Foreign Brief
December 24, 2018
By: Tommy Chai

The domestic political transformation underway in Taiwan is once again changing the dynamics of Taiwan-US-China trilateral relationship. The pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which saw a resurgence in 2016, is now facing a wave of political disillusionment due to its failure to deliver campaign promises. Its defeat in the “mid-term elections” has propelled the comeback of the Kuomintang Party (KMT), which now seeks to revive cross-strait engagement with China.

The KMT believes this is the quickest way to improve Taiwan’s stalling economy and regain popular support in the 2020 General Elections. China makes up 40% of Taiwan’s trade profile and Beijing has targeted the island with sanctions and diplomatic attacks in retaliation to DPP policies. But the KMT will be cautious about aligning too closely with Beijing on economic issues that threaten Taiwan’s democracy and de factoindependence, given the lasting experience of the politically humbling 2014 Sunflower Movement.

For Washington, the DPP’s defeat is both a boon and a bane. On the one hand, Washington has been wary of the rise of ‘deep Greens’ (radical pro-independent supporters) and President Tsai Ing-Wen’s non-acceptance of the ‘1992 Consensus’, which exacerbated China’s suspicions and aggressive activities across the strait. The DPP’s defeat may thus encourage the party to act more prudently in its approach to cross-strait policy in the year ahead. On the other hand, the White House is opposed to Taiwan’s potential drift to Beijing under the KMT’s majority rule in the city and county level.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei City, Taoyuan City, and Hsinchu City have also been included into the hotel stay subsidy scheme effective from Jan. 1 to Jan. 31, 2019

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/23
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau on Thursday announced in a news release that the upcoming hotel stay subsidy program, which originally would benefit Taiwanese citizens who would stay overnight during January 2019 at a hotel in any of 19 counties and cities across Taiwan, is now extended to cover the whole country.

After the inclusion of Taipei City, Taoyuan City, and Hsinchu City into the subsidy program, now the program is applicable to any legal hotels in the country.

The bureau said the reason it made the decision to include the three municipalities originally left out in the program was because the hotel industry in these three municipalities hoped to participate in the program and that a resolution reached by Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee on Dec. 20 also demanded the three municipalities be included in the program.

Now individual travelers who are under 59 years old and over 30 will be eligible for a maximum of NT$1,000 in subsidy per room if they stay at a hotel in Taiwan during Sunday to Thursday in January 2019; and for citizens over 60 years old or under 30, the maximum subsidy per room is NT$1,500 during the same period, the agency said.

The agency said it will appropriate an additional NT$320 million (around US$10 million) to fund the territory extension for the upcoming hotel stay subsidy program in hopes of bringing up overall room occupancy rates for the country’s hotel industry.
[SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/23
By: Yu Hsiao-han, Wang Shu-fen and William Yen

Taipei, Dec. 23 (CNA) A series of new regulations will come into force across Taiwan on Jan. 1, including higher monthly and hourly minimum wages, greater patient autonomy in health care and more stringent rules for reporting traffic violations.

The monthly minimum wage in Taiwan will be increased by NT$1,100 (US$35.69) from NT$22,000 to NT$23,100 from Jan. 1, while the hourly minimum wage will be increased by NT$10 from NT$140 to NT$150.

The wage increases are expected to involve about 1.8 million employees, including 1.36 million Taiwanese workers and 438,000 migrant workers.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 24, 2018
By: Chien Hui-ju and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

China’s poor handling of the African swine fever crisis is evidence of the dangers of

close cross-strait ties, National Taiwan University professor of veterinary studies Lai Shiow-suey (賴秀穗) said.

Taiwan has stepped up customs inspections at ports of entry in light of an outbreak that has been reported in 23 areas in China, which international media reports say has seen about 600,000 pigs culled since August.

Lai, 77, has been widely praised for his work to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease and the avian flu in Taiwan.

In an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times), Lai said that China failed to isolate and slaughter pigs infected with the disease, instead using them to make processed pork products.    [FULL  STORY]

Airports are being taken care of, but Taiwan has long coastlines: Ko

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/12/22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The prevention campaign against African swine fever should

not be concentrated solely on Taiwan’s airports but should also consider the island’s long coastline, I-Mei Foods Co. (義美食品) CEO Luis Ko (高志明) said Saturday.

Any loophole might lead to a rapid spread of the contagion, which would affect all of the island’s economy, the Central News Agency quoted Ko as telling reporters.

The I-Mei CEO reminded the public that an outbreak of foot and mouth disease resulted in the culling of 4 million pigs, costing the economy more than NT$170 billion (US$5.5 billion), CNA reported.

Everybody should consider the fate of hog farmers and do their best to help protect them by following the rules of prevention, Ko said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/22
By: Chiu Chun-chin and Ko Lin

Taipei, Dec. 22 (CNA) Authorities in Taipei said Saturday they are baffled as to why

passengers continue to bring meat products into Taiwan, despite signs at Taoyuan airport warning them about the fines for doing so.

The latest NT$200,000 (US$6,508) fine was slapped on a visitor from China, who tried to bring in 0.2 kilogram of ham sausages from Changzhou, Jiangsu province, at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

The passenger, who failed to declare the meat, was fined for violating the Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease, Taipei Customs officials said.

Meanwhile, another traveler from Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, tried to enter the country with 4.2 kg of pork buns and sausages.    [FULL  STORY]

Muslim-friendly tourism initiatives have seen early successes but could use further improvement.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/12/21
By: Matthew Fulco

Taiwan is aiming to attract more Muslim visitors from Southeast Asia in a bid to diversify its flagging tourism market, which has suffered from overdependence on China. Once the source of 40 percent of Taiwan’s 10 million annual visitors, China has restricted group tours to the island since the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidency in 2016. Without the influx of Chinese visitors, Taiwan’s tourism market has cooled dramatically, recording anemic 0.46 percent growth in 2017.

The DPP, wary of Beijing’s desire to annex Taiwan, has sought to reduce Chinese leverage over the island’s economic affairs. As part of the New Southbound Policy, a recasting of former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝)’s Go South initiative, Taiwan is wooing tourists from Southeast Asia. While the Vietnam and the Philippines are the fastest-growing markets, Taiwan is also seeking to attract visitors from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Considering that it has only a small domestic Muslim population, Taiwan may not seem like an obvious holiday destination for adherents of Islam. Yet the government has worked assiduously to make Taiwan Muslim-friendly, says Joe Y. Chou (周永暉), director general of the Tourism Bureau. He notes that the government is assisting restaurants and 4- and 5-star hotels to qualify for halal status (certifying that they meet the standards for what is permissible under Islamic law in terms of dietary requirements) and has created a dedicated section on the official tourism website listing Muslim-friendly accommodations and restaurants, as well as the locations of the eight mosques in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Di Ying is said to choose family life over her career

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/21
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Di Ying (狄鶯), 56, mother of Taiwanese terror suspect An

Tso “Edward” Sun (孫安佐), is reportedly quitting the showbiz world to devote herself to the care of her son.

Edward Sun, 18, arrived in Taiwan on Dec. 11 after more than 200 days spent in detention in the U.S. for threatening to launch a mass shooting at a school in Pennsylvania, in one of the most high-profile cases in Taiwan.

Known for her feisty temperament, Di Ying has been unusually quiet following her return to Taiwan with Edward Sun and her husband Sun Peng (孫鵬), who is also a veteran actor and variety show host, reported Sanlih.

Rumors have been rife about her retiring from the glitz and glamour of the entertainment scene, triggered by criticism and ridicule she received from the public when she was making every effort to save her son from imprisonment during the judicial proceedings, wrote Next Magazine.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/21
By: Huang Kuo-fang and William Yen

Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) Sixteen chicken carcasses that were recently dumped beside

a creek in Chiayi County were confirmed to be carriers of the highly pathogenic H5N2 influenza virus, the Livestock Disease Control Center of Chiayi County said Friday.

The presence of the H5N2 virus in the 16 chickens dumped by the creek in Jhongpu Township was confirmed in a report issued by the Council of Agriculture’s Animal Health Research Institute, the center said.

According to the Waste Disposal Act, any unlawful disposal of dead livestock can be subject to a fine of between NT$6,000 (US$195) and NT$3 million, the center said.

More serious cases may be handed over to local prosecutors and violators could face a maximum of five years in jail combined with a fine of up to NT$15 million, the center said.    [FULL  STORY]