Many Taiwanese students have not developed a reading habit and do not consider it an important part of their daily life. The result? A stagnant book market.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/08

A project manager from a major publisher in Taiwan says an education system that discourages

students from picking up reading as an extracurricular activity is one of the main reasons behind Taiwan’s stagnant book market and depreciating publishing industry.

On June 6, Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) told the Legislative Yuan that Taiwan’s publishing industry is facing a battle for survival, with its total value dropping significantly and a massive closing down of bookstores. Cheng said that average royalties for authors have dropped to less than NT$10 (approximately US$0.31) per book, while editors’ salaries have been steadily decreasing.

Cheng promised to take measures to improve the overall environment for the industry and raise the salaries for people who work in publishing. Tentative proposals include fixed book prices, diversifying channels for book sales, establishing a public fund, encouraging bookstore tourism, helping bookstores transition to digital, and integrating multimedia platforms.

While Cheng said the issue mainly arises from the rampant cost-down philosophy and poor adaptation to the digital era among Taiwanese publishers and bookstores, Tseng Shih-shan (曾士珊), project manager at Commonwealth Publish Group, says the real culprit is Taiwan’s education system and people’s poor reading habits.     [FULL  STORY]

Wet weather forecast for four-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/08
By: Yu Hsiao-han and Lilian Wu

Taipei, June 8 (CNA) The public could face wet weather during the four-day Dragon Boat Festival

holiday that begins Thursday, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.

Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典), director of the CWB’s Weather Forecast Center, wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday that winds from southwest of Taiwan and moisture from the south will bring rain to all parts of the island between June 9 and June 14.

He said the rain will be particularly heavy in the afternoon.

The wetter weather is not expected to bring much of a change in temperatures, though it could make nighttimes more comfortable, Cheng said.

Daytime temperatures will range between 31 degrees and 34 degrees but cool down to between 25 and 26 degrees in the morning or at night with the help of the expected rainfall, he predicted.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: June 6, 2016

President Tsai Ing-wen received the largest U.S. Senate delegation in 10 years headed by U.S. Sen.

John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Service Committee, June 5 at the Office of the President in Taipei City, expressing hopes of strengthening Taiwan-U.S. relations across the areas of economy, international participation and security.

“Ties between Taiwan and the U.S. are going from strength to strength, as evidenced when the Congress reaffirmed the Taiwan Relations Act and Six Assurances as the cornerstone of bilateral relations last month,” Tsai said.

Signed into law in 1979 following the switch of recognition from Taipei to Beijing by the U.S., the TRA authorizes the continuation of substantive relations between the people of the U.S. and the people on Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties between them.

In 1982, the Reagan administration issued the Six Assurances, stipulating that the U.S. would not set a date for termination of arms sales to Taiwan; alter the terms of the TRA; consult with mainland China in advance before making decisions about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan; mediate between Taiwan and mainland China; alter its position about the sovereignty of Taiwan and pressure Taiwan to enter into negotiations with mainland China; and formally recognize mainland Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Daily Telegraph
Date: June 7, 2016 1:25am
By: Kate Schneider

SURE, most of us have been there before: Your flight is delayed due to bad weather, you don’t know

when you’ll be able to take off and you’re stressed about missing out on your holiday entirely.

We get it, that is annoying, but it’s also out of anyone’s control bar mother nature.

Unfortunately, one traveller, only identified by his surname Yu, let his frustration get the better of him and had one of the worst reactions possible to such a common scenario.

The 27-year-old was one of 30,000 passengers dealing with flight delays in Taiwan due to storms and torrential rain that impacted the main airport of Taoyuan International Airport, Shanghaiist.com reports.

His Air China flight CA-186 to Beijing was originally scheduled to leave on Thursday, and come 10am on Friday he was so tired of waiting that he did something he no doubt later regretted; he told a cabin crew member that there was a bomb in his luggage.

How he thought that would expedite him onto a plane is anyone’s guess.     [SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/07
By: Liao Jen-kai and Lilian Wu

Taipei, June 7 (CNA) Prosecutors in Taichung on Tuesday indicted 28 people, including 11

Vietnamese laborers, for illegal logging in forests on national land.

The Taichung District Prosecutors Office said in the indictment that Wang Liang-tso (王良佐), a car dealer in Chiayi, colluded with a group of Vietnamese laborers headed by a man surnamed Nguyen to log illegally in national forests in Tahsueshan (大雪山) in Taichung and Fengshan (豐山) and Alishan (阿里山) in Chiayi County.

The Vietnamese nationals had all fled from the jobs they were contracted to do in Taiwan and were employed by Wang illegally.

The indictment said Wang provided his own vehicles or used taxis or trucks to transport Nguyen and others along with tools into mountain areas and then had the workers travel by foot deep into forests to get the wood.     [FULL  STORY]

If Taiwan is to retain a basic military training program, it should make sure the nation gets a proper return on the investment.

The News Lens
Date: June 6, 2016
By: J. Michael Cole

For years now the Taiwanese armed forces have sought to phase out conscription, an

increasingly unpopular citizen’s duty among young Taiwanese, and replace it with an all-volunteer military system. Blaming an inability to attract sufficient numbers of qualified soldiers, the government has repeatedly delayed full implementation and ended up adopting a “dual track” mix of conscripts and volunteers. By doing so it has ensured there are enough “boots on the ground,” but the current conscripts’ training program is an enormous waste of time and money. What’s even worse is that it does nothing to prepare young men and women for combat.

Countless young men who have completed their military service in recent years have emerged disillusioned with their training, which more often than not consisted of endless weeks spent in an office pushing paper. Many have also been used as cheap labor — often on as little as NT$10,000 (US$300) per month — acting as clerks, office workers, or helps for people with mental disabilities.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-06
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Local prosecutors Monday listed seven people after questioning as defendants for allegedly causing death by professional negligence in the investigation into Sunday’s river trekking accident in Pinglin District, New Taipei City that left five dead.

The Central Weather Bureau on Sunday issued a heavy rain warning for New Taipei City mountainous areas. But six members of a river trekking managing team, including three who claimed to be professional river trekking coaches and three personnel, still led a group of 18 people to go river trekking in the mountainous Pinglin area regardless of the weather alert.

Prosecutors questioned the group leader and the six members of the river trekking managing team as related parties to investigate whether they were responsible for the accident. All the seven people were released after questioning.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/06
By: Wang Chao-yu, Sunrise Huang, Yu Kai-hsiang and Kay Liu

Taipei, June 6 (CNA) A teenager who was among six people swept away in a flash flood during a

river tracing trip in New Taipei on Sunday survived the accident by clinging to piece of driftwood and she showed up at the home of a resident early Monday asking for help, police said.

Ho Yu-chieh (何妤婕), 15, arrived at the home of a man in the city’s Pinglin District in the early hours of Monday seeking help, and he called emergency services at 5:39 a.m., police said.

She was taken to hospital where the medical staff examined her and found only bruises but no serious injuries, police said.

Doctors at the hospital in Xindian District said Ho will be kept at the facility for further observation.     [FULL  STORY]