The third-generation ID card will reportedly help Chinese authorities collect blood samples and track citizens

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/11
By: Judy Lo,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China’s third-generation ID card will reportedly contain information on an individual’s blood sample, and incorporate a global positioning system (GPS) tracking device, which is causing Taiwanese working in China anxiety.

Currently, the new ID card is still at a conceptual stage. Yet over the last few days, fear over potential breaches of personal privacy has spread across Chinese social media.

The new ID card will reportedly integrate GPS tracking, multiple-functions (bank card, credit card, social security card, and shopping card), and fingerprint identification. It will also show a citizen’s registered address instead of a residential address, contain blood sample information and may even be used as a USB device.

GPS tracking will potentially enable police to locate the ID card at all times. This has worried Chinese netizens who fear a loss of privacy.    [FULL  STORY]

The Baltimore Sun
Date: April 11, 2019
By: Tricia Bishop

For those of you horrified by the “sweat bees” story in your social media feeds this week — the one about the woman who supposedly had four of the tiny bees living in her left eye, feeding on her tears — I offer this caveat: It came from Taiwan. Take it with a grain of salt.

I don’t mean to knock the media there — it’s a lovely place, filled with lovely people — but they give me no choice. During a five-day journalism fellowship on the self-ruled island last month, we were told again and again just how bad they are. The TV journalists are largely ratings driven and likely to run with any old sensational claim, or they’re the dummies to China’s ventriloquist, officials said. And the print journalists are overworked and underpaid, forced to crank out a half dozen pieces a day with no time for deep dives, fact-checking or government watchdogging; they’re also understandably scared to call out their Communist neighbors to the north, across the Taiwan Strait, for meddling in their affairs.

I initially thought this was all a bit of bluster. Here in America, we’ve grown accustomed to politicians in particular crying “fake news!” whenever the reporting doesn’t favor them (and I’m not just talking about Donald Trump). But then our group of seven U.S. journalists met with a handful of Taiwanese journalists and media professors at the end of the week. It was eye opening. In the way four bees drinking your tears is eye opening. And by that, I mean painful.

The group essentially confirmed the complaints we’d heard earlier during a marathon of meetings with various important people (including Taiwan’s vice president), all arranged by Ming Chuan University, which co-sponsored the fellowship alongside the East-West Center, a non-profit based in Honolulu that’s funded by the U.S. government.0
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/11
By: Chen Yun-lu and Evelyn Kao4

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) Taiwan has the fourth highest rate of new traffic-related child asthma cases among 194 nations according to a landmark study, the equivalent of 420 new cases every 100,000 children per year, according to a report in British newspaper The Guardian.

Four million children develop asthma every year as a result of air pollution from cars and trucks, equivalent to 11,000 new cases a day, the newspaper reported, citing a study published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health Wednesday.

The report noted that the damage to children’s health is not limited to China and India, where pollution levels are particularly high. In U.K. and U.S. cities, researchers identified traffic pollution as being responsible for a quarter of all new childhood asthma cases.

By country, Kuwait has the highest per capita rate of new traffic-related asthma cases among the 194 nations analyzed, equivalent to 550 cases every 100,000 children per year, followed by United Arab Emirates (460/100,000) and Canada (450/100,000), according to the research.    [FULL  STORY]

 

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 12, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

Criticizing the cost and delays in releasing the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA)

upgraded ticketing app, two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday asked the agency to release all the procurement contracts related to the app.

The upgraded app was released on Sunday, but on Tuesday some people complained about being disconnected as they tried to purchase tickets.

The TRA spent about NT$1 billion (US$32.4 million) to develop the new app, which was an extraordinary amount, Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) told a news conference he held with colleague Alex Fai (費鴻泰).

He had followed the app-development project for a long time, and its budget was apparently increased by NT$850 million after it was incorporated into the Forward-Looking Infrastructure Development Project, Hsu said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 10 April, 2019
By: Paula Chao

The Cabinet is reviewing a revision to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act that is

designed to combat the spread of “fake news”. That was the word from Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung on Wednesday.

The approach of next year’s elections has heightened concerns over the impact misinformation could have on voting. Under the proposed revision, those who disseminate information or campaign ads that courts deem to be inaccurate will face punishment.

Hsu said revision will be submitted to the Legislature once the Cabinet approves it.
[FULL  STORY]

BBC News
Date: 10 April 2019

A Taiwanese woman was found by doctors to have four small sweat bees living inside her eye, the first such incident on the island.

The 28-year-old woman, identified only as Ms He, was pulling out weeds when the insects flew into her eyes.

Dr Hong Chi Ting of the Fooyin University Hospital told the BBC he was “shocked” when he pulled the 4mm insects out by their legs.

Ms He has now been discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.

Sweat bees, also known as Halictidae, are attracted to sweat and sometimes land on people to imbibe perspiration. They also drink tears for their high protein content, according to a study by the Kansas Entomological Society.

‘They were all alive’

[FULL STORY]

A total of 5 dead pigs floating in from China have tested positive

Taiwan News 
Date: 2019/04/10
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – One day after the island of Matsu saw a week-long pork export ban imposed, the outlying county of Kinmen was targeted with a similar measure due to the discovery of African swine fever in the carcass of a pig believed to have floated over from China.

No pigs, pork nor related products can be moved from Kinmen to other parts of Taiwan for a week beginning April 10, the Liberty Times reported Wednesday. The only exception were for products made before April 9 by seven companies.

Over the past few months, a total of 10 pig carcasses had been thrown upon the shores of Taiwanese islands close to the Chinese province of Fujian, and half of them tested positive for African swine fever.

Another dead hog which had been found on the coastline of Kinmen on April 8 was still undergoing tests, but the likelihood of the disease being found was high, the Liberty Times reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/10
By: Elaine Hou and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, April 10 (CNA) Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan will

lead a delegation to Taiwan to attend a series of celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) confirmed Wednesday.

AIT said in a press release that it has launched a year-long campaign called AIT@40, which celebrates 40 years of friendship and partnership between the U.S. and Taiwan since the signing of the TRA April 10, 1979.

When AIT opened its new office in Taipei last June, the U.S. decided to send Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce, as Chinese officials lobbied the U.S. not to send a high-ranking official to Taipei to mark the occasion.

This year the level of officials Washington plans to send to Taiwan for AIT@40 has attracted much attention.    [FULL  STORY]