Presidential Office stresses importance of free speech and assembly

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/17
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Presidential Office expressed regret about the prison

sentences handed to three prominent democracy activists in Hong Kong, a spokesman said Thursday.

Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), a top leader of the 2014 “Umbrella Movement,” will have to serve six months in prison, while Nathan Law (羅冠聰) and Alex Chow (周永康) will have to spend eight and seven months in jail respectively.

Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and independence of the judiciary were serious promises the government of Hong Kong made to the people of the territory, said presidential spokesman Sidney Lin. The authorities should be responsive to citizens’ quest for reform and democracy, he reportedly added.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/17
By: Ku Chuan and Flor Wang

Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) The Cabinet has approved the government’s 2018 budget

proposal, which shows expenditure of NT$1.985 trillion (US$65.49 billion) and revenue of NT$1.8904 trillion, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said Thursday.

High on the government’s agenda will be its Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, which will be funded by a special allocation of NT$108.9 billion, Hsu said, citing Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) remarks in a weekly Cabinet meeting.

Other areas of priority will be construction of public projects, industrial innovation, drug abuse prevention, food safety, education, and social welfare, Hsu said.

Of the NT$1.985 trillion expenditure allocation, NT$490.2 billion, or 24.7 percent of the total, will go toward social welfare programs; NT$402 billion to education, science and culture; NT$320 billion to national defense; NT$245.4 billion to economic development; and NT$188.7 billion to general administration, said Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民), head of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.    [FULL  STORY]

DONE DEAL?One protester said that the government is free to compensate those who are not members of the group, but should not breach their agreement to do so

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 18, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Compensation for former freeway toll collectors will not follow an agreement with

the Former Freeway Toll Collectors Self-Help Organization and instead is to be need-based, the Ministry of Labor announced yesterday, sparking a protest by some of the group’s members.

Only about NT$540 million (US$17.8 million) from a total of NT$600 million donated by the Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Transportation and Communications and Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (FETC) is to be disbursed among former toll workers who were laid off after the implementation of electronic toll collection, Department of Employment Relations Director Wang Hou-wei (王厚偉) said.

Any remaining funds are to be returned to the donors, he added.

Hou confirmed that individual payments would be less than specified by a formula agreed to last year by Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) and then-minister of labor Kuo Fong-yu (郭芳煜), which called for toll collectors to receive a sum equal to 1.6 percent of their average salaries multiplied by their years of service.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 17, 2017
By: The China Post

A malfunction at Tatan Power Plant put out the lights in nearly 7 million homes in

Taiwan on Tuesday.

In a foreboding prelude to the 2017 Universiade, the blackout also briefly affected three of the big event’s venues: a basketball gym in Songshan, a sports center in New Taipei and an athletics field in Taipei, where a rehearsal for the opening ceremony was interrupted

Could this summer’s unprecedentedly tight power supply leave athletes in the dark during the 19-day sporting event?

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said that the main Universiade venues had double-loop power supplies, and that all the venues had diesel generators that could power the site in the event of a blackout.   [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-16

The Cabinet made the decision Wednesday following the resignation of Economics

Minister Lee Chih-kung. Lee stepped down to take responsibility for a major power outage Tuesday.

The outage hit many parts of Taiwan without warning. Due to human error, six generators at the Tatan Power Plant in Taoyuan shut down unexpectedly.

Also on Wednesday, President Tsai Ing-wen issued an apology to the public on behalf of the government. Tsai promised to review what she called a fragile grid system.

“I want to report to the public. To avoid similar incidents from happening again, our most important task is to ensure a steady [power] supply and to review and strengthen the nation’s infrastructure,” said Tsai.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/17
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei has been ranked the world’s 60th best city in the latest ranking, while Melbourne retains the top spot seventh year in a row, according to the 2017 Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Global Livability Ranking.

The annual survey scores 140 cities worldwide, and ranks the most livable locations on five lifestyle categories, including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

Melbourne topped the list of countries with an overall score of 97.5 out of 100, followed by Vienna, Vancouver, and Toronto. The Canadian city of Calgary is in joint fifth place with Adelaide, Australia. Melbourne has remained among the top three cities in the world since the introduction of the index in 2006.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/17
By: Chen Ching-fang and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) The hot weather in Taiwan over the past few days will ease off slightly Thursday due to a weakening continental tropical air mass moving north and increased moisture near the country, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

However, daytime high temperatures could hover between 35 degrees Celsius and 36 degrees in the greater Taipei area and Taoyuan in the north, and between 33 and 34 degrees in other areas of the country, according to the CWB.

As of Wednesday, Taipei had already recorded 15 days of temperatures above 37 degrees this year, including eight days recorded this month, according to the CWB data.    [FULL  STORY]

SECURITYWhile the power outage was caused by human error, drills held earlier this month showed the vulnerability of the system to intentional harm

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 17, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) yesterday apologized

for Tuesday’s massive blackouts, while Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) has been appointed to succeed outgoing Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光).

“On behalf of the government, I apologize for the inconvenience and concerns caused by the power outage. The incident should not have occurred at all,” Tsai said ahead of a Democratic Progressive Party Central Standing Committee meeting.

“Power supply is not simply an issue that affects people’s lives, but is a matter of national security,” she said.

The nation is running on a vulnerable power system that can be easily paralyzed by a natural disaster or human error, so it is the government’s top priority to re-examine and reinforce the nation’s infrastructure to ensure supply stability, but few efforts were made to improve grid reliability over the years, Tsai said.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 17, 2017
By: The China Post

President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday said the culprit behind Tuesday’s massive

blackouts was an “obviously fragile power grid” that previous administrations had failed to fix.

“Why is it that our power generation system enables one human error to cause so much damage?” she said at a press conference at the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters on Wednesday.

“The system, whether it be the design and the professionalism of its management, is obviously overly fragile, and after all these years, no proactive measures have been taken to strengthen it. If we continue to face this problem in the incorrect way, our country will face a high level of systemic risk.”

At a rare news conference held before a Central Standing Committee meeting at the party headquarters, Tsai said she would like to apologize to the people of Taiwan on the behalf of her administration for the blackout.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-15

A major power outage hit many parts of Taiwan without warning on Tuesday

afternoon. The outage affected all major cities on the country’s west coast, including Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung.

State power company Taipower has attributed the blackout to an incident at the Tatan Power Plant in the northern municipality of Taoyuan. It said six generators at the gas-fired plant shut down due to human error. This brought a reduction in output of 4 million kilowatts. This in turn triggered automatic energy conservation measures at relay stations.

Taipower’s website also reported a separate issue at Taichung Power Plant at around 5pm. The Taichung plant is the largest coal-fired power station in the world.
[FULL  STORY]