Taiwan English News
Date: May 15, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier

A five-year-old girl was killed in Taichung City, and an 11-year-old boy lost his life in Hualien County yesterday, after motorists sped through zebra crossings, and failed to yield to pedestrians.

Taichung City
At around 4:00pm in Nantun District, Taichung City, a mother and her 5-year-old daughter were crossing the road on a pedestrian crossing on Liming Road at the intersection of Yongchun East Road, when a small truck driven by a 32-year-old man named Lee executed a right turn from Yongchun East and ran over the child.

Lee told police that he had a green light at the time, and did not see the pedestrians. He only became aware he had hit someone after he heard the mother shouting.

The child had been dragged under the truck for several meters by the time the driver stopped, and had suffered severe head and chest injuries. By the time paramedics arrived, the girl had lost vital signs, and although heartbeat and breathing was restored shortly after arriving at the hospital, the girl succumbed to her injuries and was declared dead at 6:50pm.    [FULL  STORY]

Yang Ming Unviersity, Chiao Tung University, and Academia Sinica employ AI, smart tech to create digital medical platform

Taiwan News 
Date: 2019/05/15
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Three academic institutions in Taiwan are teaming up to create a “Digital Medical Alliance” to establish a platform combining the internet of things, smart technology, and artificial Intelligence to better treat and prevent serious diseases and medical problems.

At the 2019 Digital Medicine Summit, the alliance, which includes researchers from National Yang Ming University (陽明大學), Chiao Tung University (交通大學), and Academia Sinica (中央研究院), announced that the first medical problem they will target will be “brain stroke.”

Brain stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in Taiwan. By utilizing advances in technology and artificial intelligence the medical alliance hopes to quickly be able to determine the exact location and degree of brain hemorrhages, to better assess treatment options within seconds.

Using genetic analysis and by considering other lifestyle a factor, the new platform aims to be able to detect the likelihood that an individual will suffer a stroke, reports Liberty Times.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/14
By: Stacy Hsu 

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) More than 1,000 pro-gay marriage supporters gathered outside the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday as lawmakers began efforts to reconcile three competing bills on same-sex marriage that will determine how same-sex relationships are defined in the future.

Of the three bills, only one, proposed by the Executive Yuan, defines a formal union between same-sex couples as “marriage,” and it was the only bill the gay rights groups said they could accept.

“The Executive Yuan’s version is already what we see as the ‘compromise bill’ and there must be no more compromises,” Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan chief coordinator Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔) said outside the Legislature on Tuesday morning, just minutes before lawmakers began negotiations over the bills.

Lu said “union” does not equal, nor can it be an alternative option for, “marriage,” and argued that Taiwan should not adopt a “one country, two systems” model for marriage.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 14 May, 2019
By: Shirley Lin

The first “techno prince” dance troupe made up of physically and mentally challenged dancers is set to perform in China, giving local audiences a taste of this uniquely Taiwanese dance style.

“Techno prince” dancing is an unusual blend of Taiwanese folk dance and modern pop music with colorful costumes thrown in for good measure.

There are many troupes performing this style of dance, but one is quite unlike all the rest. It’s made up of physically and mentally challenged women who do assembly work at a Yunlin County factory for people with special needs. They are encouraged to do physical training in addition to work, and they’ve decided “techno prince” dancing is the way to go.

Not only are the dance steps complicated and difficult to remember, each costume weighs in at 20kgs.    [FULL  STORY]

While Taiwan looks to Hong Kong as a cautionary tale of ‘one country, two systems,’ its own lack of a refugee law is coming under scrutiny.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/05/11
By: Daphne K. Lee

During a 2018 trip to Taipei, Chan Tong-kai, 20, strangled his pregnant girlfriend to death. He then stuffed her body into a pink suitcase, carried it through a 40-minute metro ride, and abandoned it outside of the Zhuwei MRT station, located in the outskirts of Taipei.

Chan, who has admitted to killing his girlfriend, was later arrested and sentenced in Hong Kong – not on the charge of murder, but on money laundering. Since the alleged murder was committed in Taiwan, Hong Kong authorities were only able to charge Chan for using his girlfriend’s debit card and stealing her other possessions.

One year later, the unresolved murder case has sparked a heated debate over Hong Kong’s new extradition bill, and a massive protest on April 28.

What’s the extradition law controversy about, and why does it matter to Taiwan?
The proposed amendments to the extradition law in Hong Kong have induced public fears with the possibility that Hong Kong residents can be deported to China to face unfair trials. Taiwanese nationals who’re traveling to Hong Kong could also be at risk, allegedly, if the amendments were passed.    [FULL  STORY]

The oldest among the selected eight Taitung Cycads is a 146-year-old

Taiwan News 
Date: 2019/05/14
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A 146-year-old Taitung Cycad is among 31 old trees that have been placed under protection after Taiwan’s southeastern county of Taitung conducted a tree census recently.

According to Council of Agriculture’s tree census guidelines, city and county governments should conduct at least one tree census every five years, Liberty Times reported on Tuesday (May 14).

Therefore, Taitung County Government had secured a budget from the central government to conduct a tree census in the county, and initially 170 trees were selected for protection, from which experts narrowed down to 31 trees. Eight of the 31 trees are Taitung Cycads.

The county government is promulgating the trees listed for protection from now until June 9, and if no objections would be raised, these trees would officially be listed as protected trees, according to the report.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/14
By: Yang Shu-min and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) A research team comprising scientists from Taiwan and the

United States may have found an effective vaccine for the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a highly lethal emerging disease with a mortality rate of over 34 percent.

Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), National Taiwan University (NTU) and Academia Sinica have developed a novel nanoparticle vaccine that mimics the morphology of MERS-CoV and has been found to protect against the infectious pathogen, Academia Sinica told the press in Taipei Tuesday.

Using nanotechnology, the team created capsid-like polymeric nanoshells before coating them with a protein corona to mimic coronavirus. It then loaded these nanoparticles with a potent immunologic stimulant to make the vaccine, according to the top academic research institution in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

OPPOSITION: Another group held a news briefing, urging lawmakers not to force passage of the bill, saying doing so would go against the public will

Taipei Times
Date: May 15, 2019
By: Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff writer, with CNA

About 1,500 supporters of same-sex marriage gathered outside the Legislative Yuan

in Taipei yesterday, as lawmakers negotiated versions of a bill to fulfill the requirements of the Council of Grand Justices’ Interpretation No. 748.

The council on May 24, 2017, ruled that the Civil Code’s prohibition of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and set a two-year deadline for the law to be amended to allow marriage between partners of the same sex.

The rally, which was organized by LGBT rights group Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan, was held in support of the Executive Yuan’s version of the bill.

Pegatron Corp (和碩) chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), actress Wen Chen-ling (溫貞菱) and director Yee Chih-yen (易智言) were among the celebrities at the rally.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 13 May, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

A top national security official is saying that China has no right to tell Taiwan media what to do. The official, National Security Bureau (NSB) Deputy Director General Ko Cheng-heng, was speaking on Monday.

Ko’s comments follow on the heels of the Cross-Strait Media People Summit, which Beijing hosted last Friday. Nearly 100 media and other organizations from Taiwan and China participated.

A high-ranking Chinese official, Wang Yang, told participants that it was their job to promote reunification under China’s “one country, two systems” formula. He also said the United States is just using Taiwan as a pawn and would not help Taiwan in the event of a war.

Ko says this is the first time that such “extreme and provocative” comments have been used at the annual conference, since it was first held four years ago. He says Taiwan is willing to hold exchanges with China but it is not willing to participate in efforts to promote unification of the two sides. He also said such remarks only damage cross-strait ties.    [FULL  STORY]

Populist Kaohsiung mayor emerges as formidable rival to Foxconn chief

Nikkei Asian Review
Date: May 13, 2019
By: Kensaku Ihara, Nikkei staff writer

TAIPEI — Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, who was once seen as a likely front-runner in Taiwan’s presidential election, is struggling to expand support as his sprawling business empire on the mainland raises concerns about his priorities.

Gou’s business experience was expected to become a great asset when he announced his bid in April. Gou founded Foxconn, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry, in 1974 and has turned it into a major Apple supplier that reported sales revenue of 5.29 trillion New Taiwan dollars ($171 billion) for 2018.

But Foxconn could actually prove a liability for Gou in the political arena. Among those eyeing the Kuomintang nomination, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu is now in the lead, with 35% support, according to a poll released Friday by broadcaster TVBS. Gou trails far behind at 20%. The party is expected to choose its official candidate as early as June based on public opinion, leaving Gou with just over a month to close the gap.

Taiwanese voters worry that Gou’s loyalties will be divided between the island and his company, which holds 74% of its fixed assets on the mainland and employs 800,000 to a million people there. Media leaning toward the Democratic Progressive Party, the independence-leaning force behind current President Tsai Ing-wen, have been highlighting potential conflicts of interest.    [FULL  STORY]