Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/14
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) The Cabinet on Monday put forward a series of proposals to increase

the wages of low-paid workers, including hiking the minimum pay for government employees to NT$30,000 (about US$1,000) per month, encouraging or pressing private firms to follow suit, and raising the statutory hourly wage rate from NT$140 to NT$150.

The number of employees who earned less than NT$30,000 per month last year was about 3.051 million, or 34 percent of the employed population, 51.8 percent of whom were young people between 15 and 29 years old, according to a Cabinet report presented by Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) at a press conference.

Atypical workers — those who have no fixed term of employment, including part-time workers, outsourced workers and workers on temporary contracts — accounted for a large percentage of the low-wage population, the report showed.

Last year, there were 805,000 atypical workers in Taiwan, accounting for 7.11 percent of the total working population, which was an increase of 155,000 from 2008, the report showed.    [FULL  STORY]

ASYMMETRIC WARFARE: The defense ministry plans to complete construction of eight corvettes by 2025 to boost the nation’s combat capability, the ministry said

Taipei Times
Date: May 15, 2018
By: Lo Tien-pin, Lu Yi-hsuan and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) yesterday confirmed plans to bring forward

the nation’s construction of 11 Tuo Jiang-class corvettes by completing them in two instead of three phases.

Yen made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in response to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng’s (羅致政) question about whether the military is making adjustments to counter the Chinese threat.

The corvette is a crucial piece of the military’s asymmetric warfare and shortening its construction schedule would increase the nation’s combat capability, Yen said.

The ministry purchased 12 corvettes in total, with the first ship delivered in 2014, it said.
[FULL  STORY]

The Philippine Star
Date: May 14, 2018
By: Nathalie Tomada (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines — Three Taiwanese heavy metal bands formed part of this year’s line-up of foreign acts for Pulp Summer Slam. We were told by organizers of the longest-running metal festival in Southeast Asia that it was the bands’ decision to join the event held recently at Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City even without a charge just so they could share their music and play before Pinoy fans.

The hardcore metalheads would know that metal music is a big part of the music fiber of Taiwan. The article Headbanging in Taiwan tells the story of how the Taiwanese got “caught in the mosh,” or as       fans would term it. The authors Hsiang Chiu and Gabriele de Seta said that heavy metal music arrived in Taiwan in the early ‘80s through “the precarious mediation of daoban (pirated) tapes and foreign television channels, and in the course of three decades, it has moved from a niche and hardly accessible genre to an established ensemble of scenes, subgenres, bands, venues, record labels, booking agencies, distributors, rehearsal spaces and audiences.”

The STAR got further insight into the present-day metal music scene through an interview with the bands Flesh Juicer, Bloody Tyrant and Burning Island. These rockers talked about how heavy metal has expressed not just their creativity, but has also been used to reflect their folk traditions, culture and even political leanings. And, if we have actors becoming politicians, Taiwan made international news by electing a prominent heavy metal frontman and activist as legislator. Here are excerpts from the interview:
[FULL  STORY]

Ting Xie, were disappointed to discover the Taiwanese flags they had painted on a bull statue were painted over by the Rockhampton Regional Council.

The Bulletin
Date: 13th May 2018 
By: Mayor Margaret Strelow

ROCKHAMPTON Mayor Margaret Strelow expands further on explaining what

happened with regards to a painted flag on a bull statue that has attracted international attention.

Read the original story here: Why we painted over students’ Taiwan flag: Council explain

The bull statue was one of many offered to local schools to paint as part of Beef Week. Here is Mayor Strelow’s statement:

Firstly let me say that Rockhampton welcomes people from every country and encourages them to hold fast to their culture.    [FULL  STORY]

 

In comments intended to criticize Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, Lu claimed the reason Taiwanese athletes at the 2017 Taipei Universiade performed so well, was because China did not send their best athletes to the competition

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/13
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The former Vice President of Taiwan during the Chen Shui-

bian administration, and possible Taipei mayoral candidate, Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), is making headlines for her remarks concerning the 2017 Universiade held in Taipei last year.

Lu claimed that Team Taiwan’s success achieving so many medals, was only possible because China chose to host their national games during the same period, and therefore, the best Chinese athletes were not present to challenge the Taiwanese athletes.

Lu further claimed that Beijing had somehow communicated to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (呂秀蓮) that they would “take it easy on him,” by allowing the games to proceed, and presumably to give the Taiwanese athletes a better chance without competition from China’s “best athletes.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/13
By: Ku Chuan and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, May 13 (CNA) The Cabinet is to roll out measures to tackle wage stagnation on

Monday, including a decision to raise the monthly wage of employees of outsourcing companies who work in central government organizations to above NT$30,000 (US$1,000), sources said.

Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) is scheduled to host a press conference at 9:30 a.m. Monday to announce the pay raise, a decision that is expected to benefit about 8,500 people.

The number of outsourced employees dispatched to work in agencies subordinated to the Executive Yuan, the Presidential Office and other central government organizations stood at around 8,500 at the end of last year, according to statistics compiled by the Executive Yuan’s Directorate-General of Personnel Administration.

The average monthly wage for the outsourced employees was not immediately available. The minimum wage in Taiwan is NT$22,000 (US$738.55) per month or NT$140 per hour.    [FULL  STORY]

YEARS IN THE MAKING: The military envisions a defense system comprised of active means made up of F-16 jets and passive means involving an advanced radar system

Taipei Times
Date: May 14, 2018
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) deploys J-20 stealth

fighters in increasing numbers, Taiwan is fielding mobile passive radar systems to defend its airspace against stealth aircraft, a senior Ministry of National Defense official said.

Two radar units — developed by the ministry-affiliated Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology — would be deployed some time this year for operational testing, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The system would enter mass production in 2020 if the military decides that it meets its operational needs, he said.

The institute has been working for years to incorporate Western military technological trends in its mobile passive radar system, the official added.    [FULL  STORY]

Three government officials among those convicted for 2014 explosions that killed 32 and injured more than 300

South China Morning Post 
Date: 12 May, 2018
By: Agence France-Presse

Three government officials were among 12 people jailed on Friday over Taiwan’s worst ever gas explosions, which killed 32 and injured more than 300 four years ago.

The disaster in the southern city of Kaohsiung saw blasts rip through underground pipelines, sparking massive fires and leaving trenches running down the middle of some streets, with vehicles thrown onto the roofs of buildings.

Three former Kaohsiung city government officials were each sentenced to four years and 10 months for causing death and injury by professional negligence, the city’s District Court said in a statement.

The offence is punishable by a maximum five-year prison term.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: May 12, 2018 
By: Phillip Charlier  

A 39 year-old man in Tainan City used a hammer to murder three elderly relatives on

May 10, then robbed them, and handed the money over to a creditor, before going to bed, according to a confession given to police early this morning.

Mr Guo, had dinner with his widowed grandmother, then sneaked into his great-aunt and uncles house next door to steal money. Guo’s great-uncle caught him in the act and cursed him with the Taiwanese insult “F*** your mother.”

The enraged Guo went to his car, grabbed a hammer, then returned to the house and brutally bludgeoned his great-uncle to death in a bedroom. Guo then went to the kitchen and smashed his great-aunt’s skull with the hammer. He then ransacked the house for money.

Guo killed his grandmother in the same manner when she threatened to call the police, then ransacked her house for money.    [FULL  STORY]

Keelung Islet has been shut down for nearly three years due to damage to the wharf
Date: 2018/05/12
By: Teng Pei-ju,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Six hundred people joined a cleanup event Saturday on

Keelung Islet, a small island a few kilometers from the northeast of Keelung Port, and gathered roughly 1,500 kilograms of waste within just two hours.

Tsai Fu-ning (蔡馥嚀), an official from the Keelung City Government, said Keelung Islet had been shut down for nearly three years due to damage to the wharf, and its shore therefore accumulated a huge amount of garbage floating by or getting stuck, reported the Central News Agency.    [FULL  STORY]