Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-29
By:0 Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Legislative Yuan on Friday approved a motion calling on the Ministry of Education to drop controversial textbook changes, leading to a protest by the Kuomintang.

For over a year, debate has been simmering about revisions to high-school texts seen as being too pro-Chinese and too vague about the role of Taiwan’s democracy movement. Last summer, hundreds of students stormed the MOE building and one of the protesters even committed suicide.

A total of 71 out of 113 lawmakers approved the proposal by Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Cheng Li-chiun, the woman who is scheduled to take over as minister of culture on May 20. Only 15 voted against the measure and one abstained.

The proposal already came up for review at the Legislative Yuan on March 29, but the KMT demanded it be handed over for negotiation, a process which in effect takes it off the agenda for a month.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/29
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, April 29 (CNA) The Persons with HIV/AIDS Rights Advocacy Association of Taiwan (PRAATW) and other civic groups spoke up for the educational rights for HIV-positive students in Taipei on Friday as an appeal for reinstatement by an expelled student heads to court.

They were highlighting the case of a former student at National Defense University, called Ah Li, who was forced out of school after being found HIV-positive in a health test in early 2012.

The hospital that conducted the exam passed the result to the university without Ah Li’s consent, and the school subsequently held frequent conversations with him, trying to get him to drop out.

The school also required him to wash his bowl, plate and eating utensils separately and barred him from swimming in the swimming pool.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 29, 2016

Taiwan and mainland China recently recognized for the first time the results of clinical drug

A researcher at a Taiwan biotech company conducts a test on a new locally developed drug. (Staff Photo/Huang Chung-hsin)

tests conducted by four hospitals on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, paving the way for local pharmaceutical firms to further tap the growing mainland Chinese market.

The four Taiwan facilities are Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou District, New Taipei City, and National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and Tri-Service General Hospital, all in Taipei City, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

This breakthrough eliminates the need to conduct another set of clinical trials in mainland China, cutting considerable time off the approval process for drug-makers developing new products. It is an important part of maximizing a pharmaceutical’s profitability before the removal of patent protection.

The development was made possible by the Cross-Strait Cooperation Agreement on Medicine and Public Health Affairs concluded in December 2010 by Taiwan and mainland China. Under the pact, the two sides agreed four years later to mutually recognize clinical data so as to avoid duplicating trials.     [FULL  STORY]

STICKABILITY MOCKED:DPP lawmakers said that the new opposition should learn from their efforts to tie up the podium and stay for three days, not just an hour

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 30, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday occupied the legislative speaker’s

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Yi-ying, front, second left, tears a placard as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators occupy the podium of Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan, second row, fourth left, during a floor vote in the legislature in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

podium for the first time in history, as the opposition protested the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus’ putting a motion to vote without conducting cross-caucus negotiations.

Lawmakers argued with each other, with the legislature descending into disorder over a motion to require the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Education to retract social studies and Chinese-language high-school curriculum guidelines that were controversially announced in February 2014.

The motion — launched by DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) — asked the legislature to decide whether to retract the guidelines promulgated by the ministry in 2014, which it said came about “through a process that breached the principles of transparency, professionalism and bottom-up social participation, and with adjusted content that defied facts and whitewashed the era of authoritarian rule.”

The motion was removed from the agenda last month, pending a cross-caucus negotiation and as the one-month negotiation period ended yesterday, the motion was put to a floor discussion to be followed by a vote.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/28
By: Worthy Shen and Kay Liu

Taipei, April 28 (CNA) Six Hong Kong tourists riding heavy motorcycles who

The heavy motorbikes towed back to the police bureau.

were following a navigation system were stopped Thursday by police on the National Freeway No.5, where motorbikes are not allowed.

The National Highway Police Bureau said that it received a call about motorcycles traveling northbound on the freeway between the northeastern county of Yilan and Taipei, which is not open to motorcycles, Thursday afternoon.

The bikers, who have been on a road trip around Taiwan, said they followed Google’s navigation system on their handsets and took the freeway from its start at the Su’ao interchange in Yilan, but did not notice the sign that says the freeway is only for cars.

The travelers from Hong Kong were on the third day of a five-day trip, they said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 28, 2016

Legislators from Taiwan’s ruling and opposition parties are promoting interparliamentary diplomacy with their counterparts around the world as evidenced by the establishment of over 40 international friendship groups in the Legislative Yuan.

This approach has reached a new level following the commencement of the ninth Legislative Yuan in February. The past two months saw a flurry of tie-ups between Taiwan’s highest lawmaking body and those in Canada, India, Japan, South Korea, as well as Australasia and Latin American countries.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling, chairwoman of the newly founded Taiwan-India Parliamentary Friendship Association, said her group plays a substantive role in complementing the diplomatic efforts of the government.     [FULL  STORY]

VIEW FROM TOKYO:Foreign minister Fumio Kishida told a news conference that his government does not accept Taiwan’s stance that Okinotori is not an island

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 29, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter, with CNA

Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) is to summon Japan’s

President Ma Ying-jeou speaks at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA

representative to Taiwan today to protest against Tokyo’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing boat in waters near the Okinotori atoll on Monday.

“It is the ministry’s duty to do everything in its power to negotiate with Japan and lodge a protest against the incident,” Association for East Asian Relations Secretary-General Peter Tsai (蔡明耀) told a morning news conference at the ministry in Taipei.

Tsai said Representative to Japan Shen Ssu-tsun (沈斯淳) was scheduled to meet with Interchange Association, Japan President Tadashi Imai at 4pm yesterday to hand over the government’s formal complaint about the seizure of the Tung Sheng Chi No. 16, while Lin would meet this morning with Japanese Representative to Taiwan Mikio Numata.

However, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida told a news conference in Tokyo that his government does not accept Taiwan’s stance that Okinotori is not an island.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/04/27
Compiled and translated by Bing-sheng Lee

A student at the National Defense University was expelled from the school after he was found

AIDS

diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The Center for Disease Control (CDC) filed an administrative litigation against the school for the student, but the court ruled against CDC . The CDC says it would appeal against the ruling.

The student was diagnosed with AIDS fours years ago. Upon learning about the student’s condition, the school prohibited him from taking swimming classes and required that his food, plates and clothes must be washed separately from those of other students.

Each week, school officials would ask him to take a leave of absence because “he was feeling bad both physically and mentally,” and asked him to drop out of school because “his classmates thought he was weird.” In the end, the school even threatened the student that it would notify his family of his condition if he didn’t drop out.

When the student was about to graduate, the school expelled him after accusing him of having a disobedient attitude and being disrespectful to teachers. The student then went to the Persons with HIV/AIDS Rights Advocacy Association of Taiwan (PRAA) and CDC for help.

Lin Yi-hui, secretary-general of PRAA, says the student learned about his condition from the results of the annual health examination at the school. She thinks the school’s obsolete attitude towards AIDS and the improper measures it took to address the issue has hurt the student.     [FULL  STORY]