Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 06 December, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

The transportation ministry has announced plans to expand a travel subsidy program aimed at drawing more international tourists to Taiwan.

The program provides a subsidy to visitors who fly international charter flights into airports outside the Taipei area.    [FUILL  STORY]

Epic Reads
Date: Dec 06 2019 
By: Team Epic Reads

Get Ready for the Ride of Your Life With This Sneak Peek From ‘Loveboat, Taipei’

We are SCREAMING about Loveboat, Taipei, an epic, beautiful book that’s almost here for the world to see!

Mix a little Crazy Rich Asians with some serious Sarah Dessen-esque life lessons, a truly swoon-worthy love triangle, and a summer of travel and self-discovery, and you have Abigail Hing Wen‘s dazzling debut. Get ready to sip all the tea, ’cause this is going to be a wild ride.

Ever Wong has always been a good daughter: hardworking and dutiful, she is primed to go to med school despite the fact that the sight of blood makes her queasy. But becoming a doctor is the least she can do. After all, her parents emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. in dreams of providing Ever and her sister a better future. It’s no small amount of pressure. So Ever is ready to enjoy one last summer of freedom–including plenty of dance, the one thing she loves most in the world–before she’ll have to trade everything in for a lab coat and lectures.

But Ever’s last summer of dancing is ripped from beneath her when her parents have enroll her in school for the summer–in Taiwan! Ever is heartbroken that her final summer will be preordained by her parents… like every other part of her life has been.    [FULL  STORY]

Former Taiwanese Pres. Ma was unwitting recipient of donations from HK businessman during 2008, 2012 presidential campaigns

Taiwan News
Date: .2019/12/06
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A court verdict in a case involving illegal political donations revealed that

former Taiwanese P6resident Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was unwittingly aided by money from an adviser to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) during his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012.

Retired Taiwanese Army Lieutenant General Luo Wen-shan (羅文山) was recently sentenced to two and a half years in prison by Taipei District Court. Luo had been accused of illegally receiving political donations from CPPCC member and Hong Kong businessman Hui Chi-ming (許智明) while serving as chairman of a pro-Kuomintang (KMT) non-profit organization for retired military officers.

The court verdict found that Hui had paid Luo over NT$8 million between 2007 and 2014, most of s spent on newspaper advertisements in favor of KMT candidates as well as on networking banquets, gifts, and accommodations for Hui when he visited Taiwan.

The verdict also clearly pointed out the dates of ads supporting Ma that Luo placed in newspapers, including the Apple Daily in March 2008, the China Times in December 2011, and United Daily News in January 2012. In addition, former KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) was named as one of Hui's guests during his trips to Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/06
By: Flor Wang, Elaine Hou, Fan Cheng-hsian and Liu Kuan-ting

Taipei, Dec. 6 (CNA) Two female lawmakers with the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) were injured Friday during a protest at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) over the death of a diplomat posted in Japan last year.

The incident occurred when a group of between 10 and 20 KMT members, including lawmakers Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) and Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) and some city councilors, tried to enter the ministry building through its main entrance to meet MOFA chief Joseph Wu (吳釗燮).

They wanted Wu to give an explanation for the suicide last year of Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), then director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Japan, but were blocked from entering by security personnel.

Amid pushes and pulls, Lin and Chen were caught in the melee for more than an hour, causing Chen to faint and resulting in serious bruises to Lin.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 07, 2019
By: Lo Hsin-chen and Dennis Xie  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

A married couple in Pingtung County are to be honored tomorrow by the Ministry of Health and

Welfare for fostering 29 children over the past 21 years.

Liao Yu-chao (廖玉招) yesterday said that she and her husband, Chen Wen-kuan (陳文寬), started as foster parents in 1998, and were determined to dedicate themselves to the welfare of abused and underprivileged children.

To prepare themselves, they enrolled in training programs, and eventually became certified foster parents, they said.

The children placed with them came out of circumstances such as poverty, rape, abuse and negligence, Liao said, adding that the most unforgettable case was that of a seven-year-old boy with a social disorder.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 05 December, 2019
By: Jake Chen

The Taiwan Railway Union has called on the government to hire more workers at Taipei Main Station and provide employees with more reasonable hours.

At a press conference Thursday, union representatives said that Taipei Main Station has seen a severe shortage of manpower. They said that often, the station only opens four out of its twelve ticket office windows due to limited staff.     [FULL  STORY]

UPI
Date: Dec. 5, 2019
By: Joe Snell

Since the election of Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen in 2016, tensions between China and Taiwan have increased. File Photo courtesy of Office of the President of Taiwan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) — The chances that China will invade Taiwan have increased, but the risk might be too great, two experts said at a conference in Washington, D.C.

"As each day, week, month and year pass over the course of the next decade, there will be increasing pressure within Zhongnanhai to use force," James Fanell, former U.S. Pacific Fleet director of intelligence and information operations, said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies conference. Zhongnanhia is the headquarters of the Communist Party of China.

But Tim Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corp., said at the conference Wednesday that China knows using military force could strengthen alliances trying to dampen Chinese growth as a global leader.

In 1949, China's Communist Party defeated the Nationalist army, known as the Republic of China, and founded the People's Republic of China. The ROC evacuated to Taiwan and made Taipei its capital.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/05
By:  Central News Agency

Children who receive CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) after their heart stop beating are twice as likely to regain a spontaneous heartbeat than those who do not follow emergency treatment, according to a study released Thursday (Dec. 5).

The study, conducted by Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, analyzed data on 152 patients, all under the age of 18, who had no heartbeat when they arrived at the hospital.

On average the hospital treated 1.5 such underage patient cases per month from 2005 to 2016, said Li Jung (李嶸), head of the hospital's pediatric emergency medicine department.

Of the 152 patients, only 15 received CPR after their heart stopped beating and in 60 percent of those cases, the patient's heart started beating again following emergency treatment at the hospital.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/05
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) Two popular vloggers, who stayed overnight at the Presidential Office, met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at her office on Thursday and said afterward that she was "awesome" and was a "human first, president second."

Nuseir Yassin and Alyne Tamir, who are a couple and have a combined following of 15 million on social media, were invited to meet Tsai after spending a night at the Presidential Office Building, which was part of a program held by several government agencies in Taiwan.

Israeli Yassin, who rose to fame in January when he completed a challenge of uploading a one-minute video on Facebook for 1,000 consecutive days, said he talked with Tsai about his plans to make videos about Taiwan and he asked her to appear in some of them.

In an interview with CNA after the meeting at the Presidential Office, Yassin said Tsai was different from most other presidents he had met before.    [FULL  STORY]