BRUSSELS SPEECH: A liberal democratic order can only survive if like-minded countries, including our European partners, work together for the greater good, Tsai Ing-wen said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 05, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA, BRUSSELS

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday urged European nations to support liberal,

democratic Taiwan at a time when a rising China is affecting the global landscape.

In a recorded speech at a seminar held at the European Parliament in Brussels, Tsai said China is undermining the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait and its rapid rise is changing the global order in place since the end of World War II.

At the opening of the Taiwan-sponsored seminar titled “China Factor: Resistance is Futile? — Taiwan as a Case Study,” Tsai said in a video that Taiwan is aware of the challenges posed by China and that its actions have “not served to drive Taiwan to Beijing, but encouraged us to look at where our friends and partners are, in countries that share our values and interests.”

Since 2016, China has stepped up its pressure on democratic Taiwan and tried hard to squeeze its economy and international space, Tsai said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-09-03

President Tsai Ing-wen paid tribute to soldiers and civilians who sacrificed their lives for

the country at a ceremony.

The president presided over the ceremony on Monday to mark Armed Forces Day.

Vice President Chen Chien-jen, Premier William Lai, high-ranking government officials, policemen, firefighters and family members of the deceased also attended the ceremony.
[FULL  STORY]

Plastic is the past and banning its use is an effective step towards a sustainable future.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/03
By: Nate Maynard

In a perfect world, you would not eat that entire box of donuts, or finish off the bottle of

wine because “it was almost out.” Sadly, we do not live in that world and often do things against our best interest. To preserve our health we commonly set boundaries, abstain, or “ban” certain substances from our lives.

Much like sugar or alcohol, plastic is cheap, widespread, and socially ingrained. While some hang on for technological innovations to save us, others realize they we must self-impose creative limits to steer our world towards greater sustainability.

Why ban?

Through a combination of subsidies and technical innovation humans have made plastic very cheap. Global fossil fuel subsidies reached US$5.3 trillion in 2015 (including undercharging for carbon and air pollution.)

Given that 99 percent of plastics use fossil fuels as the base for production, these subsides help to drive down the true cost of plastic manufacturing. Global governments give producers trillions in “free” support.    [FULL  STORY]

The caregiver has been blacklisted and already left the country

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/03
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – CCTV footage of an Indonesian domestic caregiver abusing an old disabled man has sparked discussions on the issue of long-term health care in Taiwan.

The caregiver has been blacklisted and already left the country.

The video was first posted on YouTube in late June of 2018, but it only surfaced in Taiwan’s news media after a family member of the victim recently posted it to the Breaking News Commune FB page.

The uploader of the video said the family employed the young Indonesian caregiver to take care of their wheelchair-bound 80-year-old grandfather, but a hidden camera installed by the family found that the caregiver abused their grandfather on multiple occasions when the two were left home alone.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/03
By: Wang Shu-fen and Frances Huang 

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) China Airlines (CAL), one of Taiwan’s leading international carriers, said Monday it will expand its code sharing arrangement with Japan Airlines to include some of the Japanese carrier’s domestic flights.

Starting Tuesday, CAL and Japan Airlines will launch code sharing cooperation for seven routes operated by the Japanese airline domestically in a bid to provide passengers with better services.

The seven internal flights to be included in the code sharing agreement are the Sapporo- Niigata, Sapporo-Hanamaki, Fukuoka-Miyazaki, Fukuoka-Hanamaki, Fukuoka-Amami, Kagoshima-Amami and Kagoshima-Tokunoshima routes.

In 2017, CAL and Japan Airlines launched code sharing services for all flights between Taiwan and Japan. Since then, CAL’s round-trip flights between the two countries have risen from 180 to 230 a week.    [FULL  STORY]

‘TAIWAN’: The campaign nearly doubled the required number of signatures to qualify for the referendum to change the national sports team’s name in 2020

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 04, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

Civic groups yesterday delivered to the Central Election Commission more than 520,000

signatures collected for a referendum proposal to change the national sports team’s name from “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

At a news conference in front of the commission headquarters, Olympic medalist and campaign spokeswoman Chi Cheng (紀政) thanked supporters for helping them reach the threshold of 281,745 signatures and urged people to vote on the referendum, which is to take place alongside the nine-in-one local elections in November.

The proposal, which garnered 526,688 signatures, is the seventh proposal to have reached the threshold this year. Nine referendums are expected to be held on Nov. 24, including two proposals on promoting gender equality that are expected to be submitted to the commission this week.

“Taiwan has great athletes, but we do not have a great brand. While the name ‘Taiwan’ is widely used, less than 1 percent use the name ‘Chinese Taipei.’ Great athletes deserve to represent a great name,” Control Yuan member Peter Chang (張武修) said, adding that the referendum would give Taiwanese the right to vote on their own “brand name.”
[FULL  STORY]

Navy requests US$1 billion to build nimble missile-armed vessels as tensions rise with China in the Taiwan Strait

Asia Times
Date: September 2, 2018 
By Bertil Lintner

Taiwan’s navy has submitted a request to the government for NT$33.6 billion (US$1 billion) to build 50-ton fast-attack missile boats, the Taiwan-based Central New Agency (CAN) reported.

The missile-armed boats are part of an effort to strengthen Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare capabilities in the face of a growing military imbalance vis-a-vis China in the Taiwan Strait, CAN quoted a high-ranking defense official.

The request was submitted to Taiwan’s parliament on Friday, the report said.

Shifting from its past heavy reliance on conventional forces, Taiwan will now focus on “quality, efficiency and precision over quantity,” the same anonymous defense official said.    [FULL  STORY]

The New York Times
Date: Sept. 2, 2018
By: Chris Horton

KINMEN COUNTY, Taiwan — The islands of Kinmen County, and the Nationalist troops stationed there, withstood artillery shelling from China long after the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war.

Today, relations between China and Kinmen, just miles apart, are very different indeed.

Kinmen, about twice the size of Manhattan, has been governed from Taiwan since the defeated Nationalists fled China for the islands in 1949. But Taiwan’s main island is 140 miles away, while China looms visibly in the near distance. That distance is narrowing — both literally and figuratively.

A new airport for the Chinese city of Xiamen is being built just north of Kinmen, on an island three miles away, and land reclamation for that project will bring Chinese territory almost a mile closer.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/02
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—A 58-year-old man surnamed Wu died on Sunday after he

crashed his powered paraglider into a river in Yilan County, media reports said.

Powered paragliding is a form of ultralight aviation involving a backpack engine and parachute.

Yilan County Fire Bureau received a report at 9:52 a.m. on Sunday that two people fell into the Luodong River near the Waizaiwai Bridge in Sanshing Township when they were powered-paragliding, according to the reports.

Reports said rescuers found Wu 500 meters downstream of the bridge at 10:36 a.m. and pulled him up immediately, but his heartbeat and breathing had stopped. He was rushed to Poh-Ai Hospital in Lotung.      [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/02
By: Yang Shu-min and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) Anyone caught attempting to smuggle raw pork into Taiwan from

China, where a highly contagious and deadly disease is spreading through hog farms, will be slapped with a fine of NT$15,000 (US$488) — the maximum penalty for such a crime, the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture (COA) has announced.

The measure is part of strengthened efforts by the council to isolate Taiwan from the virus that causes African swine fever (ASF), which COA officials said will exact a heavy toll on Taiwan’s hog industry if it spreads to the island.

COA Deputy Minister Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城), who supervises the country’s livestock industry, told CNA Sunday that there are currently 5.43 million pigs being raised around Taiwan for an industry that has a production value of more than NT$100 billion annually.

Every day, approximately 22,000 pigs are slaughtered to meet domestic demand, Huang said, warning that it will be a serious problem if the ASF virus finds its way to Taiwan and infects local pigs.    [FULL  STORY]