Taiwanese girl loses two toes after Crocs sandal catches in mall escalator

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/27
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese girl on Friday (June 26) got her Crocs sandal caught in an escalator at iFG Farglory Square in Xizhi District, New Taipei, and lost two toes.

According to the New Taipei Fire Department, the 5-year-old, surnamed Pan (潘), was shopping with her family on the second day of the Dragon Boat Festival holidays when her right foot was trapped in the escalator, which severed two of her toes. Authorities said the girl was taken to the Tri-Service General Hospital for emergency surgery.

In response to the bloody accident, Farglory Group spokesperson Jacky Yang (楊舜欽) expressed condolences to the girl and her family, promising the company would assist them with follow-up treatments. He said the cause of the unfortunate incident appeared to be the girl's footwear and advised passengers not to wear soft-soled clogs and sandals that could result in entrapment, reported Liberty Times.

The fire department found the mall's escalators were all safety certified, but said a re-inspection would be carried out.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 06/27/2020
By: Sabine Cheng and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, June 27 (CNA) The non-profit Taiwan FactCheck Center received a global fact-checking award Friday for debunking a video that falsely claimed to show vote rigging taking place during Taiwan's national elections in January.

The fact-check won the "Best correction achieved" award in the annual Global Fact Awards program, which is hosted by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies' International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

In the award citation, the IFCN noted that some in Taiwan feared China would try to interfere in the elections, and credited Taiwan FactCheck Center for its quick work to debunk the vote rigging claim on election night.

Fact-checkers reviewed the video, which "supposedly showed a man messing with a tallying system, and discovered he was simply tallying the votes being read out by a woman off screen," the citation said.    [FULL  STORY]

COUNCILS CLASH: The Mainland Affairs Council said a new office in Hong Kong is to assist people with issues related to investment, study and employment in Taiwan

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 28, 2020
By: Chung Li-hua and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday denied an accusation by the Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co-operation and Promotion Council that its Taiwanese counterpart in the territory was “interfering with Hong Kong’s internal affairs.”

The Hong Kong council leveled the accusation after Taipei’s Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council this month announced it would establish a Taiwan-Hong Kong Services and Exchanges Office in the territory to facilitate humanitarian aid for Hong Kongers.

The new office is scheduled to begin operations on Wednesday.

The MAC yesterday asked the Hong Kong council to “not misinterpret” the government’s intentions.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 26 June, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

The Taiwan Power Company says that an annular solar eclipse that took place June 21 reduced the country’s solar energy output by 1.69 gigawatts. During the eclipse, the moon blocked out 99% of the sun in certain parts of Taiwan, while in other areas, the sun's visibility dipped by 95%. 

The power company says that weather conditions were cloudy on the day of the eclipse, contributing to the drop in output. It says that solar energy output sat at around 1.73 gigawatts right before the eclipse began before dropping to a mere 42 megawatts during the peak of the eclipse. 

The company says this gap is equivalent to twice the output of the Tunghsiao Power Plants — Taiwan’s second largest gas-fired plants.    [SOURCE]

Global Times
Date: 2020/6/26
By: Liu Xuanzun

For the eighth time in June, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) reportedly sent military aircraft to Taiwan's southwestern "airspace" on Friday. Chinese mainland military experts said the regular exercises are beginning to show strategic significance, as they are not only aimed at intercepting US military aircraft flying through the area or sending messages to Taiwan secessionists, but also serve as practical trainings, with the aim of gathering military information from Taiwan, and suppressing potential US and Japanese reinforcements coming from the Miyako Strait and Bashi Channel.

The PLA military aircraft were spotted entering Taiwan island's southwestern "airspace" on Friday, Taiwan media reported on the same day, citing a statement by a spokesperson of the island's defense authority. It did not specify the type of PLA aircraft.

Taiwan's media outlets also noted that shortly before the PLA's excursion, the US military sent an EP-3E signals reconnaissance aircraft to the same area, which made its way through the Bashi Channel, before heading toward the South China Sea "in search of PLA submarines."

Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Friday that the PLA aircraft likely took its specific route to track and intercept the US warplane.    [FULL  STORY]

Suggestion for August participation in Rim of the Pacific military exercises from committee of US Senate

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Friday (June 26) the proposal from a committee of the United States Senate to invite Taiwan to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises showed Washington valued the island nation’s positive role in maintaining regional peace and stability.

The suggestion for an invitation was included in a version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), presented by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday (June 23). The full Senate still needs to vote on the package.

The 27th edition of RIMPAC is scheduled for late August, with 20 countries expected to participate, but not China, CNA reported. If Taiwan was invited, it would be the first time the island’s Navy would be allowed to take part in such a large-scale U.S.-led event.

MOFA thanked both the Senate and the House of Representatives for the attention they paid to Taiwan’s security and stability through the NDAA. Recent versions of the act included measures to deepen cooperation and exchanges between the military of both countries, according to MOFA.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 06/26/2020
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, June 26 (CNA) Taiwan received a top-tier ranking for the 11th consecutive year in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report released by the U.S. State Department on Thursday.

Taiwan was listed in the Tier 1 category because its authorities "fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking," according to the report.

In the past year, Taiwan has continued to implement policy initiatives to streamline investigations; continued oversight of vulnerable labor recruitment channels; and increased inspections and investigatory referrals of potential forced labor cases on fishing vessels, the report said.

The report said, however, that "disparate and ineffective victim identification procedures" have complicated some victims' access to justice and protection care.    [FULL  STORY]

EXTRADITION DEAL? A former prosecutor said that the US Department of Justice might ask Taiwan to extradite the men in return for the US doing something in return

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 27, 2020
By: Bloomberg

The US won arrest warrants for three Taiwanese men — a former president of China-based Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co (福建晉華) and two engineers — charged with stealing secrets from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc.

The effort to apprehend the three men — former Fujian Jinhua president Stephen Chen (陳正坤), and Ho Chien-ting (何建廷) and Wang Yong-ming (王永銘), who work for Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) — is notable because they were charged in 2018 in the first case filed under the “China initiative” of US President Donald Trump’s administration targeting trade-secret theft, hacking and economic espionage.

However, legal experts have said there is little motivation for the three to appear in a US court, although they said that Taipei and Washington might reach an agreement to extradite them from Taiwan.

A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco issued the warrants on Wednesday after the three men failed to show up for their arraignments.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2020/06/25
By: TJ Ting

This Dragon Boat Festival, we must remember not to conflate a cultural tradition with a nation, country, or government.

When Dragon Boat Festival has come around in recent years, it has been accompanied by the idea, popular in some circles in Taiwan, that we shouldn’t celebrate “Chinese” holidays. 

But if you ever try to prod into the reasons why celebrating Chinese holidays is controversial, you are often met with responses like, “It’s our right to celebrate what we want.” 

But this doesn’t address the heart of the matter. How should we approach the vestiges of Chinese culture in Taiwan?    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwasn International
Date: 25 June, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The Dragon Boat Festival is known for a number of seasonal traditions that are attached to it. There are the dragon boat races, of course, and there’s also the custom of eating zongzi, or steamed rice balls.

But there are also some Dragon Boat Festival customs that get less press overseas, like the custom of lucky “noontime water”.

According to tradition, the period from 11:00am to 1:00pm on Thursday was a magical time. That’s because Thursday was the Dragon Boat Festival, a time of year when positive, yang energy fills the air. And at noontime on this day, this energy reaches a peak.

Water drawn from wells during these two, brief hours is supposed to be infused with the potent, invisible energy.

Now, wells are a bit hard to come by in today’s Taiwan, but there’s at least one place where this “noontime water” is still drawn up in buckets. It’s a 300-year-old well in Yunlin County that’s only opened up on the Dragon Boat Festival for the purpose of distributing lucky water.
[FULL  STORY]