LOST AND FOUND:Last year, 20,678 missing migrant workers were found, but another 21,708 went missing, the NIA said, adding that it will crack down on illegal activities

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 02, 2017
By: Chen Yu-fu / Staff reporter

More than 3,300 Chinese, Hong Kongers, Macanese and stateless people illegally

overstayed their visas in Taiwan last year, which could pose a national security concern, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said.

According to the National Immigration Agency (NIA), 3,365 people — 2,002 Chinese as well as 1,363 Hong Kongers, Macanese or stateless people — overstayed their visa last year, while the number of missing migrant workers reached 53,000.

There are many Chinese who remain in Taiwan illegally or visiting the nation supposedly for business who are actually spying for China, DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said, calling on national security agencies to investigate the issue.

The agency spends about NT$300 million (US$9.89 million) annually on counseling for immigrants, human trafficking prevention and residency management, but the number of people who overstay their tourist or resident visa has been increasing.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 2, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — More than half of Taiwan’s parents spend less than half an hour

talking to their children every day, according to a survey by a local welfare group.

Of the children surveyed by the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF), 51.6 percent said they talked with their parents for less than 30 minutes a day, while some reported doing so for even less than 10 minutes a day.

The survey found that even when they do talk, the conversations are mostly about schoolwork, which was cited as a common topic by 80.7 percent of respondents. The next most common topics were daily routines and friends, which were cited by 71.2 percent and 52.8 percent of respondents, respectively.

The results showed that parents were most concerned about their children’s academic performance, CWLF executive director Chen Li-ju said Saturday.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: March 30, 2017

National Taipei University of Technology signed a cooperation agreement with the U.S.-

based Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab March 29 in Taipei City to establish an R&D center at NTUT for the development of autonomous vehicle technology and smart city infrastructure, according to NTUT.

Signed by NTUT President Li Wen-lung and MIT Media Lab Director Kent Larson on behalf of the two sides, the agreement seeks to focus cooperation on the collection and use of urban mobility data, the exploration of possible uses for low-speed driverless vehicles and the development of technologies relating to vehicle-to-vehicle communication, smart materials and smart urban infrastructure.

“With the growing popularity of the Internet of Things, smart city infrastructure is playing an important role in urban and industrial development,” Li said at the signing ceremony. “The human-centric technologies that autonomous vehicles feature are part of a major index of smart city applications.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan wins court rulings on outstanding debt still owed by former diplomatic allies

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/31
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese state-run bank has won a legal claim against two

African nations for NT$6.4 billion (US$212 million) in unpaid loans, and a suit against a third country is pending, reports Reuters.

Taiwan’s Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (Eximbank) brought three claims against the Guinea Bissau, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to a U.S. district court, which total NT$7.9 billion in unpaid loans and interest.

In two separate rulings in January of this year, judges of a U.S. district court in New York State ruled in favor of Eximbank in the case of Congo and the Central African Republic for NT$1.7 billion and NT$4.7 billion, respectively. It is not yet known if or how these countries will settle these claims.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/31
By: Lu Hsin-hui, Hau Hsueh-ching and Lilian Wu

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) A cache of bullets found at Taichung Armed Forces General

Hospital were not manufactured or used by the nation’s military personnel, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Friday.

MND spokesman Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said at a news conference that a cleaner noticed a red plastic bag in a garbage can in the men’s room of the emergency ward at 1:45 p.m. Thursday and found the dumped bullets inside.

They included 30 rounds of 5.56 mm bullets, 64 rounds of 0.38 inch bullets, one round of 9 mm bullets and one round of an unknown caliber bullet.

An examination of the bullets ruled out the possibility that they were manufactured or used by the military, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]

OBSTRUCTION:KMT lawmakers demanded that 10 public hearings be held on the ‘Forward-looking Infrastructure Construction Project,’ before it was agreed to hold six

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 01, 2017
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday morning occupied the

legislative speaker’s podium to protest the Cabinet’s NT$880 billion (US$29 billion) budget proposal for the “Forward-looking Infrastructure Construction Project,” calling for 10 public hearings to be held before the proposal is reviewed, which a cross-caucus negotiation in the afternoon cut to six.

The legislature’s question-and-answer session ended on Tuesday and lawmakers yesterday started reading bills, with the Cabinet’s budget proposal for the infrastructure project one of the bills to be referred to legislative committee.

KMT lawmakers, clad in caucus uniforms, obstructed the proceedings by occupying the legislative speaker’s podium and shouting criticism of the project, demanding that at least 10 public hearings be held before the proposal is reviewed by six of the eight legislative committees.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 1, 2017
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

Two department heads of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC)

were punished with one major demerit each on Friday for a fatal bus crash on Feb. 13 that killed 33 people.

The MOTC’s performance assessment panel announced Friday morning its final decision regarding the penalties that should be imposed on government officials for the events in February.

Directorate General of Highways Director Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) and Tourism Bureau Director Chou Yung-hui (周永暉), both of whom had offered their resignation shortly after the crash, were given one major demerit each.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-03-31

President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday met Fidel Ramos, the former president of the

Philippines. This is the ninth year in succession that Ramos has brought a delegation to Taiwan. President Tsai also congratulated Ramos on the occasion of his recent 89th birthday.

The president thanked Ramos for his consistent support of strong ties between the Philippines and Taiwan. She also remarked on his writings containing his thoughts on how to make contributions to peace.

President Tsai also raised the “New Southbound” policy, which has been a key policy direction since she took office in May last year. The policy aims to strengthen Taiwan’s ties with countries in Southeast Asia as well as India, Australia and New Zealand. Tsai said that trade between the two countries had grown over the past year, while the number of tourists from the Philippines to Taiwan was up 24% in 2016 over the previous year.    [FULL  STORY]

Lee Ming-che has been detained in China for 13 days now.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/31
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The wife of a Taiwanese human rights activist who has been

detained in China held a press conference Friday stating her decision not to hire an attorney for “useless legal defense “and will fly to Beijing herself to seek release of her husband.

Lee Ming-che (李明哲), human rights activist and former worker for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), went missing on March 19 after crossing over from Macau into Guangdong Province.

His wife, Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), believed her husband had been detained in China, as a Taiwanese government source told, while Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday confirmed the source to be true after more than a week of snubbing requests from Taiwan’s government for information.

Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) in a regular press conference on March 29 acknowledged the first time that Lee was being investigated for allegedly “engaged in activities endangering national security.“    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/31
By: Elaine Hou, Wang Yang-yu and Liu Shih-yi

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) The Taipei District Court ruled on Friday that the main leaders

of the 2014 student-led Sunflower Movement — during which protesters occupied the Legislature for weeks in opposition to a trade-in-services pact with China — were not guilty of inciting others to commit a crime nor of obstruction of official business or other crimes.

A total of 22 protesters were indicted by Taipei prosecutors in February 2015 for breaking into the legislative compound on March 18, 2014, which led to a 24-day, unprecedented occupation of the parliament by hundreds of protesters. In a first ruling, all defendants were found not guilty though prosecutors could still appeal.

The 22 people include three leading figures: Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) of the New Power Party, then a research fellow at Taiwan’s top research institution Academia Sinica, Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), both student activists at the time.    [FULL  STORY]