DEPRESSION? A witness said the woman had been sitting on a bench looking downcast and jumped onto the tracks just as the train was approaching the station

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 16, 2018
By: Tony Yao, Yang Yung-sheng and Chang Shun-teng  /  Staff reporters, with CNA

A woman was yesterday fatally struck by a Puyuma Express train at the Miaoli Railway

Station in an apparent suicide, the Taiwan Railways Administration said.

The incident, which occurred at 10:23am, halted train services along the route for nearly an hour and affected 700 passengers, the agency said.

The Puyuma Express No. 110 train was bound for Nangang Station in Taipei when it hit the woman and tossed her body to the southbound track, it said.

Sources said the woman, surnamed Chen (陳), was 38 years old and had disabilities.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-02-14

The foreign ministry confirmed Wednesday that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

used the term “President” to refer to President Tsai Ing-wen in a letter. Abe sent the letter to give his condolences to Tsai after the recent Hualien earthquake. The ministry said Tsai was clearly addressed as “President” in the letter.

The 6.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the city of Hualien on February 6 destroyed four buildings and left 17 dead. Japan sent a team of rescue experts to assist in the search for survivors two days after the quake took place.    [FULL  STORY]

Nuclear power is coming back to Taiwan, but an anti-nuclear movement that once rallied more than 100,000 protesters is nowhere to be seen.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/02/14
By: Brian Hioe

The announcement by state-run power utility Taipower that it plans to seek approval

from the Atomic Energy Commission for restarts of a nuclear reactor at Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant should be of little surprise — the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration quietly approved nuclear reactor restarts in June 2017.

It remains to be seen whether it will not only be the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant reactor is to be restarted — approval was also sought at the Ma’anshan Nuclear Power Plant Reactor last year.

It seems likely that the Tsai administration continues to view nuclear energy as necessary in order to maintain the stability of the power grid in Taiwan. Rolling power blackouts across Taiwan would damage the approval ratings of the government as well as discourage industry from continuing to maintain factories in Taiwan due to lost productivity. It may also be this push for restarts comes at a time in which the Tsai administration is increasingly criticized for failing to resolve growing problems of air pollution in Taiwan, one source of which is coal.    [FULL  STORY]

The Lunar New Year holiday has begun, and Taiwan’s health authority has activated related measures to make sure that 24-hour emergency medical care is available in Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holiday

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/14
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—The Lunar New Year holiday has begun, and Taiwan’s health authority has activated related measures to make sure that 24-hour emergency medical care is available in Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has performed an inventory count on the country’s  24-hour emergency medical care capacity and the equipment of the 199 hospitals with emergency medical care, including the intensive care beds and extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

As the Lunar New Year holiday falls on this year’s severe flu season (from January to February), the MOHW has asked local governments to make publicly funded anti-influenza drugs available at clinics during the Lunar New Year holiday.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/14
By: Tzeng Yi-shiuan and Kuan-lin Liu

Paris, Feb. 14 (CNA) The French National Assembly’s France-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group urged the resumption of dialogue between Taiwan and China and the adoption of a spirit of harmony and restraint in addressing civil aviation matters that have recently caused tension in cross-strait relations.

In a press statement published on Feb. 6, the friendship group, a delegation which visited Taiwan in December, called on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to take advantage of the Lunar New Year holiday to resume exchanges.

The French members of parliament said that cross-strait relations should be based on constructive dialogue and rooted in finding a peaceful solution to the Taiwan issue that will in turn ensure regional stability and prosperity.

Tensions between China and Taiwan ran high after the former unilaterally announced the activation of four new aviation routes in the Taiwan Strait — a northbound path on the M503 route and three east-west extension routes called W121, W122 and W123 — earlier in January.    [FULL  STORY]

PRECAUTION: The county said the move was taken on behalf of victims to prevent those responsible for the buildings’ collapse from transferring or hiding their assets

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 15, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

The Hualien County Government has filed for provisional seizure of assets belonging to

developers, building contractors and several business proprietors in connection with the buildings that were damaged or toppled by the magnitude 6.0 earthquake on Tuesday last week.

The move was made on behalf of people affected by the collapsed or partially collapsed buildings in the city, Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi said, adding that county officials had filed the motions with the Hualien District Court.

Aside from the developers and contractors of the Yun Men Tsui Ti (雲門翠堤) commercial and residential building and two apartment buildings on Hualien City’s Guosheng 6th Street, the provisional seizure orders would include the proprietors of two businesses in the Yun Men Tsui Ti building — the Beauty Inn (漂亮生活旅店) on the first and third floors, and A-Kuan Hotpot (阿官火鍋) on the first floor — along with the architects who were involved in the original construction and the subsequent renovation of these two businesses, Fu said at a news conference.

“We want to prevent these people from transferring or hiding their assets, so that if found guilty of negligence or violating the law, they can be held legally responsible and the rights of victims can be protected,” he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-02-13

President Tsai Ing-wen has called on members of the armed forces to stay on guard

over the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.

During a visit to an army command center Tuesday, Tsai said that peace is not something that can be taken for granted. She said the basis of peace is a strong military. Tsai said that soldiers do not have a rest period over the Lunar New Year, which begins Friday. She called on soldiers to be on alert for Chinese maneuvers and to protect national security.

During her remarks, Tsai also spoke about the government’s defense policy. She said that over the past year, the government has seen building up military self-sufficiency, strengthening the armed forces, and defending national security as among its most important duties.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan must move on from mere sloganeering when it comes to circular economy and set binding targets to galvanize industry.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/02/13
By: David Green

The Netherlands has emerged as a key partner for Taiwan in its efforts to develop a

Circular Economy (CE) as part of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 5+2 Transformation Plan, which encompasses the development of five “pillar industries” – the Internet of Things, biotech, green energy, smart machinery and defense – plus high-value agriculture and CE itself.

The News Lens took the opportunity to sit down with Guy Wittich, Representative at the Netherlands Trade & Investment Office (NTIO), to discover more about the cooperation, and what Taiwan can learn from the Netherlands’ experience in setting ambitious targets, not least achieving transition to a fully circular economy, i.e. one in which 100 percent of resources are reused, by 2050.    [FULL  STORY]

Not only several buildings but also the local tourism industry took a hard hit from the February 6 Hualien earthquake as tourists are refraining from visiting Hualien for sightseeing following the quake

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/13
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Not only several buildings but also the local tourism industry

took a hard hit from the February 6 Hualien earthquake as tourists are refraining from visiting Hualien for sightseeing following the quake.

Liang Ai-di (梁愛迪), chairperson of the chamber of commerce of the Hualien County hotel industry, on Monday estimated the loss of the tourism industry from cancellations due to the strong quake at around NT$ 8 billion.

Pan Yue-xia (潘月霞), a hot spring hotel owner in Yuli Township, said that Hualien’s condition is not as bad as portrayed by the media as the hardest hit area is only limited to the area located on the Milun Fault. She said if members of the public are really concerned about Hualien, they might as well take a sightseeing tour around the county.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/13
By: Miao Zong-han and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Feb. 13 (CNA) Taiwanese nationals have been largely successful in buying

tickets and flying back from China for Lunar New Year, according to statements from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

Despite initial speculation that tension across the Taiwan Strait due to China’s unilateral opening of the northbound M503 flight route would keep China-based Taiwanese from reuniting with their families during the holiday period, both the MAC and the SEF sent out press releases Tuesday saying that this is not the case.

The MAC, Taiwan’s top agency in charge of China policy, said there have been extra flights between eight airports in China and Taiwan since Feb. 2, many of which still have seats available.    [FULL  STORY]