Taiwan is running out of time to stay competitive as the rest of the world embraces digitalization and the productivity gains it entails. It’s about time the people at the top of its companies put digital at the center of their business strategy.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/09/27
By: David Green

Taiwan is lagging in the global race to digitalize and its lack of ambition in the

boardrooms of the nation’s hi-tech companies in particular is the problem.

In what represents a clarion call for Taiwan’s aging and inflexible executives, McKinsey & Co. today said that Taiwan is falling behind its chief rivals as a result of its failure to digitize fast enough.

“Complacency is the biggest problem in Taiwan,” said McKinsey Senior Partner Bill Wiseman. “You’ve got to make a big bet. Management in Taiwan is either unwilling or don’t know because they’re too insular.”

McKinsey has obvious skin in the game in urging CEOs to embrace digital, but the report released today, “Taiwan’s Digital Imperative: How a Digital Transformation Can Re-Ignite Economic Growth” nails some important home truths.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/27
By: Liao Yu-yang and William Yen

Taipei, Sept. 27 (CNA) Taiwan on Wednesday recorded its second-highest level of

daily electricity consumption ever, due to record-breaking temperatures, according to the country’s main power supplier.

At 1:43 p.m., electricity consumption hit 36.419 million kilowatts, close to the highest record of 36.453 million kilowatts reached on Aug. 15, Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) said.

It said that because of the consumption spike Wednesday, the electricity reserves had dropped below 6 percent to 1.314 million kilowatts, triggering an orange warning light.

Cheng Yu-tsai (鄭有財), Taipower’s deputy superintendent for central coordination, told CNA that the surge in consumption to the second highest daily level was due to the high temperatures across most of the country.    [FULL  STORY]

INDEPENDENT NATION:The premier disputed Beijing’s ‘one China’ claim, citing Taiwanese sovereignty, with a president and officials that are elected by its people

Taipei Times 
Date: Sep 28, 2017
By Lee Hsin-fang, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

It is an indisputable fact that Taiwan is a nation and its name is the Republic of China

(ROC), Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, in response to Beijing’s insistence that Taiwan and China belongs to “one China.”

“Cross-strait relations are not state-to-state relations. There is no one China and one Taiwan. Taiwan is an indivisible part of Chinese territories. It has never been and will never be a country. China steadfastly opposes any form of Taiwanese independence,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said earlier yesterday.

“A nation is composed of its people, territory and sovereignty,” Lai told a news conference after presiding over an Executive Yuan meeting on attracting investments to Taiwan. “We elect our own president and officials; the people pay taxes to the government. By any metric, Taiwan is a sovereign and independent nation.”
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post  
Date: September 27, 2017

The Taipei Weather Station recorded the highest temperature in September since its

establishment in 1896 when the daytime high reached 38.6 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.

Wednesday was also the hottest day in the capital city so far this year, capping an unusually hot summer that has put Taiwan’s power grid to the test.

The record was also broken at Bianqiao Weather Stations, New Taipei City, when the daytime high reached 37.8 degrees Celsius Wednesday. Meanwhile, Chiayi County saw its fourth September day with high temperature over 36 degrees this year. The county has never recorded temperatures above 36 degrees until last year.    [FULL  STORY]

having a marked chilling effect on the actions and communications of Taiwan’s NGOs. The case also suggests Taiwan’s wider population faces an insidious dilemma: whether or not to self-censor. 

The News Lens
Date: 2017/09/26
By: David Green

As a young reporter, I had the misfortune of becoming persona non grata in the eyes

of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). I had irredeemably offended a higher-up in the country’s national media, resulting in a permanent black mark against me that ensured I would never receive accreditation as a journalist in China.

The government did not go as far as to expel me though, so I turned to freelancing. One evening while celebrating my birthday in Beijing, I was approached by two men. I assumed them to be friends of friends. At first they were convivial, but the conversation soon turned to the nature of my work and visa status (no, I did not have the right visa). The larger of the two, a thick-set, square-jawed fellow, gave me a business card that I later found to be from a fictional telecommunications company. I tried to change location, only for them to reappear later as silhouettes in the shadows on the edge of a dancefloor.    [FULL  STORY]

Gangsters made threats against new national police chief: reports

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Premier William Lai at the Legislative Yuan Tuesday. (By Central News Agency)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Premier William Lai (賴清德) promised tough action against gangsters Tuesday amid reports that the new national police chief was being intimidated in the wake of an attack by pro-unification extremists against pro-independence protesters.

At the root of the issue lies last Sunday’s “Sing China” show at National Taiwan University, which met with protests from Taiwan Independence supporters. Opponents hailing from a small pro-unification party with presumed links to organized crime attacked the students, which in turn was followed by police action, including raids on businesses with reported gang links.2
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/26
By: Tsai Yi-chu and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) Starting in March 2018, motorists convicted of drunk driving

will be required to pay a higher punitive premium for Compulsory Automobile Liability Insurance, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said Tuesday.

The punitive premium will be raised to NT$3,600 (US$119) per violation, up from the current NT$2,100, to reflect the cost of compensation for victims of drunk driving, the commission said.

There is no limit to the number of times violators can be charged with a punitive premium, the FSC said.    [FULL  STORY]

POWER POSITIONCEFC holds the production vice president position, meaning it could direct oil field production and potentially monopolize the venture, a DPP legislator said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 27, 2017
By Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC) last year sold half of its stake in an oil

exploration project in Chad to CEFC China Energy Co, potentially giving the venture to the Chinese conglomerate, which allegedly has Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) connections, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker said yesterday.

CPC has cooperated with the Chadian government in developing an oil field since 2006, with CPC holding a 70 percent stake in the project and the government holding the remaining 30 percent.

CPC in 2011 announced that it had made a crude oil discovery and would begin drilling, a milestone for Taiwan’s oil supply industry, but in 2015 the company announced that it would sell half of its share to CEFC, a deal that was completed last year.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 26, 2017

William Lai tackled the issue of Taiwan independence at his first appearance at the

Legislative Yuan as premier Tuesday.

“I am a political worker who advocates Taiwan independence,” Lai said when questioned by lawmakers on his stance on cross-strait issues. Lai added that, however, that Taiwan is already an independent sovereign nation. Both China and Taiwan are independents countries not subordinate to the other, he said.

“We are already an independent sovereign nation called the Republic of China. We don’t need a separate declaration of independence,” the self-described “pragmatic Taiwan independence supporter” said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 25, 2017

It started with a question on a university’s decision to lend campus venue to outside

events and escalated into a show-ending protest against Chinese influence on Sunday and subsequent attack of two protesters allegedly by China sympathizers.
How a singing event turned violent and become a thorny issue for Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je?

Multiple events in the singing competition series “Sing! China” has been held in the past three years as part of a cultural exchange program between Shanghai and China, according to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je.

The Sunday activity was hosted by National Taiwan University (NTU), one of the country’s top universities, at its newly refurbished athletic field. A group NTU students protested against the university’s decision to lend the field to the event – which closed the venue for a week – in violation to the principle that the students should have the priority in the use of university venues. The protesting students also pointed out that part of the world-class athletics field has been damaged for staging the event.    [FULL  STORY]