Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/13
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 13 (CNA) The European Union’s (EU) top envoy to Taiwan on Monday said

the EU will not revoke the visa-free entry it granted to Taiwan passport holders just because some Taiwanese have engaged in illegal activities in Europe.

Madeleine Majorenko, head of the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO), said the EU would never hold the crimes of individuals against Taiwan as a whole, when asked to comment on concerns the EU could revoke the the visa-waiver treatment of ROC passport holders to the Schengen Area, in the wake of several hundred Taiwanese being arrested in the EU for their alleged involvement in telecommunication fraud over the past few years.

“That would absolutely never happen,” she told reporters in Taipei.

“We believe that every person takes responsibility for their own actions and we will pursue them according to all the legal means we have. We will use the full legal system to pursue them.”    [FULL  STORY]

IN THE DARK: A government official said that Ma’s administration did not hand over documents showing how Taipei and Beijing made arrangements for the 2015 summit

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 14, 2018
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday called for an investigation into

allegations that former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration did not hand over all confidential information on his 2015 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration.

Ma and Xi met in Singapore on Nov. 7, 2015, the first time the leaders of Taiwan and China had met.

A report published yesterday by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) alleged the Ma administration did not turn over key documents detailing how the meeting was negotiated.

The public was kept in the dark about a proposed Ma-Xi meeting until the Liberty Times reported on it on Nov. 3, 2015, one day before the Presidential Office held an international news conference to announce the summit.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-12

Presidential Office spokesperson Alex Huang says cross-strait issues that involve public

authority must be dealt with by the government.

Huang’s comments on Monday came on the heels of news that the chairman of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), Wu Den-yih, is considering leading a delegation to China next month. The purpose of that trip would be to attend a joint-forum between his party and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

As a former vice president, in order to visit China, Wu is required by law to send an application to the Presidential Office. But Huang said the Presidential Office has yet to receive an application.

Huang explained the government’s stance on exchanges between the KMT and the CPC.
[FULL  STORY]

Nick Aspinwall is a freelance writer based in Taipei. He is currently studying journalism and international relations, with a focus on Greater China, through an online program at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. An avid traveler, he has visited more than 35 countries and continues to explore the world whenever he can.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/12
By: Nick Aspinwall

Migrant domestic workers gathered in Taipei Main Station on Sunday afternoon to fight for

recognition under the Labor Standards Act, the abolition of the brokerage system, and an end to sexual harassment

A Filipina woman pulls her suitcase across the main concourse of Taipei Main Station and greets her employers, a husband and wife, with a bow. “Where’s your passport?” the wife asks. “Give it to me.” The woman starts washing the dishes, only to be chastised: “Why are you so bad and dirty? Clean it again!” She is pulled by her neck and shoved to the floor. Sobbing, she goes back to work – and is approached by the husband, who grabs her arm, forces her to the ground, takes off his shirt, ties her hands behind her back, and smothers her.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/03/12
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Results of a survey on the management and deployment of migrant workers announced by Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor on Monday indicated that migrant caregivers in Taiwan work an average of 10 hours per day, and if the “one day off in every seven days” measure is made applicable to them, nearly 70% of the employers surveyed said they have alternatives to fall back on.

The labor ministry conducted the survey on the management and deployment of migrant workers, who include household caregivers and industrial workers, from August to October 2017. The survey asked employers questions about the management, deployment, job status, and alternative care, and the results will be consulted when labor authorities formulate future hiring and management policies, the ministry said.

The survey results indicated that the migrant industrial workers earned an average of NT$26,308 in June of 2017, while the migrant household caregivers earned an average of NT$20,073 in the same month. With regard to working hours, the migrant industrial workers worked an average of 210.5 hours in June 2017, while the caregivers worked an average of 10 hours a day in the same month.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/12
By: Ku Chuan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Monday that the government will publish its first national report later this month on the implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) after the Legislative Yuan enacted the Implementation Act of UNCAC in 2015.

Taiwan enacted the domestic legislation with the aim of bringing the country’s legal framework into line with international norms. The report will serve as an important milestone in efforts to curb corruption in Taiwan, Lai said in a post on his Facebook page.

He said that since the new government took office in May 2016, it has taken a slew of measures to push for cleaner politics.

In terms of the legal system, the Legislative Yuan approved amendments to the Money Laundering Control Act in December 2016 and offered a six-month period for preparation of their implementation, according to Lai.    [FULL  STORY]

CHINA’S 31 INCENTIVES: China’s incentives to have limited effect: NDC chief
WELCOMING:If Taiwan’s investment environment is improved, more talented people would stay here and investments would follow them, the NDC minister said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 13, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA

China’s 31 incentives to attract Taiwanese businesses and professionals would only have

a limited effect on Taiwan, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) said yesterday, adding that the government will introduce better incentives to retain talented people.

The 31 incentives, announced by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Feb. 28, include tax cuts, investment capital and relaxed restrictions on certification for 134 professions, which sparked concerns at home over Taiwan losing its competitiveness.

Premier William Lai (賴清德) was originally planning to hold a cross-agency meeting yesterday to discuss the government’s response strategies, but the Executive Yuan on Sunday night canceled the meeting, saying more time is needed to collect information.

Chen yesterday attended a question-and-answer session at the legislature’s Economics Committee to report on the council’s policies.    [FULL  STORY]

Today Online
Date: 11 March, 2018

TAIPEI — Taiwan will face a tough challenge staunching what could be an even bigger

brain drain and exodus of investment to the mainland after Beijing’s latest offer of economic sweeteners to lure Taiwanese, analysts and lawmakers warned.

“More young people who have complained about low pay in Taiwan or who want to find a bigger market for development would choose to work on the mainland because of the incentives,” said Professor Chang Wu-ueh from Tamkang University’s China Study Institute.

In what analysts called an offensive designed to counter Taiwan’s attempts to declare independence, Premier Li Keqiang promised in his government work report delivered at the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress that the mainland would expand economic and cultural exchanges.

The aim would be to gradually allow Taiwanese to receive the same treatment as mainlanders while studying, doing business, working or living on the mainland, Mr Li said in the report.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-11

Several hundred migrant workers participated in flash mob dances in Taipei on Sunday.

The goal was to raise awareness about the exploitation of female migrant workers. It was part of the annual “One Billion Rising” global campaign to end violence against women.

This is the fifth year that migrant worker rights groups have organized the event to show solidarity with victims and survivors of violence.

This year’s theme is “Solidarity against the Exploitation of Women”. Participants called on Taiwan’s government to provide legal protections for female migrant workers.

Most of the 677,698 migrant workers in Taiwan are employed in industrial sectors, which are mostly covered by the Labor Standards Act. But more than a third of all migrant workers (251,508) – mostly women — work either as caregivers or domestic helpers, and are therefore not protected by the law.

The head of Migrante International’s Taiwan Chapter, Gilda Banugan, is one of the organizers of Sunday’s event. She says it’s been nearly 30 years since Taiwan introduced migrant workers, but much more needs to be done to protect the rights of female migrant workers.    [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/03/11
By: Central News Agency

TAIPEI (CNA) — An annual anti-nuclear march was held on Ketagalan Boulevard in front

of the Presidential Office Sunday, drawing about 2,000 people calling for an end to the use of nuclear power in Taiwan.

The protest, held on the seventh anniversary of the meltdown of the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant in northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, was organized by the National Nuclear Abolition Action Platform, an organization joined by hundreds of anti-nuclear civic groups from around Taiwan.

While pressing the government to decommission nuclear power plants as soon as possible, the other purpose of the Sunday’s demonstration was to prepare people for the potentially high cost of closing the nation’s three operating nuclear power plants and the disposal of nuclear waste, the organizer said.    [FULL  STORY]