The Ministry of Labor declined to sit down with protesters because Sunday was their day off.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/06/11
By: James X. Morris

Southeast Asian domestic caregivers protested in front of Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor (MoL) in Taipei Sunday to highlight the failure of officials to protect their contract rights, and demand the Labor Standards Act (LSA) be extended to include their profession.

Protest leaders had expected a sit-down meeting with ministry officials, but said they were forced to make do with a street-level visit after the MoL suggested Friday that they would be unable to meet on Sunday because it is a day off, an irony that did not escape those assembled at the ministry gates.

The event, promoted as the “Campaign for DAY OFF-National Domestic Worker’s Day” (國際家務勞動者日陳情行動), was hosted by the Taoyuan-based Domestic Caretakers Union (DCU) alongside other unions representing the interests of migrant workers providing domestic care.

The protesters complained they are overworked, underpaid, and exploited by an unfair one-sided application of existing laws, particularly the failure of employers to allow them the one day off every week to which many of their contracts stipulate they are entitled.    [FULL  STORY]

Nurse uncovered evidence that chief administrative officer of a special needs center had molested at least 4 female residents in Hualien

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/06/11
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A nurse at a special needs institution has uncovered

evidence of sexual assaults allegedly perpetrated on at least four female residents at the facility by the head administrator, reports Apple Daily. 

A 38-year-old woman surnamed Wu (吳), who is a certified nurse and dietitian and has worked in the nursing for 18 years, began working in a special needs facility in Hualien in July of last year. On April 30 of this year, while bathing a female resident with an intellectual disability, she suddenly said “Uncle Chang” (60-year-old chief administrative officer of the hospital) touched me.

Fearing that this was a serious matter, Wu then asked some other female residents with intellectual disabilities. Two adult women also said, “Uncle Chang rubbed by breasts and then my lower body.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/11
By: Joseph Yeh 

Taipei, June 11 (CNA) The United States government’s US$255 million investment in its new American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) compound is a symbol of its commitment to Taiwan, a visiting American congressman said Monday.

“The opening tomorrow of the new AIT headquarters shows how important our relationship is to the U.S.,” Gregg Harper (R-MS) told reporters in Taipei.

The new compound, built at an estimated cost of US$255 million, further shows that the U.S.’ commitment is strong and will continue, he added.

Harper is visiting Taiwan mainly for Tuesday’s dedication ceremony for the AIT’s new office complex in Taipei’s Neihu District, which is also expected to be attended by Marie Royce, assistant secretary of educational and cultural affairs in the U.S. Department of State, and AIT Chairman James Moriarty, according to Taiwan’s foreign ministry.    [FULL  STORY]

Washington seeks to avoid angering Beijing by sending lower level representative to opening, which coincides with Trump-Kim summit

South China Morning Post
Date: 10 June, 2018
By: Liu Zhen

Washington will send an assistant secretary of state to open its de facto embassy in Taiwan this week – the same day US President Donald Trump meets his North Korean counterpart in Singapore – as it tries to avoid angering Beijing.

Marie Royce, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, will open the American Institute in Taiwan on Tuesday, the institute said in a statement on Sunday.

Her husband Ed Royce is chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, who has promoted several pro-Taiwan bills including the Taiwan Travel Act.

Despite media speculation earlier this year that Trump may even send his new national security adviser John Bolton to the opening ceremony, sources told the South China Morning Post last week that the Trump administration decided not to send a cabinet-level official to the ceremony to avoid a strong response from Beijing.

Why new de facto US ‘embassy’ in Taiwan may further rock ties with China

The opening coincides with the highly anticipated summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which key diplomatic and security figures in the US
administration are expected to attend.
[FULL  STORY]

Beijing urges low-key approach to opening of compound in Taipei, in new flashpoint with Trump administration

The Wall Street Journal
Date: June 10, 2018
By: William Kazer

TAIPEI—Tuesday is a big day for China, thanks to the Trump administration—and not only because the U.S. president plans to meet with the leader of North Korea.

The U.S. will also be opening a new compound for its de facto embassy in Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as its own and has been a longstanding flashpoint between Washington and Beijing. To officials in the U.S. and Taiwan, Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in Taipei symbolizes the strength of their partnership.

Chinese diplomats have urged the Trump administration not to dispatch a senior cabinet secretary to the event, according to a U.S. official. Doing so, the diplomats suggested, would violate an understanding that Washington should have only unofficial relations with Taiwan.[FULL  STORY]

So if you like to put yourself in the scene of golden paddy fields, but don’t want to go as far as Hualien or Taitung counties, the Yilan River (宜蘭河) right embankment bikeway east of the Yilan Bridge is the place to go

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/06/10
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Paddy fields along the Yilan River in the east of Yilan City and Zhuangwei Township (壯圍鄉), Yilan County are turning light yellow, and in a few weeks they will turn completely golden yellow as the harvest season draws near. So if you like to put yourself in the scene of golden paddy fields, but don’t want to go as far as Hualien or Taitung counties, the Yilan River (宜蘭河) right embankment bikeway east of the Yilan Bridge is the place to go.

Your best bet is to carry your own bike to Yilan City either via public transportation or in your car as the public rental bike system in the city is still in shambles.

Once you get on a bike, just head for the Yilan River, which bisects the northern part of the city. Actually you can start from anywhere along the right embankment, but Yilan Bridge is a good reference point because it is located midway between the east and west ends of the bikeway. Besides Yilan Bridge, Liwu Bridge (黎霧橋) and under the bridge of the National Highway 5 are both good starting points.

The scenes of paddy fields start about a couple of kilometers east of Yilan Bridge. After you pass underneath the Liwu Bridge, yellow paddy fields will come into view and the fabulous scenery will continue until the end of the eastern section of the bikeway.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/10
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, June 10 (CNA) Over 60 percent of the respondents to a recent poll in Taiwan

think the government should come up with countermeasures against China’s suppression of Taiwan in the international arena, according to the results of a survey released Sunday by the Taiwan Cross-Strait Policy Association.

During a press conference, the association released the results of the survey conducted June 8-9, which found that 63.6 percent of its 1,070 respondents said they support the government crafting countermeasures in the face of China’s suppression, with 20.7 percent opposed.

Meanwhile, 52.2 percent of the respondents said the government should not accept the “1992 consensus” on Beijing’s one-China principle, while 34.8 percent said it should.    [FULL  STORY]

PACKED SCHEDULES: US Department of State official Marie Royce and Representative Gregg Harper are to meet with government officials and private-sector representatives

Taipei Times
Date; Jun 11, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA

US Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce

yesterday arrived in Taiwan for a four-day visit that includes tomorrow’s dedication ceremony for the American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) new complex in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

It is Royce’s first visit to Taiwan since she took up her post in March, although she has accompanied her husband, US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, on several trips, the ministry said.

She is quite familiar with Taiwan and she and her husband have been long-standing, important friends of Taiwan, the ministry added.

Marie Royce is to visit government agencies during her visit to share views on issues including Taiwan-US relations, educational and cultural exchanges and building a good environment for start-ups, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

The Next Web
Date: June 9, 2018
By: Georgina Ustik

Taipei is game-crazy. From pinball machines to toy dispensers, the gray city blocks are sprinkled with the neon glow of mini arcades, with enticing names such as “Happy Moments” and “Sweet Box” ( ). But no game is more common than the claw machine.

Claw machine games are, of course, not exclusive to Taipei. There are plenty in the United States, as well as the rest of the world, but they’re largely restricted to arcades, dark corners of malls, or big restaurants where parents take their children when they’re sick of them.

But in Taipei, claw machines are undergoing a huge surge in popularity. Not only was I surprised to see so many — it seems like they’re on almost every other block — but I was also surprised that most of the occupants are teens or adults, not sticky, screaming children like in the states.

Light bulbs… weird pillows… vibrators, oh my!
These claw machines are known by a few different names. 抓物機/抓物机 (Zhuā wù jī) which directly translates into “grab stuff machine” as well as 釣物機/钓物机 (Diào wù jī) or “fish for stuff machine.” A few people playing them told us they were also referred to as “selection machines.”     [FULL  STORY]

Los Angeles Times
Date: Jun 09, 2018 
By: Ralph Jennings

Hundreds of Taiwanese people living in the United States, including many in Los

Angeles, have gotten chilling telephone calls in recent months from scam artists falsely claiming to represent government agencies and aggressively demanding payments to settle problems, the Taiwanese government warns.

Although the reports suggest the motive is fraud, officials in Taipei have not ruled out a political cause. The callers speak with mainland Chinese accents, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrew Lee said.

The fraudsters often claim to be representatives from Chinese or Taiwanese government agencies and demand bank transfers to clear cases involving back taxes, kidnappings or health insurance irregularities. The cases are fake, and the bank accounts involved belong to private people rather than government agencies.

Callers sometimes allege “issues such as errors on visa or passport application documents,” the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles said in a statement in January.    [FULL  STORY]