Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/03
By: Flor Wang and Liu Kuan-ting

Taipei, May 3 (CNA) Drivers who fail to give way to visually impaired pedestrians will face

a stiff fine after the Legislative Yuan on Friday passed an amendment to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act.

Under the revision, drivers who do not yield to visually impaired pedestrians with a cane or a guide dog at crosswalks or when making turns will be subject to fines of NT$2,400 to NT$7,200 (US$233).

The Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act did not previously stipulate specific penalties related to the visually impaired, but set a standard fine of NT$1,200 to NT$3,600 for drivers who fail to yield to any pedestrian on a crosswalk.

Drivers of slow-moving vehicles, such as bicycles or human-powered vehicles with maximum speeds of 25 kilometers per hour, were also targeted in the amendment.
[FULL  STORY]

Epicenter under the ocean off Yilan County

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/02
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 6:44 p.m. Thursday (May 2), but no immediate damage or casualties were reported.

The epicenter of the quake was located 32.2 kilometers southeast of the Yilan County Government, under the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 41.7 km, the Central Weather Bureau said.

The quake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of the tremor, registered a 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tiered scale in inland parts of Yilan County, but the tremor was felt around most of the northern part of the country.    [SOURCE]

NO ANSWER? Restaurant owners say the food delivery firm, whose overseas operations also face difficulties, has not been answering its customer service phone line

Taipei Times
Date: May 03, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

More than 200 suppliers and restaurant proprietors have formed an association to seek

payments from food and grocery delivery firm Honestbee Taiwan, accusing it of dishonest business practices and attempts to cover up financial woes.

Association members have protested over the past few days at the company’s headquarters in Taipei, where they were met by a female employee who offered an apology and said that Honestbee was making efforts to pay its creditors.

It would process delayed payments in the shortest time possible and assist business partners to diminish inconveniences down to the lowest level, Honestbee’s Taipei office said in a statement released yesterday.

A Taipei restauranteur surnamed Pai (白) said that Honestbee had not been forthcoming over unpaid bills.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 02 May, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Taiwanese business tycoon Terry Gou says that he will be a peacemaker rather than a

troublemaker if he becomes president

Gou made the remark while meeting US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday.

Gou is the chairman of Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer. The company makes iPones and iPads for Apple, and employs roughly one million people in China.

Gou is Taiwan’s richest person, with personal assets estimated at US$10.5 billion. On Forbes’ 2019 list of billionaires, he was ranked 257th.    [FULL  STORY]

The Trump administration’s disregard for the rules-based world order doesn’t mesh with its stated Indo-Pacific strategy. Here’s how to fix that to the benefit of Taiwan.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/05/02
By: Kent Wang

The United States was the crux of the economic development and political security system on which the world has relied for more than 70 years. The global economic architecture, which the United States and its allies put in place after World War II, is now absent American leadership. President Donald Trump and his team have trashed it.

Trump’s trade war with China and his trade actions against others, including Europe, Canada and Japan, show utter disrespect for the world’s core set of rules. This system is the international system of rules, whatever its weaknesses, on which the Indo-Pacific region’s political security also vitally depends. The wreckage of Trump’s approach to foreign policy continues to pile up across the Taiwan Strait, and around the world.

As Chinese economic and political ties grow across the Strait, an increasingly stagnant U.S. policy towards the Indo-Pacific threatens to undermine both American and Taiwanese interests. The Trump administration has the opportunity to revamp this state of affairs before it is too late. The United States must consistently grow its relationship with Taiwan. Perhaps even more ambitiously, Washington must pursue every available avenue of cooperation with Taipei allowable under U.S. law. Indeed, there is not actually much activity that U.S. law disallows when it comes to U.S.-Taiwan cooperation.

Taiwan is a vital democratic partner of the United States. Washington should deepen bilateral security, economic, and cultural relations with Taipei, while also sending a message that Beijing’s aggressive cross-Strait behavior will not be tolerated. Trump’s strategy should be crafted with the intent to deepen and expand United States-Taiwan relations, in accord with the longstanding, comprehensive, strategic, and values-based relationship between the two.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/02
By: Liu Chien-pang, Hsiao Po-wen and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) is seeking the

assistance of Interpol which it has asked, through Japan, to issue an arrest warrant for the arrest of Alihammad Jomaah, an Iraqi suspected of killing his Taiwanese wife’s parents in Taipei.

Jomaah left the country with his one-year-old son Tuesday on a flight bound for Japan, authorities said Wednesday. As a result, the police have asked law enforcement in Japan to help track down the 31-year-old Iraqi man.

However, Taiwan is not a member of Interpol and has no extradition treaty or mutual judicial assistance pact with Japan. As such, the assistance received is likely to be limited, the CIB said Thursday.

To locate Jomaah, Taiwanese law enforcement can only seek unofficial assistance from the Japanese police, according to the CIB.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 01 May, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says Taiwan’s people are united behind the

government’s bid to take part as an observer in this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA). Chen was speaking Wednesday during a press conference organized by a group that backs Taiwan’s WHA observer status.

The WHA is the decision-making body of World Health Organization. It is set to hold this year’s session in Geneva from May 20-28. Though Taiwan has attended as an observer in the past, it has been barred for several years because of pressure from China.
[FULL  STORY]

The Star
Date:  1 May 2019 
By: Kristin Huang
A Taiwanese fighter jet pilot mistakenly fired a self-defence weapon during a recent encounter with a PLA warplane, according to a local newspaper.

It was not known when or where the incident took place, but an unidentified source familiar with the matter told China Times on Monday that the situation did not escalate further.

“The firing of an infrared decoy projectile is a defensive act, so it did not lead to an exchange of fire,” the source was quoted as saying.

Decoy projectiles are usually used during conflict to avoid being hit by an incoming missile.    [FULL  STORY]

An estimated 6,000 protesters braved heavy rain in Taipei

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/01
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Marchers in Taipei’s Labor Day parade Wednesday (May 1) braved pouring rain to demand more days off and better safeguards.

An estimated 6,000 labor activists took to the streets of the capital to demand that more official holidays, long-term care and 90 days of maternity leave be written into law, the Central News Agency reported.

The protesters also demanded a lifting of restrictions on strikes and protests, such as the fixed warning period, a ban on the use of irregular labor, and the selection of labor representatives to serve on company boards.

Organizers alleged that despite measures called for by the International Labor Organization, the conditions for workers in Taiwan had not improved over the past 20 years, but on the contrary even worsened.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: 2019/05/01
By: Huang Li-yun, Hsiao Po-wen and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, May 1 (CNA) An Iraqi man suspected of killing his parents-in-law in Taiwan left the

country with his one-year-old son Tuesday morning on a flight bound for Japan, authorities said Wednesday.

Alihammad Jomaah, 33, is the main suspect in the deaths of a Taiwanese couple, who were his wife’s parents and with whom he allegedly had an argument over custody of his child, according to police.

The two people, in their 70s, were found dead at their home in Taipei’s Shilin District on Wednesday morning, the man in the bathroom on the first floor, and the woman in a room on second floor, police said.

The bodies showed no obvious signs of trauma, police said, adding that carbon monoxide poisoning was ruled out in the initial investigation.    [FULL  STORY]