The stage is set for the election to be a vote of confidence on the Democratic Progressive Party’s record in office.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/22
By: Yu-tzung Chang

International news reporters visiting Taiwan to report on elections for the first time will certainly be amazed by the variety of large-scale campaign activities. Normally, when a competitive authoritarian state is transitioning to democracy, we would expect large numbers of people to take to the streets. But Taiwan’s democratization began three decades ago and these are only local elections. Is the large-scale electoral mobilization a sign of the deficiency of Taiwan’s democracy? The answer to this question should be, no. Instead, the frenzy can be explained by the controversial reforms implemented by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after it came to power in 2016, producing a major counterattack from opponents of the reforms (or reform losers) in this election.

Opposition to reform of benefits
Like many European countries, Taiwan’s government is heavily burdened by a large welfare budget and has therefore attempted to reduce welfare expenditures to achieve fiscal balance and sustainable development. However, resistance to reform is greater than in other countries. The distribution of welfare benefits in Taiwan has long been unbalanced.

Photo Credit: Reuters / TPGProtesters try to pull down the gates of the Legislative Yuan building during a rally against overhaul of the military and civil service pension funds in Taipei, Taiwan April 25, 2018.
The social welfare benefits of former public employees, in particular military veterans, are much higher than those of other groups. After the DPP came to power two years ago, it proposed to reduce the welfare benefits of retired public employees, leading to widespread protests. Ultimately, the DPP was able to use its majority in the Legislative Yuan to force through the pension cuts. Since then, the losers of this reform have continued to protest, targeting public events attended by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).    [FULL  STORY]

LAST CALL: While the KMT called on people frustrated with the DPP administration to vote for change, the DPP said that a vote for the party is a vote for democracy

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 23, 2018
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said it is holding evening campaign

rallies for its mayoral candidates in the six special municipalities on election eve, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) touted its interactive live streaming of campaign rallies staged by 20 mayoral and commissioner candidates across the nation.

The central theme of the KMT campaign is “The night to victory,” with each event having its own subtheme, KMT spokesman Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) told a news conference in Taipei.

In Taipei, the KMT has gained the city government’s approval to stage a rally for its mayoral candidate, Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), called “Vote to save Taiwan: Ting Shou-chung’s night to victory” on Ketagalan Boulevard, Hung said.

In New Taipei City, KMT mayoral candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) is to hold his “Justice awakens, safeguard NTC [New Taipei City]” rally at the Banciao Stadium, while in Taoyuan, Apollo Chen (陳學聖) is to host his rally next to his campaign headquarters, Hung said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 22 November, 2018
By: Natalie Tso

The Central Election Commission has announced that it will use the same quick-

drying red ink in the voting booths this Saturday. There were rumors that this election would use an oil-based ink that would take longer to dry and could smudge.

The commission also said that people could bring notes with them to vote, but they could not disturb others in the process. Notes cannot be left in voting booths or be thrown in as ballots.

Taiwan heads to the polls on Saturday, November 24 in its mid-term elections. People will vote for city mayors, city councilors and local neighborhood chiefs. The public will also vote on 10 referendums. The issues include using the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei” to participate in the Olympics, same-sex marriage, nuclear power, and environmental issues.    [FULL  STORY]

The first of what might eventually be a flood of Taiwanese companies have committed to sourcing 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/22
By: Nate Maynard

Your alarm goes off, you put on a cup of tea and turn off the fan from the unusually warm night before. At each stage of the repetitive process of waking up, you depend on energy, you depend on fossil fuels. What if you didn’t have to?

Who runs the world? Fossil fuels
The way we make electricity, whether by combusting fossil fuels or through renewables has great impacts on global carbon dioxide emissions, air quality, and economic competitiveness. Last year, energy-related emissions grew by 1.4 percent to an all-time high of 32.5 gigatons (Gt). Energy usage makes up 72 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions by sector. While some suggest that the impact from agriculture and land-use change (deforestation) is underestimated, it’s safe to say the that the extraction, processing, and use of fossil fuels is the primary driver of anthropogenic climate change.

Thus if we want to avoid the nightmare of a 1.5 degree Celsius hotter world, we will need to fix our energy system.    [FULL  STORY]

98 percent of romaine imported this year came from U.S.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/11/22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is tightening import controls on romaine lettuce from the United States and Canada and advises the public not to consume the raw vegetable due to a case of E. coli contamination in the U.S.

From Friday until December 7, batches of romaine imported from the two North American countries will have to be accompanied by a safety certificate or they will be stopped at the border, the Apple Daily reported.

Officially, the FDA has issued a yellow alert for the vegetable, meaning it is “suspicious but without immediate danger,” according to the Central News Agency.

No cases of infections by the E. coli bacteria have been recorded in Taiwan for the past three years, officials said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/22
By: Ku Chuan and Ko Lin

Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has instructed relevant

ministries to help convey Taiwan’s desire to take part in the second round of negotiations for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka (谷辣斯.尤達卡) said Thursday.

Taiwan has been trying to join the regional economic bloc since its formation in March by 11 signatory economies — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — many of which are the nation’s major trading partners.

Negotiators from the 11 signatories to the CPTTP agreed on July 19 to start a second round of accession talks with potential new members in 2019, when the free trade pact is scheduled to go into effect.

During a Cabinet meeting, the Premier asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and the National Development Council (NDC), to actively support Taiwan’s CPTPP bid through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) platform, Kolas said.    [FULL  STORY]

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/21
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

The Financial Supervisory Commission said Tuesday that it is studying the feasibility of allowing migrant workers to use convenience stores to remit money back home.

According to commission Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄), his office is considering the idea of non-financial institutes serving as channels for cash remittances under the current regulatory sandbox mechanism.

Lawmakers enacted the Financial Regulatory Sandbox in April. It provides a legal space for financial technology firms and financial institutions to test innovative products and services.

Koo said remittances made through convenience stores by migrant workers would be limited to small amounts and they will have to designate recipients for the remittances, such as family members, with an eye to sidestepping money laundering concerns.    [FULL  STORY]

A total of 16 women have now been awarded compensation, but two cases are still under review

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/21
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – According to a Supreme Court decision Wednesday, socialite Justin Lee (李宗瑞) will have to pay a total of NT$15.25 million (US$493,600) to seven more of his sex scandal victims.

Lee, 33, is already serving a prison sentence of 39 years and two months for having drugged and sexually assaulted nine women, while he was sentenced to pay compensation of NT$12.25 million (US$396,500) to the same nine women.

Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling brings the total of the compensation payments to 16 women to NT$27.5 million, but two more cases were still being dealt with by the courts, the Apple Daily reported.

The facts date back to the period from 2009 to 2011, when Lee, the son of a prominent banker, spiked the drinks of women at Taipei nightclubs and took them back to his home, often raping them while they were unconscious and filming the acts.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/21
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Chi Jo-yao 

Taipei, Nov. 21 (CNA) A research team from Taiwan has extended and potentially laid the groundwork for going beyond Moore’s law with a monolayer diode, which could lead to a major breakthrough in the semiconductor industry, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) at a press conference Wednesday.

Supported by MOST, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC), a research team headed by NCKU Professor Wu Chung-lin (吳忠霖) and NSRRC Assistant Scientist Chen Chia-hao (陳家浩), developed a two-dimensional (2D) monolayer diode and published its research results in Nature Communications on August 7.

MOST said the electrodes of the new diode are made of 2D nonmetallic elements Tungsten diselenide and graphene, which demonstrate great semiconducting transition in an atomic monolayer that is only 0.7 nanometer (nm) wide.

Compared to common silicon semiconductors, where transistor channel size has hit a hard limit at a width of 3 nm, the monolayer diode is thinner, smaller, and faster. As a result, it has the potential to move beyond Moore’s law and meet the manufacturing needs of a new generation of energy-saving integrated circuits (IC), MOST added.
[FULL  STORY]

ANNIVERSARY: To mark 20 years since establishing diplomatic ties, the nations signed two agreements to strengthen law enforcement and strategic cooperation

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 22, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan and the Marshall Islands yesterday celebrated the 20th anniversary of the

establishment of diplomatic ties with the raising of their national flags and singing of their anthems aboard a Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessel docked at a port in the Marshall Islands.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Marshallese Minister of Foreign Affairs John Silk attended the event on the 84.5m-long vessel to bring a celebratory end to Wu’s three-day visit to mark Tuesday’s anniversary.

“Deeply moving moment during the flag-raising ceremony aboard CGA’s Shun Ho No. 7. To hear the anthems of #Taiwan & the #MarshallIslands in such a beautiful part of the world steeled my resolve to work even harder in helping like-minded countries achieve lasting prosperity,” Wu said on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Twitter account.

Wu reportedly made the trip to show support for the Pacific island nation at a difficult time, as Marshallese President Hilda Heine on Monday last week narrowly survived a vote of no confidence that was apparently initiated by Chinese-backed business interests.    [FULL  STORY]