The News Lense
Date: 2016/02/24
By: Translated and compiled by Bing-sheng Lee

Taiwanese students have won ten prizes among 33 awards in the iF Public Value Student Awards, which recognizes innovative projects and ideas devoted to the service of public interests, including improving living conditions and offering solutions to pressing issues. On February 23, the students were officially honored at the awards ceremony in Munich.

The competition, held for the first time this year, was organized by iF International Forum Design, a Germany-based organization providing design-related services and holding international design contest exhibitions.

Signal light system wins first prize

“Signal Light,” a project designed by students from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won the first prize and a prize money of EU$2500 (approximately US$2,750). The project is a system that indicates the capacity level of each train car, allowing passengers to follow the light and form a line in front of cars that still have room for more passengers.     [FULL  STORY]

 

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-24
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Executive Yuan on Wednesday decided to relax qualifications for subsidized inspections of old residential buildings to include buildings built before the 921 earthquake in 1999, making the number of qualified buildings reach 600,000.

The decision was made amid public concern over the safety of old buildings following the Feb. 6 earthquake that left 117 people dead and hundreds of homes damaged in southern Taiwan.

According to the original plan, subsidized inspections are to be provided to residential buildings that gained building permits before May 1, 1997; but the Executive Yuan decided to include residential buildings built before the 921 earthquake in 1999, Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun said.

As a result, the number of qualified residential buildings will go up from 520,000 units to 600,000 units, Sun added.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/24
By: Chen Wei-ting and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) Taiwanese people used a record-high 339 million

sleeping pills in 2014, up 12 million pills from the previous year, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

The three most commonly used drugs to treat insomnia in 2014 were Zolpidem (137.09 million pills), Estazolam (86.08 million pills) and Zopiclone (28.74 million pills), based on the latest data.

To prevent people in Taiwan from becoming addicted to sleeping pills, the FDA began an annual auditing program on sleeping pill use in 2011, and it showed that use of Zolpidem dropped in 2014 from 161.04 million pills in 2011.

But use of Brotizolam and Zopiclone have been on the rise.     [FULL  STORY]

TALKING TOUGH:Admiral Harry Harris said China’s missiles, radar installations, runways and jets are ‘changing the operational landscape in the South China Sea’

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 25, 2016
By: William Lowther / Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

As China deploys fighter jets, missiles and radars across the South China Sea, the US is to continue supporting Taiwan’s security, a top US admiral told the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

“I believe China seeks hegemony in East Asia,” said Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command.

Emphasizing that China is militarizing the South China Sea, he said: “You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to think otherwise.”

In a survey of US relationships in the region, Harris said that free and fair democratic elections in Taiwan reflected “shared values” with the US.

“We continue supporting Taiwan’s security. Continued arms sales to Taiwan are an important part of that policy and help ensure the preservation of democratic government institutions,” he said.     [FULL  STORY]

The Australian
Date: January 24, 2016 T
By: Jared Owens

New Trade Minister Steven Ciobo plans to pursue a bilateral trade deal with

Taiwan, even though Australia does not have official diplomatic relations with the Chinese island.

Mr Ciobo, who last week succeeded Andrew Robb, said overnight that he came to the job with “a number of pokers in the fire” on top of ongoing talks with India, Indonesia and Arab monarchies on the Persian Gulf.

“I am turning my mind towards whether we can do something with Taiwan and separately potentially something with Hong Kong,” he told CNBC in New York.

Australia recognised communist China as the sole legal representative of China in 1972 and therefore no longer accepts Taiwan as a sovereign national government.

Although Australia and Taiwan do not have official diplomatic relations, the Australian government says it strongly supports the development, on an unofficial basis, of two-way economic and cultural contacts.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lense
Date: 2016/02/23
Compiled and translated by Yuan-ling Liang

On February 19, Hank Zuber (Henry Zuber III), representative in the

Mississippi House (District 113), posted on his Facebook page that he received a warning letter from the Chinese government. Though the post has already been removed from Zuber’s page, screenshots were captured by Taiwanese media and have aroused discussion.

In the letter, Consulate General of People’s Republic of China in Houston advocates that, “Taiwan is an unreliable part of China,” and that “the US Government adheres to the One-China policy, does not support so-called ‘Taiwan independence.”

It also mentions the latest election result in Taiwan, which DPP takes advantage, may “bring many uncertainty to the development of cross-strait relations and pose serious challenge to peace and stability of the Taiwan Straits.”

The Chinese government clarifies at the end of the letter that they don’t expect Zuber or other representatives to attend any inaugural ceremonies or correspondence with president-elect Tsai. Adoption of resolutions in the legislative assembly and official exchanges between US and Taiwan are also not welcomed.

According to Zuber’s post, he “coauthors supporting resolutions and meets the visiting Taiwanese Delegation annually.” Zuber emphasizes that, “every man has the God given right to live under the freedoms of religion/speech regardless of national region, etc. Conflict is not intended nor desired,” and China should be engaged to ensure these freedoms for Taiwanese, even for Chinese people someday.

The post was removed within 48 hours.     [FULL  STORY]

NewsDay
Date: February 23, 2016
By: The Associated Press

Building and designing a new house of your own may seem like a topsy-turvy

experience. For a group of architects in Taiwan, it certainly was.

On commission from Taiwan’s Culture Department, they designed and built an ordinary American family house. The colorful home has three floors, a master bedroom and bath and a garage. And the house and everything inside it — from the car to the appliances to the toys on the floor — are upside down.

It has just over 3,229 square feet of ceiling, er … make that floor, space. The car in the garage is attached to the ceiling. An outdoor staircase at ground level leads to the third-floor living room and its ceiling furniture. Its appliances are real, with working lights throughout. The overhead fireplace, though, was an LCD screen of a cozy fire.

The designers paid close attention to details: the pasta on the dinner table hangs vertically as do the bathroom towels, and a computer in the study has yellow sticky notes attached to it.     [FULL  STORY]