Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/21
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Emerson Lim

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) A group in Taiwan has launched a campaign to call for Taiwan’s participation in the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) conference despite the likelihood that it will be shut out from the meeting under China’s pressure.

The WHA, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), will hold its 72nd session May 20-28 in Geneva, Switzerland, and Taiwan wants to attend the meeting as an observer but has yet to receive an invitation to attend.

To support Taiwan’s bid to participate, private group LaiPhauTe (狸長辦公室) launched the “one person, one letter” campaign on April 18 to get Taiwanese to bombard WHO headquarters with paper or electronic letters to push for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHA.

The group, which provided the WHO’s physical and email addresses with sample letters written both in English and Chinese, urged Taiwanese to let the world know their health care needs and show the world their resolve to defend their basic health care rights.
[FULL  STORY]

Kyodo

Published: 3:09pm, 20 Apr, 2019

• Restriction on equipment or services that pose a national threat ‘no doubt includes China’, cabinet spokeswoman says

• Blacklist of producers, developers, manufacturers and suppliers will be drawn up soon

Taiwanese government agencies have been banned from using telecommunications services or equipment that pose a national threat, Taipei said on Friday, mirroring a similar move by the United States last year.

The ban, which was based on an executive order Premier Su Tseng-chang approved on Thursday, was targeted at all “dangerous countries”, which “no doubt includes China”, said the spokeswoman of the Executive Yuan, the self-ruled island’s cabinet.
The measure, which came into force Thursday and is retroactive, bans government agencies from buying or using telecommunications products and services considered to pose direct or indirect risks undermining the Taiwan’s communications safety, government operations or social security.

A blacklist of producers, developers, manufacturers and suppliers of such services or equipment will be made available soon and examined regularly. Permission must be obtained if services or equipment on the list are deemed absolutely necessary.
[FULL  STORY]

200 actors and crew receive 12 hours to shoot inaugural scene

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Visitors to the Presidential Office Building might have been surprised Saturday to witness a presidential inauguration ceremony in full swing.

The next such ceremony isn’t due until May 20 next year, but on Saturday, 200 actors and crew members entered the 100-year-old building to film scenes for a television series, “Island Nation” (國際橋牌社), described as a Taiwanese counterpart to the White House series “House of Cards.”

For the first time ever, the Presidential Office agreed to allow a fictional drama to be shot within its walls, at least for 12 hours, the Central News Agency reported.

Four years in the making, the TV show already had a Presidential Office replica set up at a Navy base in Taoyuan City, but to offer more realistic scenes, the producers applied to film a presidential inauguration scene inside the real building.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/20
By: Tsai Fan-min and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Two avid mountaineers will soon embark on a journey to try to become the first Taiwanese to conquer the summit of K2, formally called Mount Godwin-Austen or Chhogori.

Located on the China-Pakistan border, K2 is the second highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest, at a height of 8,611 meters above sea level.

K2 is also known for its extreme difficulty, and according to the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA), it has the second-highest fatality rate among the 14 mountains of the world that are more than 8,000 meters high.

If successful, 31-year old Chang Yuan-chih (張元植) and 36-year old Lu Chung-han (呂忠翰) will write a new chapter for Taiwan’s mountaineering community.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 21, 2019
By: Tsai Shu-yuan and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

People must not provoke or attack snakes in the wild and should refrain from using

“midwives’ cures,” but seek medical attention as soon as possible if bitten, doctors said.

Mao Yen-chiao (毛彥喬), a doctor at Veterans General Hospital Taichung branch’s department of toxicology said that the hospital in June last year treated a 50-year-old farmer who said he was bitten by a cobra.

The man killed the snake, took it home and ate it with a herbal liquor in a bid to counteract the venom, Mao said.

However, the alcohol helped the venom spread and 10 hours later he was at the hospital with a swollen left foot and complaining of unbearable pain, Mao said, adding that he was diagnosed with sepsis and necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that can swiftly destroy skin, fat and the tissue covering muscles.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 19 April, 2019
By: Paula Chao

The government is urging the public to be careful with their personal information online.

On Friday, Department of Cyber Security official Jyan Hong-wei said there has been an

increase in cyberattacks around the world.

Jyan said online attacks today are often aimed at infiltrating key infrastructure, but that personal information is also being collected through fishing websites.

Jyan said web users must exercise extra caution when filling out online questionnaires, as even giving out incomplete information can be dangerous. To prevent personal data from falling into the wrong hands, Jyan said people should only give out information to websites that meet legal requirements. Jyan said that even then, they should keep the amount of information they provide to a minimum.
[SOURCE]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 19, 2019

Taiwan’s cultural and creative industry started receiving large-scale public sector attention in 2002 after inclusion in the central government’s six-year national development plan. Eight years later, progress under the initiative was cemented with promulgation of the Law for the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries.

The most visible result of such efforts was the establishment of five creative and cultural parks in the cities of Taipei, Taichung, Chiayi and Tainan, and Hualien in northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan, respectively. Each facility utilized refurbished structures formerly operated state-run Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. (TTL).

One of the leading examples of this successful repurposing initiative is Huashan 1914 Creative Park (HCP) in the heart of Taipei. Originally used as a distillery, the site traces its origins to Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945). Upon commencement of operations in 1920, the facility was one of the largest of its kind in Taiwan.

HCP was managed for more than four decades after the end of World War II by Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau, which was incorporated and renamed TTL in 2002.
[FULL  STORY]

Beijing contestant designed Taiwan street scene during Chinese invasion

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/19
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Tanks of China’s People’s Liberation Army were rolling toward Taipei after destroying a Taiwanese Army Humvee Friday (April 19) – at least in the imagination of a participant in a mock-up contest in China.

According to a picture seen online, two tanks bearing Chinese flags were rolling past a shuttered 7-Eleven convenience store and a couple of shops and restaurants with typical Taiwanese products, such as one bearing a sign for Yongkang beef noodles, the Central News Agency reported.

A damaged Humvee from the Taiwanese military stood still in the other direction, with a bullet hole in its windshield and its doors open, while above the road, signs showed the location as 4 kilometer from Taipei and 27 km from Keelung.

However, the organizers used sticky tape to partly hide the Chinese flags and Taiwanese Army logo and the data of the contestant to cover a President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) election billboard above the convenience store, CNA reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/19
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, April 19 (CNA) Taiwan has been hit by 13 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or more so far this year, compared with an annual average of 24-25, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Friday, after a magnitude 6.1 quake shook eastern Taiwan the previous day.

While the number is significantly higher than for the same period in other years, however, the CWB said it was within a reasonable range and did not necessarily indicate a higher frequency of earthquakes this year.

On average, Taiwan has 2-3 earthquakes of magnitude 6.0-7.0 and 22 of magnitude 5.0-6.0 each year, according to Wu Chien-fu (吳健富), deputy head of the bureau’s Seismology Center.

“We do not have enough data to make the call that this situation has been abnormal,” Wu said. “There could be months without any strong earthquakes later this year.”
[FULL  STORY]