Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/16
By: Chiu Chun-chin and Ko Lin

Taipei, Aug. 16 (CNA) Nearly two dozen passengers suffered minor injuries when their high school bus crashed into the back of a moving container truck on National Freeway No. 1 on Friday afternoon, according to the Taoyuan Fire Department.

The accident took place at around 5:09 p.m. on the northbound section of the freeway near Chungli, the department said.

The driver and 22 students from a local school in Taoyuan suffered minor cuts and bruises, it said.

According to the National Highway Police Bureau, the incident caused a domino effect in which two other vehicles rear-ended the vehicle in front of them.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan nternatinal
Date: 15 August, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

A halo forms around the sun over Taitung.[/caption] Summers in Taiwan are hot, humid, and sometimes stormy. But the upside is the occasional spectacle that summer weather can bring with it. Residents of eastern Taiwan have been picking up their cameras in awe over the past few days as recent weather creates some unusual phenomena.

In the southeastern town of Taitung, the sun had a halo this past week as hot weather and just the right cloud cover led sunlight to refract off ice crystals. While other parts of Taiwan see heavy rainfall and flooding, weather conditions in the east have instead brought strange sights like this one.

Further to the north in Hualien County, a waterfall started to move backwards, with water flying upwards as though gravity had stopped working. Local experts say this is no trick of the imagination- a recent typhoon brought strong winds that funneled into the county’s narrow Taroko Gorge, sending this waterfall into reverse.    [FULL  STORY]

South China Morning Post
Date: 15 Aug, 2019
By: Lawrence Chung 

Taiwan unveiled the latest weaponry from its arms industry on Thursday, including a new subsonic jet trainer aircraft and a drone that its designers say can lock on to radar signals and destroy ground stations or missile launchers in a “suicide” attack.

The Jian Hsiang, or Flying Sword, drone was one of 81 items of locally made military equipment to make their debut at the three-day Taipei Aerospace and Defence Technology Exhibition.

Taipei has increased its defence spending in the face of a growing military threat from Beijing and has called on the United States to sell it more arms.

Last month, the US State Department approved the sale of an arms package worth US$2.2 billion that included 108 Abrams tanks and 250 Stinger shoulder-launched missiles to Taiwan. Beijing – which considers the island to be a wayward province to be returned to the mainland’s fold, by force if necessary – has said it will sanction the US companies involved.    [FULL  STORY]

Redesign plan for Taoyuan Terminal 3 should be completed within 6 months: Lin

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – If the main design of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 is not changed, the government might decide to end the present contract, Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said Thursday (August 15).

The deadline for completing the terminal has already been pushed back from 2020 to 2023, but the cost and complication of the departure hall’s design has continued to be an issue.

British design team Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Taiwan’s CECI Engineering Consultants, Inc. planned to suspend 130,000 aluminum tubes in the shape of flowers from the ceiling of the hall, but critics have lambasted the project due to high cost and difficult maintenance.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/15
B:y Ku Chuan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 15 (CNA) The Cabinet approved Thursday the central government budget plan for 2020, which shows both expenditure and revenue of NT$2.102 trillion (US$66.93 billion), the first time no difference between the expenditure and revenue has been shown in any such budget plan since 1999.

The projected government revenue is up 5.5 percent, or NT$109.8 billion, over the 2019 level, according to data compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).

The growth was attributed to an additional NT$32.5 billion in tax income, a contribution of NT$7.3 billion in earnings by the National Development Fund to the national treasury, a return of NT$19.8 billion to the coffers from the local infrastructure construction fund and an additional NT$40 billion in revenues from issuing 5G mobile broadband business licenses.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 15, 2019
By: Lai Hsiao-tung, Chiu Shu-yu and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

Doctors have confirmed New Taipei City’s first indigenous case of dengue fever this year, Mayor Hou

You-yi (侯友宜) told a news conference yesterday.

The man was admitted to a hospital on Tuesday last week, but has already recovered and been discharged, Hou said.

City officials are investigating the locations visited by the 44-year-old man from Jhonghe District (中和) before he contracted the disease and are to carry out preventative measures in all of the city’s districts, he added.

The efforts are to include sweeping ditches and other areas that attract mosquitoes, spraying disinfectant and patrolling areas of concern, Hou said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 13 August, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Rotary International is set to hold its 2021 annual convention in Taipei. It is expected that about 40,000 members of Rotary International from over 100 countries will attend the event.

President Tsai Ing-wen has promised assistance to help make the event successful. Tsai was speaking Tuesday while meeting with a delegation led by Rotary International President Holger Knaack, its first German head.    [FULL  STORY]

How will China respond? 

The National Interest
Date: August 13, 2019 
By: David Axe Follow @daxe on TwitterL

A scale model has appeared in public depicting Taiwan’s newest warplane.

Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corp, or AIDC, built a model of the Blue Magpie for the 2019 Taipei Aerospace & Defence Technology Exhibition, photos reveal.

The $2.2-billion Blue Magpie program, which aims to build 66 high-performance training planes for the Taiwanese air force, could help to sustain the island country’s aerospace industry as it struggles to maintain a large and aging fleet of fighters.

Diplomatic pressure from China complicates Taiwan’s efforts to acquire warplanes from foreign manufacturers. Taipei for years has asked to buy new F-16s from U.S. firm Lockheed Martin, but the administrations of several U.S. presidents have rejected the request.

The Taiwanese air force in 2008 first proposed to buy new training jets to replace decades-old AT-3 and F-5 lead-in fighters. The air arm considered several foreign designs. But Pres. Tsai Ing-wen, who won election in 2016, made it her policy to develop the local defense industry.    [FULL  STORY]