Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 23 December, 2020
By: Paula Chao

[Internet trends and viral memes that dominated 2020][/caption] There were 51 episodes of Hashtag Taiwan in 2020, each one describing a hot social media trend in Taiwan. Which ones are worth remembering? Leslie Liao has rounded them up and is bringing them to you in his first ever solo show!

Reuters
Date: Decemvber 23, 2020
By: Reuters Staff

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s tourism department on Wednesday cancelled an annual New Year celebration at the northeastern tip of the island, after a report of the first locally transmitted COVID-19 case since April 12.

The event, to watch the sun rise on the first day of the year, was due to take place in the coastal town of Fulong.

Other New Year’s Eve celebrations, including fireworks in Taipei, are still taking place, though with masks mandated for attendees.

Taiwan has so far reported a total of 777 cases – mostly imported – and seven deaths. Around 130 people remain in hospital for treatment.    [FULL  STORY]

'Evil Landlady' receives even heavier sentence after appealing lower court's ruling

 Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/23
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chang Shu-ching (張淑晶), who has been dubbed "Evil Landlady" by local media outlets for swindling numerous tenants over the years, has been sentenced by a high court to nine years and eight months in prison on Wednesday (Dec. 23) — an even heavier penalty than the previous one.

Chang, who was notorious for using leases to trap and blackmail tenants, was accused of repeatedly falsely accusing tenants or joint guarantors of fraud or embezzlement in 2014. After being exposed and sued by 78 victims, she was sentenced by a lower court to eight years in prison for 18 counts of false accusations, three counts of fraud, and one count of extortion.

She pleaded not guilty and appealed the case in a high court. However, on Wednesday morning, the court handed her the even heavier sentence of nine years and eight months, of which one year and two months can be commuted to fines, while the rest can be appealed, reported CNA.

Chang (51), was prosecuted in 2014 for renting five houses for low prices in New Taipei City's Zhonghe and Banqiao districts, using inferior materials to break the apartment into suites, and leasing them out for around NT$9,500 each.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/23/2020
By: Flor Wang and Chang Chih

Hualien, Dec. 23 (CNA) A Taiwanese-American woman who was last seen during a visit to Hualien County in eastern Taiwan one year ago with her husband still has not been found, county police said Wednesday.

When Alice Ku (古雅芳), 38, was reported missing in late 2019, an investigation was immediately launched, but one year later, she still has not been located, the police said.

The county police said the Criminal Investigation Bureau informed them in early February that Ku had not been seen since she went on a tour of Hualien with her 61-year-old Canadian husband in November last year.

Suspecting that Ku may have been killed, her family reported the matter to American and Taiwanese authorities and also posted a missing person's notice on social media, police said.    [FULL  STORY]

MATTER OF TRUST: An airline official said it might be understandable that people sometimes forget to wear a mask, but the pilot kept lying about his compliance

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 24, 2020
By: Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter

EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) yesterday dismissed a New Zealand pilot — national COVID-19 infection case No. 765 — as he failed to comply with the airline’s anti-virus measures and did not fully report his contact and activity history, it said in a statement.

EVA Air said that yesterday, its discipline committee teleconferenced with the man, who is in his 60s and hospitalized for treatment.

On Friday last week, the airline asked the pilot whether he had complied with its anti-virus measures, such as wearing a mask during a Dec. 12 flight to the US, after a Taiwanese in her 30s, a copilot on the flight, said that she had contracted COVID-19 and that the pilot had not worn a mask.

The man at the time refuted the accusation, EVA Air said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 22 December, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

The foreign ministry on Monday said there is no timeline yet for changing the name of Taiwan’s representative office in Washington to “Taiwan Representative Office”. The ministry confirmed though that it has held talks with members of the US Congress on the issue./

The ministry’s comments came after 78 members of the US Congress wrote to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week to ask that Taiwan’s office name be changed to specifically include the word “Taiwan”. Currently, it is known as the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office”.

When asked about the name change, Deputy Foreign Minister Harry Tseng confirmed that his office has been communicating with the US, but said that the issue is sensitive and the timing must be right.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 22 December, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Premier Su Tseng-chang is calling on ruling DPP lawmakers to support the government’s decision to lift the ban on US pork imports, which will take effect in January. Su was speaking Tuesday.

In August, President Tsai Ing-wen issued an executive order, lifting restrictions on US meat containing the leanness-enhancing ractopamine. The government said the chemical does not pose a health hazard if levels are within international standards, but critics argued that ractopamine is not safe for human consumption.   [FULL  STORY

.We focus on the human and development impacts of climate change

Reuters
Date: 22 December 2020
By: Sally Jensen | Thomson Reuters FoundationShare:

TAIPEI, Dec 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Typhoon Morakot hit indigenous villages in Taiwan's mountains 11 years ago, former army officer Chen Cheng-nan was stunned at the devastation.

"The mountain forest landscape changed overnight. In a blink of an eye, the forested river valleys went bare. It was a terrible sight. The dike broke and Qishan town was completely swept away," he remembered.

But as global temperatures rise due to planet-warming emissions, something odd is happening in Taiwan: devastating typhoons appear to be gradually disappearing.

The self-ruled western Pacific island, claimed by Beijing as Chinese territory, has historically seen three or four typhoons a year, but since 2010 the number making landfall has fallen to 2.5 a year on average.    [FULL  STORY]

American man leaves his life behind in US to fight for custody of daughter in Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/22
By: Keoni Everington

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A U.S. citizen has left his job and flown to Taiwan to try and gain custody of his daughter after his Taiwanese wife allegedly "abducted" her twice and has refused to allow him to see the child in over a year and a half.

Ariel Azoulay, 38, was born in Ashkelon Israel, but his family moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina when he was one and a half years old. At the age of 16, his family immigrated to the U.S., where he has lived since, becoming a naturalized citizen in 2010 at the age of 27.

Cross-cultural couple

Having recently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for work as a senior software engineer, Azoulay met his future spouse surnamed Hsu on a dating app. Hsu, now 32, had been living in the U.S. for over five years prior to meeting Azoulay, and she studied at the Academy of Art Institute in San Francisco, CA.

Their relationship developed rather quickly, and in October 2014, the couple began living together in the city of San Mateo, California. On September 12, 2015, Azoulay proposed marriage to Hsu.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/22/2020
By: Chen Wei-ting, Chen Yi-hsuan, Hou Wen-ting, Chang Ming-hsuan and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, Dec. 22 (CNA) New Year's Eve festivities across Taiwan will proceed as scheduled, despite a report on Tuesday of the country's first domestic COVID-19 case since April 12, because the source of infection has already been determined, according to Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中).

The decision was made at an emergency meeting of representatives from the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and central and local governments late Tuesday, with the aim of assessing whether to scale down or cancel the upcoming festivities in the wake of the newly confirmed domestic case.

On Tuesday, a local contact of a pilot from New Zealand who was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Sunday tested positive for the virus, the first domestic case reported in Taiwan in 253 days, according to the CECC.

Speaking at a press conference, Chen, who is also the CECC head, said that while the planned celebrations will take place as usual, event organizers will be required to provide sufficient hand sanitizers at venues and increase the frequency of disinfecting venue restrooms.    [FULL  STORY]