Taiwan is following up the establishment of an Electronic Warfare Command with legislation that will demand tighter security measures from private enterprise.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/15
By: Timothy Ferry, Taiwan Business TOPICS Magazine 

Declaring that “information security is national security,” President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文)

administration has made considerable progress fulfilling promises to beef up Taiwan’s cybersecurity defenses as well as to spur development of the home-grown cybersecurity sector.

A Department of Cybersecurity was established in 2016 as an official unit under the Executive Yuan, upgraded from its previous incarnation as a taskforce. Consolidating the cabinet’s cybersecurity policies and practices, the department oversees an extensive range of programs and taskforces, including the National Information and Communication Security Taskforce, the Cyberspace Protection System, and the Critical Infrastructure Protection System, among others.

Headed by Director-General Howard Hong-wei Jyan (簡宏偉), the department has joined with the National Communications Commission and Financial Supervisory Commission in forming the Information Sharing Center for coordinating information about cybersecurity, including possible breaches. The department also audits government websites and networks for compliance with cybersecurity directives, tests for possible breaches, and runs training sessions and cyber-defense drills. Its training on how to deal with bogus “phishing” emails and texts have succeeded in dramatically lowering the rate of network malware infection from such communications.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan CDC on Tuesday raised the travel notice for Ebola virus for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Level 2: Alert, advising travelers visiting DRC to take actions to reduce their risk of Ebola infection

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/15
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) on Tuesday

raised the travel notice for Ebola virus for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Level 2: Alert, advising travelers visiting DRC to take actions to reduce their risk of Ebola infection.

On May 8, DRC’s Ministry of Health (MOH) declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Bikoro Health Zone, Equateur Province, which is northwest Congo. Between April 4 and May 13, 2018, a total of 39 cases, including two confirmed cases, 25 probable cases, 12 suspected cases, and 19 deaths, were reported in Bikoro Health Zone, according to Taiwan CDC.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is difficult to estimate the magnitude of the epidemic due to the nature of the pathogen and the current lack of epidemiological and demographic information. However, WHO said it will continue to closely monitor the outbreak.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/15
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) The United Nations’ disapproval to grant Taiwanese reporters media

accreditation for this year’s meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA) was “unacceptable,” president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Tuesday.

Philippe Leruth was commenting on the U.N. Secretariat’s rejection of two CNA reporters’ application to register for covering this year’s meeting of WHA, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO) — a suppression of press freedom believed to be a result of Beijing’s intervention.

Leruth said he will write to the institutions responsible for the decision to urge them to honor international media’s right to cover the annual event.

The U.N.’s decision could lead to news “censorship,” he argued, noting if journalists were denied access to reporting today because of their nationality, their application for credentials could be turned down tomorrow for other reasons.    [FULL  STORY]

EXECUTIVE POWER? The former president had undermined the Constitution and disregarded the rule of law, and is not a good model for the public, the court said

Taipei Times
Date: May 16, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

The Taiwan High Court yesterday found former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) guilty of

leaking classified information obtained from Special Investigation Division (SID) wiretaps of two top lawmakers in 2013.

Ma is the second former Taiwanese president to be convicted of a crime, following former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), since direct presidential elections started in 1996.

Overturning the Taipei District Court’s not guilty verdict delivered on Aug. 25 last year, the High Court said Ma contravened the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法) and the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法), and was guilty of leaking confidential information under the Criminal Code.

He was sentenced to four months in jail, which can be commuted to a fine of NT$120,000.

Ma said he would appeal the ruling.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s defense minister has recently reiterated his country’s interest in procuring the fifth-generation fighter jet from the United States.

The Diplomat
Date: May 15, 2018
By: Franz-Stefan Gady

Taiwan’s Minister of National Defense, Yen Teh-fa, has once more reiterated his country’s

interest in procuring the F-35B, the U.S. Marine Corps’ short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of Lockheed Martin’s supersonic fifth-generation fighter jet.

In a recent interview with local media, the defense minister stated that the F-35B matches the Republic of China Air Force’s (ROCAF) requirement for a STOVL fighter aircraft.

“The air force’s operational requirements dictate that the next generation of fighters must possess stealth characteristics, be short take-off capable and be able to fight beyond visual range,” the minister said on May 14. “The F-35 is a fine fighter and we are seeking it.”

“To answer the question as to whether we have formally requested the F-35 from the U.S., although we have been holding dialogues with U.S. officials, they have not reached a definitive conclusion,” according to the minister. “U.S. officials are evaluating it, and they might have their own concerns over its high cost or other considerations.”
[FULL  STORY]

Chunghua Telecom employees have been overworked dealing with the tidal wave of customers flooding stores throughout the country

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/15
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As the Chunghwa Telecom NT$499 deal for unlimited 4G goes into

its final day of registration, the company employees and the government alike are eagerly awaiting an end to the “NT$499 chaos” that has erupted at Chunghwa stores nationwide over the past week.

One employee working at a store in Fangliao Township (枋寮鄉) in Pingtung County reportedly pushed himself past his limit amid the onslaught of customers and long hours, finally collapsing from exhaustion on May 14.

The employee, surnamed Chang (張) reportedly collapsed in the evening after a full day of work, with limited rest, and some speculate was not drinking enough fluid to stay hydrated.

He was immediately rushed to an emergency room for an MRI scan following the collapse. China Times reports he soon regained consciousness and was doing fine.

Following the incident, the man’s wife reportedly exhorted her husband’s colleagues to “stay rested, take care of yourselves,” and that she was supporting them as the struggle through the final day of the “499 Chaos.”    [SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/15
By: Wang Yang-yu, Hsiao Po-wen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) Former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been found guilty of

helping leak classified information and sentenced to four months in prison by the Taiwan High Court, in a ruling that reversed a not-guilty verdict handed down by a lower court.

The Taiwan High Court on Tuesday found Ma guilty of abetting the leak of classified information related to the investigation of an opposition lawmaker while the probe was in progress in September 2013.

The sentence can be commuted to a fine. The case can still be appealed.

The case goes back to September 2013 when it was disclosed that then-State Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) had shown Ma a transcript of wiretapped conversations that were part of evidence collected in an ongoing investigation of alleged breach of trust by senior Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-05-14

President Tsai Ing-wen says she believes that US President Donald Trump is friendly to

Taiwan. Her comments came Monday in a radio interview.

With the US president set to meet with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un next month, there are looming questions about whether Taiwan will be involved in shifting East Asian relations. Some worry that Trump could sell out Taiwan during the talks.

Tsai said, though, that “things are fine” and that the government is closely monitoring the situation.

“On the whole, I think President Trump is friendly to Taiwan. The relations between Taiwan and his administration, [including] various US departments, are based on the [fact] that both countries are democracies with a high level of freedom. Taiwan, in particular, is a model in the region, and our exemplary [role] is very important to Americans,” said Tsai.

Tsai said that Taiwan has a lot of friends in the United States, and in every governmental department. She says those individuals have influence when it comes to policy-making in the US.    [SOURCE]

Until relatively recently, eating beef was frowned on in Taiwan.

The News Lensa
Date: 2018/05/14
By: Steven Crook and Katy Hui-wen Hung

At the beginning of the 20th century, Taiwan was a society where the eating of beef was not merely frowned upon, but seen as so despicably disloyal as to invite karmic retribution. Well before the century was over, however, hamburgers and steaks were available in the smallest towns. And in 2005, beef noodles were – to use the words of the Michelin Guide – “officially canonized” as one of “Taiwan’s gastronomic treasures” when Taipei City Government launched its annual beef-noodles festival.

Among the generation of Taiwanese now passing are many who grew up on farms, and who regarded bovids as loyal co-workers. Without draft animals, 17th- and 18th-century Han pioneers would have struggled to convert Taiwan’s plains into rice paddies. Literature and folk songs from that era celebrate cattle which saved the lives of their owners by warning of impending earthquakes or other disasters.

In other stories, farmers who butchered a buffalo for food are plagued by nightmares in which the animal takes revenge. A lingering aversion to bovine meat continues to influence perhaps one in 10 non-vegetarian Taiwanese, and is a reason why local steakhouses typically offer a few pork and chicken alternatives.

According to Sun Yin-rui, whose 2001 thesis for a master’s degree at National Central University’s Graduate Institute of History was titled “History of Beef as a Food for Taiwanese,” cattle were occasionally rustled and slaughtered for their meat in the second half of the 19th century, but mainstream attitudes to the eating of beef did not begin to change until after Japan’s 1895 takeover of Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Upcoming rain season should help raise water level

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/14
By: Te’Qin Windham, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)— The water level of the Shimen Reservoir has reached 232.21 meters on May 14.

The Northern Region Water Resources Office said that it hopes that the rainy season will bring enough rainfall in the catchment area to raise the water level soon.

After the Lunar New Year, Taiwan’s weather gradually began warming up, with moderately warm temperatures and sunny days. The Shimen Reservoir water level has been gradually depleted reaching 232.21 meters on May 14.

Chiu Chung-chuan (邱忠川), deputy director of the Northern Region Water Resources Office of the Water Resources Agency, told CNA that the Shimen Reservoir had reached full water level capacity during the Lunar New Year. But due to low rainfalls in March and April, along with the daily supply of water for local agriculture, have seriously reduced the the water reservoir for the Taoyuan population.    [FULL  STORY]