PEAK TRAVEL PERIOD: The strike affected 3,184 passengers yesterday, and union officials said that the number of participating pilots is likely to grow

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 09, 2019
By: Jason Pan, Wu Liang-Yi and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporters, with Staff writer

Thousands of travelers faced major disruptions after a pilots’ union announced a strike

against China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday morning — the first staged during a Lunar New Year holiday.

Shortly after midnight yesterday, the Taoyuan Union of Pilots said that China Airlines pilots who are union members would go on strike from 6am.

The airline, passengers and officials were taken by surprise, as many thought the union would not go on strike, because it is a peak travel period and tens of thousands of people had booked flights going abroad or returning to Taiwan.

As of noon yesterday, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that the strike had affected 3,184 passengers.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 07 February, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

President Tsai Ing-wen went back to her hometown of Pingtung on the second day of the Year of the Pig. The next day, she went to the hub of the city, the local temple to give out lucky red envelopes.

President Tsai Ing-wen went to her hometown of Pingtung and gave out red envelopes on Thursday at Fuan Temple, Taiwan’s largest temple. A lot of people lined up to see the president and receive one of her red envelopes with a lucky coin inside.

The president greeted the people warmly and spoke briefly to them in Taiwanese. She said that her administration will work hard to improve the country and meet the needs of the people.

President Tsai looked relaxed as she interacted with residents in her hometown. The night before, Pingtung County Magistrate Pan Men An treated her to dinner at Xiaoyu harbor where she met some local children. She also had the chance to enjoy local food such as this mushroom dish.    [FULL  STORY]

Magnitude 4.9 temblor jolts southern Taiwan’s Chiayi County

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A magnitude 4.9 earthquake rattled residents of southern Taiwan at 12:52 a.m. this morning, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The epicenter of the temblor was 38.9 kilometers east-southeast of Chiayi County Hall, at a shallow depth of 13.4 kilometers, based on CWB data.

The quake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of the tremor, registered a 5 on Taiwan’s 7-tiered scale in Chiayi County, a 4 in Tainan City and Kaohsiung City, and a 3 in Chiayi City, Yunlin County, Nantou County, and Changhua County. An intensity level of 2 was felt in Taitung County, Taichung City, and Penghu County, while an intensity level of 1 was registered in Pingtung County, Hualien County, and Miaoli County.

Located along the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, Taiwan uses an intensity scale of 1 to 7, which gauges the degree to which a quake is felt in a specific location.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/07
By: Chiang Chin-yeh and Evelyn Kao

Washington, Feb. 6 (CNA) Taiwan will donate US$500,000 to a non-governmental organization that advocates for victims of sexual violence and aims to rebuild communities devastated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the country’s representative to the United States said Wednesday.

Stanley Kao (高碩泰) made the announcement at a meeting of ministers from the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Department of State.

The donation was pledged in response to a call by Pompeo for further contributions to the effort against ISIS, and will go to Nadia’s Initiative, founded in 2016 by 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Nadia Murad.

On the occasion, Murad thanked Taiwan for its donation, while Pompeo also acknowledged the country’s contributions.    [FULL  STORY]

MIGRANT WORKERS: Authorities said they are investigating whether a contractor working on repair and maintenance at the warehouse had hired the workers illegally

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 08, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

A cargo warehouse fire in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) left three people dead, while a fourth remained in serious condition yesterday.

An initial investigation showed that the four are Vietnamese workers, Taoyuan officials and police said.

Authorities said they received reports of a fire at a warehouse of Kerry TJ Logistics of Taiwan (嘉里大榮物流) at about 10am on Wednesday.

Firefighters contained the blaze at 8pm that night.    [FULL  STORY]

Tsai Ing-wen faces opposition from the farming lobby in her bid to reduce economic dependency on China.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/02/06
By: The Interpreter

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) faces a re-election battle in 2020 and needs a big economic win to bolster her chances. A bilateral investment treaty with the U.S. would help, and joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPATPP) being promoted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be ideal.

She is running uphill. Tsai faces a resurgent opposition Kuomintang (KMT), energized by its decisive victories in the November 24 nine-in-one (local) elections. Moreover, Tsai’s popular support polling numbers are low ranging between 19 percent and 31 percent (although Taiwan polling data is often looked upon with skepticism). While she seems to have secured factional backing within her own Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to support her re-election effort, such support is not absolute. Tsai needs a concrete economic accomplishment to further consolidate her DPP support and sell to allTaiwanese voters.

Pursuing cooperative trade relations will also reduce Taiwan’s export dependence on China. Tsai is already attempting to cut this dependence via her “Go South Policy” and what is known as the 5+2 Industrial Innovation Program. But these are longer-term propositions that will not bear immediate results on reducing this dependence. To help her re-election and simultaneously reduce the 40 percent of exports currently going to China, Tsai needs more cooperative trade relations with the U.S. and Japan.

The trouble is, Taiwan domestic politics hinder the prospects, as do the politics of the U.S. and Japan.    [FULL  STORY]

Wu Chien-pao fled Taiwan in 2014 after being convicted of fixing professional baseball games

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/06
By:  Central News Agency

TAIPEI (CNA) — Former Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chien-pao (吳健保), who fled Taiwan in 2014 after being convicted of fixing professional baseball games, was extradited back to Taiwan from the Philippines on Wednesday.

The 69-year-old Wu was escorted to Manila International Airport by Philippine law enforcement agents, who then turned him over to Taiwanese Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) personnel for the flight back to Taiwan.

He was arrested at a villa in Subic Bay on Jan. 16 following a collaborative effort between CIB agents and their Philippine counterparts, who had Wu under surveillance for over three months after receiving a tipoff on his whereabouts.

According to a Taiwanese businessman based in Subic Bay, Wu had been hiding in the area since late 2014 when Taiwan issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to appear to begin serving his prison term.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/06
By: Chiu Chun-chin and Flor Wang 

Taipei, Feb. 6 (CNA) A fire broke out at the warehouse of a logistics company in Taoyuan on Wednesday morning, killing one Vietnamese worker and seriously injuring another, and two other people were still missing, the city’s Fire Department said.

According to the department, it received a call at 10:19 a.m. saying that a fire had erupted at the Kerry TJ Logistics facility in Guanyin District and dispatched 39 fire engines and ambulances along with 103 firefighters to the scene.

Upon arriving at the five-story reinforced concrete building, firefighters found that the blaze was concentrated on the second floor, and they moved in after learning that people had been working there.

Two Vietnamese migrant workers were pulled out, according to the department.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 07, 2019
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Several minor traffic accidents on the nation’s major highways were reported yesterday,

aggravating the already heavy traffic usually seen on the second day of the Lunar New Year, when married daughters traditionally return to their parents’ home.

Three vehicles collided at the 360.5km mark of the northern section of the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) at 10:04am, causing traffic to back up for 5km.

Another accident involving two vehicles was reported at the 316.5km mark at 11:05am, which occupied three lanes of the freeway and had an even greater impact on traffic.

At 10:45am, two vehicles collided on the 54km mark of the southern section of the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3), leading to an 11km-long traffic jam.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: February 5, 2019 
Phillip CharlierPresident, Taiwan President, Tsai Ing-wen

President Tsai Ing-wen attended the New Year’s eve bell-ringing and blessing ceremony at the Dharma Drum Mountain Fahua Bell Tower yesterday evening, February 4, noting that Dharma Drum Mountain’s theme for this year is “good wishes for the human world.”

President Tsai prayed with the people for the country’s peace and prosperity, and said she would continue to strive for Taiwan’s progress and development.

The Dharma Drum bell ringing ceremony was held at the Fuhua Bell Tower where a large bell was struck 108 times between 8:00pm yesterday, Lunar New Year’s Eve, and 10:40am today, the first day of the lunar new year.

The Dharma Drum Mountain theme, “A Good Wish for the World,” was an exhortation of DDM founder, the late Master Sheng Yen. DDM invited the public to make a wish, do a good deed, and together bring good fortune to the world.    [FULL  STORY]