If the driver fails an alcohol test, adult passengers will face a fine between NT$600 and 3,000

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/06/28
By: Judy Lo, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) announced on Tuesday (June 25) that adult passengers will be fined jointly and severally for drunk driving offenses from July 1.

Apart from harsher fines for drunk drivers, adult passengers in the same car or on the same scooter will also be fined up to NT$3,000.

Drunk bicycle riders will be fined between NT$600 and 1,200. If the rider refuses to take an alcohol breath test, they may face a fine of NT$2,400.

Heavier fines are also levied on DUI offenders. Drunk drivers of a car will face a fine between NT$30,000 to 120,000. Scooter riders will be fined up to NT$90,000 for drunk driving.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/06/28
By: Chen Chih-Chung, Chung Yu-chen and Christie Chen

Taipei, June 28 (CNA) Chienkuo Technology University in Changhua County and a manpower broker

on Friday denied charges made by the Ministry of Education (MOE) a day earlier that they were complicit in having overseas students work excessive hours.

In a statement issued Friday, the school disputed the findings of an MOE investigation into the case, saying that the school never forced the students to work and did not make inappropriate deductions for expenses from students' salaries.

The MOE said on Thursday that it suspected that the treatment of the students by the university and the broker may have violated the criminal code, leading it to hand the case over to prosecutors.

The ministry's suspicions were initially raised in mid-June when 19 first-year Indonesian students at the school told the ministry they were being forced to work excessive hours and had their passport and residence permit confiscated by a university-recommended broker.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 28, 2019
By: Lee Hsin-fang, Shelley Shan and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday called a Kaohsiung official’s attendance at a ceremony on

Tuesday to launch a maritime route between the city and China’s Wenzhou a “farce,” while Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) asked the central government to help investigate the case.

Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau Director Pan Heng-hsu (潘恒旭) was photographed at a ceremony held by Shang Ho Marine Transport (上和海運) to celebrate the purported maiden voyage on a route between Kaohsiung’s Cijin District (旗津) and Wenzhou’s Dongtou.

A banner at the event suggested that the route was part of the “small three links.”

However, the company disbanded on June 12 and no application had been filed with the Maritime and Port Bureau to establish the route or to use the two ships that allegedly made the maiden voyage.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 27 June, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting a 25thlocal case of dengue fever in the southern city of Kaohsiung.

Dengue fever is an infectious tropical disease with symptoms that include fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and skin rash. In a small number of cases, the disease can develop into hemorrhagic dengue fever, which can be fatal. Dengue fever outbreaks are common in Taiwan in the summer months, especially in the tropical south of the island.    [FULL  STORY]

South China Morning Post
Date: 27 Jun, 2019
By: Reuters

Flight attendants at Taiwan’s EVA Air urged the airline on Thursday to restart negotiations to end a week-long strike that has seen hundreds of international flights cancelled.

The airline said a total of 368 flights, or 40 per cent, would be cancelled from July 1 to July 5. Nearly 300 flights were already cancelled since its cabin crew went on strike on June 20, including flights from Taipei to Chicago, Paris, Seoul and Hong Kong.

The week-long strike, which is the longest ever in Taiwan’s aviation sector, where labour unrest is uncommon, has caused an estimated revenue loss of about NT$1.3 billion (US$43 million).

The union representing EVA Air’s flight attendants made several concessions on Thursday on its demands to improve work conditions and pay, having failed to reach an agreement with the airline’s management after a months-long negotiation.    [FULL  STORY]

Female physician says Taiwan's EVA Air flight attendants are 'replaceable' and unwilling to do hard work nurses do

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/06/27
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As the Eva Air flight attendant strike enters its eighth day, a female physician has sparked debate online by saying that flight attendants "can only serve trays and push carts" and that their work is not nearly as hard as nurses.

Out of frustration with the strike, a Taiwanese netizen claiming to be a doctor took to the Facebook group Baoyuan Commune (爆怨公社) on Tuesday (June 25) and wrote:

"These little public lifts [little princesses], other than serving trays and pushing carts, I really can't think of any reason why you can't be replaced. Today, if nurses went on strike, I would picket with them. I'm afraid injections would hurt because there is a big difference between having experience and not having experience. As for who gives me food, is there a difference between having experience and not having experience?"

As for the argument that flight attendants are uniquely skilled in foreign languages, she said:

"What is their foreign language proficiency? Hamlet，Othello，King Lear，Macbeth, would you like me to tell you a story? Why don't I take the flight attendant exam? Am I so cheap? It's a pity to be a nurse. I'm too good at testing that I became a doctor."

She then argued that nurses are willing to do the dirty work that made headlines when one flight attendant was forced to wipe the buttocks of an unruly passenger:    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/06/27
By: Yeh Su-ping, Joseph Yeh, Ko Lin and Christie Chen

Taipei, June 27 (CNA) The European Union removed Taiwan from its illegal fishery watch list Thursday,

an acknowledgment of the progress made by the country and its improved administrative systems to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).

The EU decided to lift the yellow card to recognize Taiwan's reforms put in place over the past three and a half years to tackle IUU fishing, the European Commission said in a statement issued Thursday.

"I welcome the considerable efforts undertaken by Taiwan to reform its fisheries legal framework, implement new control tools and improve the traceability of marine fisheries products," said Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

"The EU's dialogue with Taiwan has shown again that international cooperation is a key driver towards healthier ocean management," Vella said.    [FULL  STORY]

BEIJING’s BACKING? While there is no evidence Han Kuo-yu colluded with a Facebook group, he was certainly aware that his support online was somewhat mysterious

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 28, 2019
By: Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff writer, with CNA

Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) won the mayoral election on Nov. 24 last year with the help

of “a campaign of social media manipulation orchestrated by a mysterious, seemingly professional cybergroup from China,” Foreign Policy magazine said in an article published on Wednesday.

In the article, titled “Chinese cyber-operatives boosted Taiwan’s insurgent candidate,” Paul Huang (黃翔暐), a Taipei-based freelance journalist and writer and Kaohsiung native, wrote: “Barely six months into office, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu is already eyeing a run for the presidency in 2020 and is seen as the godsend that Beijing has been waiting for: the emergence of a populist, pro-China candidate in Taiwan.”

Despite “strong suspicions of Chinese interference” in the local elections held on Nov. 24 last year and a decline in President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) popularity, “few expected the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] would lose Kaohsiung,” he wrote.

In contrast to the DPP’s Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), “an experienced, if somewhat bland, legislator,” Han was “an outsider to Kaohsiung politics whose pro-China rhetoric seemed out of touch with the city’s fierce pro-independent ethos,” he wrote.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 26 June, 2019
By: Andrew Ryan

A new smart phone app is helping doctors identify skin cancer in patients.

At a press conference on Tuesday, National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital dermatologist Chan Chih-chieh explained how the app can help doctors. He said that even experienced doctors have a tough time determining the nature of a mole just by looking at it with the naked eye. That means it’s necessary to take a graft and examine it under a microscope, a process that requires a small surgery.

With the new smart phone app and an artificial intelligence-powered system called AI-CDSS, users simply take a photograph of a skin spot. In just seconds, the database can identify five different kinds of skin disease, including: melanoma, two kinds of carcinoma – SCC and BCC, nevus, and SEB K.    [FULL  STORY]

Defense News
Date: June 26, 2019
By:: Bradley Bowman and Mikhael Smits

At the G-20 summit this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping may pressure U.S. President Donald Trump to halt a planned U.S. arms deal with Taiwan. Xi may even offer a tantalizing (but unreliable) concession on the trade dispute in return for concessions on Taiwan. Accepting such an offer would undermine U.S. national security and the democratic principles Americans support.

Bullies tend to start fights they think they can win, an important consideration when it comes to deterring Beijing from aggression against Taiwan. Unfortunately, due to China’s massive military mobilization and Washington’s past reluctance to provide sufficient arms to Taiwan, the military balance of power in the Taiwan Strait has shifted in Beijing’s direction — making war there more likely. To begin reducing this risk, Washington would be wise to follow through on delivery of the pending arms packagefor Taiwan.

Based on the hope that economic liberalization would lead to political liberalization, Washington facilitated Beijing’s integration into the global economy. American supportfor China’s entry into the World Trade Organization epitomized this strategy. Unfortunately, increased wealth did not launch an inexorable march toward freedom in China. Instead, the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, used its financial windfall to fund a major military expansion, bully its neighbors and attempt to push the U.S. out of the region.    [FULL  STORY]