Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/09/06
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Footage has emerged of a two-vehicle rollover collision in southwestern Taiwan’s Chiayi County in which two children were thrown from a vehicle, but miraculously survived.

On Sept. 4, a member of Breaking News Commune (爆料公社) posted dashcam footage of a car cruising on National Freeway 1 in Chiayi County on Sept. 3.  At 1:53 p.m. a white car can be seen suddenly slamming into the rear left bumper of a silver car, sending both tumbling into the air.

The white car rolled one and half times, while the silver sedan rolled twice. Amazingly, when the cars finally come to a halt and the dust settles, a child can be seen alive in the center lane on all fours trying to stand up.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-09-05

President Tsai Ing-wen met Wednesday with the president of Guatemala’s Congress,

Álvaro Arzú Escobar. Guatemala is one of Taiwan’s Central American allies.

During the meeting, Tsai spoke about cooperation between Taiwan and Guatemala. She said Guatemala’s Congress has always been an important source of support for Taiwan. She cited the Congress’ May resolution in support of Taiwan’s participation in the WHO as one example.

The president also spoke about Taiwanese businesses exploring opportunities in Guatemala. Addressing Guatemala’s Congress last year, Tsai said that Taiwan would send study groups to Central America. These would let businesspeople look at investing in the region or buying local products. So far, groups coming to Guatemala have looked into everything from tourism to coffee and cocoa.

Tsai also discussed Taiwan’s technical missions in Guatemala. She said one team had recently helped finish a turtle conservation center. She said both projects like this and high-level exchanges between officials will bring Taiwan and Guatemala closer together.
[FULL  STORY]

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/05
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said it is monitoring ties with eSwatini and will continue to provide assistance to strengthen diplomatic relations with the African country.

The statement comes as China’s leadership is hosting a two-day forum with African Leaders and business representatives in Beijing.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, China’s President Xi Jinping announced Beijing will invest more than US$60 billion (NT$1.845 trillion) in Africa over the next three years and cancel debt from the least developed countries that have relations with Beijing.

eSwatini was not invited to the forum due to its having diplomatic ties with Taiwan. However, MoFA officials said there is concern that China’s offer could put pressure on eSwatini to switch recognition.    [FULL  STORY]

 

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/05
By:  Central News Agency

Mystery Beach in Nan’ao Township, Yilan County has been closed until Sept. 14 following the deaths of five people who were swept out to sea by rogue waves Sunday during the passage of a typhoon northeast of Taiwan, the county government announced Wednesday.

Yilan County Deputy Magistrate Yu Lian-sing said members of the public will not be permitted to enter the area during the 10-day period, as indicated by a public notice posted at the beach.

Mystery Beach has been closed so that new regulations for the use of beach buggies can be devised by the relevant authorities, including the Coast Guard Administration, Tourism Bureau and Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area Administration, Yu said.

The decision to close the beach was prompted by a series of deaths there on Sunday, when five people on beach buggies were swept out to sea by rogue waves in three separate incidents while Typhoon Jebi was swirling toward Japan.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/05
By: Yu Hsiao-han and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 5 (CNA) Minimum wages in Taiwan will be increased next year, the Ministry

of Labor (MOL) announced Wednesday, following the Cabinet’s approval of a wage hike proposal that was put forward by a special committee.

The monthly minimum wage will be raised by 5 percent and the hourly wage by 7.14 percent, in line with the recommendations of the MOL’s Basic Wage Deliberation Committee, the ministry said.

The recommendations, put forward by the committee on Aug. 16, have been approved by the Cabinet and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2019, the MOL said in a public notice.    [FULL  STORY]

SUBSIDIES: The fund, to be available from next month to August next year, is to help Taiwanese teams enhance treatment of patients with special conditions in the region

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 06, 2018
By Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan is to establish a US$2 million fund to subsidize Taiwanese medical teams that

serve Pacific Islands Forum member states, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.

Wu made the announcement at a Sustainable Development Goals 17 roundtable in Nauru, one of the nation’s diplomatic allies.

The roundtable was organized by Nauruan President Baron Divavesi Waqa to bring together his nation’s developmental partners and forum members to discuss ways to build a stronger region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release.

Wu, who is leading Taiwan’s delegation to the forum, in the roundtable’s opening address talked about the nation’s long-term dedication to the development of Pacific countries’ agriculture, education, medicine and infrastructure, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-09-04

Taiwan’s athletes have outdone themselves at this year’s Asian Games. While flying

home Monday, after the closing ceremony, the last group of the returning team received a special honor in mid-air.

Two F-16 fighter jets are escorting some of Taiwan’s top athletes home. They’re returning from Indonesia, where this year’s Asian Games recently ended.

Taiwan’s team has never performed so well at the games, winning 17 gold medals, 19 silvers, and 31 bronzes. At the previous games, by contrast, Taiwan’s gold medal count stood at just ten.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan retains something truly special on its east coast. It would be a shame to lose it in a rush towards development.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/04
By: Matt Dagher Margosian

The following article is contributed in response to suggestions from Taiwan’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀), that the national high-speed rail (HSR) network could be extended eastwards to Hualien on the country’s relatively isolated east coast.

I live up high in an apartment building in Yilan County, northeast Taiwan. From large bay windows looking out into the countryside, you can see small concrete houses bobbing like seagulls among an ocean of rice fields. Beyond them lies the Zhongyang Mountain Range (also known as the Central Mountain Range), where clouds form in the morning over the peaks, like pillows enveloping the heads of lazy sleepers.

This natural beauty is endearingly contrasted by the intimate mosaic of my neighbors: Kids — two to a bicycle — cycling to school and laughing gossip back and forth; local breakfast restaurants, opened out of people’s homes, which supplement Yilan’s single McDonald’s; and elderly men and women checking their rice fields for pests as nearby egrets assist by devouring snails and locusts.

The scenery reminds me of Dali, in China’s Yunnan Province, where I used to live and work. Rather than an ocean of rice fields, my home there looked out onto the alpine beauty of Erhai Lake.    [FULL  STORY]

I-Mei Foods CEO Luis Ko asks government officials to explain

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/04
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As China banned the import of plastic trash this year, Taiwan saw a marked increase in foreign garbage entering the country, leading I-Mei Foods Co. (義美食品) CEO Luis Ko (高志明) to question why the government allowed this to happen, causing the income of low-income elderly people to shrink significantly.

Government officials should value the efforts to keep the living environment clean made by these underprivileged, elderly, low-income “powerless and voiceless” grannies and grandpas, Ko wrote on his Facebook page Monday.

Government officials should also come out and explain under what kind of policy Taiwan should import garbage, especially since a majority could also become a source of pollution for residents’ health and quality of life, and for the environment.

At the end of his post, Ko asks for reactions if anything he wrote was wrong. If the policy was wrong or negligent, the government should explain and apologize, admit errors and make up for them, instead of inventing all kinds of excuses.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/04
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Sept. 4 (CNA) Taiwan is closely monitoring ties with eSwatini, its only diplomatic

ally in Africa, and will continue to provide assistance to strengthen relations with the country, a foreign ministry official said Tuesday.

On Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) announced that Beijing will invest more than US$60 billion in Africa over the next three years and cancel debt from the least developed countries that have relations with China as he opened the two-day High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African Leaders and Business Representatives in the Chinese capital.

All 53 African countries that have diplomatic relations with China sent representatives to the conference, which is part of a series of meetings under the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

eSwatini, former known as Swaziland, is the only country in Africa that recognizes Taipei instead of Beijing, and was not invited to the forum.    [FULL  STORY]