up to 108 kph.
[FULL  STORY]

CONSTITUTION: Extending refugee status to Hong Kongers could be a problem, as it is not clear what Hong Kong’s status is, Legislator Lee Chun-yi said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 03, 2019
By: William Hetherington  /  Staff writer, with CNA

The Legislative Yuan needs to resolve a number of issues, such as how the law defines a refugee,

before it can draft a law extending refugee status to Hong Kong residents, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said on Sunday.

Lee made the remarks in reponse to Hong Kong democracy advocate Joshua Wong’s (黃之鋒) call on Saturday for Taiwan to legislate a refugee act following the arrests of several democracy advocates in the territory.

Asked about Wong’s call, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Sunday said that Taiwan has a robust democracy with sufficient laws, seemingly in reference to the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例), which stipulates that people from Hong Kong and Macau could apply for temporary or permanent residency in Taiwan if they meet one of 16 conditions in the act.

Article 18 of the act states: “Necessary assistance shall be provided to Hong Kong or Macau residents whose safety and liberty are immediately threatened by political reasons.”
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan can be an ideal relay station for US ships in the western Pacific and the South China Sea, says US researcher

Asia Times
Date: September 2, 2019
By: KG Chan

A US Navy research vessel sailed into Taiwan waters at the end of August, giving further substance to the defense cooperation between the two unofficial allies, on top of the enactment of the Taiwan Travel Act and the upcoming sale of F-16 fighter jets.

The Sally Ride, the US’s newest research ship commissioned in 2014, is anchored off the Port of Keelung in northern Taiwan.

The 3,043-tonne vessel with both the Stars and Stripes and the Taiwanese flags flying on its bow, set sail for the island from the Bay of Bengal last month and will return to Keelung for R&R at the end of this month, after a voyage to the international waters near Palau.

The ship is under the Pentagon’s US Office of Naval Research and is operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.    [FULL  STORY]