Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-06-05

This year’s Han Kuang live-fire military exercises entered their second day Tuesday. The

exercises are the country’s largest annual military drill to prepare counterattacks to a potential attack by China.

On Tuesday, the exercises took place over the Danshui River in northern Taiwan with counterattack and anti-penetration operations.

President Tsai Ing-wen meanwhile was at Pingtung’s Jioupeng Military Base in southern Taiwan to oversee missile interception exercises. Later in the day, Tsai was scheduled to head to the southern coast for the anti-landing operations.
[FULL  STORY]

It’s not that hard, airlines.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/06/05
By: Morley J Weston

The PRC has lately been on a campaign against menus — the type that let customers select their country of origin or their destination when ordering hotel rooms or plane tickets.

Companies around the world from Marriott to Quantas have bowed to the wishes of China and its growing financial clout, a trend which the White House has denounced as “Orwellian nonsense.”

But the U.S., which ended official diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, is supposed to hold its tongue when it comes to calling Taiwan a country and Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) a president, despite both those things being evidently true.

American politicians keep to to a strict playbook on Taiwan, using creative turns of phrase such as “this economy’s beautiful landscape and people” and “Leader of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen.”    [FULL  STORY]

 

On June 5, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) announced the first death from severe enterovirus infection in a newborn boy who resided in eastern Taiwan

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/06/05
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—On June 5, 2018, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) announced the first death from severe enterovirus infection in a newborn boy who resided in eastern Taiwan.

He was born in early May and began to develop symptoms, including fever, inactivity, and loss of appetite in late May, Taiwan CDC said, adding that he was then rushed to a hospital for treatment and was hospitalized. After two days of hospitalization, his conditions worsened and he was transferred to a medical center in northern Taiwan for further treatment, according to Taiwan CDC. Infection with echovirus 11 and severe complications was then laboratory confirmed in the case. However, the baby died after hospitalization for two weeks, the agency said.

Newborns can acquire enterovirus infection either during delivery from their mothers or contact with infected individuals after birth. Therefore, Taiwan CDC urges expectant mothers to pay attention to hand and respiratory hygiene during pregnancy. If symptoms pertaining to enterovirus infection such as fever, upper respiratory infection, diarrhea, and rib pain develop 14 days prior to and after delivery, be sure to inform the physician to facilitate diagnosis and treatment, according to the agency.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/05
By: Yu Kai-hsiang and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, June 5 (CNA) Searchers have found the flight data recorder of the F-16 fighter jet that crashed on Monday, a finding believed to be crucial to determining the cause of the tragedy that led to the death of the plane’s young pilot.

Commonly called the black box, the flight data recorder of the single-seat military aircraft was found Tuesday afternoon in a valley about 120 meters below the crash site on Wufen Mountain (五分山) in New Taipei’s Rueifang District, a New Taipei Fire Department spokesman said at a press briefing.

The searchers then brought the flight data recorder, which is actually an orange color, to military representatives on the scene.    [FULL  STORY]

NO OFFICIAL COMMENT: Reuters said the Pentagon declined to discuss potential operations, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the news had yet to be verified

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 06, 2018
By: Staff writer, with Reuters

The US is mulling the possibility of sending an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait

as a show of support to Taiwan, a report by Reuters said yesterday, citing US officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to the report, the US had explored plans for an aircraft carrier passage earlier this year, but did not pursue them, perhaps due to concerns about upsetting China.

The last time a US aircraft carrier transited the Taiwan Strait was in 2007, when George W. Bush was president.

According to Reuters, the Pentagon has declined to comment on any potential future operations, so it was not clear how soon such a passage might take place.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/04
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Ko Lin

Taipei, June 4 (CNA) An international workshop on air pollution and control was held

Monday in Taipei, bringing together some 30 officials, experts and scholars from nearly a dozen countries.

The three-day Air Quality Management Policy Exchange Workshop, jointly organized by the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, focuses on methods to tackle air pollution, such as applied technologies, control policies, inspection practices and law enforcement.

According to the EPA, the event welcomed representatives from Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Mongolia, to share their countries’ problems in combating air pollution.   [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-06-04

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen is calling on China to face the historical reality of the

Tiananmen Square Incident. Her call came Monday, on the 29th anniversary of the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Beijing, which left anywhere between several hundred and thousands dead.

Tsai posted a message on Facebook in the simplified characters used in China. She said that anyone who visits her Facebook page will discover a microcosm of Taiwan’s democracy: there are both criticism and support, and in Taiwan no words are deemed too sensitive. Nothing is censored in Taiwan, the way it is in China, and there is no internet firewall preventing accessing to controversial web sites.

“This is our way of life,” said Tsai. “It exists because there is a democratic system in place that makes it possible.”    [FULL  STORY]

More than 20 migrant laborers came together to protest what they claim is a cycle of falsified documents and exploitation at HTC’s factories.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/06/04
By: James X. Morris

A group of Filipino migrant workers gathered outside of Taipei 101 in Taipei’s busy Xinyi

District on the morning of June 3, 2018 to protest their treatment by employers HTC and Google, demand government protections and urge greater corporate social responsibility from both companies.

At root of their complaints are allegations that HTC tricked and cheated its migrant labor force on multiple occasions and that the government and that labor bureaus are not enforcing laws which could protect migrant workers.

According to a press release from labor rights organization Serve the People Association (SPA) and other groups responsible for organizing the protest, the problems came to a head when HTC sold its “Powered by HTC” division to Google in 2017. In February of this year, HTC gathered workers from the division to announce that the sale would result in layoffs, and that the workers would need to return home.
[FULL  STORY]

Gangsters gunned down marine when they mistook him for another man at gas station in Pingtung County

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/06/04
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese marine was shot to death inside his car in southern Taiwan by a group of gangsters on scooters who thought he was another man, reported CNA.

At 3 a.m. on June 2, a 23-year-old soldier surnamed Ho (何) had just finished refueling his blue Hyundai at a gas station on Yanping Road in Pingtung County’s Chaozhou Township and had barely driven 300 meters when more than 10 vehicles suddenly approached him from behind. One car blocked him from the front, while the rest pulled up from behind and a mob of 15 to 16 angry men jumped out and smashed his windows.

Next someone fired shots into the vehicle and Ho was mortally wounded.

After police brought in over 20 people for interrogations, they discovered that it was a case of mistaken identity. A man surnamed Yin (鄞) was angry that his girlfriend, surnamed Lee (李), had broken up with him and he wanted to beat her. Lee’s female friend, surnamed Hsu (許), on Facebook cursed Yin and he retaliated, causing her boyfriend, surnamed Wang (王), to become enraged.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/04
By: You Kai-hsiang and Flor Wang

Taipei, June 4 (CNA) The annual Han Kuang live-fire military drills were launched in

Taiwan Monday to test and boost the country’s defense capabilities, focusing on joint anti-airborne operations at Ching Chuan Kang air base in Taichung, central Taiwan, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND).

The series of live-fire drills held in northern, central and southern parts of Taiwan that will run through Friday follows a string of computer simulated war games that were conducted April 30-May 4.

That morning, naval ships sailed from the Su’ao naval base in Yilan County and from Zuoying naval base in Kaohsiung and mustered in their respective war preparation zones upon receiving instructions from the Hengshan Military Command Center for a fight against a simulated attack by Chinese vessels.    [FULL  STORY]