Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-12-25

Lee Ching-yu, whose husband Lee Ming-che was thrown into jail by China last month, says

she has no idea of his whereabouts.

Mrs. Lee was speaking Monday at a press conference organized by a civic rescue team that includes lawmakers and human rights activists.

Lee Ming-che is a Taiwanese NGO worker and former employee of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). In late November, a court in China’s Hunan Province sentenced him to five years in prison. That’s after he pleaded guilty to the charge of “subverting state power” two months earlier. Lee was advocating human rights on Chinese social media platforms. Lee has given up his right to appeal the verdict.    [FULL  STORY]

Brian Hioe was one of the founding editors of New Bloom, a freelance writer on social movements and politics, and an occasional translator.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/25
By: Brian Hioe

Protests as large and aggressive have not been witnessed in Taipei since the 2014

Sunflower Movement.

Protests against planned labor law changes by the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that took place Dec. 23 may be historic for Taiwanese labor and mark the start a new era of labor militancy. There probably has not been a protest as dramatic or intense since the Sunflower Movement, even if protests ended with a number of arrests.

Protests began at noon in front of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters and went on until well past midnight. Three hours of speeches and performances took place from noon until 3 p.m. in front of DPP headquarters, at which point, according to organizers, demonstrators numbered over 10,000. Of particular note were the high number of student participants and the numerous, creative artworks that were featured, including an art installation mocking Tsai Ing-wen, a satire of the Liberty Times, and Buddhist-themed performance art mocking comments by Premier William Lai (賴清德) that underpaid workers should see karmic merit for good deeds as making up for their low salaries.
[FULL  STORY]

Expat English teacher’s legs are crushed after elderly driver loses control of car in Keelung 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/26
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An expat English teacher suffered severe injuries after a black

sedan suddenly accelerated out of a parking lot and smashed into his legs while he stood in front of a 7-Eleven in Keelung on Sunday (Dec. 24).

At 2 p.m. on Sunday, as a 24-year-old English cram school teacher, identified as Darro Jonas Adam, was waiting for a friend, a black sedan suddenly sped straight into him, crushing his legs against a pillar of a 7-Eleven he was standing under, reported Apple Daily.

The 70-year-old man behind the wheel of the sedan, surnamed Chou, was pulling out of the parking lot of Keelung Hospital Ministry of Health and Welfare, when instead of turning left onto the road, dashcam footage shows his vehicle suddenly accelerating straight forward and colliding directly with Adam, who was looking upward and did not see the vehicle in time to dodge it.

The force of the impact was such that both front passenger airbags deployed and Adam was pinned between the vehicle and the pillar behind him. A dozen bystanders, including a 7-Eleven employee, instantly rushed to the scene and teamed up to push the vehicle away from the injured man.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/25
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 25 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has approved the promotion of 31

senior military personnel, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced Monday.

Tsai promoted eight officers to the rank of two-star general, lieutenant general and admiral, with a further 23 elevated to the rank of one-star general, major general and vice admiral, according to an MND statement.

Tsai will attend the conferral ceremony for the senior officers which will be held in Taipei on Thursday, while the promotions will officially take effect next month, it noted.

The officers designated to become one-star and two-star generals came from the MND, the Presidential Office, National Security Council and National Security Bureau, it added.
[SOURCE]

ACROSS THE STRAIT: People can write the jailed rights advocate a birthday or New Year card to show their support and refusal to bow to Chinese pressure, the group said

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 26, 2017
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

A group of human rights campaigners yesterday urged the public to show their support for

Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲) by writing him a New Year or birthday card, adding that they would present another report on Lee’s case at a UN meeting in February.

Lee was on Nov. 28 sentenced to five years in prison by the Yueyang City Intermediate People’s Court in China’s Hunan Province, which found him guilty of subversion of state power for holding online political lectures and helping the families of jailed Chinese dissidents.

Lee went missing on March 19 after entering Zhuhai, China, from Macau. More than two months later the Chinese Ministry of State Security announced that he had been arrested on a charge of subversion of state power.

His wife, Lee Ching-yu (李淨瑜), and human rights advocates have been seeking his release by appealing to different organizations, including the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/24
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Dec. 24 (CNA) A ban on offering free plastic shopping bags to customers will be

expanded to another 80,000 retailers, with the aim of reducing plastic bag use by 1.5 billion bags per year, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said Sunday.

The expanded ban will apply to pharmacies, medical equipment stores, computer retailers, consumer electronics and communications stores, book and stationery stores, laundries, beverage stores and bakeries, according to the agency.

The EPA said that beverage stores are expected to see the biggest cut in plastic bag use at an estimated 870 million, followed by book and stationery stores at about 300 million, and pharmacies at 200 million.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-12-24

Around 80 protesters were removed by police in Taipei early Sunday morning after they

continued a labor rights demonstration past midnight, causing disruption to traffic.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, over 10,000 people took part in a march protesting amendments to Taiwan’s labor law. The majority of the marchers dispersed around 6pm but a small group of around 100 continued their protest into the evening. The group first lingered around the entrance to the Executive Yuan, the offices of the Cabinet. Later they moved to the Ximending area of Taipei and the area around Taipei Main Station, disrupting traffic in a busy thoroughfare.

Between midnight and 1am, police told the remaining protesters to disperse, eventually forcibly removing demonstrators who were unwilling to comply. Police say they took away 80 people for questioning.    [FULL  STORY]

Mayor Ko Wen-je spoke at an event on Dec. 24 aimed to address the problem of drug use among young people in Taipei

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/24
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Mayor of Taipei City, Ko Wen-je, speaking at a an event in

Taipei’s Xinyi District, reaffirmed his commitment to combating drug use in Taiwan.

The event on Dec. 24 was organized by the Taipei City Government and Rotary Clubs, to educate young people on the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and to encourage healthy lifestyles and healthy life choices.

Mayor Ko said that drug use and drunk driving are still serious problems in Taiwan, and he also pledged that moving forward next year, he would make combating drug use, especially among young people, a top priority of his administration.

In his speech he also emphasized that drug use and drunk driving are not the sole responsibility of the police to deal with, but that to address the true source of the problems, it will take a society wide effort.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/24
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and William Yen

Taipei, Dec. 24 (CNA) Former Legislator Joanna Lei (雷倩) will take the helm as

chairwoman of the National Women’s League (NWL) following a standing committee decision reached Sunday, according to the league’s lawyer.

Chang Quan-hsuan (張菀萱) said the move came in the wake of receiving an order from Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to remove Cecilia Koo (辜嚴倬雲) as chairwoman.

It was undecided if negotiations will take place with the ministry and the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, said Chang.

Lei, 59, daughter of a navy vice admiral, was elected to the Legislature in 2004 for a three-year term, where she took an interest in domestic laborers and migrant workers.

Lin Ching-chi (林清淇), head of the MOI’s Department of Civil Affairs, said that if the NWL is willing to continue with the original deal, the MOI will be happy to resume talks, but time is limited, as the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee will meet Tuesday to decide if the NWL is an organization affiliated with the opposition party Kuomintang (KMT).

Talks lasting up to nine hours were conducted Wednesday between the MOI, the NWL and the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee to make the league and its financial sources more transparent, but the negotiations crashed to a halt Friday when the NWL announced that it would not sign a deal the three parties had previously agreed to.
[FULL  STORY]

CONCRETE PLAN? The Executive Yuan, the Kaohsiung mayor and many residents support the local government’s plan, while some worry about not having it in writing

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 25, 2017
By: Hung Chen-hung, Wang Jung-hsiang, Ko Yo-hao and Lee Hsin-fa  /  Staff reporters

Plants surrounding Dalinpu Village are pictured on Dec. 14.  Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei

Times

The relocation of residents from Kaohsiung’s Dalinpu Village (大林蒲), which has been plagued by heavy air pollution, is to begin in 2019, but some residents worry that the plan has no concrete details.

Dalinpu has a population of about 10,000 and is one of the six boroughs in the coastal Siaogang District (小港).

Its history can be traced back to 1661 when subordinates of Ming Dynasty general Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), also known as Koxinga, settled there. Over the past three centuries, local residents have earned their living by farming and fishing.

Since being identified as an industrial area in 1960, the village has gradually changed into a place mainly known for air pollution and environmental protests.    [FULL  STORY]