Legislators hold landmark hearing on digital privacy after a report shows authorities sought data from social networks and communications companies for almost 70,000 clients

South China Morning Post 
Date: 09 September, 2018
By: Lawrence Chung

Big Brother is everywhere. And Taiwan, which claims to be a staunch advocate of personal privacy in stark contrast to the mainland, is no exception.

According to a recent report by the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR), the self-ruled island has violated digital human rights by quietly conducting communications surveillance over the past few years to obtain social networking content and metadata, ostensibly to help investigate crimes.

In the 2015-16 period covered by the report, government authorities – mostly security and police units – made close to 70,000 demands for social networking and digital service providers to reveal the content and parties involved in the communications, as well as the location tracking and personal information of their clients – all without the clients’ knowledge.

In addition to criminal investigations, the authorities said the surveillance was needed to counter the growing threat from mainland China, which has been staging military drills and flipping several of the island’s diplomatic allies.

Even so, critics remain concerned about the infringement on citizens’ privacy.
[FULL  STORY]

The government’s ambitious targets to grow Taiwan’s internet of things industry are coming together despite talent-related teething troubles.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/09
By: Courtney Donovan Smith

How can Taiwan’s highly successful – but low margin – contract electronics manufacturing prowess be leveraged to create innovative brand leaders as higher-margin “internet of things” (IoT) businesses?

That is the ambitious task given to the government’s Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency (ASVDA) as part of Taiwan’s 5+2 Innovative Industries Plan headed by Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫). The agency – headquartered in Taoyuan with branch offices in Taipei and Silicon Valley – was launched in 2016 with initial funding for 2017 of NT$10 billion (US$361 million at the then exchange rate), with plans to add NT$5 billion (US$170 million at current exchange rates) annually.

The government announced on July 26 that the overall technology budget for 2019, including ASVDA, will total NT$116.3 billion (US$3.8 billion), up 5.12 percent from this year.    [FULL  STORY]

 

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/09/09
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, Sept. 9 (CNA) A tropical storm that formed over the Pacific was upgraded to Typhoon Mangkhut Sunday afternoon and is expected to intensify with the possibility it could reach Taiwan Saturday, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) forecast.

As of 2:00 p.m. Sunday, the typhoon was located about 3,000 kilometers from the eastern coast of Taiwan traveling at a speed of 34 kilometers per hour in a westerly direction, according to the CWB.

Mangkhut is packing maximum sustained winds of 126 kph, with gusts of up to 162 kph, according to CWB data.

Meanwhile, a tropical depression over the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines is expected to bring rain to southeastern parts of Taiwan, according to the CWB.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/09
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Sept. 9 (CNA) The drop in coal use for power generation was the main reason for improvements in air quality recorded in Taichung, Nantou County, Yunlin County and Chiayi County from January to June, according to a Facebook post by an expert in environmental engineering.

A comparison of average levels of PM2.5, which measures the concentration of airborne particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers, indicates that the air quality index for the first six months of the year was lower in 20 of Taiwan’s 22 cities and counties than the average for the same period from 2013-2017.

Tsuang Ben-jei (莊秉潔), professor of Environmental Engineering at National Chung Hsing University, posted the data compiled by the Environmental Protection Administration on his FB page Saturday, as evidence that air quality in the areas looked at is improving.

According to the data, the average PM 2.5 level in Taichung stood at 29 micrograms per square meter from January to June, 34 in Nantou, 31 in Yunlin and 33 in Chiayi, representing a decrease of 5 micrograms per square meter in Taichung, 4 in Nantou, 4 in Yunlin and 3 in Chiayi, compared with the average results for 2013-2017.
[FULL  STORY]

DISASTER PREVENTION: Several Keelung districts saw flooding yesterday, while Taipei’s mayor said drainage systems in several areas would be inspected

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 10, 2018
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

The government has completed preparations to minimize the possible effects of heavy

rain, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday evening after the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued a warning of heavy to extremely heavy rain for Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City, Kaohsiung and Yilan, Hualien, Taitung and Pingtung counties.

In a Facebook post, Tsai said the government has activated disaster prevention and mitigation plans, with rubber dinghies, pumps and other flood-relief equipment ready to be deployed on short notice, and 4,000 soldiers at the ready.

Heavy rain yesterday morning caused flooding in several districts of Keelung, after torrential rain pounded northern Taiwan on Saturday afternoon and early evening, causing flooding in several areas of the city as well as Taipei and New Taipei City.

A section of Fusing Road in Keelung’s Jhongshan District (中山) was flooded with water up to the knee height, leaving many vehicles partially submerged in the water and creating a small waterfall of muddy water in one alley.    [FULL  STORY]

The Telegraph
Date: 8 September 2018
By: Nicola Smith, taipei 

The United States has recalled its top diplomats from Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama for consultations over those countries’ recent decisions to switch their diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China.

The three US Ambassadors “will meet with US government leaders to discuss ways in which the United States can support strong, independent, democratic institutions and economies throughout Central America and the Caribbean,” said the State Department on Friday.

El Salvador was the latest to cut ties with Taiwan in August,Dominican Republic in May and Panama last summer, reducing the number of Taipei’s former diplomatic allies to just 17.

China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any country that recognises the self-governed democratic island of 23 million.
[FULL  STORY]

A potential switch may become part of discourse leading up to the Pacific archipelago’s March 2019 elections.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/08
By: By James Batley, The Interpreter

Over the last couple of years Taiwan has been steadily hemorrhaging diplomatic allies. Countries from Africa, Central America and the Caribbean have switched allegiance to Beijing, leaving just 17 countries maintaining formal relations with Taipei. The largest bloc of such countries is in the Pacific, comprising Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.

Following an address at the Australian National University this year, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Rick Hou ruled out any diplomatic switch ahead of his country’s national elections, which are due to be held by about March 2019.

Photo: Taiwan Presidential OfficePresident Tsai Ing-wen (R) welcomes Manasseh Sogavare, the former Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, in Taipei. Sogavare was succeeded in 2017 by Rick Hou.
Even so, the approach of the elections seems to have stimulated thinking in Solomon Islands about the merits of a future switch. There is increasing chatter about the prospect that Solomon Islands may be the first of Taiwan’s Pacific dominoes to fall.

Taiwan faces a number of challenges in shoring up its links with Solomon Islands. For the past couple of decades, Taiwan has invested heavily in Solomon Islands’ political elite through its support for the notorious “constituency development funds,” that is, discretionary funds provided for Members of Parliament to spend in their own constituencies.    [FULL  STORY]

Opinion piece praises U.S. Senators’ “TAIPEI Act” proposal

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/08
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The West needs to stand together in order to defend Taiwan against bullying by China, a leading article in the Times of London said Friday.

The opinion piece comes as the island has been targeted by the communist leaders in Beijing for ever more far-reaching bullying, including demands on foreign multinational corporations to stop referring to Taiwan as a separate country from China on their websites.

In the comment piece titled “Solidarity with Taiwan,” the Times describes China as “an authoritarian one-party state whose president has awarded himself leadership for life and launched his vast country on a mission of diplomatic and economic aggrandizement backed by the implicit threat of force.”

The paper contrasts China with Taiwan, “a prosperous independent democracy with no discernible appetite for Chinese communism.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/08
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Ko Lin

Taipei, Sept. 8 (CNA) Indigenous dengue fever continues to spread across Taiwan, with

new cases reported in Changhua County and Yonghe District in New Taipei, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Saturday.

Changhua County, which had not been affected by the mosquito-borne disease this year, despite numerous cases in neighboring Taichung City, reported its first case of indigenous dengue fever.

The patient is a female junior high school student who developed a fever on Aug. 30. Tests later confirmed on Friday that she had contracted the type 1 (DENV-1) dengue virus infection, according to the CDC.

Meanwhile, Yonghe District also reported its first case of indigenous dengue fever that day. The patient is a woman in her 30s, who also contracted the type 1 virus, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘CONSULTATIONS’:Washington summoned its envoys to the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama, all of which have broken diplomatic relations with Taiwan

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 09, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it has been in close contact with the

US government regarding the nation’s international space, after Washington summoned its envoys to three of Taiwan’s former diplomatic allies in Central America and the Caribbean.

“We have always been in close communications with the US government on issues related to Taiwan’s international space,” ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said when asked about the US Department of State’s latest move in response to China’s increasing attempts to poach Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.

However, Lee said only that the ministry has noticed the department’s announcement, but declined to comment on its individual measures.

Lee’s remarks came one day after department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a news release that it has summoned US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Robin Bernstein, US Ambassador to El Salvador Jean Manes and the US Charge d’Affaires in Panama Roxanne Cabral.    [FULL  STORY]