The Los Angeles Times
Date: Jul 11, 2019
By: Ralph Jennings

In 2006, when Taiwan’s then-President Chen Shui-bian was flying east and needed to refuel, the United States forced him to do it in out-of-the-way Anchorage.

He complained that the stop was "inconvenient, uncomfortable and indecent."

But U.S. officials were worried that a higher-profile location would have upset China because Chen had been particularly outspoken in defending Taiwanese sovereignty.

China, which considers self-ruled Taiwan to be part of its territory rather than an independent state with rights to diplomacy, has long bristled over attention-grabbing activities by Taiwanese leaders in the United States .    [FULL  STORY]

Foreign Ministry spokesman calls on U.S. to stop official contacts with Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/12
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) transited in New York City on her way to the Caribbean Friday (July 12), China announced it was going to impose sanctions on the U.S. firms supplying arms to Taiwan.

The State Department in Washington recently approved a US$2.2 billion (NT$68.6 billion) package including 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks, 250 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and Hercules armored vehicles.

In Beijing Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) issued a statement saying that China would impose sanctions on U.S. companies participating in the deal, which it said severely violated agreements, the “One China Principle” and the sovereignty and security of China.

Earlier in the afternoon at his regular Foreign Ministry news conference, Geng called on the U.S. to bar Tsai from transiting and to stop all official contacts with Taiwan as well as arms sales.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/12
By: Wu Jui-chi and Emerson Lim

Taipei, July 12 (CNA) EVA Air was fined NT$400,000 (US$12,780) by the Taoyuan City government Friday for failing to protect its employees from harassment following a case six months ago in which flight attendants were forced by a passenger to wipe his backside.

An EVA Air spokesperson confirmed that the company had received a copy of the order from Taoyuan's Department of Labor and said it will decide whether or not to file an appeal after studying the decision.

The fine was triggered by an incident on board an EVA Air flight from Los Angeles to Taipei in January when a man estimated to weigh more than 180 kilograms forced several flight attendants to help him remove his underwear while in the toilet and then demanded they wipe his butt after he finished relieving himself.

According to the Taoyuan Labor Department, although EVA Air investigated the incident, it did not carry out concrete preventive and corrective measures as pledged in its investigation report.
[FULL  STORY]

PRESIDENTIAL PRECEDENT: Ma’s office said that the ruling not only exonerated the former president, but also established ‘administrative authority’ under the Constitution

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 13, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

The Taiwan High Court yesterday acquitted former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of charges that

he leaked classified information and breached telecommunications security law stemming from wiretaps conducted in 2013 of leading political figures in the Legislative Yuan.

The Taipei District Court found Ma not guilty in the first ruling in 2017. Last year, the High Court found Ma guilty and handed down a four-month prison sentence. In January, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial and returned the case to the High Court, resulting in yesterday’s ruling, which is final.

Prosecutors focused on Ma’s interactions with then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), who led the now-defunct Special Investigation Division, and his acquiring of wiretap transcripts, which they said were contraventions of the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法), the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and the Criminal Code.

The High Court yesterday said that it was Huang who requested a meeting with Ma and gave him the wiretap transcripts, adding that Ma did not use his authority as president to engage in illegal action.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 11 July, 2019
By: Paula Chao

More than 3,000 people who were wrongly executed or convicted of a crime during the White Terror period in Taiwan have been exonerated. Lawmakers have also passed a new law that declassifies sensitive files. This could shed further light on some of the darkest moments in Taiwan’s history. 

In this week’s Taiwan Insider, Natalie Tso and Andrew Ryan put a name and a face on this story, introducing the mysterious death of a promising young professor, Dr. Chen Wen-chen. They also speak with a criminal justice expert, Seton Hall Law Professor Maggie Lewis, about why transitional justice is so important for Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Toys can have a second life, too.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/07/11
By: Fainjin Lin

Warning: This article includes spoilers for Toy Story 4, but you should still read it.

Toys play an important role in everyone's childhood, but the children grow up, they would inevitably bid farewell to their most beloved toys. Once the toys are abandoned from their home, though, are they headed towards an end… or the beginning of another journey?

Most people would choose to throw away their toys if they cannot gift them to another household. Recycling toys is difficult because they are often assembled with different materials. A toy car, for example, would have a plastic shell, rubber tires, and metal gears – these parts require manual disassembling and sorting before it can be recycled. Without going through a specific process, most toys would go straight to waste incineration.

Many Taiwanese choose to donate their unwanted toys to a Toy Bank in order to avoid polluting the environment or creating waste.

Donated toys would be roughly categorized into “in good condition,” “damaged,” or “missing parts.”

A professional “toy doctor” is then responsible for examining and repairing damaged toys. If a toy is beyond repair, the doctor would disassemble the parts for other repairs and functions; the parts that cannot be used again would be recycled or discarded.    [FULL  STORY]

Verdict in retrial over alleged crimes committed in 2013 to be announced Friday, July 12 at 10:00 am

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/11
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s High Court will give a final verdict in a retrial on allegationsthat

former president, Ma Ying-Jeou (馬英九), leaked confidential and sensitive information by ordering an official to discuss wiretapped conversations during his time in office.

Months after the final session of the retrial adjourned in February 2019, the High Court has finally come to a verdict, which is to be announced on Friday (July 12) at 10:00 a.m.

Ma was originally convicted in 2018 of attempting to damage the “character and rights” of a Democratic Progressive Party politician, Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), by ordering former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) to discuss telephone wiretap transcripts that were obtained in an investigation on improper lobbying.

In the trial, Ma was found guilty of revealing information from the judicial investigation which should have remained confidential, and then passing that information on to other Kuomintang leaders. After Ma’s conviction, he appealed to the High Court and the conviction was overturned based on a “lack of clarity” over certain aspects of the case, with a retrial ordered on Jan. 3, 2019.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/11
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan and Emerson Lim

Jakarta, July 11 (CNA) Two Indonesian workers who have never worked in Taiwan were issued work

visas on Thursday under a trial relaxed direct hiring scheme, according to Taiwan's representative office in Jakarta.

The two Indonesian nationals will work in the manufacturing sector in Taiwan, while another seven will follow, officials from the Taipei Economic and Trade Office (TETO) in Jakarta told CNA on Thursday.

Although the direct hiring scheme between Taiwan and Indonesia has been in effect for several years, it only applied to Indonesian workers who have been hired in Taiwan.

The new arrangement, which was implemented in July, allows first-time Indonesian manufacturing workers to use the direct hiring scheme. Each application is expected to be processed within two months, the office said.    [FULL  STORY]

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE: Advocates hailed the decision as a landmark and expressed hope that it would start equal talks between Truku, the government and Asia Cement

Taipei Times
Date; Jul 12, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday struck down Asia Cement Corp’s (亞泥) permit

renewal for a mine in Hualien County’s Sincheng Township (新城), giving the Truku people a hard-won victory, civic groups said.

After operating the marble quarry for nearly 40 years, the company’s application to extend its permit to continue operations for another 20 years was approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in March 2017, months before it was set to expire on Nov. 22, 2017.

A massive protest gathered on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard in June 2017, after aerial footage shot by filmmaker Chi Po-lin (齊柏林) — who was killed on June 10, 2017, in a helicopter crash while at work — appeared to show that the firm had expanded its operations at the quarry.

After reviewing an administrative lawsuit filed by four Truku against the ministry in 2017, the court yesterday ordered the ministry to revoke its approval for the permit extension, as well as its rejection of the appeal.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 11, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Law enforcement officials yesterday said that Chen Hung-tsung (陳宏宗), a wanted fugitive, was killed

in a gunfight in a rural area in Chiayi County after he refused to surrender to police.

An initial assessment of Chen’s body showed that he sustained two bullet wounds, with a fatal wound to the head and another to the left calf, Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) Deputy Commissioner Chu Tsung-tai (朱宗泰) said.

Chen, 58, remained in hiding for three years, and was considered dangerous after being listed as a wanted criminal for illegal firearms possession and attempted murder.

He was involved in a shooting in 2016 in Yunlin County and in 2017 fired at Tainan County police officers.    [FULL  STORY]