Government

Control Yuan impeaches Tainan mayor

Lai blasts decision as unacceptable

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-04
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Control Yuan on Tuesday voted to impeach Tainan City

Control Yuan impeaches Tainan mayor. Central News Agency (2015-08-04 18:06:43)

Control Yuan impeaches Tainan mayor. Central News Agency (2015-08-04 18:06:43)

Mayor William Lai over his refusal to attend city council meetings.

After Kuomintang City Councilor Lee Chuan-chiao was unexpectedly elected council speaker last December 25, allegations of vote-buying emerged, leading Lai to decide to boycott all council meetings, including question-and-answer sessions for the mayor and other city government officials.

KMT councilors accused Lai of violating basic democratic principles and took the case to the Control Yuan, the nation’s top government watchdog.

Lai said Tuesday he found it impossible to accept the Control Yuan ruling, labeling it as an illegal expansion of power and as an attempt by the central government to attack local government autonomy.     [FULL  STORY]

Lee Yuan-tseh slams MOE

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Lee Yuan-tseh slams MOE. Central News Agency (2015-08-01 18:03:51)

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-01
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Nobel Prize laureate Lee Yuan-tseh on Saturday added his voice to the chorus calling for the withdrawal of government-sponsored high-school curriculum changes.

Students have been protesting outside the Ministry of Education as they see the school program as too China-centric.

Lee condemned the way students who had intruded into the ministry on July 23 had been treated by police. “It looks like there is so much hate, that students even had to be handcuffed,” the former Academia Sinica president reportedly told the media Saturday.     [FULL  STORY]

Lawmakers may meet next week to decide on extra session

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/31
By: Y.C. Tai and Flor Wang

Taipei, July 31 (CNA) A coordination meeting among lawmakers from across party lines has 23402811been set for Aug. 4 to decide whether an extra legislative session should be held to discuss controversial curriculum revisions to senior high school textbooks by the Education Ministry, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) announced Friday.

Wang made the announcement even though lawmakers of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and opposition parties failed to reach consensus on holding an extra session during a two-hour round of cross-party negotiations that was also attended by Education Minister We Se-hua (吳思華).

Wang expressed hope that the implementation of curriculum changes set for Aug. 1 could be held off and added he has asked the executive branch to rethink his proposal.     [FULL  STORY]

MAC warns of H5N6 human infection fear in China’s Yunnan Province

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-07-15
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) issued a level-2 travel alert for China’s Yunnan Province Wednesday after the southwestern province reported a human infection of H5N6 avian flu. The 37-year-old woman died July 10 after developing H5N6 symptoms July 6, according to Chinese health officials. Travelers to the area should stay alert and pay attention to their personal hygiene, the MAC said as it raised its travel alert for Yunnan on its three-level scale. Other cities and provinces in China remain at the level-one alert, it said. The council uses a three-tier warning system, with level 3 the most severe, meaning that people are advised against traveling to the destination.     [FULL  STORY]

EPA touts air sampling vehicles

THE LATEST THING:The EPA has new equipment to monitor and sample air quality that provide fast results that are also more comprehensive than current technologies

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 16, 2015
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) debuted an upgraded version of its

An Environmental Protection Administration official in Penghu on June 22 holds up a portable spectrometer for detecting air pollutants. Photo: Sean Lin, Taipei Times

An Environmental Protection Administration official in Penghu on June 22 holds up a portable spectrometer for detecting air pollutants. Photo: Sean Lin, Taipei Times

environmental survey vehicle and its high-altitude air sampling technology on the outlying islands of Penghu County.

EPA Environmental Analysis Laboratory Acting Director Yen Chun-lan (顏春蘭) said the vehicle, donated by Delta Electronics last year, uses a soft chemical ionization proton transfer reaction time-of-flight spectrometer, which can monitor more than 300 gaseous pollutants that have the ability to bind with oxonium ions using.

The pollutants include volatile organic compounds, inorganic gases and a range of odorous substances, which make up the majority of gaseous pollutants, she said.

The vehicle also boasts quick sample analysis — capable of yielding results in less than 10 minutes — and can detect pollutants with concentrations as low as 0.01 parts per billion, Yen said.     [FULL  STORY]

TOCFL pre-test will be held on July 18

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-06-23
By: Jocylin FC, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL) is a standardized test 6684838developed for non-native speakers of Chinese. It is designed to measure test takers’ listening and reading abilities. TOCFL is designed by Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency- Huayu (SC-TOP) and directed by the Ministry of Education.

SC-TOP has launched the TOCFL Speaking exam in 2011. Since then, SC-TOP has held Basic, Intermediate and Advanced level tests. On July 18, 2015, SC-TOP will hold the Band C Fluent level examination for the first time.

TOCFL Speaking is a communication-oriented test which assesses Chinese learners’ non-academic speaking ability. There are 3 sections. The first section is stating opinions, the second section is role playing and responding to viewpoints and the third section is summarizing articles and expounding viewpoints. The test materials are based on authentic situations which are close to everyday life. The purpose of the test is to evaluate test takers’ ability to effectively express themselves by speaking in assorted situations.     [FULL  STORY]

Constitution bills set for plenary review

NO CONSENSUS:Lawmakers failed to agree on major issues, including whether the proposed constitutional changes should be passed as one bill or voted on individually

Taipei Times
Date:  Jun 09, 2015
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

The legislature’s Constitution Amendment Committee yesterday resolved to take several high-profile bills, including proposals to lower the legal voting age and the threshold for parties to secure legislator-at-large seats, as well as those on reinstating the legislature’s right to vote on a premier and introduce absentee voting, to a plenary session for discussion.

Legislators agreed that the proposals, previously bound together in a package by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), would be discussed individually at the plenary session.

With yesterday being the deadline for reviewing the bills, the decision was made after legislators from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the KMT failed to reach a consensus on the majority of issues discussed during the current legislative session.

KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said the KMT supports implementing absentee voting so that people working far from home would not have to travel to vote.

Referring to a bill on lowering the legal voting age, from 20 to 18, Wang said that the two bills should be passed in tandem, as both aim to boost civic participation.     [FULL  STORY]

FEATURE: Interpreter brings Taipei meetings to wider audience

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 09, 2015
By: Tsai Ya-hua and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

At each news conference held by the Taipei City Government and during Taipei Mayor Ko

Ting Li-fen, right, a sign-language interpreter for the Taipei City Government, signs a speech by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je in Taipei on March 10. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

Ting Li-fen, right, a sign-language interpreter for the Taipei City Government, signs a speech by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je in Taipei on March 10. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

Wen-je’s (柯文哲) City Hall meetings with city councilors, sign-language interpreter Ting Li-fen (丁立芬) brings news about the capital to a wider audience.

Perhaps the most experienced sign-language translator in the nation, Ting, 58, said that she was drawn to sign language during college because she felt excluded when she met two students from a school for hearing-impaired people during a club event.

“I did not know sign language then and just watched them ‘talk’ back and forth,” Ting said.

Ting said that this experience, as well as her family background, led to her vocation.     [FULL  STORY]