Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/27
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) Taiwan’s Central American ally Guatemala reaffirmed Monday its

government’s commitment to maintaining diplomatic relations with Republic of China (Taiwan), a week after neighboring El Salvador announced that it was switching allegiance from Taipei to Beijing.

In response to a CNA inquiry on bilateral ties, the Embassy of Guatemala in the Republic of China (Taiwan) affirmed that its country will continue to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

The embassy also confirmed that Guatemala’s Ambassador to Taiwan Olga Maria Aguja Zuniga relayed the message to Taiwan’s Vice Foreign Minister Jose Maria Liu (劉德立) during a meeting at the ministry’s headquarters in Taipei Monday.

An anonymous source said they also engaged in detailed discussions on bilateral cooperation projects, including humanitarian assistance projects and helping the ally to build a highway project.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 28, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Premier William Lai (賴清德) will next year present clear-cut goals for the government’s plan to

make English a second official language, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said yesterday.

The Ministry of Education will present an official report to Lai in the next few weeks on its recommendations for adopting English as an official language alongside Mandarin, Kolas said, after Lai discussed the issue in an interview with the Chinese-language Economic Daily News published yesterday.

“I will set a policy goal next year to make Taiwan a bilingual country, with English and Chinese being its official languages,” Lai said in the interview.

Lai late last year directed the ministry to form a “Committee to Promote English as an Official Language,” which was tasked with studying the issue, carrying out public surveys and drafting a plan on how to achieve the goal.

The ministry submitted the committee’s first report to Lai in June and is expected to present the second and final one by the end of this week or early next month, Kolas said.

The second report is to focus on ways and means of improving English teaching in schools, including establishing bilingual schools or classes and emphasizing spoken English, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

The latest on Taiwan’s push to achieve 20 percent of its power generation through renewables by 2025.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/08/25
By: Timothy Ferry, Taiwan Business TOPICS Magazine

In recent months, Taiwan has made significant strides towards achieving its goal of developing large-scale offshore wind-power resources. The government’s plans call for installing as many as 500 giant wind turbines in the Taiwan Strait in order to reach 3 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind-power capacity by 2025.

On April 30, the authorities awarded nearly 2 gigawatts (GW) of grid allocation to two developers, Danish firm Ørsted with 900 megawatts (MW) and Germany’s wpd AG with 1GW of capacity. The allocation assures the two firms of eventual ability to connect the offshore wind farms they are developing to the Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) grid for distribution to Taiwanese consumers.

Ørsted and wpd are only two of the many foreign players that have entered the Taiwan market – along with a slew of international investment funds to provide the financing – as Taiwan seeks to transition to a nuclear-free, low-carbon future based on offshore wind power and solar energy to replace its nuclear reactors and reduce reliance on coal.

The elimination of nuclear power has been enshrined in national law. All six of Taiwan’s nuclear reactors are scheduled to be retired when their 40-year licensures expire between the end of 2018 and 2025.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/08/26
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) A southwesterly airflow is expected to bring extremely heavy rain or

torrential rain to parts of central and southern Taiwan from Sunday until Wednesday, according to Central Weather Bureau (CWB) forecaster Wang Pin-hsiang.

Under the influence of the southwesterly airflow, central and southern Taiwan can expect extremely heavy rain over the next few days, while there is a chance of torrential rain in the south, Wang said.

The weather in other areas is also forecast to be unstable, with chances of showers or thunderstorms, while heavy rain cannot be ruled out, Wang added.

Meanwhile, heavy rain or extremely heavy rain is forecast for the Hengchun peninsula Sunday night, while southern and southeastern areas can also expect heavy rain, according the CWB.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/26
By: Huang Kuo-fang, Matt Yu and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited Budai Township in Chiayi County

for the second time in two days on Sunday, following the flooding of the town and criticism of her first visit.

The visit came after footage of her traveling around the township Saturday in a military armored vehicle, in an apparent attempt to avoid wading through water, went viral online.

In response, the Presidential Office said the video was taken out of context and used for partisan political purposes, emphasizing that during the trip, Tsai wore Wellington boots and at no time avoid wading through water.

Meanwhile, Chiayi County Magistrate Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠) said the president had walked through water when inspecting the flood-affected township Saturday and also directed the Ministry of National Defense to send pumps to help reduce flooding.    [FULL  STORY]

FLOOD WOES: The Central Emergency Operation Center said that water levels have begun to recede, but losses in the agricultural sector were about NT$563.11 million

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 27, 2018
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

With the center and south of the nation still reeling from a tropical depression system that has

hovered above Taiwan since Thursday, the combination of a monsoon trough and the southwest airstream is expected to bring more rain this week.

As of noon yesterday, the death toll from the flooding stood at seven, with 116 people injured and 599 people in shelters, statistics from the Central Emergency Operation Center showed.

Agricultural losses caused by the flooding are estimated to have reached at least NT$563.11 million (US$18.35 million) as of 5pm, while repairing damage to schools and other buildings is expected to cost NT$157 million, the center said.

From today to Wednesday, chances of showers or thundershowers would be high in the nation’s center, south and southeast, the Central Weather Bureau said, adding that torrential to extremely torrential rainfall is likely.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese leader tells former US Pacific Fleet commander his visit ‘represents strong partnership between the two sides’

Date: 25 August, 2018
By: Lawrence Chung

Taiwan and the United States are seeking to boost their military ties, with the self-ruled island’s President Tsai Ing-wen calling for “normalisation” of US arms sales when she met a former Pacific Fleet commander.

But a Taiwanese lawmaker and observers said any active exchanges with the US would be likely to start in a less sensitive area such as humanitarian relief efforts to avoid provoking Beijing, which has warned Washington against providing military support to Taipei.

Mainland analysts said Tsai was making every attempt to lift the island’s global status, while the US was “playing the Taiwan card”.

“[Mainland] China should be on high alert and be prepared for any moves that challenge its bottom line,” said Yu Keli, an expert on Taiwan issues at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.    [FULL  STORY]

Channel News Asia
Date: 25 Aug 2018

TAIPEI: Six people have been killed by floodwaters in Taiwan, officials said on Saturday (Aug 25), after days of heavy rain forced thousands to evacuate their homes.

A tropical depression has been dumping torrential rain in central and southern Taiwan since Thursday, with some districts receiving close to 1,000 millimetres of rainfall.

Six have died in the storm so far, according to government figures, including three who were killed by a falling scaffold in the southern city of Kaohsiung. Almost 100 more were injured.

More than 6,000 people were evacuated with more than 1,100 still in shelters on Saturday morning, officials said.    [FULL  STORY]

African-American arrested for allegedly murdering Canadian English teacher, Taiwanese man arrested for buying machetes

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/08/25
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An African-American man and a Taiwanese man suspected of

being involved in the grisly murder and dismemberment of a Canadian English teacher at a riverside park in New Taipei have been Prosecutor’s Office today, while a third suspect remains at large.

Police last night (Aug. 24) in Taipei’s Da’an District apprehended 30-year-old African-American male Ewart Odane Bent on suspicion of committing the grisly murder of 43-year-old Canadian English teacher Ramgahan Sanjay Ryan on on Aug. 21, reported Apple Daily. That same evening, a 21-year-old Taiwanese man surnamed Wu (吳) was also arrested for allegedly assisting Ewart purchase two machetes, which are believed to be the murder weapons. Meanwhile, a third suspect, a U.S. citizen identified by the Chinese surname Sun (孫), who police believe wielded the second machete, is still at large, according to Apple Daily and Liberty Times.

In May of this year, Taipei police found foreigners to be in possession of marijuana in a nightclub and traced the origin of the drug to Ryan. He was then arrested in Yonghe District for possession of more than 200 grams of marijuana.

After being leveled with drug charges, several of Ryan’s clients suspected he began working as a police informant and had started to betray their drug deals to the authorities, according to media reports. After becoming engaged in heated disputes with Ryan over drugs, Bent and Sun allegedly plotted to set an ambush for him.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/25
By: Chen Wei-ting and Ko Lin

Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) More indigenous dengue fever cases have been reported in

Taichung, including a four-year-old girl, the youngest victim this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Saturday.

The central Taiwanese city has reported six new cases, among them the young child who still has a fever and is receiving treatment, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.

Symptoms of dengue fever are generally milder in younger children, but need to be closely monitored for 4-6 days after being contracted, Lo said.

However, he also cautioned parents that the best protection is to prevent bites by infected mosquitoes and suggested children wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants when in dengue fever epidemic areas.    [FULL  STORY]