Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/03
By: Chen Wei-ting and Elizabeth Hsu 

Taipei, Nov. 3 (CNA) An expert invited by Taiwan to review its first national report on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has identified two immediate obstacles to the country’s implementation of the United Nations protocol, he said Friday.

Taiwan does not have an independent national mechanism to monitor human rights protections, and its existing laws are ineffective in promoting equality or eliminating discrimination against persons with disabilities, said Osamu Nagase from Japan on Friday.

Nagase, a professor at Ritsumeikan University and one of five international experts familiar with CRPD review procedures invited to Taiwan for the review, suggested that Taiwan revise relevant laws and regulations.    [FULL  STORY]

GENEROUS TO EMPLOYERS:Legislators said proposed amendments to labor regulations rely on employee-employer agreements, but less than 7 percent of workers are unionized

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 04, 2017
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Labor’s draft amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) have

drawn criticism within the governing party, with several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers publicly challenging the proposals.

During a legislative question-and-answer session on Thursday, DPP Legislator Chung Kung-chao (鍾孔炤), a former labor rights activist, put up a placard reading “dumbfounded by tremendous sadness” and stood behind the podium in silence for six minutes until his time was up when it was his turn to question officials about the proposed amendments,.

The placard depicted a government official nodding “yes” to a fat man sitting on a big sack of money, while shaking his head “no” to a group of protesters demanding dignity for workers.

The fat man is playing with blocks, building a castle with beams and pillars reading “low pay,” “overwork,” “cheap land and utilities” and a pinnacle labeled “subsidies.”
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 4, 2017
By: C. H. Lin and Flor Wang

TAIPEI (CNA) – Law enforcement agents have tracked down a drug production ring in

New Taipei and seized finished and semi-finished products sufficient to supply 250,000 users, according to the New Taipei unit of the Investigation Bureau.

Acting on a tipoff provided by informants in October, investigators, prosecutors, military policemen and police from Taipei and New Taipei raided the site in Nangang District in Taipei on Oct. 31.

The major suspect identified as Hung (洪) and two accomplices surnamed Lin (林) and Chuang (莊) were caught, and 15 kilograms of the psychedelic drug MMA in finished and semi-finished form were secured, which authorities said was enough to satisfy 250,000 users.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/11/02
By: Gerald Chan

Hong Kong and China are teaming up to partner on the One Belt, One Road initiative

and its promise of opening access to lucrative new Central Asian markets, so why not Taiwan?

In her maiden policy address on Oct. 2017, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, made a pointed reference to China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) Initiative. She said that Hong Kong would sign an agreement with the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s state planning agency responsible for implementing OBOR. This would allow Hong Kong to play an active, integral part in the initiative rather than to participate as a solo, detached entity.

Can Taiwan join in to take part in the OBOR initiative, if it wants to? How can it do so?
[FULL  STORY]

Preschool teacher fired after video surfaces of her scaring toddlers to tears with a Halloween mask

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/02
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A teacher at a preschool in Kaohsiung has been fired after a

video surfaced on social media of her chasing around her little students wearing a Halloween mask causing them to scream and cry as they ran in sheer terror.

Taiwanese netizens became outraged after a user of the Facebook group Breaking News Commune (爆料公社) posted a video of a preschool teacher wearing a mask of the character “Ghostface” from the “Scream” series of horror films chasing around tiny toddlers as they cry and wail in terror. In the video, with virtually all the children in frame clearly upset and crying, the teacher relentlessly pursues her small students despite their cries and attempts to escape, ruining what would normally be a festive fun costume day to celebrate Halloween.

The teacher shooting the video does nothing to stop the masked marm, and as one student runs toward her for help clearly saying “don’t want” multiple times, she simply backs up and keeps the camera rolling. Towards the end, the teacher filming the ordeal asks one of the petrified kids, “Isn’t she scary?”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/02 
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Kuan-lin Liu

Honiara, the Solomon Islands, Nov. 2 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said during

her visit to the Solomon Islands on Thursday that she hopes Taiwan can find its own place in the international community through its contributions to education, health care and agriculture.

On the last stop of her official tour to the Pacific, Tsai underscored the key areas of education, health care, and agriculture as characterizing the cooperative agreements Taiwan has signed with the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands during the trip.

Given that these are the foundation for the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals, Tsai said she is confident Taiwan can make a place for itself in the international community through its international collaborations in these areas.    [FULL  STORY]

DRAWING LOTS:The Ministry of National Defense failed to ensure the shipbuilder had the manufacturing and financial capability to deliver on its tender, a report said

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 03, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

State-run banks could lose up to NT$20.1 billion (US$665.97 million) for extending a

loan to troubled Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船), the Cabinet said yesterday, adding that First Commercial Bank chairman Tsai Ching-nain (蔡慶年), who supervised the syndicated loan, would be removed.

However, there is no conclusive evidence of any political intervention in the loan decision, the Cabinet said.

Ching Fu, which was awarded a NT$35.8 billion contract to build six minesweepers for the navy as part of a domestic warship program, defaulted on a NT$20.5 billion syndicated loan, forcing nine banks to lose a combined NT$20.1 billion, an Executive Yuan report said yesterday.

The investigation revealed major dereliction of duty by the Ministry of National Defense and First Bank in awarding the contract and loan to the financially unstable company, Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 2, 2017

TAIPEI (Sin Chew Daily/ANN) – Charles H.C. Kao (高希均),  founder and chairman

of Global Views – Commonwealth Publishing Group, urges Taiwan to make good use of opportunities arising from cross-strait relations to achieve win-win with China.

Speaking on behalf of chairman delegation at the opening of 15th Chinese World Leaders’ Summit 2017 in Taipei, the famous economist said Taiwan should acknowledge China as one of the two largest economies in the world.

In the summit themed “Reshaping the future of Chinese – new technology, new market, new opportunities” attended by about 400 people, Kao said all experts who visit Taiwan including Nobel prize peace award winner share similar view that Taiwan would have to find ways to develop good ties with China.

He said last year, former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou and Xi Jinping had a friendly “historical meet”. There was no further follow up.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan has passed the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals, but challenges remain in ensuring the spirit of the law is carried through the implementation phase ahead of the law coming into effect in spring 2018.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/11/01
By: David Green

The Legislative Yuan on Tuesday passed the Act Governing Recruitment and

Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法) virtually unchanged from the draft proposals discussedlast week in these pages.

“We are in a celebratory mood — this is the most important development for the international community in Taiwan since the advent of permanent residence at the turn of the century,” Michael Fahey, a legal consultant at the Taipei office of Winkler Partners, wrote in an emailed reply.

The act now awaits review by the Executive Yuan, and is not likely to come into force until spring 2018.    [FULL  STORY]

INFLUENCE PEDDLING?Attorney Lin Fu-kuei said that the former president could be involved in the Farglory case, and the Cabinet is investigating his ties to Ching Fu

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 02, 2017
By: Jason Pan and Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporters

A legal expert yesterday demanded that the judiciary fully investigate alleged influence

peddling, financial improprieties and profiteering by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in connection with the Taipei Dome project and a Ministry of National Defense initiative to domestically produce warships.

Farglory Group (遠雄集團) was originally required to pay a performance bond of NT$3.042 billion (US$100.8 million at the current exchange rate) to build the Taipei Dome.

Then-Taipei Department of Finance commissioner Lee Sush-der (李述德), who was on Tuesday sentenced to 10 years in jail by the Taipei District Court, was in charge of negotiating the contract with Farglory.

However, “after Ma held several secret meetings with Farglory founder Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄), it was decided that the performance bond was to be waived,” attorney Lin Fu-kuei (林富貴) said. “The decision was not made in an open meeting, nor were experts and other officials consulted.”    [FULL  STORY]