Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/09
By: Sophia Yeh and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Feb. 9 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said thank-you in nine different

languages to foreign visitors who have visited Taiwan over the past year, in a Twitter tweet Thursday, as the number of foreign visitors in Taiwan reached a record high in 2016.

“More people visited Taiwan in 2016 than ever,” she wrote. In addition to English, she also wrote thank-you in Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Hindi, in their original characters.

Also included in the tweet is a “thank-you” in simplified Chinese characters, which are used by the people of China and ethnic Chinese in Singapore and other places.
[FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/08
By: Steven Crook

Taiwan’s southern half is a stronghold of Taiwanese Holo culture, and it’s where you will find the ancient former capital, Tainan, as well as Kaohsiung. At the same time, the south has intriguing pockets of Hakka culture and tradition waiting to be explored.

The Hakka are Taiwan’s largest ethnic minority. For the last several decades, Taiwan’s demographics have looked like this: The majority is descended from Chinese settlers who came from the Fujian province in China between 150 and 400 years ago. Fewer than one in forty is of indigenous Austronesian origin. Around one in eight is regarded as a “mainlander” or the offspring of “mainlanders” – but this is a grab-all category for those whose families arrived after World War II. Among them are Muslims from China’s far west, ethnic Mongolians, and others who have very little in common with each other. Up to one in six, it’s said, is Hakka.

The Hakka are Han Chinese. They emerged as a distinct sub-ethnic group, speaking their own language and following their own customs, as they moved en masse from central China to the south in a series of migrations between 1,600 and 400 years ago. Because they have sometimes faced persecution and had to relocate often, some historians have dubbed them “China’s Jews.” And like Jews, they’re regarded as frugal hard workers and excellent students.    [FULL  STORY]

Unruly bus passenger shown on video refusing to pay NT$75 fare after claiming not to have money

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

 

Taipei (Taiwan News) — A bus driver posted a video yesterday on the Facebook group Breaking News Commune (爆料公社) of an unruly, unrepentant passenger who refused to pay the NT$75 fare (US$2.4) after arriving at his destination.

The video starts with a young adult male passenger swiping the bus fare box and a beeping sound can be heard, indicating that he does not have enough money on his card to cover the cost of the ride. The driver says “75,” the passenger then attempts to exit the bus as if nothing was amiss, and glibly says “I don’t have money, I’ll pay next time.”

In response, the driver says “Hey, Mister, Mister,” but the man keeps walking and the driver says to another passenger “He says he doesn’t have money.” The driver decides to follow the man with the bus as he walks along the street, opens the door and politely says “Mister,” but the man quickly retorts “I don’t have money, stop bothering me!” The driver then says “If you don’t have money, I won’t bother you. If you don’t pay, I’ll pay for you.”

After a repeat of the previous exchange, the driver changes tack and says, “Please pay the fee, OK? How could you not have money?” The man looks at him briefly, then turns his back. In the softest voice possible, the driver says “Mister, I’m going to call the police. Mister, please pay, OK?”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/08
By: Sabine Cheng, Stanley Cheung and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, Feb. 8 (CNA) Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee (林榮基) on Wednesday said that his presence at the launch of the 2017 Taipei International Book Exhibition was not an attempt to seek asylum and denied he was looking to open a bookstore in Taiwan.

Asked if he considered seeking political asylum last June, Lam said that staying in Hong Kong was not a problem, but that if it became necessary he would “go to Taiwan.”

Lam, a former manager of independent Hong Kong bookstore Causeway Bay Books, was detained by Chinese police in mainland China from Oct. 2015 to June 2016 for mailing Chinese customers books deemed to be politically sensitive by the Beijing authorities.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 09, 2017
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Amid a controversy over questionable membership applications submitted ahead of the

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair election, Taipei City Councilor Yeh Lin-chuan (葉林傳) yesterday apologized on behalf of his office director, Huang Hsiu-ling (黃秀玲), after the KMT confirmed that Huang had recruited potential members who had organized crime backgrounds.

Online news outlet Up Media on Sunday reported that a KMT campaign staffer had submitted 307 membership applications last month to the party’s Taipei branch, many from people with criminal backgrounds.

One such applicant was Wan Shao-cheng (萬少丞), who allegedly played key role in a nightclub brawl in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) in 2014 that resulted in the beating death of an off-duty police officer.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: February 9, 2017
By: Joseph Yeh

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Around 15,000 files containing the personal information of Taiwanese

travelers are suspected to have been stolen by hackers, the government said Wednesday.

It added, however, that no nationals had yet reported being victimized as a result of the possibly hacked information.

Speaking at an emergency press conference, Winston Chung (鍾文正), deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA), apologized to the public and said the possible leak was due an intrusion into the its email system.

The bureau had recently found irregularities in an email account that serves as contact window to 117 Taiwanese overseas offices worldwide, Chung said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Interfnational
Date: 2017-02-07

President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday that Taiwan will build its own weapons for its

defense. Tsai was speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding on producing advanced jet trainers.

Tsai said the MOU is an important milestone and shows the country is serious about acquiring the means to build its own defensive arms. The president said Taiwan has fallen behind in this area over the last 30 years and has lost much of its expertise in aerospace.

Tsai said the government has allocated NT$68 billion (US$2.2 billion) for indigenous weapons programs.    [FULL  STORY]

Hacker attack on Taiwan financial institutes online platforms shows need to shake up information security measures

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/07
By: Translated by Judy Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

An anonymous hacker group’s attack on several financial institutes in Taiwan and its

demand of payment to prevent further attacks last week has been the first case of its kind in the country’s financial industry, said a senior manager of a financial institute.

The hackers demanded Taiwanese financial institutes pay 10 Bitcoins, equivalent to US$10,466, or they would crash online their services with DDoS attacks, or infect their computer systems with an insidious Trojan Horse virus.

Taiwan’s Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) confirmed several financial institutions in Taiwan including Yuanta Securities, KGI Securities, and Masterlink Securities all received threats from the hacker group.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiqwan
Date: 2017/02/07
By: Ku Chuan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Feb. 7 (CNA) Taiwan’s plan to join the United States Global Entry program, which would allow Taiwanese travelers easier entry into the U.S., will not be affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday.

Representatives of the U.S. and Taiwan signed a joint statement last April regarding Taiwan’s participation in the Global Entry program, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program that allows expedited clearance of pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the U.S.

Citizens from the participating countries may clear U.S. immigration by using the automated kiosks at 47 U.S. airports and 13 other pre-clearance locations.
[FULL  STORY]

‘ONE CHINA’:Lawmakers said the Cambodian leader’s comments might have been due to pressure from China, but the ministry’s spokeswoman was more circumspect

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 08, 2017
By: Alison Hsiao and Chen Wei-han / Staff reporters, with CNA

The government has no comment on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s remarks that

the Republic of China’s (ROC) flag is banned from being raised in his country to “respect the sovereignty of China,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Eleanor Wang (王珮玲) said yesterday.

According to the Cambodian Daily, Hun Sen reiterated his government’s support for Beijing’s “one China” principle during a dinner on Saturday hosted by the Cambodian-Chinese Association.

“We should not do anything that affects respect for China’s sovereignty and independence through shaking hands and stepping on feet,” the paper quoted him as saying. “I request to people here: Please do not raise the Taiwanese flag whenever you are gathering, even at a hotel during Taiwan’s national holidays. It is not allowed.”

Calling Taiwan and Tibet provinces of China, Hun Sen said that his nation’s foreign policy is the one that has been implemented since the Sihanouk regime, referring to King Norodom Sihanouk.

“As an independent, sovereign nation, we endeavor to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and are willing to establish a friendly and mutually beneficial relationship with any country in the region, including Cambodia,” Wang said.

The Cambodia Daily also reported that Taiwan tried to establish a trade office in Phnom Penh, but was snubbed by Hun Sen in 2009 and again in July 2014, citing the government’s adherence to the “one China” principle.    [FULL  STORY]