Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/11
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 11 (CNA) Taiwan expressed thanks Sunday to the international community

for statements of concern and offers of assistance following a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that shook the eastern county of Hualien on Feb. 6, killing at least 16 and injuring 285.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its heartfelt appreciation on behalf of the government and people of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the countries and international organizations that conveyed their concern, condolences and offered assistance following the earthquake.

“This fully demonstrates the strong friendship toward Taiwan,” said the ministry.

As of 5 p.m. Saturday, a total of 63 countries, as well as the Central American Integration System, the Central American Parliament, the European Union, and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States had conveyed concern and expressed a willingness to provide relief or send rescue teams to Taiwan, the ministry said.
[FULL  STORY]

HOTEL SEARCH: The last two bodies cannot be removed from the remains of the Yun Men Tsui Ti building until the floors above them have been dismantled due to a girder

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 12, 2018
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

Two Chinese tourists missing since a magnitude 6.o earthquake hit the nation on

Tuesday last week were confirmed dead yesterday, Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) said, raising the quake’s death toll to 17.

The pair were members of a family that had checked into the Beauty Inn (漂亮生活旅店) in the Yun Men Tsui Ti (雲門翠堤) building.

Fu’s announcement came after authorities called off further search efforts in the building at about 10am, 106 hours after the earthquake shook Hualien city and county, as well as a wide swathe of northern Taiwan and the east coast.

A group of search-and-rescue personnel bowed in front of the building, one of four that partly collapsed in the city, as a mark of respect before teams withdrew from the site to allow heavy machinery to start razing the complex.    [FULL  STORY]

The Philadelphia Post
Date: February 10, 2018

HUALIEN, Taiwan — Hopes of finding additional survivors from this week’s earthquake in Taiwan were fading Friday after two more bodies were found in a partially collapsed hotel and no signs detected of a missing family of five.

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck Tuesday near the coast of Taiwan, officials said.

Chen Minghui, a maintenance worker who was rescued after being trapped in the hotel’s basement, said the force of the earthquake was unusual.

“At first it wasn’t that big … we get this sort of thing all the time and its really nothing. But then it got really terrifying,” Chen said after he was reunited with his son and grandson. “It was really scary.”    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-02-10

Authorities have detected the black box signal of a Black Hawk helicopter which went

missing late last Monday night.

The helicopter was transporting a medical patient and five others from Orchid Island to the main island of Taiwan when it disappeared. Officials say it dropped off of radar screens about three minutes after takeoff.

The Aviation Safety Council (ASC) detected a signal on Saturday morning, at a depth of about 800 meters underwater near the place where the helicopter took off.

An official with the Aviation Safety Council says the next step is to try to get a more precise reading on the location. Then they will send an unmanned underwater vehicle down to look for the missing helicopter.

The official said that it’s difficult to get a precise reading at a depth of 800m, so it is hard to estimate how long the process will take.    [SOURCE]

China has lodged an official complaint with Japan over the use of official titles to address Taiwanese leaders in condolence messages

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/10
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Chinese government seems to be very upset with the way

that Japan has acted towards Taiwan in response to the deadly earthquake that occurred on the night of Tuesday, Feb. 6.

To express their displeasure the Chinese Foreign Ministry has lodged an official complaint with the Japanese government for openly attempting “to create -one China, one Taiwan- under the pretext of disaster relief and condolences.”

On Wednesday Feb. 7 the Taiwanese government cordially rejected Beijing’s offer to help with the rescue efforts following the deadly earthquake. The following day, Feb. 8 a highly trained seven man Japanese search and rescue unit arrived on the scene to help.

According to reports at SCMP, the reason the Tsai government accepted the help from the Japanese was because they came bearing top of the line life detection units that could effectively aid in the search efforts.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/10
By: Liu Chien-pang and Frances Huang

Taipei, Feb. 10 (CNA) A search and rescue team has found one of three people still unaccounted for in a building in Hualien more than 80 hours after it partially collapsed in a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in the eastern county on Tuesday night.

The body was retrieved from the Yun Men Tsui Ti commercial and residential complex at about 3 p.m., increasing the death toll to 15.

Following the latest rescue efforts, two individuals remain unaccounted for. In addition to the 15 deaths, the earthquake also left 280 injured.

This was the third body found in the same hotel room, with search and rescue teams expecting to find another two bodies in the same location. The three bodies and two unaccountable for are believed to be members of the same Chinese family staying at the Beauty Inn on the second floor of the Yun Men Tsui Ti building.    [FULL  STORY]

CENTRALLY LOCATED: The premier agreed with the deputy legislative speaker that a move to Taichung would offer more demonstration space and help Taipei businesses

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 11, 2018
By: Chang Ching-ya  /  Staff reporter

Premier William Lai (賴清德) on Friday said he would fully support relocating the

Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan to Taichung if the legislature passes a motion to do so.

Lai made the remarks in Taichung at a forum on how to streamline efforts between the central and local governments to push the Cabinet’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program and the Long-term Care Services Program 2.0 forward, in response to Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang’s (蔡其昌) suggestion to move the two agencies to the central municipality.

“If lawmakers resolve to move the Legislative Yuan to Taichung, there will be no reason for the Executive Yuan to object,” said Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), who also attended the forum.    [FULL  STORY]

Global News
Date: February 9, 2018 
By Staff Reuters

Surveillance cameras captured dramatic spills caused by the earthquake that hit Taiwan on Tuesday.

Footage showed two “live prawn fishing” restaurants with indoor ponds reacting to the tremor with massive waves crashing onto furniture before flooding the restaurants.

The intense shaking triggered waves in the ponds that resembled tsunamis, similar to those created by shocks deep below the ocean.

Rescue crews continued efforts on Friday to locate seven people still missing from a 12-storey residential building that was left tilting at a 45-degree angle.

At least 12 people were killed, including two Canadians, when the 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck 22 kilometres east-northeast of Hualien at a depth of one kilometre.
[SOURCE]

The News Lens
Date: 2018/02/09
By: Justin Hugo

Taiwan has outgrown its current economic strategy and needs to move up the value

chain to become more like the Nordic countries and the Netherlands.

This is the final part of a 5 part series. You can start with part 1 here.

Equality and the future
There is an important area in which East Asian countries still have not caught up and perform poorly as a whole – work hours and off days.

Source (data from latest year): The Conference Board.
In terms of work hours, Singaporeans work the longest among the developed countries – 2,237 hours annually. People in Hong Kong work the second-longest, at 2,175 hours, while South Korea comes in third at 2,088 hours. Taiwanese endure long hours as well, but not to the same extent as their counterparts in the other Asian Tigers do, clocking in 1,915 hours per year.    [FULL  STORY]

The total number of reported deaths from the quake rose to 12

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/09
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A kitten was rescued at the last minute before the demolition

of a collapsed building from Tuesday’s powerful quake in eastern Taiwan.

A deadly magnitude 6.0 quake rattled eastern Taiwan on Feb. 6 and caused four buildings to collapse in Hualien, including the Platinum Twin Star Building (白金雙星大樓) and the Wu-ju-wu-shu Building (吾居吾宿大樓) on Guosheng 6th Street in Hualien. Residents living in safer parts of the buildings are allowed to return home to retrieve valuable belongings, including their furry friends, as the rescue effort for missing residents ended in these two buildings.

The two buildings have been scheduled for demolition for safety reasons on 4:30 p.m. on Friday, February 9. Firefighters reportedly walked inside the buildings earlier today to conduct the final round of checks and found a kitten sitting on the stairs among quake rubble in one of the two buildings. The kitten was then taken out of the building and put into a box awaiting its owner to reclaim it.

The total number of reported deaths from the quake rose to 12, with 5 missing and 278 injured as of Friday evening.   [SOURCE]