WAIT AND SEE:The KMT said that it will not comment on the appointments until it observes the new ministers, adding that the Cabinet should focus on communication

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 04, 2017
By: Su Fang-ho, Chiang Chih-hsiung, Lee Hsin-fang and Jake / Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Executive Yuan yesterday announced a Cabinet reshuffle, appointing four ministers

and confirming rumors circulating ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday that the government was considering a reshuffle to improve policy implementation.

Deputy Minister of Education Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) has been appointed minister of science and technology; former deputy minister of health Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) has been tapped to head the Ministry of Health and Welfare; Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) has been appointed council of agriculture minister; and Minister Without Portfolio Lin Mei-chu (林美珠), who is also President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) cousin, has been appointed minister of labor.

Lin Mei-chu’s specialty in law will be a boon for the government following amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), Executive Yuan spokesperson Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.

Lin Mei-chu is expected to shoulder the responsibility of communicating with the public on the controversial amendments, the Executive Yuan said, adding that she would be retaining her position as minister without portfolio.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: February 4, 2017
By: James Lo

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taipei Mayor Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that the city

government decided to use a new location for the Taipei Lantern Festival this year and had implemented new events and lantern designs to attract larger crowds to the festival that will open today.

Ko was quoted as saying that the new ideas were carried out so that the city could redeem itself from the unfortunate “Fortune Monkey (福祿猴)” lantern blunder last year, in which the mascot was deemed excessively ugly and subject to widespread derision.

The festival is held at popular tourist hotspot Ximending, with an opening ceremony scheduled for 6 p.m. around the Red House Theater area today.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/02
By: Edward White

Amid an ongoing regulatory battle with the government, Uber today said it would

suspend operations in Taiwan.

Uber’s suspension of its ride-sharing operation in Taiwan is part of an ongoing process to set acceptable norms around transportation, according to a government minister.

Amid an ongoing regulatory battle with the government, Uber today said it would suspend operations in Taiwan starting Feb. 10.

Uber, which has been operating in Taiwan for more than four years, has amassed millions of dollars in fines with ongoing tax and business legality issues; Uber says it is a technology company while regulators have deemed it a transport company. This year it was facing a sharp increase in penalties.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/02
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–The Takeshi Kaneshiro tree is the most popular tourist destination in Taitung County during the Lunar New Year holiday, according to the statistics of the county government’s tourism department.

The tourism department said that the most visited area in the county during the Lunar New Year holiday is the rift valley, which is flanked by the Central Mountain Range to the west and the Coastal Mountain Range to the east.

In the valley area, Mr. Brown Avenue, a small country road in Chihshang Township where the Takeshi Kaneshiro tree is located, attracted most tourists with 158,920 visits during the LNY period, followed by Luye Plateau and Jhihben Hot Spring. The avenue allows visitors to enjoy the view of vast green rice fields without a wire pole along the roadside.    [FULL  STORY]

PIVOTAL RACE:Former DPP legislator Lin Cho-shui said that the Tainan mayor should make way for DPP politicians in New Taipei City, but run if they prove to be unsuitable

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 03, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) could seek the presidency without first running in

next year’s New Taipei City mayoral race, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) said yesterday, in support of a potential bid by Lai for the top position.

Asked in a radio interview whether Lai should seek an intermediate position on the way to the presidency, Lin said the Tainan mayor could seek the office without taking another position, similar to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who did not hold a local government post before running for president.

Lai is considered a strong candidate for New Taipei City mayor, as he is one of the few DPP politicians who has what it takes to compete with New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-governed special municipality.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: February 3, 2017
By: Stephanie Chao

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Ten years after construction began, the Taoyuan Airport MRT kicked

off limited trial runs for groups on Thursday, with some passengers on the first trip calling the metro system “the pride of Taoyuan.”

Hundreds of gleeful Taoyuan City residents and equally exuberant city officials boarded the first MRT trip at 7:45 a.m. from Zhongli toward Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Passengers on the first trip were ecstatic to board the MRT. While the first fleet shuddered and swayed upon starting out, the remainder of the trip went smoothly.

A female passenger, surnamed Lin, who took her 70-year-old grandmother on the ride, told the Chinese-language United Daily News that while the Taoyuan Airport MRT seemed to be a “bit slower than the Taipei Metro,” it was a comfortable ride.   [FULL  STORY]

Compared to the cult-like veneration of beef noodles, hot pot, and stinky tofu in Taiwan, the guabao (割包 or 刈包) is an underappreciated snack. What English-speakers often call ‘the Taiwanese hamburger’ is available in every town and city, but certainly not on every street, nor even in many night markets.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/01
By: Steven Crook

Because of their shape, these hearty delights often appear in weiya (尾牙) banquets, traditional end-of-the-year feasts at which Taiwanese bosses treat their employees. According to some, a generously proportioned guabao bears an auspicious resemblance to a purse overflowing with money. The way in which the bun envelops the pork has also inspired a nickname which some vendors have embraced: hu yao zhu (虎咬豬, pronounced ho ka ti in Holo, “tiger bites pig”).

Some foodies steer clear of guabao because they think neither of the main ingredients – pork belly and steamed bread – is especially healthful. The meat, while exceptionally tender and juicy, is heavily marbled with fat. To people who believe whole-wheat bread is better for you than loaves made of bleached flour, the shiny whiteness of the wrap suggests it offers nothing but carbohydrates. Those who abstain may be right, yet over the past six or seven years the popularity of guabao in the Western world has leapfrogged that of other Taiwanese dishes.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/01
By: Taiwan News

As everybody expected before his inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump is running the U.S. like a

company, as exemplified by what he did in the first week of his administration, and that kind of “drain the swamp” attitude, iron will, decisiveness and swiftness to carry out his policies in face of tremendous opposition is exactly what Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration needs to carry out reforms that the country desperately needs in order to survive and develop.

President Trump is without doubt a successful business CEO and similar to all business founders throughout the world, he has an iron will, is very hardworking and pragmatic, hates traditional red tape and detests bureaucracy. He is a person who will enforce his beliefs in the face of strong opposition from a large number of dissenters, who is anti-traditional and anti-bureaucratic, and who has been persecuted by unfair laws and regulations during the process of growing his small and medium-sized enterprise into a large corporation.

In light of the rise of such a leader of the world’s superpower, can Taiwan’s government and people not be rising up immediately to face challenges Trump could pose to Taiwan?    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/01
By: Liu Kuan-ting and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Feb. 1 (CNA) The mass rapid transit (MRT) line between Taipei and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport will begin a trial period Thursday, the first working day after the Lunar New Year holiday.

According to the Taoyuan MRT company, groups of passengers that apply in advance will be allowed to travel free between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. from Feb. 2-15, the first two weeks of the one-month trial period.

Group travel will be restricted to six of the 21 stations — A1 (Taipei Station), A3 (New Taipei Industrial Park), A8 (Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital), A10 (Shanbi), A18 (High Speed Rail Taoyuan Station) and A21 (Huanbei or North Link), the company said.

The maximum number of passengers in each carriage will be 40 people, the company said.    [FULL  STORY]