Page Three

Study shows student mood

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 06, 2019
By: Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

About one-eighth of junior-high, senior-high and vocational students in Taipei and New Taipei City

Taiwanese Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry director Chen Chih-tsai, left, John Tung Foundation chief executive officer Yau Sea-wain, second left, John Tung Mental Health Center director Yeh Ya-hsing, right, and a fourth person hold up signs at a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday to promote an updated depression detection application that shows nearby psychiatrist, counseling and support resources.
Photo: CNA / John Tung Foundation

showed signs of a “clearly depressed mood” and are in need of professional help, a survey released on Wednesday by the John Tung Foundation showed.

The survey, which collected 2,140 responses from students in June, found that 70.4 percent of respondents were stressed by academics, 44.7 percent by uncertainty about the future and 33 percent by interpersonal relations, the foundation’s mental health center director Yeh Ya-hsing (葉雅馨) said.

The results showed that 18.7 percent of respondents said they would “actively seek help” when they are feeling down, she said, adding that not wanting to “trouble the other person” was the top reason given for not seeking help.

More than half, 52.3 percent, of respondents said they would turn to their friends or classmates first for help, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

IT Month kicks off in Taipei, showcasing AI technologies

Radio Taiwan InternationAl
Date: 04 December, 2019
By: Jake Chen

IT Month kicks off in Taipei, showcasing AI technologies. (CNA Photo)

IT Month kicked off at the Taipei World Trade Center on Wednesday. The annual event is hosted by the economics ministry along with a number of local computer and technology companies.

The main theme this year is artificial intelligence. A number of booths have been set up to introduce the history and development of artificial intelligence and its applications in different industries and in everyday life.

US-Taiwan defense ties advance with senior official visit

Global Taiwan Institute

American Enterprise Institute
Date: December 4, 2019
By: Michael Mazza

On November 22, Taiwan’s United Daily News broke the news that Heino Klinck, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, had visited Taiwan during the week of November 18. The Taipei Times described it as the senior-most visit to Taiwan by a Department of Defense official in over a decade, pointing to a stunning level of American neglect over that period of time. Although the Pentagon and Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) regularly engage at lower levels via a variety of dialogue structures, DASD Klinck and his counterparts surely had much to discuss. American and Taiwan priorities for these discussions may have included some or all of the following.

Righting a Wrong

Although much American attention has been focused on Chinese actions in the South China Sea and East China Sea in recent years (and for good reason), the Taiwan Strait may remain the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia. It is in the Taiwan Strait where what we might call the “core values” of both China and the United States come into direct conflict. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may see its very survival at stake; at stake for the United States are national security interests that Washington has sought to defend since at least World War II. In the event of a crisis, China likely has far less flexibility to alter its position in the Taiwan Strait than it would in the East or South China seas. Meanwhile, an American president might find that, even in the absence of a formal defense treaty with Taipei (as with Tokyo and others), he or she would be hard pressed to sit out a conflict over Taiwan’s fate.

There are, then, good reasons for American and Taiwan officials to engage at the very highest levels. Taiwan, after all, is a country that the United States might one day go to war to defend. As I have argued in these pages previously, the American president owes it to the American people, not to mention the men and women in uniform under his command, to speak with his or her counterpart in Taipei—for in wartime, it is perhaps no less important to understand one’s allies than to understand one’s enemies.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan media outlet Master Chain criticized for being China lackey

The Taipei-based media company noted for its pro-China content will open a branch in Beijing

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/04
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

(Master Chain website screenshot)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan media outlet Master Chain stands accused of producing communist-friendly content and being a Beijing lackey after announcing it would open an office in Beijing.

Given the strict state control of the media in China, it is the first time a Taiwan media outlet has been approved of. Master Chain was swiftly accused by local media of being pro-China, China funded and backed by China-friendly Taiwanese political heavyweights.

Meanwhile, some of the content on the website appears to promote China's Belt and Road Initiative and whitewash communist infiltration in commentary pieces such as: "McCarthyism Returns," "KMT's presidential hopeful Han Kuo-yu denounces Chinese spy story a conspiracy," "Taiwanese businessmen in China return home with NT$700 billion? Not true."

Master Chain issued a letter denying its pro-China stance and the "special treatment" it received to be allowed in China. It said it's not a "traditional news agency" but an "online platform utilizing blockchain technology to create high-quality content to serve Mandarin-speaking elites" — citing this as the reason it was given the green light to operate in Beijing.    [FULL  STORY]

Korean professor ordered to pay NT$800,000 in sexual harassment case

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/04
By: Flor Wang and Liu Shih-yi

CNA file photo for illustrative purpose only

Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) A South Korean professor at National Chengchi University (NCCU), who was sentenced last year to 14 months in prison for sexual harassment, was ordered by a Taipei court Wednesday to pay NT$800,000 (US$26,230) in damages to two students.

Park Jae-kyung was accused of repeatedly and inappropriately touching female students against their will, when he was an assistant professor at NCCU from March to May 2017.

Under the guise of engaging in language exchange sessions, Park molested at least eight female students in classrooms and his research rooms at NCCU, according to Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), who exposed the case on behalf of the students.

In a hearing conducted by NCCU's Gender Equality Education committee, it was determined that Park has touched the students on their thighs, arms, buttocks and other parts of the body without their consent.    [FULL  STORY]

DPP ties got Yang her funding: KMT

INSIDE CONNECTION? DPP Legislator Huang Kuo-shu was asked to explain why posts by an ‘Internet army’ had the IP address of his office at the Legislative Yuan

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 05, 2019
By: Kuo An-chia  /  Staff reporter

Taipei city councilors from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the New Party yesterday

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and New Party Taipei City councilors hold a news conference in Taipei yesterday to question alleged ties between Yang Hui-ju and the Democratic Progressive Party.
Photo: Kuo An-chia, Taipei Times

accused Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) of using her ties within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to receive government funding.

KMT Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) showed reporters in Taipei a 2016 letter in which Yi Shih, a company founded by Yang, appeared to ask the Taipei City Government to provide an official document approving the company’s cohosting of the WTA Taiwan Open.

The letter showed that it was copied to five city councilors, all of whom belong to the so-called “faction” of Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), she said.

Yang might have sent the councilors duplicates to show the city government that she had the backing of the councilors, she added.

The copied councilors have not expressed their opinions on the matter, Taipei Department of Sports Deputy Commissioner Liu Ning-tien (劉寧添) said, adding that the government subsidies for the tournament were reviewed and awarded according to the regulations.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan-US ties close and friendly: Foreign ministry

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 03 December, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (RTI file photo)

The foreign ministry says ties between Taiwan and the United States are close and friendly. That’s the word from Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Joanne Ou on Tuesday.

Ou’s comments came a day after a US official said he would not call Taiwan a country. David Stilwell, the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, made the statement at a seminar organized by the Brookings Institution in Washington on Monday.

Stilwell said the United States will honor the Taiwan Relations Act.  The US Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act on January 1, 1979 to create a legal basis for Washington’s relations with Taipei. The legislation has been the cornerstone of the bilateral ties since it went into effect on April 10, 1979.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Changing Tastes, in a Bowl

Beef noodle soup is a big deal for Taiwanese eaters. But its popularity came relatively recently

Saveur
Date: December 3, 2019
By: Cathy Erway

Jenny Huang | Food Stylist: Tyna Hoang

Get the recipe for Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (Hong Shao Niu Rou Mian) »Jenny Huang | Food Stylist: Tyna Hoang

For many Taiwanese living abroad, beef noodle soup is the spiritual slurp of the homeland. According to Eric Sze, chef-owner of 886, a Taiwanese restaurant in New York City, longing for the dish was what got him into the restaurant industry.

“It was literally on almost every corner of Taipei. And most if not all of them were pretty great,” says Sze, who grew up in Taiwan’s capital.

But when he set out to make the dish from scratch at home, he learned just how complicated it is. While it may appear simple, the noodle soup is a rich blend of influences from mainland China and Taiwan, often made with tomatoes and locally-produced Taiwanese bean paste to buoy the deep, earthy broth of beef shank. Its robust punch of flavors and comforting effect is well-revered on the island and zealously reanimated abroad by restaurateurs such as Sze.    [FULL  STORY]

US House prepares to vote on Xinjiang bill

China likely to retaliate with additional measures against US

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/03
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A prison in the Chinese region of Xinjiang. (AP photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The United States House of Representatives is preparing to vote on its version of a bill concerning the repression of Uighurs in the Chinese region of Xinjiang Tuesday (Dec. 3).

The Senate unanimously approved its own version of the legislation last September, but the House bill requires the president to sanction Chinese government officials responsible and restricts the exports of data-gathering devices to China, Bloomberg reported.

Members of Congress are hoping to write a consolidated version of the bill that could be passed before the end of the year.

The House vote comes as China is striking back against President Donald Trump’s signing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. The communist country announced a ban on visits by U.S. Navy warships to Hong Kong and sanctions against human rights organizations.
[FULL  STORY]

Migrant rights groups call for broker system to be abolished

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/03
By: William Yen

Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮, right)

Taipei, Dec. 3 (CNA) A coalition of migrant rights groups rallied in Taipei Tuesday, calling on the government to abolish the broker system to free migrant workers from exploitation by manpower agencies.

At the rally staged outside the Ministry of Labor (MOL), Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮), a member of the Taiwan International Workers' Association (TIWA), invited migrant workers to share their experiences of unfair practices by their brokers.

The first to take the microphone was Winwin, an Indonesian who said that her broker has charged her NT$4,800 (US$157) to renew her passport, while the actual cost is only NT$800.

She said brokers often charge placement fees, which range from NT$20,000 to NT$90,000, forcing migrant workers to run away because they cannot make the repayments.    [FULL  STORY]