Taiwan News
Date: 2018/04/22
By:  Central News Agency

EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) (By Central News Agency)
Taipei, April 22 (CNA) The Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) head has vowed that if it is decided via referendum to open the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which has been mothballed since 2015, he will resign.

If the people vote to have the nuclear power plant rather than the coal-fired Shen’ao Power Plant, “I will leave office,” said Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) in an interview with CNA on Friday.

According to Lee, people are “too oblivious” to remember their strong opposition to the use of nuclear power in the wake of the catastrophic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in northeastern Japan in 2011, the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl accident of 1986.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese Gov’t Plans To Release Anti-Money Laundering Regulations For Crypto In November

Cointelegraph
Date: April 21, 2018
By: Ana Alexandre

Taiwanese Minister of Justice, Chiu Tai-san, said that the country will roll out new regulations for virtual currencies later this year, Taiwan Central News Agency reported April 20.

Today, at a conference dedicated to anti-money laundering (AML) in the financial industry held by the Taiwan Financial Services Coalition, Chiu Tai-san said that the country will develop and launch new regulations on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The regulations will aim to prevent cryptocurrencies from becoming instruments for money laundering and reportedly will take effect in November.

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), with the consultation of the Ministry of Interior, the Central Bank, and the Investigation Bureau, will determine the relevant control mechanism, laws, and regulations for cryptocurrency.    [FULL  STORY]

Tensions mount as Beijing sends navy on Pacific drills south of Taiwan

South China Morning Post
Date: 21 April, 2018
Source: Reuters

People’s Liberation Army naval forces passed through waters south of Taiwan and carried out military exercises in the western Pacific, the latest in a series of military drills that self-ruled Taiwan has criticised as amounting to “intimidation”.

J-15 fighters took off from Beijing’s sole operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, on Friday for training in the area to the east of the Bashi Channel, which runs between Taiwan and the Philippines, the PLA’s official newspaper reported on Saturday.

China’s live-fire Taiwan Strait drill scales down as both sides reduce tensions

PLA destroyers carried out offensive and defensive drills to test their capabilities, the PLA Daily said.    [FULL  STORY]

Tigerair Taiwan cabin crew to be fined for negligence

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/04/21
By:  Central News Agency

Kaohsiung (CNA) – Two cabin crew members of Tigerair Taiwan who worked on flights

while infected with measles are being fined by Kaohsiung City’s Department of Health for violating the Communicable Disease Control Act, resulting in a cluster infection of cases for the airline.

On March 17, a 30-year old Taiwanese man who contracted measles in Thailand and would become Taiwan’s first case of imported measles of the year, took a Tigerair Taiwan flight to Japan, during which he infected two cabin crew members with the virus.

When the Centers for Disease Control announced that the man was infected with measles on March 29, Tigerair Taiwan sent an internal memo to all its staff to report any symptoms and their travel history to the company.

The two cabin crew members — a 34-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman — however, continued to work on flights until they fell seriously ill and were diagnosed with measles in early April, which, according to the health department, violates the principle of self-management and the Communicable Disease Control Act.    [FULL  STORY]

Measles cluster confirmed at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/21
By: Chen Wei-ting and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) A second case of measles was confirmed to have been contracted at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taoyuan, which has prompted the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to label the case part of a disease cluster at the hospital.

The CDC confirmed two new cases of measles in Taiwan Saturday — an imported case from Thailand and a domestic case found at the Linkou hospital.

The man infected at the hospital is a male nurse who is suspected of having contracted the virus from a patient April 4.

Given that just the day before the CDC announced the case of a 40-year old woman who also contracted measles at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, the CDC has deemed this situation a disease cluster and has asked the hospital to come up with response measures.    [FULL  STORY]

Thousands clean up for Earth Day

PLASTIC PLAGUE: Tonnes of waste were removed from beaches, harbors and tourist attractions for the event, whose theme this year is ‘End plastic pollution’

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 22, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

To mark Earth Day today, thousands of people nationwide yesterday joined cleanup
efforts to promote the idea of reducing plastic use.

Established in 1970 by US environmentalists, Earth Day has become a global event celebrated annually on April 22, and this year’s theme is “End plastic pollution,” the US-based Earth Day Network said on its Web site.

Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) led about 1,000 people, including Environmental Protection Administration Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), to clean the city’s Syucuo Harbor (許厝港) and Jhuwei Fishing Harbor (竹圍漁港).

A total of 3.4 tonnes of garbage and 600kg of recyclable waste was gathered from the beaches, while 630.7kg of trash was collected in the harbors’ waters, with plastics constituting the majority of the garbage, the Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-04-20

President Tsai Ing-wen said Friday that it is the hope of Taiwan’s people for the country

to join the United Nations. Tsai was speaking with journalists accompanying her on her current visit to eSwatini, Taiwan’s diplomatic ally in Africa formerly known as Swaziland.

Tsai said one of the important principles of the UN is universal inclusion. She said that on this basis, all who are willing and able to make a contribution to the international community should be able to join the UN and take part in the activities of its related organizations.

“For the people of Taiwan, joining the United Nations is our collective hope and our wish. It is the direction in which we strive, although we know it is not something that can be accomplished all at once. We must proceed step by step, and proceed carefully with each step. We also hope that there will be many who will support us on this path,” said Tsai.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s online tourism marketing is nothing short of a disgrace.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/20
By: Kathy Cheng

In a previous post, we looked at the horrific social media marketing from Taiwan Tourism’s New York office. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. This is the Facebook page of Taiwan Tourism UK. All screenshots were taken today on April 20, 2018.

The government’s tourism office in Frankfurt, Germany is responsible for this page since the Frankfurt office covers all marketing campaigns in Europe. As usual, there’s no verified checkmark on this account, or any of Taiwan’s official tourism accounts.

There are more than 11,000 likes. But sometimes it is the only one liking its posts. Hey, there’s no shame in that.    [FULL  STORY]

The same man had scuffled with police after smoking during his flight from Vietnam

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A Vietnamese-American man arrested inside an off-limits area at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport refused to answer questions from police, reports said Friday.

The man was found wandering around at 8 a.m. Friday on the tarmac between a freight area reserved for Federal Express and a hangar, in a part of the airport closed to the public, according to a Central News Agency report.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/20
By: Han Ting-ting and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Yilan County police have concluded that a coffee drink thought to

be poisoned at a FamilyMart in the northeastern county was nothing more than an employee at the convenience store damaging the drink’s packaging.

A customer at a FamilyMart in Jiaosi raised the alarm on Thursday when he found the covered straw hole in the drink’s packaging had been pierced.

That give rise to suspicions the beverage was poisonous given Taiwan’s history with beverages that were tampered with and ended up being poisonous.    [FULL  STORY]