Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-27
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former Premier Frank Hsieh confirmed his posting as Taiwan’s representative to Japan by the next government, according to an interview published in the Japanese media Wednesday.

He accepted an invitation by President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, who valued relations with Tokyo, he told Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun in an interview.

Hsieh said it would mean saying goodbye to almost 30 years of membership of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Central Standing Committee. Apart from premier, Hsieh has also served as mayor of Kaohsiung City, legislator and Taipei City councilor. He ran for vice president in 1996, at the first-ever direct presidential election, and for president in 2008 but lost both times.

He told Taiwanese reporters that he had admitted his appointment to Japanese media because they also had ways of obtaining information and because he wanted to start his relationship with them on a positive footing.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/27
By: S.C. Chang

Taipei, April 27 (CNA) A magnitude-5.6 earthquake hit eastern Taiwan at 11:17 p.m. Wednesday, with Yilan area to the north of Hualien registering an intensity of five. No injuries were immediately reported.

The quake’s epicenter was in the sea 34.9 km northeast of Hualien County government building at a depth of 10 km.      [SOURCE]

CONTESTED WATERS:Fishermen protested outside the Japanese representative office in Taipei over the seizure of a Taiwanese fishing boat and demanded an apology

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 28, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter, with CNA

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday vowed to safeguard the fishing rights of Taiwanese

fishermen in international waters and denied Japan’s claim that the Okinotori atoll is an island.
The Presidential Office issued a statement saying that Ma made the pledge during a high-level national security meeting attended by Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Premier Simon Chang (張善政) and top officials from the ministries of foreign affairs and national defense, the Coast Guard Administration and the Council of Agriculture.
The meeting was called to discuss countermeasures to the Japanese Coast Guard’s confiscation of the Taiwanese fishing boat, Tung Sheng Chi No. 16, about 150 nautical miles (277.8km) east-southeast of the Okinotori atoll on Monday and its demand for a ￥6 million (US$54,240) “security deposit,” the office said.
The boat was released, along with its Taiwanese captain and nine Chinese and Indonesian crew members, on Tuesday afternoon after its owner, Pan Chung-chiu (潘忠秋) — the father of its captain, met Tokyo’s demand.
During the meeting, Ma announced the government’s three-part stance on the incident, the office said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-27
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A Legislative Yuan committee on Wednesday approved a motion demanding the immediate resignation of beleaguered Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey.

The top academic has been facing growing pressure about his alleged involvement in the sale of shares in biotechnology company OBI Pharma Inc. just before the publication of negative news by the enterprise.

Wong applied for 28 days of leave from the Presidential Office to allow him to prepare his defense against insider trading and breach of trust allegations, but his request was turned down on Tuesday.

After questioning Wong for the second time, the Legislature’s Education and Culture Committee passed several relevant motions.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/27
By: Yu Kai-hsiang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 27 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court upheld Wednesday a ruling by a lower court that

sentenced a former Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer last year to four years in prison for violation of the National Security Act.

In September 2015, the Taipei District Court ruled Zhen Xiaojiang (鎮小江), a retired PLA captain, guilty of setting up a spy ring in Taiwan.

Zhen, based in Xiamen, China, was found to have traveled to Taiwan frequently after he acquired Hong Kong residency in 2005.

Traveling on a tourist visa, Zhen managed to set up the spy ring by recruiting retired and active Taiwanese military officers to collect secret military intelligence, according to the district court.

Retired Taiwan Army     [FULL  STORY]

Tuoitre News
Date: 04/26/2016
By: AFP

HANOI – Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa was under attack in Vietnam’s state media Monday

over allegations of industrial pollution leaching from a multi-billion dollar steel mill that may have caused mysterious mass fish deaths.

Tonnes of dead fish, including rare species which live far offshore and in the deep, have been washing up on beaches along the country’s central coast, causing public alarm and hitting local fishermen.

State media coverage has focused on a 1.5 kilometre (one mile) waste water pipeline which runs directly from Formosa’s multi-billion dollar steel plant in Ha Tinh into the ocean.
The Taiwanese company this week said local communities needed to consider whether they valued marine life or foreign investment in the area more.

“You cannot have both,” Chou Chun Fan, Formosa Ha Tinh’s external relations manager told state-run VTC14 television channel, speaking in Vietnamese.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/26
By: Timothy Huang and Elaine Hou

New York, April 25 (CNA) A U.S. scholar said in a magazine article Monday that the next U.S. government, in its dealings with China, should not ignore the Taiwan issue as it is “not a small matter.”

After falling off the American radar screen over the eight years that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his Kuomintang (KMT) administration have been in power, “Taiwan is quickly edging its way back on,” said Elizabeth Economy, director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank.

The next U.S. administration needs to keep its eye on the final objective, which is that cross-Taiwan Strait “differences be resolved peacefully and according to the wishes of the people on both sides of the strait,” she wrote in the April 25 edition of Forbes magazine.

“This means we don’t help stir the pot on Taiwan and we don’t sell-out Taiwan for some ephemeral grand bargain with Beijing,” she said. “Taiwan may be small but it is not a small matter.”

At stake is not only Washington’s relationship with Beijing but also American values and principles, “which are exemplified by Taiwan’s vibrant and determined democracy,” said Economy, who is an expert on U.S.-China relations.     [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: Apr 26, 2016
By: Fabian Hamacher; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Kevin Liffey

Archaeologists in Taiwan have found a 4,800-year-old human fossil of a mother holding an

infant child in her arms, museum officials said on Tuesday.

The 48 sets of remains unearthed in graves in the Taichung area are the earliest trace of human activity found in central Taiwan. The most striking discovery among them was the skeleton of a young mother looking down at a child cradled in her arms.

“When it was unearthed, all of the archaeologists and staff members were shocked. Why? Because the mother was looking down at the baby in her hands,” said Chu Whei-lee, a curator in the Anthropology Department at Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science.

The excavation of the site began in May 2014 and took a year to complete. Carbon dating was used to determine the ages of the fossils, which included five children.     [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date 2016-04-26
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Penghu County Government reiterated on Tuesday that entering the ‘Blue Cave’ on Xiji Islet in the South Penghu Marine National Park is subject to heavy fines after word spread that yachts have sailed close to the cave entrance for tourists to engage in snorkeling activities.

Xiji is a small, uninhabited island in a remote part of the archipelago chain of Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait.

The Blue Cave, located in the Penghu South Sea Basalt Nature Reserve, is fast becoming a tourist draw after photographs taken around the Blue Cave went viral on the Internet.

The county government said news has spread that some tourists visiting the Blue Cave were trapped in an area with rapid currents and later safely rescued last year.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date 2016/04/26
Translated and compiled by Yuan-ling Liang

On April 25, the Taipei City’s Department of Labor issued the latest list of companies that have violated the Labor Standards Act. Industries such transportation, medical care, finance, catering and media are all on the list. Well known companies including MUJI, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, Michael Kors, Edwin and Net are among those named.

Since January, four lists of companies and organizations that violate the Labor Standards Act have been announced. Liberty Times reports, most of the violators, including 48 companies, have been fined for not giving extra payment to their employees even when they extend their working hours. Thirty four companies were fined for not letting employees rest on weekends while 30 of them make workers work overtime.

According to another survey conducted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the Ministry of Labor, in 2015, 337 companies violated the regulations, including McDonald’s and the Formosa Fun Coast, where the water park powder explosion accident took place.

Disadvantaged groups are more likely to be exploited by their employers and usually do not complain, OSHA says.     [FULL  STORY]