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Taiwan to upgrade second-hand destroyers from US

Trump administration approved sale of upgraded naval electronic warfare system to Taiwan last year

Asia Times
Date: December 10, 2018
By: Asia Times Staff

Taiwan’s Keelung-class destroyers are retrofitted vessels bought from the US. Photo: WikiMedia

Taiwan’s Navy will upgrade the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare system on the force’s four Keelung-class guided missile destroyers. The upgrade, with a price tag of NT$1.99 billion (US$65.24 million), is expected to be completed by 2023.

It would enhance the system’s electronic and mechanical countermeasure capabilities to improve the vessels’ survival rate. The previous version of the electronic warfare systems, V-3, has been in use for 13 years.

Systems aboard destroyers of similar classes in service with the US Navy have already been upgraded to the V-6 variant, and the Pentagon has suggested that Taiwan follow suit, according to the Central News Agency. This follows the Trump administration’s approval in June 2017 to sell AN/SLQ-32 upgrades to the self-ruled island.

The AN/SLQ-32 is a shipboard warfare suite built by Raytheon and Hughes Aircraft Company as the primary electronic warfare system in use by US Navy ships.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Hualien is a great place to visit during Christmas season for its rich activities

Christmas lights, light art shows, a fair, concerts, Christmas Eve candlelight service, and other activities will make the Christmas season a great time to visit Hualien

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/10
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

(Photo courtesy of Orrin Hoopman)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Christmas lights, light art shows, a Christmas fair, Christmas concerts, Christmas Eve candlelight service, and other activities from Dec. 18 to Dec. 25 will make the week a great time to come visit Hualien, according to a news release recently posted by Hualien County Government.

A 9-meter tall Christmas tree was lighted on the night of Dec. 1 at the White Lighthouse Park (白燈塔公園) to officially announce Hualien’s 2018 Christmas serial activities.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan ‘very poor’ on climate change, but EPA says it’s ‘committed’

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/10
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Ko Lin

Image taken from Climate Change Performance Index website (www.climate-change-performance-index.org)

Taipei, Dec. 10 (CNA) Taiwan is committed to playing its part in the global efforts to tackle climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, an official with the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said on Monday, responding to a report by Germanwatch that gave Taiwan a bad performance review.

Germanwatch, a non-profit, non-governmental organization which lobbies for sustainable global development, on Monday released its Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2019, which rated Taiwan as “very poor” among the 60 countries listed in the CCPI.

Taiwan was ranked 56th, dropping two spots from 54th position last year, according to CCPI 2019.

The evaluation of the index is based on several key indicators, including emissions level, emissions development, and renewable energy.    [FULL  STORY]

Flow monitoring system helps ease traffic jams

TEAM EFFORT: The smart system is already being used in Hsinchu County and the Philippines, and Thailand is interested in it, Elan Microelectronics’ chairman said

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 11, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

A “smart” transport monitoring system developed by a joint academic-business team has helped reduce traffic jams around Hsinchu, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said yesterday.

The team, whose members come from Academia Sinica’s Institute of Information Science, National Taiwan Ocean University and Elan Microelectronics Corp, discussed the potential applications of their system at a news conference at the ministry in Taipei.

The team was put together by National Taiwan University’s Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Robotics — one of the four AI research centers the ministry has set up — to explore applications of machine deep learning in tackling multimedia data, institute director Mark Liao (廖弘源) said.

The research is guided by proposals from Elan.    [FULL  STORY]

Forget China, Taiwanese voters care about bread-and-butter issues too

Hong Kong Free Press
Date: 9 December 2018
By: Gray Sergeant

There is more to Taiwan elections than cross-strait relations. Taiwanese voters, like people in any other democracy, go to the ballot box to register their approval or disapproval of domestic policies and leadership. The quick comeback of the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT), after the 2014 “green wave,” and the drubbing of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) does not necessarily mean Taiwanese voters are warming to China.

Last month’s results were unquestionably a disaster for the DPP. The opposition KMT reversed their fortunes by taking 15 of the 22 city and county seats. While the DPP’s share of local authorities fell from thirteen to just six. President Tsai Ing-Wen’s party also suffered a hugely symbolic defeat in Kaohsiung, which has traditionally been a stronghold for the DPP and is historic as a place of pro-democracy (anti-KMT) resistance during the islands authoritarian era.

The results of Taiwan’s numerous referendums also saw a victory for conservative movements on the island. Multiple questions, proposed by Taiwan’s increasingly organised anti-LGBT lobby, were voted for by large margins. Meanwhile, the voting down of one motion calling on Taiwanese athletes to participate in international sporting events under the name ‘Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese, Taipei,” was a blow to pro-independence forces.

For international audiences Taiwanese politics is viewed through the prism of two competing camps: the pro-China blue camp and the pro-independence green camp, led respectively by the two main parties the KMT and the DPP.    [FULL  STORY]

Fact-checking in focus as fake news turns deadly at Kansai

Formosa News
Date: 2018/12/09

For many of us, checking messages on Line and logging in to Facebook or Instagram is a daily habit. Social media can keep us in touch with friends, but they also expose us to information from well beyond our inner circle. A problem arises when that information is accepted without a fact-check, and when it is sent to other people who also take it as the truth. Last week, the Interior Ministry drafted legislation that tries to fight the rampant spread of fake news in the age of social media. The government argues that fake news can have harmful consequences. Today we’ll look at an instance of fake news that ultimately became fatal. Here’s our Sunday special report.

September 2018. Typhoon Jebi slammed through Japan’s Kansai region, shutting down Kansai International Airport. After the typhoon departed, a storm of another kind began to brew.

During the onslaught of Typhoon Jebi, reports emerged that China had sent coach buses to the airport to rescue stranded travelers. Soon afterward, Taiwan’s representative office in Japan came under fire for not doing the same. Coming under mounting pressure, Taiwan’s head representative in Osaka Su Chii-cherng committed suicide. It was later discovered that the many reports of China’s storm evacuation had not been true. How did these reports come about?    [FULL  STORY]

Temperature forecast to drop Wednesday in northern Taiwan

A strong wave of cold air from the north will arrive in Taiwan this week, driving temps as low as 15 degrees

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/09
By:  Central News Agency

(Image from Unsplash user Ben_Kerckx)

TAIPEI (CNA) — A strong wave of cold air from the north will arrive in Taiwan this week, sending the mercury in northern areas of the island down to 15 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, the Central Weather Bureau said Sunday.

The cold air mass will begin to affect Taiwan on Tuesday night and will blanket the northern part of the country until Dec. 15, weather forecaster Hsu Chung-yi (徐仲毅) said.

In coastal and open areas of northern Taiwan, the temperature will drop on Wednesday to a low of 15 degrees, while in the Greater Taipei it will be 16 degrees with sporadic showers, Hsu forecast.

He said the weather will start to warm up Friday, with temperatures rising to 25-26 degrees Saturday, before another wave of cold air arrives Sunday.    [FULL  STORY]

Indonesian honored for efforts to establish mosque

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/09
By: Hau Hsueh-chin and Joseph Yeh

Taichung, Dec. 9 (CNA) Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) on Sunday honored an

Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇, fifth left)

Indonesian migrant worker whose fund-raising efforts over a 10-year period helped establish the first mosque in Pingtung County earlier this year.

At celebrations in Taichung to mark International Migrants Day, Hsu paid tribute to the worker known as Muksin, the founder of the An-Nur Tongkang Mosque (東港清真寺) in southeastern Taiwan.

Muksin, who has been working as a fisherman in Pingtung’s Donggang Township since 1999, embarked on a goal to establish a mosque in the township for the many Indonesian Muslim fishermen there, Hsu said.

After years of fundraising and trying to find a suitable site, Muksin and his compatriots in Taiwan managed to obtain NT$7 million to establish the An-Nur Tongkang Mosque on Xingyu Street (興漁街), which can accommodate 120 worshipers, Hsu said.
[FULL  STORY]

Commission exonerates 1,505 people

ABSOLVED: Taiwan should be a nation of justice and integrity, and the government should tackle the history of injustice head-on, Vice President Chen Chien-jen said

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 10, 2018
By: Chen Yu-fu  /  Staff reporter

A total of 1,505 people who were unjustly convicted during the authoritarian era were

Vice President Chen Chien-jen, center back, presides over a traditional Atayal ceremony at the Jingmei Human Rights Memorial and Cultural Park in New Taipei City yesterday, in which 1,505 people who were unjustly convicted during the nation’s authoritarian era were exonerated.  Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times

yesterday exonerated in a traditional Atayal ritual attended by Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁).

Of the people exonerated, 27 were Aborigines who were unjustly tried in the aftermath of the 228 Incident or during the White Terror era, Chen said at the event held in New Taipei City’s Jingmei Human Rights Memorial and Cultural Park.

Many of them were very young when they were convicted and some were executed, he said, adding that it was deeply humiliating and traumatic for the victims and their families.

Although many of the exonerated people have passed away, the government still has to ensure that the guilty verdicts from the unjust trials are revoked, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT councilor courts New Power Party as battle heats up for Taipei council speaker

Formosa News
Date: 2018/12/07

The race is on for speaker of the Taipei City Council, and so far it looks like the KMT is ahead. KMT Councilor Chin Hui-chu is reportedly in talks with small parties as she consolidates support in her bid for speaker of the council. In the coming session of the Taipei City Council, neither of the two major parties will hold a majority, which means that third parties will have an outsize power.

The three NPP members elected to the Taipei City Council have formed a party caucus that will be headed by Lin Ying-meng.

The new caucus floated its demands for the next council session: an impartial speaker and deputy speaker, as well as open-door cross-party negotiations. The caucus said it wouldn’t rule out working with either of the major parties.    [FULL  STORY]