A familiar culture with a higher quality of life, lower living costs, and the odd cha chaan teng, what’s not to like about Taipei for Hongkongers? Well, apart from fewer jobs and lower wages …

This Week In Asia
Date: 1 OCT 2017
By: Nick Westra

The cha chaan teng (tea cafes) started by Michael Lee in 1999 could be carbon copies of those that punctuate street corners in North Point and Mong Kok. Staple

foods like century egg and pork congee, pan-fried radish cakes and French toast with thick slabs of butter are dished out around the clock to customers in Art Deco seating areas adorned with posters dripping with nostalgia for Hong Kong, the city after which the chain is named. But one thing is out of place: the cafes are 800km away, in Taipei.

Lee, who is from Hong Kong, attributes the chain’s staying power to its authentic Cantonese style. Refusing to cut corners, he even carried fresh yellow lemons back from Hong Kong after opening his first cafe, rather than use the green ones native to Taiwan. Lee now has three cafes, serving a combined 1,500 customers per day.
[FULL  STORY]

The replaced water pipes affected about 17,000 households, and the government originally planned to have them gradually replaced within 10 years.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/10/01
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) held up the city’s last

lead pipe and handed a new tube made of stainless steel to a worker to be installed under a narrow lane in the Da-an District, the replacement project of the capital’s lead water pipelines was declared complete 15 months ahead of schedule.

The replaced water pipes in this project affected about 17,000 households, and the government originally planned to have them gradually replaced within 10 years, according to the city’s Water Department. However, concern about lead pipelines possibly contaminating the water they carried spread across the country in 2015.

With an additional budget of NT$420 million, the Water Department rescheduled the replacement project to be completed within three years, and eventually, the project was accomplished 15 months before the rescheduled due date.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/01

Taipei, Oct. 1 (CNA) Seven weather stations in Taiwan recorded their highest-ever temperatures for October on Sunday, with the Taipei weather station reporting a record high of 36.8 degrees Celsius at 12:23 p.m., the highest since its establishment in 1896, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

Previously, the city’s highest October temperature was recorded on Oct. 7, 1938 at 36.1 degrees.

The record was also broken at the Bianqiao weather station in New Taipei, when the daytime high reached 36.3 degrees at around noon, while Chiayi County in southern Taiwan and outlying Kinmen Island hit 36.1 degrees and 35.3 degrees at 12:23 p.m., respectively, all of which are all-time October highs, CWB data shows.
[FULL  STORY]

ANTI-DRUGS CAMPAIGN:Former premier Chang Chun-hsiung discussed criticism from the Philippines’ president and the number of inmates serving drug-related sentences

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 02, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday vowed to step up anti-narcotics efforts after

he visited former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), who urged him to place great importance on anti-drug efforts.

Lai paid a morning visit to Chang’s Kaohsiung residence and the former premier told him that drugs have increasingly become a pressing problem in Taiwan.

“The Philippines claims that Taiwan is the origin of drugs [entering its territory]. This is a very humiliating situation for Taiwan,” Chang said, referring to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s comments on Wednesday that the Taiwan-based Bamboo Union and Hong Kong-based 14K triad are behind the proliferation of drugs in his nation.

Drug use in Taiwan is also a grave concern, as there are more than 60,000 prisoners serving sentences for drug-related charges, accounting for 45 percent of the total number of inmates, Chang said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-09-30

Meteorologists are calling for cloudy skies and rain over much of Taiwan during next

week’s Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important holidays of the year in Taiwan. It is traditionally a popular time for watching the moon, and in recent years, people in Taiwan have also turned the holiday into a time for outdoor barbecues.

This year, the holiday falls on Wednesday. However, forecasters say that beginning Tuesday, a strong northeast monsoon will move down into northern and eastern Taiwan. This is expected to bring cooler temperatures and rain that will last into Thursday. Forecaster Lin Po-tung said Saturday that only Taiwan’s central and southern regions are likely to have a clear view of the moon during this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/09/30
By: Olivia Yang

A lie left Su Pin-kun fighting for his innocence for over 30 years. He is still at war.

Su Pin-kun (蘇炳坤), 68, stands in front of a judge at the Taiwan High Court seeking

to be retried for a crime he did not commit. The stocky, dark-skinned man sports a white short-sleeved polo shirt and gray trousers. Intense yet weary eyes stare out from thin-rimmed glasses — he looks like a battle-scarred war vet but when he speaks his voice is strong and firm.

“The president’s amnesty didn’t give me back my innocence.”

The man chokes up. The hearing, along with the glorious summer afternoon outside the air-conditioned courtroom, proceeds.

The lie

On June 19, 1986, Kuo Chung-hsiung (郭中雄) told the lie that would set Su on the run for a decade and see him falsely imprisoned for a further three years. Kuo was 34 at the time, and had just been arrested for the robbery of a jewelry store in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan. The owner of the store suffered a knife injury to his head during the incident. In the course of the interrogation, the police pinned Kuo for another jewelry heist that had occurred earlier in the year. He pleaded guilty to both crimes, but claimed that Su, then 36, was an accomplice in the first robbery, along with a third person who it was later proved did not exist.    [FULL  STORY]

Police found a ring and a label referring to an Indonesian clothing item

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/09/30
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – According to items found nearby, a man found dead by a

river in Chiayi County Thursday might be a foreign worker, possibly from Indonesia, police said Saturday.

On Thursday, the body was found in a banana garden near the Bazhang Creek (八掌溪) in the township of Shuishang (水上), but no obvious cause of death was found.

While the results of an autopsy and of DNA testing are still expected to provide more clarity in that respect, police Saturday presented several items found nearby in the hope that someone could throw more light on the deceased man’s identity.

No identity documents were found, but the man was about 1.5 meter to 1.55 m tall, with his hair reaching a length of 6 to 10 centimeters, police told the Central News Agency.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/30
By: Yu Hsiao-han and Christie Chen

Taipei, Sept. 30 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday vowed to

continue her reforms, despite bumps along the way, saying that she will shoulder the responsibility as president.

“Over the past year, the government has pushed for many important reforms,” Tsai said at a prayer breakfast meeting held by Christian groups.

“We have indeed faced a lot of pressure, and there are bumps during the reform process. But we should still hold our ground for Taiwan’s future,” she said.

Tsai’s speech came as her administration is pushing for tax, pension, labor, judicial and other reforms, although facing opposition from some members of the public.
[FULL  STORY]

NEGLIGENCE:The missile was mistakenly launched from a corvette docked at a naval base in Kaohsiung during what was supposed to be a simulated test

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 01, 2017
By: Staff Writer, with CNA

The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday sentenced three naval officers to prison

terms ranging from 14 months to two years over the mistaken launch of a missile that killed a fishing boat captain and injured three others in waters off Penghu County last year.

The officers were convicted on charges of causing death by negligence, the court said in its ruling.

Petty Officer Second Class Kao Chia-chun (高嘉駿), who fired the Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile on July 1 last year, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Kao’s supervisor, Chief Petty Officer Chen Ming-hsiu (陳銘修), was sentenced to two years, while Lieutenant Junior Grade Hsu Po-wei (許博為), who was in charge of weapons on the Chinchiang-class corvette, was jailed for 14 months.

The locally developed missile was mistakenly launched from the corvette docked at a naval base in Kaohsiung during what was supposed to be a simulated test.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-09-29

Premier William Lai has promised to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait

under the leadership of President Tsai Ing-wen. Lai was speaking Friday at the legislature.

Lai’s comments come on the heels of remarks made earlier at the legislature. On Tuesday, Lai said Taiwan is an independent sovereignty and that he supports Taiwan’s independence.

His remarks have been interpreted as an intrusion into President Tsai’s prerogative. But Lai said he was simply talking about his personal views.

“My personal stance remains unchanged, but cross-strait policy is the president’s prerogative. My Cabinet, under the leadership of President Tsai Ing-wen, will maintain the cross-strait status quo and peaceful development. On the other hand, [we] will safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and ensure the lifestyle of the Taiwanese people, which means democracy, freedom and human rights,” said Lai.
[FULL  STORY]