The News Lens
Date: 2017/05/19
By: Shannon Lin

Are the dazzling traditional gowns and tours in native languages just a weak attempt to

distract Taiwan’s newest arrivals from institutionalized discrimination?
From when her Taiwan-born daughter was a one-year-old to when she started kindergarten, Indonesian Linda Tjindiawati Arifin would take her to visit the National Taiwan Museum each fortnight, exploring the century-old building and the surrounding 228 Peace Memorial Park.

Twelve years later, Arifin is back at the museum giving tours in Bahasa, showcasing the place she spent so much time in with her young daughter to a new wave of migrants.    [FULL  STORY]

Seafood company relabeled expired food: reports

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/05/19
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Inspectors in Taichung found erroneous expiration labels on

12 tons of frozen abalone and other seafood in the latest such scandal to hit the island’s food sector, reports said Friday.

Following a spate of adulterated-oil scandals some three years ago, inspections and penalties for food safety violations were tightened, but recent weeks saw several instances of food producers and distributors reselling expired products with fraudulent expiration labels.

In the latest instance, Taichung City Health Department inspectors visited warehouses owned or rented by Hung Shuo Seafood Co. (宏碩海產公司) in the city’s Nantun District and found 905 boxes and 73 bags containing a total of 12,290.5 kilograms of frozen abalone as well as 60 boxes of shrimp weighing a total of 648 kg, all of them with suspicious labels, reports said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/05/19
By: By Lu Hsin-hui, Sophia Yeh and Lilian Wu

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) entered the main venue of a fundraising dinner in defiance of Taichung Prison and asked if his pre-recorded speech played at the dinner in Taipei on Friday will hurt the government.

“I want to ask if our government will fall just because it allows me to speak in public? Is it that serious?” Chen asked in the 4-minute 40-second video.

Chen, who is currently on medical parole from a 20-year jail sentence for corruption, arrived at the venue of the fundraiser in Dazhi, Taipei at 7:30 p.m. to the warm welcome of his supporters.

Among the conditions laid down by the Taichung Prison in allowing Chen to meet old friends at the event was that he could not enter the main venue of the gathering.
[FULL  STORY]

FORCED DISAPPEARANCE:Lee Ching-yu appeared at a US congressional hearing to appeal for help for her husband, who has been detained in China since March

Taipei Times
Date: May 20, 2017
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter, with CNA

Human rights groups yesterday gathered at the Liberty Square in Taipei, demanding

that China immediately release Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲).

Lee was detained after entering Zhuhai City via Macau on March 19. He used to work for the Democratic Progressive Party and is currently a staff member at Wenshan Community College in Taipei, as well as a volunteer at the non-governmental organization Covenant Watch.

“We hope he will return soon,” Taipei Wenshan Community College president Cheng Hsiu-chuan (鄭秀娟) said.

The rally last night also sought to raise public awareness about forced disappearances.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: May 19, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

Fire struck yet another nursing home in Taiwan on Friday, this time killing at least four

people and injuring more than 50 in a Pingtung facility.

About 150 seniors were in Nanmen Nursing Home when the fire broke out just before 5 a.m.

Four burned to death in their beds on the second floor of the three-story home and 55 were hospitalized for smoke inhalation.

Police are probing the cause of the fire, with preliminary investigations pointing to a faulty electrical wiring.

Nanmen Nursing Home was also understaffed on the night of the fire, said Tsai Shu-feng (蔡淑鳳), director-general of the Health Ministry’s Department of Nursing and Health Care.    [FULL  STORY]

Boosting the national defense budget, avoiding a spending blowout on submarines, watching out for aggression in the South China Sea and keeping up Taiwan’s defense from cyber attacks; chances are Taiwan’s president will be kept busy keeping the country safe in the second year of her presidency.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/05/18
By: Michal Thim

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will mark the end of her first year in power on

May 20. It was hardly an uneventful 12 months for the country’s first woman president. The defense and security arena was no different, despite generally being lower profile than issues like pension reform, same-sex marriage or transitional justice.

Taiwan presidents do not tend to score popularity points in defense and security. The misfire of an anti-ship missile or the latest espionage scandal are just two examples. Despite this, Tsai has made an effort to visit to military bases, pursuing good relations with the military and hoping to improve the armed forces’ public image.

One of the more visible defense and national security milestones of her first year in office was the official launch of the indigenous defense submarine (IDS) project in March.    [FULL  STORY][

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/05/18
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said Wednesday during an

event organized by Taiwan Against Drunk Driving (TADD) that the city’s proposal to tighten regulations on DUI, following lobbying effort by the TADD, has passed the preliminary reading at Taiwan’s Legislature on April 26. The amended law would require both the intoxicated driver and the passengers in the vehicle to bear criminal liability.

As the founder of TADD, Ko expressed his concerns over casualties caused by drunk driving and the mounting burden on the city’s police force to conduct sobriety checks. Statistics showed that over 25% of people imprisoned have been convicted of crimes related to DUI, he said.

According to Ko, his administration has allocated a significant proportion of the budget to anti-drunk driving campaigns since taking office. A cross-department task force was established in July 2015.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/05/18
By: Tony Liao and Lilian Wu

Washington, May 17 (CNA) Twenty-one U.S. senators co-signed a letter to U.S.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price Wednesday to “express profound concern” over Taiwan’s exclusion from this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) due to Chinese obstruction.

The WHA, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, is scheduled to take place in Geneva, Switzerland from May 22-31.

They also expressed hope that the United States “will renew its efforts, with like-minded countries, to affirm observer status for Taiwan at future WHAs, a policy held by the past two administrations.”    [FULL  STORY]

FRIENDS:Twenty-one US senators signed a letter to the US secretary of health and human services to ‘express profound concern’ over Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHA

Taipei Times
Date: May 19, 2017
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter, with CNA

The government would definitely express its anger and frustration to the WHO about

not being invited to attend the annual World Health Assembly (WHA), Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday, adding that all protests would be conducted in a legal manner.

The WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, from Monday to May 31.

The nation’s delegation, the “WHA Action Team,” is scheduled to depart for Geneva early tomorrow morning, Chen told a news conference in Taipei.

Chen is the designated leader of the team and is being accompanied by key officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: May 18, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Northern Taiwan had its once-a-year air raid drills Thursday afternoon.

At 1:30 p.m., slow, deep sirens rang out in every town and city in the north, sending pedestrians off the sidewalk and scooters abruptly pulling to the side of the road.

Streets stayed nearly empty until 2 p.m., when a 90-second siren lifted the drill.

This was the 40th Wan An Exercise, a defense drill against an air attack by the R.O.C.’s historical adversary, the PRC.

The drill began in 1978 under just-elected President Chiang Ching-kuo and has persisted to this day, even through the cross-strait detente under previous president Ma Ying-jeou.    [FULL  STORY]