‘I was afraid to sleep, in case I woke up back in jail.’ A man wrongly convicted of kidnap and murder, speaks about his two decades on death row in Taiwan.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/11/02
By: Edward White

There was a time when Hsu Tzu-chiang (徐自強) woke up, quietly put on his best suit, and then sat by himself for hours, waiting to be executed.

After the “normal” period when someone was likely taken to be killed passed, he would return to his cell, slowly remove the clothing, carefully fold it, and put it back under his bed, ready for the next day.

“How long exactly? I can’t remember, but this lasted for a couple of months,” Hsu, 48, told The News Lens International in Taipei.

It was during the early years of a 16-year stretch on death row, when he was “numb,” when he thought “sooner or later,” he would be executed. And in Taiwan, the condemned are allowed to wear their best clothing on their execution day.

Hsu, along with two others, was sentenced to death for the September 1995 kidnap and murder of businessman Huang Chun-shu (黃春樹). No material evidence was found connecting Hsu to the murder, but the confession of a codefendant – thought by some to be extracted during torture by the police – implicated Hsu. Fearing torture, Hsu went into hiding for months before he turned himself in, in June 1996.    [FULL  STORY]

The nation was forced to withdraw from the INTERPOL when China joined in 1984.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/02
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Wednesday said that it is not optimistic about Taiwan’s prospects

for taking part in the International Criminal Police Organization, or INTERPOL’s annual assembly next week.

Taiwan has been seeking admission to INTERPOL’s 85th General Assembly, which is to be held from November 7 to 10 in Bali, Indonesia, as an observer, but has not received any invitation from the INTERPOL Executive Committee yet.

The nation was forced to withdraw from the INTERPOL when China joined in 1984, and has since then attempted multiple times and failed to be granted observer status in the France-based organization due to China’s obstruction.

Taiwan’s plea to attend this year’s meetings has gained support from the United States, as both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed a bill in March requiring the U.S. secretary of state to develop a strategy to obtain observer status for Taiwan in INTERPOL.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/02
By: Wang Shu-fen and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Nov. 2 (CNA) Visits in a single year between Taiwan and the United States could break 1 million

for the first time by the end of this year, a Tourism Bureau official said Wednesday.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark EVA Airways’ maiden flight to Chicago, bureau chief secretary Tsai Ming-ling (蔡明玲) said the increasing services offered by the airline between Taiwan and the U.S. have contributed to the boom.

Tsai said the bureau estimated that there will have been more than 500,000 visits from the U.S. to Taiwan and 600,000 visits from Taiwan to the U.S by the end of 2016.

Bureau data shows that between January and September this year, 368,589 visits were recorded from the U.S to Taiwan, compared with 341,798 in the same period of last year.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 3, 2016
By: Stephanie Chao

TAIPEI, Taiwan — About a dozen student activists clashed with police at the Democratic Progressive

Party’s (DPP) headquarters on Wednesday during a protest against President Tsai Ing-wen for slashing a disputed workweek bill.

“Youth want labor rights,” the protesters, representing over 20 nationwide student and labor groups, shouted as they pushed against police on the building’s 10th floor and demanded to meet with Tsai.

The government-sponsored bill is part of the administration’s effort to implement a mandatory two-day weekend system in Taiwan, but it also cuts seven national holidays — a clause that has triggered protests by labor and student rights groups since the bill passed preliminary legislative review early October.    [FULL

  STORY]

Activists want debate with senior DPP legislator

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/01
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Students and activists protesting against the abolition of holidays for workers

broke into the offices of top Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Ker Chien-ming Tuesday.

The protesters were removed by police, but their action was condemned by legislators, while it called up comparisons to the Sunflower Movement of 2014, when a larger group of students occupied the full Legislative Yuan to protest against the then-Kuomintang government’s China policies.

About 20 activists invaded the Legislative Yuan offices of Ker, the chief whip of the 68-member DPP caucus, Tuesday morning, demanding the government drop its plan to axe seven out of 19 public holidays for workers, while challenging the senior lawmaker to a debate.    [FULL  STORY]