Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/02
By: Joseph Yeh, CNA staff reporter

It all started about three years ago when an official at Germany’s representative office in Taiwan was struck by a detail in a book written by a German author.

The author wrote that the German Empire had a consulate in Taiwan in the late 19th century, a revelation that propelled Sven Meier, the public relations officer at the German Institute Taipei, on a long journey to find the exact location of the old diplomatic post.

“According to the book, the impressive two-story building was built right on the banks of the Danshui River and was known as the most magnificent construction by the river at that time,” Meier told CNA in a recent interview.

The old map versus the current map around Zhongxiao Junior High School (忠孝國中) / Image courtesy of German Institute Taipei

During a three-year journey, he followed a series of clues that eventually answered the central question of his search — where the building was exactly located — but still left one missing piece to the puzzle — what actually happened to the structure.
[FULL  STORY]

The disappearance of 152 Vietnamese nationals in Taiwan could seriously impact the visa application process for Vietnamese citizens in the future

The News Lens
Date: 2019/01/01
By: Saigoneer

What happened

On Dec. 25, Taiwanese media reported that several groups of Vietnamese tourists vanished from their hotels while on vacation on the island. A total of 152 individuals, 102 men and 50 women couldn’t be accounted for, prompting their Taiwan-based travel agency to alert the police.

According to Taiwan authorities, 23 of the Vietnamese tourists arrived in Kaohsiung on Dec. 21 and separated from their tour group at some point between Nantou County and New Taipei’s Sanchong District. The remaining tourists entered Taiwan from Kaohsiung, Taoyuan and Tainan on December 23 and strayed from their group on Dec. 23-24. At the time the police were alerted, only the group leader hadn’t gone missing.

Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency (NIA) has since formed a specialized operations brigade to cooperate with local police departments to track down the missing tourists. Authorities believe the vanishing could be a case of human trafficking.

The group’s trip in Taiwan was arranged by Vietnamese travel agency International Holidays Trading Travel, which has denied their involvement in the incident, saying that they only assisted with the visa application process and didn’t know about the tourists’ travel plans. In Taiwan, their tours were arranged by Taiwan-based ETHoliday (東森國際旅行社), which contacted local police upon the mass disappearance.    [FULL  STORY]

A turkey farm was found to be infected with the H5N2 bird flu virus on Dec. 27

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/01
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – After a difficult year for poultry farmers in Yunlin County, another farm was discovered to have been infected with the bird flu virus, leading to prompt action by the local government and the culling of almost 100 turkeys in Sihu Township (四湖鄉).

Last week on Dec. 27, a farm worker discovered that a turkey had died of unknown causes, before immediately calling the Yunlin Animal and Plant Disease Control Center. Upon inspection the 11 week old turkey was found to have been infected with the H5N2 Avian Flu Virus.

The entire stock of 989 young turkeys was ordered to be culled. The operation was completed on Saturday, Dec. 29.

The Sihu operation brings the total number of poultry farms in Yunlin County ordered to cull their livestock in 2018 to 62.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/01
By: Yu Shiang, Miao Tsung-han, Chen Yi-hsuan, Liu Kuan-Ting and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Jan. 1 (CNA) The political formulas China is intent on forcing on Taiwan are

not acceptable to the people of Taiwan because they allow no room for the Republic of China (ROC) to exist, according to a statement from Taiwan’s top China policy agency released Tuesday.

Only when Beijing comes to understand the differences across the Taiwan Strait will it stop trying to force Taiwan to accept its “one China” principle and “1992 consensus,” a format that endorses the same principle, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said.

Although the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) describes the “1992 consensus” as “one China, each side with its own interpretation,” with Taiwan’s version of “one China” being the ROC, China does not allow interpretations other than “one China” being the People’s Republic of China (PRC), MAC spokesperson Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) told CNA.

China has cut off all official communication with Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May 2016, as a way to press her to accept the “1992 consensus.”    [FULL  STORY]

Global News
Date: December 31 2018

Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper, the Taipei 101 tower, rang in the new year with its annual fireworks display being launched from the 508-metre-tall tower on Tuesday.
[SOURCE]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 31 December, 2018
By: Jake Chen

Authorities have removed more flu vaccines from the shelves in Taiwan. The vaccine in question has been given to 145,000 children. It’s the fourth quality issue found with flu vaccines so far this season.

The Kaohsiung City Department of Health has ordered clinics to stop using the 0.25ml Sanofi flu vaccine for children. That’s after the discovery of black spots inside a vaccine tube last Thursday. A department official says it is unclear whether the black spots affect the safety of the vaccine.

Statistics from Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that 145,000 children have already received the injection. Parents say they are angry, and worried that their children may have been injected with the vaccine in question.

This is the fourth vaccine quality issue that the government has reported so far this year. Since October, the government has ordered a halt to the use of some 840,000 flu vaccines. That’s following reports of discoloration and spots in vaccines produced by Sanofi and Adimmune.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/31
By: Yang Shu-min and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Dec. 31 (CNA) The Council of Agriculture (COA) is planning to deploy more sniffer dogs and install X-ray scanners at speedy immigration clearance gates at airports after finding the number of travelers trying to smuggle meat products into Taiwan has not declined despite heavy fines.

The fine for bringing in pork or pork products from African swine fever (ASF)-infected territories, including China, Hong Kong, Macao, Russia and some European nations, was raised to NT$200,000 (US$6,564) on Dec. 18, with second offenders facing a NT$1 million fine.

The COA thought the stiffer punishments might work as a deterrent, but have turned out to be useless, said COA deputy chief Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城) Monday.

People keep coming in with banned products, he said, adding that “raising fines is not an issue any more.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 01, 2019
By: Chen Feng-li and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Hushan Elementary School in Nantou County’s Caotun Township (草屯) on Thursday

last week completed a 10 million rope-skips challenge, raising NT$80,000 to foster creativity in children and for books.

It was the second such event after the school’s rope-skipping challenge the previous semester, when it received NT$1 for every lap of the school’s 200m track a student or faculty member completed while skipping, the school said.

It raised NT$100,000 from the Lotus Light Charity Society in Taiwan over the semester, it said.

A bonus was that children with obesity slimmed down while smaller students became more fit from the skipping, the school said, adding that the exercise had also helped students focus on their studies.    [FULL  STORY]