INVESTIGATION: The Presidential Office said it is illogical to debate whether roads and schools should be renamed until the truth about the nation’s history is fully understood

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 08, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

The Executive Yuan is to immediately establish an ad hoc commission for the promotion

of transitional justice to disclose historical data and remove authoritarian symbols, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.

The Legislative Yuan on Tuesday approved the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) and Lai yesterday instructed Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) to establish such a committee by nominating a list of members, drafting the organizational regulations and planning a budget.

“The establishment has to be completed in the shortest time possible to meet public expectations for transitional justice and reconciliation,” Lai said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 7, 2017

MOTC Road Traffic Safety Committee and the Taiwan Beverage and Alcohol Forum

(TBAF) have co-organized an “I pledge NOT TO drink & drive” film contest and invited senior high school, vocational high school and college students to join the competition. From Oct. 16 to Nov. 17, a total of 92 films have been submitted, 74 from college students and 18 from high school and vocational school students—a very enthusiastic participation. These students presented a new attitude of “no drunk driving” through various styles in their films to influence and promote deeper understanding of road traffic safety and invite more to join the pledge. The organizers also held a ceremony at the MOTC grand hall on Dec. 6, announcing the top 3 winners of the contest, selected by scholars and representatives from both governmental agencies and advertising agency as well as by the online popularity level (numbers of hits for “Like” and “Share” combined).

Inviting students to join the pledge and present filmsto showcasea new attitude of “no drink driving”    [FULL  STORY]

The government’s target date for phasing out nuclear by 2025 could not come soon enough.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/06
By: Dinah Gardner

Taiwan Green Bulletin
There has been a lot of talk about more violent earthquakes set to shudder our planet

and Taiwan in particular next year.

First off, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said in September that we haven’t had enough big quakes this year, leading to a build up of sub-surface energy and more likely possibility of larger temblors ahead. Then, last month, scientists were predicting stronger earthquakes next year worldwide linked to a slight slowdown in the Earth’s rotation; and some could be pretty devastating.

Earthquakes are dangerous enough, but when coupled with six aging nuclear reactors the question arises: could a Fukushima-type nuclear accident happen in Taiwan?
[FULL  STORY]

T.C. Chang worked in Hong Kong before as a magazine editor-in-chief

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/06
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – T.C. Chang (張鐵志), a prominent Taiwanese cultural official and

social commentator, said Wednesday he had been refused entry to Hong Kong.

Chang spent several years living and working in the Chinese Special Administrative Region, is married to a Hong Kong woman, and now serves as deputy secretary general of the Taipei-based General Association of Chinese Culture (GACC, 文化總會).

He was scheduled to attend a four-city cultural forum in Hong Kong on Wednesday, but immigration refused to let him in, while they let his wife enter the territory.

“At last, I’ve been refused entry at Hong Kong Airport,” Chang tweeted. He reportedly received no reason why, with officials telling him his Hong Kong residency permit had expired. Chang returned to Taiwan later in the day.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/06
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Dec. 6 (CNA) The air quality index in parts of western Taiwan, particularly Kaohsiung, and the offshore island of Kinmen flashed “unhealthy” on Wednesday, according to the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Network.

As of 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) flashed red, meaning the air was “unhealthy” for the general public, in Nanzi, Fuxing, Qiaotou, Qianjin and Qianzhen districts in Kaohsiung and Kinmen.

The index flashed orange at a further 11 monitoring stations on the island of Matsu, Nantou in central Taiwan and Tainan, Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, indicating that the air quality was “unhealthy for sensitive groups” such as young children, seniors and people with chronic diseases.

The EPA advises people in areas with poor air quality to avoid outdoor activities if they experience eye irritation, coughing or a sore throat.    [FULL  STORY]

EXTENSIONS: The proposed amendment would remove a clause from the act that prevents authorities from rejecting mining license renewals under certain conditions

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 07, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

A draft amendment to the Mining Act (礦業法) that the Cabinet is expected to approve today would require

quarries to undergo environmental impact assessment and obtain the consent of local Aboriginal communities, an official said.

If passed by the Legislative Yuan, Asia Cement Corp’s (亞泥) controversial operations in Hualien would need to seek approval from environmental authorities.

The amendment, proposed by the Ministry of the Economic Affairs, has been drafted in line with the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民基本法), which stipulates that central and local governments or businesses planning to develop Aboriginal territories must seek the consent or participation of local Aboriginal communities and share the benefits with them.

Quarries that fail to comply with the proposed regulations would be suspended and their applications to develop new quarries would be rejected for non-compliance, according to the draft amendment.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 6, 2017

Recently, The New York Times posted an article entitled “17 Things That Happened for the First Time in

2017”. 17 critical moments from this year which might mean for the year ahead were chosen, and “Taiwanese court rules in favor of same-sex marriage” was listed as the top line.

According to the article reprinted by The New York Times from Turning Point on December 4th, “17 things that happened for the first time in 2017” includes 17 critical and meaningful events around the world. Among them, “Taiwanese court rules in favor of same-sex marriage” was listed in the first place. As mentioned in the article, “Taiwan’s constitutional court has ruled that the country’s civil laws barring same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, giving the legislature two years to fix current laws or enact new ones allowing gay marriage.” Furthermore, the article stresses that it would make the island nation the first in Asia to do so.

Besides, the second and third lines respectively are “Storing image files in living memory” and “Brazil grapples with first strike in 20 years”, in which worker were angered by President Michel Temer’s calls to overhaul labor laws and trim the nation’s generous pension system.    [FULL  STORY]

Clean Technica
Date: December 5th, 2017 
By Joshua S Hill 

Danish offshore wind behemoth Ørsted has moved several steps closer to making its 2 gigawatt Taiwanese Greater Changhua offshore wind projects a reality, acquiring environmental approval and securing a subsea cable partner in Taiwanese Woen Jinn Harbour Engineering.

Word of Ørsted’s (which, until recently, was called DONG Energy) Changhua offshore wind development has been hard to track down as no major announcements have yet been made. We first heard word of the potential project back in January when DONG Energy announced that it had acquired 35% ownership in Taiwan’s first offshore wind project, the 128 MW (megawatt) Formosa 1 offshore wind farm.  The company made mention in its press release that it was also working on its own offshore wind projects in Taiwan — four separate offshore wind farms in the Changhua coastal region, which would have a total capacity of at least 2 GW (gigawatts) when completed sometime between 2021 and 2024.

In May the company made a small note that it was now waiting on Taiwan’s government to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the four potential offshore sites. Late last month Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) review panel recommended approval of the EIA for the four projects, leaving Ørsted to wait until early 2018 for final environmental approval.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-12-05

President Tsai Ing-wen says she will humbly accept criticism of a controversial amendment to the labor

law. Tsai posted on her Facebook page on Tuesday after the amendment was pushed through amid scuffles during a review.

The preliminary review of the amendment met up with strong opposition from labor groups. Tsai said the public has given much valuable feedback concerning the amendment. Tsai said she would accept the criticism, regardless of whether it is directed at the Cabinet, lawmakers from her Democratic Progressive Party or at her personally.

Tsai said the government holds the responsibility for moving the nation forward. She said that she will take responsibility for pushing forward the amendment in her capacity as president and as chair of the ruling party.
[SOURCE]

The rumor that 62-year-old iconic movie star Chow Yun Fat (周潤發) died of an acute disease in a hospital in Hong Kong circulating on Chinese internet on Monday has been debuted by the star’s wife, the reports said 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/05
By:  Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—The rumor that 62-year-old iconic movie star Chow Yun Fat (周潤發) died of an

acute disease in a hospital in Hong Kong circulating on Chinese internet on Monday has been debuted by the star’s wife, according to media reports.

Chinese-language Chinatimes reported that a shocking story with a screenshot of a female news anchor announcing news with the subtitle “movie icon Chow Yun Fat has died of illness after failing to respond to medical treatment in Hong Kong” was circulating on Chinese Weibo and WeChat on Monday. On the upper left corner of the screenshot was a classical photo of Chow from the movie “God of Gamblers.”

The fabricated story and photo made many people believe that it was true, which was hard for older people to accept, the report said.

They couldn’t believe that the star who participated in a charity event just the other day had passed away, the report said.    [FULL  STORY]