INTERNSHIP PROGRAM: Firms were told foreign students ‘like working overtime,’ are ‘highly cooperative’ and could be assigned to ‘taxing, filthy and dangerous shift work’

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 08, 2019
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

Tungnan University yesterday apologized to the public for advertising its students from South and

Southeast Asia as cheaper than migrant workers and ideal for doing “filthy, dangerous shift work” in an internship program plan it sent to companies.

In the eight-page plan, which was circulated on the Internet on Wednesday, the school details all the “perks” companies could obtain from offering internships to its foreign students.

Companies could save at least NT$3,628 per month per worker by not paying the expenses required to hire migrant workers, including fees for labor insurance, health insurance and the employment security fund, it said.

Furthermore, restrictions on company capital, industry type and quotas of migrant workers do not apply to students, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: March 6, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier

The driver of a semi-trailer is facing a range of charges, including attempted murder, after he reversed into an officer on a police scooter in Taichung City yesterday, March 5.

At around 2:00pm, an officer named Liu attempted to pull the driver over after he was observed going through a red light in Tanzi District, but the driver failed to stop, and led the officer on a chase, speeding along narrow country lanes narrowly missing cars, scooters and cyclists.

At one point in the chase, the truck driver, Mr Wang, 56, stopped abruptly, then reversed into officer Liu, knocking the scooter over, and forcing Liu to jump for his life.

The officer, with an injured knee and foot, drew his police revolver and fired four shots at the rear tires and cabin of the truck.    [FULL  STORY]

There is a strong argument that Taiwan is already an independent, sovereign nation, writes David Evans.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/03/06
By: David Evans

An independence referendum! It sounds like a panacea for Taiwan’s political ills, doesn’t it? But the truth is that for Taiwan, especially in the current geopolitical climate, the worst thing possible for the independence movement would be to hold an independence referendum.

For advocates of independence in Taiwan and elsewhere, it is a simple equation. Taiwan holds a referendum on independence, the people of Taiwan vote for it in large numbers, and as a result, the Taiwanese government has no option but to declare independence and the rest of the world supports them in doing so.

But the world never turns quite this smoothly, as the good people of Catalonia have learned only recently.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, would never accept the results of any referendum of the Taiwanese people. This authoritarian one-party dictatorship doesn’t allow their own people a say in political matters, so why would they care what the people of Taiwan think? The views of the people of Taiwan on the future of their own country are, in the eyes of the CCP, completely irrelevant, so any referendum is of absolutely no consequence whatsoever to them.
[FULL  STORY]

Taoyuan City councilor Wang asks Kaohsiung Mayor Han’s fans to calm down after claiming he was ‘drunk every day’

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/03/06
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) is backtracking on claims he

made on a recent political commentary TV program that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) was drinking heavily on a daily basis while he was president of the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation (TAPMC), after a massive backlash by Han’s supporters.

Wang alleged that when Han was the head of TAPMC, he was drunk by “noon every day,” would sleep until “three or four in the afternoon,” and that he was drunk “300 days a year,” reported Apple Daily.

Kuomintang (KMT) New Taipei City Councilor Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧) scolded Wang for making a mountain out of a molehill. Yu described Wang as being a “PTT Lord Voldemort” (PTT is a popular online forum in Taiwan).

In response to the criticism, Wang said his previous statements on Han were based on fact, but he emphasized that he just wanted to remind Han that “living this way is bad for your health.”
[FULL  STORY]

Ministry of National Defense submitted the request last week: Apple Daily

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/03/06
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan last week submitted a request to buy 66 F-16V jets from the United States for a total price of US$13 billion (NT$400 billion), the Apple Daily reported Wednesday.

The unconfirmed report came amid concern about China’s military build-up, including a raise of more than 7 percent in its annual defense budget and the recent stationing of strategic bombers just 450 kilometers from Taiwan.

The Ministry of National Defense officially handed its application for the fighter jets on February 27, according to the Apple Daily.

The package not only included the aircraft themselves, but also the training of their pilots, air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, and two years of “after-sales care,” the newspaper said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/06
By: William Yen

Taipei, March 6 (CNA) The organizer of a work-study program for students from the Philippines defended her program Tuesday after being accused of forcing the students to work excessive hours in hazardous and difficult conditions.

The charges mirrored those made in January by Indonesian students, who said the work portion of their work/study programs in Taiwan were simply pretexts to farm cheap labor to Taiwanese factories.

Christina Wu (吳孟玲), chairwoman of the Chinese Faith Culture and Education Development Association (FAITH), defended her program at a press conference Tuesday evening, accompanied by

University of Science and Technology (YDUST) in Miaoli, is aimed at helping foreign students “make the transition from blue-collar work to white-collar work.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese perceptions of Trump as a rational decision maker miss the mark, writes Brian Hioe.

he News Lens
Date: 2019/03/05
By: Brian Hioe

The meeting last week between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and American president Donald Trump offers lessons for Taiwan in terms of Trump’s unpredictability.

Namely, perceptions in Taiwanese media and among influential thinkers upon policy sometimes continue to be far off the mark in terms of still viewing Trump as a rational decision maker and placing a great deal of blind faith in him. Views in Taiwan are often that Trump’s unpredictable political behavior is a form of high-risk negotiating tactic.

Trump is often seen in Taiwan as quintessentially a businessman, with a great deal of uncritical acceptance of the image that Trump himself hopes to project publicly, as being a skilled dealmaker and negotiator. As such, there will inevitably be those in Taiwan who believe that Trump calling off negotiations with Kim was simply a negotiating tactic in order to secure more concessions from Kim.

With such a view, actions that Trump has taken against the interests of longtime American allies such as Japan and South Korea, in threatening to withdraw American troops from bases in both, are generally seen as a negotiating tactic aimed at coercing Japan and South Korea to pay more money to America in return for maintaining American military bases. Again, this would be a form of bargaining. Incidents when Trump unexpectedly acts against Taiwanese interests are also usually seen along such lines.
[FULL  STORY]

xTaiwanese generals might leak details during visits to China: Hsieh

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/03/05
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Japan and the United States are willing to engage in a security dialogue with

Taiwan, but they are concerned that the content of the talks might be leaked to China, Taiwan’s envoy to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said Tuesday.

During an interview with Japan’s Sankei Shimbun last week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) proposed the Japanese government should hold security talks with her administration. However, unconfirmed media reports later said Tokyo was not considering any such discussions.

Speaking at a food fair in Japan Tuesday, Hsieh said that according to his understanding, both Tokyo and Washington would like to discuss security issues with the government of Taiwan, but they were worried that Taiwanese generals visiting China would leak the contents of the talks, the Central News Agency reported.

A security dialogue would benefit both Taiwan and Japan, and was necessary, but Japan was worried about its confidentiality, though it was not prepared to say so explicitly, the former premier said.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/05
By: Chen Chun-hua and Ko Lin

Taipei, March 5 (CNA) Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said Tuesday that he is in favor of imposing tighter

screening for officials from China who apply to visit Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

In addition, Chinese officials going beyond the stated reason for their visits, such as those caught engaging in pro-Beijing propaganda that infringes upon Taiwan’s interests, “will not be allowed into the country again,” Su said at a legislative hearing in Taipei.

Su made the remarks after New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) criticized the government for not introducing policies that would tighten the screening of applications by Chinese officials to visit Taiwan, as it promised last year.

Lim also asked why the rejection rate for Chinese officials applying to visit Taiwan had dropped from 6.8 percent in 2016, to 6 percent in 2017 and 5.5 percent in 2018.    [FULL  STORY]

ROBUST TIES: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the 16 US senators for calling on the Trump administration to send a Cabinet official to AIT’s celebration of the TRA

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 06, 2019
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Sixteen US senators on Monday wrote a joint letter urging US President Donald Trump to send a Cabinet

official to Taipei next month to attend a major event to be held by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

The AIT on April 15 is to hold an evening reception at its new facility in Neihu District (內湖) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, which the US senators said has served as the cornerstone of US policy toward Taiwan, and helped maintain peace, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region against an “increasingly aggressive” People’s Republic of China.

“The event provides an ideal opportunity, consistent with the requirements set forth in the Taiwan Travel Act (Public Law 115-135) that you signed into law on March 16, 2018, to send a Cabinet-level official to Taipei to underscore our nation’s enduring commitment to Taiwan’s democracy and its people,” the letter said.    [FULL  STORY]