SPACE EXPLORATION: Researchers are planning to put a satellite in the moon’s orbit and eventually land it using its onboard guidance system in the absence of GPS

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 14, 2019
By: Chien Hui-ju and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Ministry of Science and Technology yesterday announced plans to focus on the

development of 10 small, high-resolution satellites for the third phase of the National Space Program.

The third phase, which is expected to cost NT$25.1 billion (US$814 million), was last month approved by Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).

It was the first official document he signed after taking office.

It is to be executed by the National Applied Research Laboratories and the National Space Organization (NSPO) over a 10-year period starting this year, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

A daily breakdown of Taiwan’s top stories and why they matter.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/02/12
By: TNL Daily News

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Monday that overseas businesses should return to Taiwan to help increase domestic demand and dodge the ongoing U.S.-China trade war.

Tsai, speaking to China-based Taiwanese businesspeople at a Lunar New Year banquet in Taipei, said the government is focusing on three major initiatives – growing domestic demand, marketing Taiwan globally and helping overseas businesses return to Taiwan – to counter a slowing global economy and weakening trade demand, according to the Taipei Times.

She said overseas businesses should shift their models from “made by Taiwanese businesses” to “made in Taiwan.”

Up to a million Taiwanese live or work in China at any given time, and China remains Taiwan’s largest export partner. However, frayed trade relations between China and the United States have led Taiwanese multinationals, such as Foxconn, to set their sights on emerging markets such as that of Vietnam.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei man charged with killing hamster during argument with girlfriend

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/12
By: Keoni Everington,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taipei man has been charged with violating the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) after he was found to have killed a hamster when he got into a heated argument with his girlfriend, reported Liberty Times.

In a fit of rage during an intense argument in August last year, a man surnamed Shih (施) grabbed a cage with a male and a female hamster he had been raising with his girlfriend Chang (張) and smashed it against the wall. When Chang tried to save the hamsters, Shih picked up the male hamster and hurled him against the wall, killing the hapless rodent.

According to an investigation by the prosecution, Shi and Chang after dating for more than three years, but not living together, the couple decided to purchase two hamsters on the internet. They named the male hamster “Mochi,” which stayed on weekdays in Chang’s apartment in Taipei’s Nangang District, where Shih would visit for time to time to have dinner with Chang.

The prosecution stated on the evening of August 20 last year, the two returned to Chang’s residence after dining out. As they started to have a dispute over trivial matters, Chang started to clean the hamster cage.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/12
By: Jiang Ming-yan and Frances Huang 

Taipei, Feb. 12 (CNA) Career Technology (Mfg.) Co., a supplier of flexible printed circuit boards (FPCBs) to Apple Inc., has decided to lay off more than 400 employees later this month.

Speaking to CNA on Monday, a Career official said the company will lay off 434 workers at its plant in Guanyin District in Taoyuan on Feb. 21 because of deteriorating market conditions that have left Career no choice but to scale back its workforce.

After the layoffs, Career will maintain 200-300 employees at its Guanyin plant, while its 2,000 employees at its Shulin plant in New Taipei will remain unscathed.

Career also has three plants in China’s Kunshan, Suzhou and Shenzhen, but no workforce reductions are planned at those locations, either, the company said.
[FULL  STORY]

PARASITIC SOLUTION: As use of insecticides should be halted when plants begin to blossom, the council is to deploy 16.6 million wasps at lychee and longan farms

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 13, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday alerted farmers to an increase in the breeding activity of lychee stink bugs as the weather turns warmer, advising them to use biological methods to combat the insects when fruit trees begin to blossom.

Lychee stink bugs (Tessaratoma papillosa), which are often found on lychee, longan, Taiwan golden-rain and Chinese soapberry trees, are considered pests by farmers, as they feed on sprouts, the council said.

As they last year caused serious damage to domestic lychee and longan production, the council has planned pre-emptive measures after meeting with local officials and farmers, COA Chief Secretary Chang Chih-sheng (張致盛) told a news conference in Taipei, but added that statistics for such agricultural losses were not available yet.

Domestic fields growing lychee and longan plants amount to 20,000 hectares, an important crop in central and southern regions, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

South China Morning Post
Post Magazine
Date: 11 Feb 2019
By: Ed Peters

• An exciting programme featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the recently opened National Kaohsiung Center for Arts puts the southern city on the performance arts map
• Numerous night markets cater to all manner of tastes, while shoppers will also find plenty to spend hard-earned pennies on

Having won first prize in the awards for Best Use of a Clapped-Out Army Barracks, Weiwuying – or the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts if you’re feeling formal – hasn’t been resting on its laurels since opening last autumn. Spread over a 10 hectare site and variously described as looking like a container ship’s colossal love child or a writhing whale (though presumably not by its Dutch architects), this is one of the world’s largest arts venues.

It goes without saying that size is not important, but Weiwuying’s tally of opera house, concert hall, playhouse, recital hall and outdoor theatre, plus a 9,085-pipe organ fashioned by German artisans to represent thickets of bamboo, is impressive, to say the least. Best of all, it’s set in rolling parkland, one of the city’s prime lungs, which serves to draw punters inside to sample the varied programmes on offer.

New national arts centre reflects Taiwan’s economic success
Upcomers include ballet from Düsseldorf, a Harry Potter concert, the London Philharmonic and that classic Chinese opera, The Battle of Dragon City. The cheapest tickets start at US$10; given that Weiwuying cost US$330 million, one can’t help but wonder who’s in charge of ROI …    [FULL  STORY]

Nurse aboard a S-70A helicopter which crashed during an EMS mission in February 2018

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In response to public anger arising from media reports that the government has refused to make pecuniary compensation to the family of a public health nurse who died in a helicopter crash while on duty in February 2018, Taiwan’s Ministry of Civil Service (MCS) said in a news release on Monday that it is still in the process of determining the degree of duty performance surrounding the fatal helicopter EMS mission.

Media reports indicated that the MCS had used the pretext of the case lacking complete evidence to deny the compensation that should be made to the family of Tsai Yi-min (蔡邑敏), the nurse who was aboard the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter which crashed during the EMS mission.

The ministry said that there are six degrees surrounding compensation in case of the death of a civil servant during duty performance, and amount of compensation for each degree varies. The ministry added that it is still in the process of determining to which degree the helicopter EMS mission belongs to based on all the documents the ministry had received.

On Feb. 5, 2018, the S-70A helicopter left Taitung City for Orchid Island in order to provide local residents with medical aid and evacuate those in need of assistance, and communications with the helicopter were lost while the aircraft was returning to Taiwan.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/11
By: Matt Yu and Ko Lin

Taipei, Feb. 11 (CNA) The military will stage an emergency aircraft takeoff and landing drill on a freeway as part of the annual Han Kuang series of exercises this year, the Air Force Command Headquarters said Monday.

Held for many years, the exercise has been an important combat training drill for the Air Force to test its combat readiness in the event of an attack, the Air Force said in a statement.

The landing and takeoff location has yet to be finalized, and the Air Force will work with the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau on the maintenance of the roadway before the drill, including repaving it to make sure it is flat, the statement said.

Taiwan currently has four sections of its main north-south No. 1 National Freeway designated as emergency runways in the event of war — the Huantan section in Changhua, the Minxiong section in Chiayi, and the Madou and Rende sections in Tainan.
[FULL  STORY]

GUARDIANS: The agency’s duties range from protecting the nation’s territorial waters and watching against disease outbreaks to making sure elderly residents are cared for

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 11, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Some say that the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) is the easiest assignment for

soldiers, as its personnel are often seen on beaches, but for those stationed in Kinmen County, cross-strait tensions can take different forms — from disease prevention to maritime defense.

Clad in fluorescent orange uniforms, coast guard personnel might appear distant to many Taiwanese, partly because they include military, police and administrative officers whose duties mainly cover emergency response.

The agency has drawn increasing public attention since a pig carcass was found on a Kinmen beach on Dec. 31 last year and was on Jan. 3 confirmed to be infected with the African swine fever virus.

The Council of Agriculture said that the carcass could have floated from China, where the disease appears to have spread out of control since China reported the first infection in August last year.    [FULL  STORY]

The Garden Island
Date: February 10, 2019
By Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A strike among pilots at Taiwan’s flag carrier China Airlines dragged into a third day Sunday, resulting in further flight cancellations.

There was no immediate word of a settlement as the pilots’ union remained firm in its demands for an additional backup pilot on flights lasting eight hours or more, a more transparent system of promotion, a year-end bonus and other concessions.

The official Central News Agency said a total of 47 flights will have been canceled by Sunday.

The strike came in the middle of the Lunar New Year travel rush. About 70 percent of the carrier’s 1,300 pilots belong to the union, which has accused management of insincerity and mistreating its workforce to keep costs down.    [FULL  STORY]