The China Post
Date: February 8, 2017
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Two days ahead of Taiwan Railway Union’s planned protest n front of

the Presidential Office, the government said it “would not placate” the demonstrators.

More than 370 workers had been officially reprimanded by the Taiwan Railways Administration for failing to show up for their scheduled shifts during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Some staff had been handed major demerits, while others had been dismissed, the railway administration said earlier this week.

Workers said they would stage a mass rally on Ketagalan Boulevard on Thursday.

Premier Lin Chuan said yesterday that the government was not prepared to placate protesters over the matter.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/06
By: Rosemary Chen

A record 10.7 million people visited Taiwan in 2016 with a boost in tourists from Japan,

South Korea and Southeast Asia offsetting a sharp decline in Chinese.

Taiwan saw a record 10.69 million tourists last year, up 2.4 percent from 2015, according to The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.

Year-on-year, the total number of tourists visiting the country from China was down 16 percent to 3.5 million. China still accounted as Taiwan’s largest source of tourists, at more than 30 percent of all visitors.

However, that was offset by tourists visiting from countries other than China, which lifted almost 15 percent to 7.18 million. A significant number came from Japan, which saw a 16.5 percent increase in tourists to Taiwan to 1.9 million people, and South Korea, with a 34 percent lift to 880,000 people. Japan and South Korea accounted for 18 percent and 8 percent of all visitors respectively.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s MOFA refutes Washington’s support of Japan’s sovereignty over Diaoyutai Islands

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/06
By: Judy Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taipei (Taiwan News)—Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) reiterated sovereignty claims over the disputed Diaoyutai Islands, after U.S. defense secretary James Mattis recently remarked the islands fall under the guidance of a U.S.-Japan security treaty in Tokyo.

The debate over the rightful ownership over the archipelago, which is also known as Senkaku Islands in Japanese, has long been a contentious issue among China, Taiwan and Japan.

During a recent visit to Asia, Mattis, the highest ranking official to visit Japan since Donald Trump’s inauguration, commented the United States would defend Japan under the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation which he said was applicable to the disputed Senkaku Islands.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/06
By: Yang Shu-min and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 6 (CNA) A ban against putting unclaimed stray animals at public shelters to

death is now in place nationwide, but Taiwan still needs to do more to resolve its stray animal problem, animal protection officials said Monday.

Chiang Wen-chuan (江文全), chief of the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture’s (COA’s) animal protection division, said five measures will be taken to supplement the “zero mercy killing” policy, including persuading pet owners not to abandon their pets and promoting life education.

The COA will also bolster efforts to implement the new ban, which officially took effect on Monday, strengthen the existing pet registration system, and extend sterilization to more stray animals and house pets, Chiang said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 07, 2017
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)

to stop “playing ostrich” and lodge stern protests with Japan and the US regarding the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known as the Senkakus in Japan — which Taiwan, China and Japan claim.

Speaking at a news conference in Taipei, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hu Wen-chi (胡文琦) accused Tsai of making repeated compromises over sovereignty and Taiwanese fishing rights in a bid to curry favor with Tokyo and Washington.

“US Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ recent remarks concerning the Diaoyutai Islands insinuate that the US, as well as newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump, acknowledge that the disputed island chain’s sovereignty belongs to Japan,” Hu said.

Hu pointed to the failures of Tsai and Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) to issue statements rebutting Mattis’ claims as signs that the government is willing to improve bilateral ties with the US and Japan at the expense of Taiwan’s territory and fishing rights.    [FULL  STORY]

Ten questions with the co-founder and CEO of Vectr.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/05
By: TNL Staff

Vectr is a Taiwan-based startup going places in the world of graphics and design software. It has already netted close to US$1 million in angel investment from Silicon Valley and has more funding on the way. Chief executive and co-founder Nick Budden talks to The News Lens about the exciting journey so far and plans for the future.

The News Lens International (TNLI): Can you briefly describe what the company does and how it makes money?

Nick Budden (NB): Vectr is building Creative Software (think “Adobe-killer”). Today we’re working on a collaborative vector graphics editor. It integrates Google docs-style collaboration, and has a low learning curve.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/05
By: Chen Wei-ting and Ko Lin

Taipei, Feb. 5 (CNA) The quality and quantity of semen sampled from sperm donors in

Taiwan have deteriorated in recent years, a recent study by the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Sciences (CRMS) of Taipei Medical University found.

In the study, researchers found that there has been an annual decline of sperm concentration in every cubic centimeter of semen collected from donors.

According to CRMS Director Tseng Chi-jui (曾啟瑞), a healthy male can typically produce 3 to 5 cubic centimeters (c.c.) of semen in every orgasm, with each c.c. containing 60 million sperms, or 300 million in total.

“Every year we would see a roughly one percent drop, or about 600,000 sperms, in the samples,” Tseng said.    [FULL  STORY]

FRONT ROW SEAT:The defense minister has invited non-commissioned officers to sit alongside generals and give base reports as part of efforts to improve their status

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 06, 2017
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter

Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) has announced a measure to

allow non-commissioned officers to report to the minister in person, along with plans to improve the salaries and welfare of non-commissioned officers, as well as offer them higher recognition.

When visiting military bases, the minister is to hear reports from the base commander, as well as the chief petty officer, a move expected to improve the morale of non-commissioned officers.

There are about 73,000 non-commissioned officers in the nation’s armed forces consisting of 215,000 personnel, according to the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) annual budget plan.    [FULL  STORY]