Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/11
By: Lin Meng-ju and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Aug. 11 (CNA) Taiwan’s power supply is expected to gradually stabilize next

week when the independent power producer Ho-Ping Power Co. resumes operations, a Ministry of Economic Affairs official said Friday.

With the repair work on a damaged Ho-Ping Power transmission tower in Hualien proceeding smoothly, it will be able to run at half capacity from Monday, supplying 650,000 kilowatts of electricity per day, according to Lee Chun-li (李君禮), deputy chief of the MOEA’s Bureau of Energy.

By Aug. 18, the tower should be at full capacity again, supplying 1.3 million kW per day, Lee said.

As a result, the alert levels for Taiwan’s power supply will be lowered next week to an orange or yellow light, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

LAWSUIT PROMISED:The Central Motion Picture Corp chairman said that he did not benefit in a deal involving the company and was harmed in later developments

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 12, 2017
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Central Motion Picture Corp (CMPC, 中影) chairman Gou Tai-chiang (郭台強)

yesterday denied involvement in an alleged plot a decade ago to kill former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and said he would sue his accusers, as well as Sanlih Entertainment Television (SET-TV, 三立電視).

Gou, who is also chairman of Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co (正崴), was on Thursday accused by former businessman Weng Ping-yao (翁炳堯) and attorney Chou Wu-jung (周武榮) of colluding with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2007 to hire Weng to kill Tsai amid a power struggle over KMT assets.
Weng and Chou repeated the accusations on a SET-TV political talk show,

naming Gou’s wife, Lor Yu-chen (羅玉珍), former CMPC vice president Chuang Wan-chun (莊婉均) and former Tainan County Council speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) of the KMT as accomplices.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 12, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — To the uninitiated, the debate over whether the president said

nuclear power is an option for Taiwan could be confusing.

Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會) Chairman Lin Por-fong (林伯豐) said Friday that President Tsai Ing-wen told him at a meeting with CNAIC representatives earlier in the day that the government would consider using nuclear power if Taiwan faced a serious power shortage.

The Presidential Office later said that was not true, stressing that more than just a power shortage would be needed for it to consider restarting suspended nuclear plants.

Still, the administration was essentially admitting that nuclear power could be an option, albeit under very unlikely circumstances.    [FULL  STORY]

Bodies of two foreign students found dead after a fire in illegal rooftop add-on apartment

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/11
By: Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Two foreign students died in a fire which broke out on a

fourth floor rooftop apartment in Shihlin District.

On August 10, at around 7 p.m., a fire broke out on the third floor of the apartment on Chengde road. After firefighters brought the blaze under control, they found the bodies of one man and one woman burned beyond recognition at 8.30 pm.

The apartment, located at number 85 Chengde Road Section 4, was described as an unauthorized rooftop add-on with a metal exterior and wooden interior. According to the firefighters, the construction of rooftop apartment could easily catch fire, which would be exacerbated by the corrugated metal walls. They added that when a fire breaks out in such makeshift metal structures, occupants can quickly be consumed by the smoke and flames.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/08/09
By: Shannon Lin

‘Blind massage’ was first introduced to Taiwan by the Japanese during the colonial

era. More than 100 years later, signs for blind massage parlors remain a common sight in the underground malls and streets of Taiwan but the number of masseurs is declining.

“I typically start my sessions with the neck and shoulders. Modern day workers sit behind a desk all day so their upper back area tends to be really stiff,” says Lai Jun-hong (賴俊宏), a masseuse in Taipei’s Banqiao district.

“Behind the earlobes, there is a pressure point known as the ‘Gates of Consciousness.’ If you massage here, you can relieve headaches and eye irritability. Many of my patrons suffer from chronic neck and shoulder pains. Some consider surgery but I always try to discourage them. One wrong move and you could lose something important like I did with my eyesight.”

Born with visual complications, Lai, 25, lost most of his sight after a botched operation shortly after birth. Though he is partially sighted and can still read enlarged print, Lai is legally blind. He is one of 57,000 Taiwanese with a visual disability and one of a dwindling number of “blind masseurs,” an occupation that until recently was reserved for the visually impaired.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/10
By: Chiu Kuo-chiang and Evelyn Kao

Beijing, Aug. 10 (CNA) A Chinese military surveillance aircraft was seen flying over international waters east of Taiwan on Wednesday, according to a post on the website of Japan’s Ministry of Defense.

A map on the website showed the flight path of the Y-8 aircraft as over the Western Pacific Ocean, through the Miyako Strait between Japan’s Miyako and Okinawa islands, and into the East China Sea east of Taiwan.

According to the post, Japan scrambled a fighter jet in response to the appearance of the military surveillance aircraft.

In recent months, several Chinese military planes, including Xian H-6K bombers, have been spotted on similar routes.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 11, 2017
By: Yang Chun-hui and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiang Yung-chang (江永昌) on Wednesday

urged prosecutors to exercise their newly acquired powers and seize the money if it was found to have been laundered during the procurement of Dassault Mirage 2000 aircraft between 1992 and 1997.

Chiang made the remarks on Facebook in response to news that the Ministry of National Defense is suing France over kickbacks French officials received for selling Mirage 2000 jets to Taiwan.

The Taipei District Court on July 27 ordered the confiscation of US$900 million that was found to have been laundered during the procurement of Lafayette-class frigates, in accordance with last year’s amendments to the Criminal Code, Chiang said.

That the frigates had cost the nation NT$78 billion (U$2.57 billion at current exchange rates) — less than half of the fighters’ cost of NT$160 billion — suggest that an “astronomical sum” of kickbacks might have been involved, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 10, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Former President Ma Ying-jeou and three others masterminded the

2007 shooting attack on the office of a Kuomintang lawmaker, according to a man who has already served a prison sentence over the crime.

Weng Bing-yao (翁炳堯), who was convicted of abetting the gunman, made the stunning claim to prosecutors on Thursday as part of ongoing investigations into the attack on the office of then-Legislator Alex Tsai, a member of Ma’s KMT.

Along with Ma, Weng said, the shootup was also planned by Central Pictures Corp. (CPC) Chairman Gou Tai-chiang (郭台強) and his wife Lo Yu-chen (羅玉珍) as well as CPC Vice Chairwoman Chuang Wan-jun (莊婉均).

Weng said he had turned himself in for perjury, claiming he had lied a decade earlier when he told prosecutors that Gou had not directed the attack on Tsai — something he now says is true.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
2017-08-08

The education minister, Pan Wen-chung, has rejected accusations that the government is

trying to remove Chinese culture from its social studies curriculum guidelines. Pan was speaking Tuesday.

Pan said the guidelines on social studies have been reviewed by the National Academy for Educational Research. To seek public opinion, the academy is planning to hold 22 hearings from September. It will then submit the guidelines to the education ministry for approval.

Pan said the guidelines aim to introduce Taiwanese history, Chinese history and world history by focusing on specific topics, without any ideas of de-Sinicization.
[FULL  STORY]

Two lines of the Taipei MRT will offer free Wi-Fi starting in the middle of August

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taipei Metro will extend its free public Wi-Fi coverage from

stations to carriages, starting with the Red Line (Tamsui) and Blue Line (Bannan) by the middle of this month (August) and the rest by the end of the year, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC, 台北捷運) and service provider Free AD WiFi (全林實業) officials announced yesterday.

The officials said at the news conference that the TPE-Free Ad WiFi connections will be available in 30-minute sessions without a sign in or verification required, however use will need to click on an advertisement for each installment. The companies said that the the number of 30-minute sessions will be unlimited.    [FULL  STORY]