A tit-for-tat spat over airline routes highlights the deplorable state of cross-Strait ties.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/01/26
By: David Green

“Teacher! He’s in my space again!”

So came the protests from Taiwan after China followed increasingly aggressive military

flights close to Taiwan’s airspace late last year with the unilateral announcement of new airline routes that track precariously close to the Taipei Flight Information Region.

Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) this week responded by rejecting flight applications that intended to use the new routes.

The CAA turned down requests from Chinese carriers Eastern Airlines and XiamenAir for 176 extra flights to Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holidays, which begin in mid-February.    [FULL  STORY]

The Shih brothers were involved in the purchase and export of sensitive technology

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A Taiwanese-Canadian researcher at a university in Canada

has come under suspicion after his brother was charged in the United States with stealing technology and sending it to China.

Shih Yi-chi, an adjunct professor in engineering at the University of California in Los Angeles, was arrested for shipping computer chips with military applications to a company in the Chinese city of Chengdu without obtaining an export license, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

The Chinese company had already been blacklisted in the U.S. in 2014 due to suspicions of involvement in illegal deals involving sensitive technology.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/26
By: Matt Yu, Yeh Su-ping and Ko Lin

Taipei, Jan. 26 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) pledged Friday that her

administration will provide concrete support to local governments to promote social housing developments across Taiwan.

Support such as financial assistance and the freeing up of state-owned plots of land for new social housing projects will be offered to local governments, Tsai said while touring a new social housing complex in Taipei with the city’s mayor, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).

To help local governments create social housing units, a social housing financing platform has already been established by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to help local governments obtain long-term, low-interest financing, she said.

As for new housing locations, Tsai said the Finance Ministry, the (MOI) and the Defense Ministry will make 350 hectares of government land available for city and county governments for social housing projects.    [FULL  STORY]

ROUND TWO: Lee Chun-ming was released on bail after a second wave of raids of the company’s facilities found spoiled eggs, including some contaminated by insects

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 27, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Taoyuan prosecutors investigating a rotten egg scandal have questioned CJ-Taian Co

(萇記泰安) owner Lee Chun-ming (李春明) over allegations that the firm supplied spoiled and contaminated liquid egg products to food manufacturers, hypermarkets and grocery stores.

The investigation of Lee and CJ-Taian, the nation’s second-largest egg supplier, began last month, when more than 28 tonnes of questionable egg products were seized by prosecutors and public health officials.

Authorities on Wednesday conducted a second round of raids, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday, adding that Lee and eight CJ-Taian employees were on Thursday taken for questioning, with Lee later being released on bail of NT$2 million (US$68,726).

Taoyuan prosecutor Wang Yi-wen (王以文) said the firm mixed unsold and expired eggs returned from stores with fresh eggs, and then repackaged the mixture in plastic containers with new labels bearing fraudulent expiration dates.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-01-25

Council of Indigenous Peoples minister Icyang Parod will travel to Nauru to join in

celebrations marking 50 years since the country’s independence.

He will be attending the celebrations on January 31 as the special representative of President Tsai Ing-wen.

The Pacific island nation of Nauru is one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies. The two sides also have a shared Austronesian cultural heritage. Indigenous people in both Taiwan and Nauru speak Austronesian languages.
[FULL  STORY]

Customers mesmerized by saucy cleaver-wielding shop keeper’s cleavage

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/25
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A braised snack stand in Taichung has suddenly seen the

ranks of its customers swell after images surfaced of a cleaver-wielding buxom beauty in a cleavage-revealing outfit behind the counter.

The woman, who goes by the Facebook handle Little Peach (小桃子), on Wednesday (Jan. 24), posted images of her decked out in a low-cut sweater and short, Daisy Duke shorts and wrote: “So happy that Little Peach has so many customers to come and buy braised flavor.” In less than 24 hours, the post had already received 5,000 likes and multiple Taiwanese media outlets were beginning to refer to her as “Braised Sister.”

According to Apple Daily, the owners of the braised snack stall, which is located in Taichung City’s Beitun District, invited the model to serve as a “one day shop manager” to perk up their clientele.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/25
By: Hao Hsueh-chin and William Yen

Taipei, Jan. 25 (CNA) More than 1,420 ducks were culled on a farm in Taichung after it

was confirmed as having been infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 virus, according to the Taichung City Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office (APHIO) Thursday.

In accordance with Council of Agriculture regulations that ducks must be confirmed as not being infected with the bird flu virus before slaughter, the APHIO collected samples from 15 farms.

Of the 15 farms, one duck farm was confirmed as being infected with the H5 avian flu virus, according to officials. In order to stop the spread of the virus, all 1,424 ducks on the farm were culled, followed by disinfection at nearby farms.

The carcasses of the slaughtered ducks were immediately sent to a rendering plant while disinfection work inside and outside the plant was stepped up, according to the APHIO.    [FULL  STORY]

MASTER THESIS: rofessor Chen Chien-liang has said that the student used some of his work in her paper, but the academics credited the student for the use of a chart

TaIpei Times
Date: Jan 26, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

National Taiwan University (NTU) president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) has been

accused of plagiarizing a students paper in a conference paper he coauthored with National Chi Nan University professor Chen Chien-liang (陳建良), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

The paper, entitled “An Empirical Study of the Effect of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement on Exports” was presented at a conference held by the Academia Sinica Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences and the NTU Department of Economics on May 6 last year and published in its conference documents.

“The paper contains many sentences and charts that are almost identical to those in a thesis titled ‘The Impact of ECFA Early Harvest on Taiwan’s Export to China: Analysis by Difference-In-Differences Model,’ written by Chen’s student in July 2016,” he said, adding that Chen was the student’s thesis adviser.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-01-24

Taiwan has decided not to allow certain Chinese airlines to schedule additional cross-

strait flights over the Lunar New Year.

The decision stems from Beijing’s unilateral opening of the M503 flight route, which approaches the median line of the Taiwan Strait. Airlines affected include Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Air.

On Wednesday, Cabinet spokesperson Hsu Kuo-yung explained why he thinks there is no need for extra flights over the holiday.

“Actually we’ve already approved 313 flights. Last year, there were applications for 314 flights but only 300 were actually used, as many were cancelled,” Hsu said. “Many flights were only 50-60% full last year, so this should not be a problem.”    [FULL  STORY]