Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/29
By: Huang Ya-chuan and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Nov. 29 (CNA) The state-owned fuel company CPC Corp, Taiwan, is considering

relocating its Kaohsiung naphtha cracker plant to Indonesia, following the closure of the plant in 2015 amid environmental concerns in Taiwan, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said Wednesday.

Speaking at a legislative hearing, Shen said CPC will complete its assessment of the relocation plan by next January.

The oil refinery in Kaohsiung, called the fifth naphtha cracking plant, was closed in 2015 amid rising awareness of environmental protection in Taiwan.

CPC had said earlier that it had signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with both Indonesia and India on Oct. 6 and was evaluating the two countries to decide where to move its refinery.    [FULL  STORY]

CLEANER AIR: It was the first time since the Taichung plant was constructed 30 years ago that the city had acted to slash coal use in hopes of reducing pollution

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 30, 2017
By: Huang Pei-chun and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Taichung City Government yesterday approved state-run Taiwan Power Co’s

(Taipower, 台電) request to extend the service life of nine coal-fired generators at its Taichung Power Plant, with the proviso that the plant cuts its bituminous coal usage by almost a quarter.

Taipower said that such a drastic cut would decrease the plant’s annual power generation by 4.5 billion kilowatt-hours and could pose a risk to the nation’s power supply.

Taipower said that it filed applications for an extension on Nov. 6 and on Friday last week, but both proposals were rejected by the city government for not going far enough in reducing coal usage.

In its second application, Taipower proposed slashing its annual coal usage by 3.15 million tonnes, but the city government said the proposed volume would not meet the reduction in coal usage required by the Autonomous Act for Coal Regulation (台中市管制生煤自治條例).    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-11-28

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has called on Beijing to release Taiwanese NGO

worker Lee Ming-che.

A Chinese court has sentenced Lee to five years in prison on charges of “subverting state power”. The MAC said Tuesday that Lee’s sharing of Taiwan’s experience of democratization with Chinese friends does not constitute a threat to China’s security or stability.

MAC spokesperson Chiu Chui-cheng said Tuesday that Taiwan cannot accept Lee’s sentence. Chiu said the verdict goes against universal values of democracy and freedom. He said it will have a negative impact on both cross-strait ties and China’s international image.    [FULL  STORY]

Three Chinese vessels were on their way back from Middle East and Europe

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Three Chinese Navy vessels passed close by Taiwan on their

way back to China Tuesday, according to reports quoting Japanese defense circles.

The reports came on the day that Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense accused China of intimidation for publishing a picture which seemed to show a Chinese Air Force plane heading for the island’s tallest peak, the Yushan.

Also on Tuesday, a Chinese court sentenced a Taiwanese human rights activist to five years in prison for so-called “subversive activities.”

The Chinese Navy frigates Yangzhou (揚州) and Huanggang (黃岡), and the supply vessel Gaoyouhu (高郵湖) headed north on Tuesday from the seas east of Taiwan and through Japan’s Miyako area back to China, the Japanese defense ministry said. The Japanese sent a P-3C anti-submarine aircraft to observe the passage.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/28
By:. Lu Hsin-hui and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Nov. 28 (CNA) The ROC military remains confident in its ability to safeguard the

nation and will not be intimidated by a few photographs of a Chinese Air Force bomber allegedly in Taiwanese airspace, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference, Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉), MND spokesman, responded to photographs posted by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) on Chinese social media page Weibo on Nov. 24 and reported in Sina Online, a Chinese media website, as showing a Xian H-6K cruise missile bomber headed for Taiwan’s tallest peak, Jade Mountain

Chen said that the ministry does not rule out this being an attempt at intimidation on the part of the PLAAF but reasserted that such efforts will fail.    [FULL  STORY]

DEMOCRACY: Lee’s wife lauded him for fighting for the rights of the underprivileged, while rights group warned of Beijing’s move to extend its jurisdiction to Taiwan

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 29, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter, with AP

A Chinese court yesterday sentenced Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che

(李明哲) to five years in prison for holding online political lectures and helping the families of jailed dissidents in a conviction demonstrating how Beijing’s harshest crackdown on human rights in decades has extended beyond China.

Lee’s trial was also China’s first known criminal prosecution of a nonprofit worker since Beijing passed a law in April last year tightening controls over foreign non-governmental organizations.

Lee went missing on March 19 after entering Zhuhai, Guang Province, from Macau. China did not announce his arrest until 10 days later.

The Yueyang City Intermediate People’s Court in Hunan Province handed down the sentence after finding Lee guilty of subversion of state power.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 28, 2017

It seems that Taiwan had already garnered a reputation as a great place for strartups. However, Since Taiwan’s new Entrepreneurs Visa was back in 2015, there were few people know and even few successfully applied. Consequently, the Ministry of Economic Affair has responded with lifting restrictions and streamlining application process, plus the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration has launched a visa program to promote the benefits of Entrepreneurs Visa and hope to attract more foreign entrepreneurs come to Taiwan.

For the excellent geographical location, educated workforce, complete infrastructure and legal environment, and strong IT cluster, many stratups might choose Taiwan. Recently, there is a special visa called ”Taiwan Entrepreneurs Visa” for world’s innovative entrepreneur in Taiwan, which facilitates the process of founding a corporation. With the special visa, applicants who would get residency for 1 year with unlimited entry needn’t set up a business beforehand in Taiwan. Besides, if you want to come to Taiwan with your partner, you can apply for the visa as a group of up to three people. Or if you have a family, your spouse and children under 20 can all apply for dependent visas to come join you in Taiwan. After the expiration, the application can be extend, after five consecutive years of legal residency, during which you spend at least 183 days per year in Taiwan, you are qualified to apply for permanent residency.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-11-27

There are new questions about whether everyone in the ruling Democratic Progressive

Party (DPP) supports the proposed changes to the labor law. That’s after some of the party’s lawmakers failed to attend the review process last week.

The legislature is working to make changes to a controversial amendment that went into effect at the beginning of the year. The amendment paved the way for all employees get one fixed day off per week plus one negotiable day off. If the employee goes to work on that day, they would get overtime pay. Employers and workers alike have criticized the law for a variety of reasons, including its complexity, lack of flexibility, and higher labor costs.

Premier William Lai says he will meet with DPP lawmakers this week to discuss this and other important legislation. He says he wants to build a consensus so the legislature can pass the proposals without a hitch.   [FULL  STORY]

A breakdown in negotiations led disgruntled employees to block the entrance to a Hsinchu store and scuffle with police.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/11/27
By: TNL Staff

Over one month of negotiations between a labor union and the management of a Homebox home furnishing store broke down on Nov. 25, leading to a strike that blocked the entrance to a store branch in Hsinchu City, a scuffle with police and the arrest of union leaders.

Nineteen employees were fired without warning on Oct. 17 as Homebox prepared to shut down its Taoyuan branch in December. The labor union sent a letter of protest to management on Oct. 23, but the company did not respond. The governments of Taoyuan City and Hsinchu County were called in to mediate.    [FULL  STORY]

The customer also said he suspected that by prolonging the process of paying back the deposits, the rental car company could make a considerable profit from interest accumulation.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/27
By:  Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—A foreign tourist has filed a complaint from his country with

Taiwan’s police and consumer protection organization against a Taiwan car rental company for allegedly making profits from delaying return of customers’ deposits, according to a report of Mirror Media, a Taiwanese news outlet, on Monday.

An unidentified international customer said that Convenient, a Taiwanese rental car company, adopted a different way of operating a car rental business from other companies of the same trade, according to the report. He said Convenient deducted NT$15,000 from the deposit and then remit the remainder by telegraph to the customer. However, the fee of the remittance was on the customer, which he considered as very unreasonable, the report said.

The accuser also said he suspected that by prolonging the process of paying back customers’ deposits, the rental car company could make a considerable profit from interest accumulation, according to the report. Some customers might forget about the deposits under the company’s passive way of paying back, and some might even give up the deposits given the difficulty of reclaiming money across countries, which would become the company’s windfalls, he added, according to the report.

The accuser said he filed a complaint with Kaohsiung City Government’s consumer service center against the company but was told to file it with the central government’s Directorate General of Highways, making him feel that the government agencies are passing the buck and “Taiwan does not protect foreigners,” the report said.
[FULL  STORY]