Public shocked by death of Taiwanese TV commentator Liu Chun-yao from pancreatic cancer at age 52

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Fans of Taiwanese TV commentator and journalist Liu Chun-yao (劉駿耀) were shocked to learn today that he died last night at the age of 52 from pancreatic cancer, reported Apple Daily.

A doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Apple Daily that Liu had been suffering from advanced stage pancreatic cancer. Over the past two years, Liu had been receiving several series of treatments at Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District.

The doctor said his condition changed six months ago and his health started to deteriorate rapidly over the past month. On his last Facebook post uploaded on Feb. 6, Liu thanked everyone for their birthday wishes.

Five weeks ago, a netizen claimed to have seen Liu at a shopping mall recently and felt that he was “too thin and looked unhealthy.” Four weeks ago, another netizen wrote, “I haven’t seen you for a long time. Our office staff misses you very much.”
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/08
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Dec. 8 (CNA) The record of Taiwanese novelist Yang Kui (楊逵), who was

imprisoned by the Kuomintang (KMT) government from 1949 to 1961, will be expunged on Sunday as he has been categorized as a victim of political persecution, an official with the Transitional Justice Commission said Saturday.

The move is part of the work of the Transitional Justice Commission, which has already expunged the records of 1,270 people it said were victims of political persecution.

Yang’s name will be among the 1,505 that will be removed from the country’s criminal records on Sunday in the second round of such actions by the commission, said Yang’s granddaughter Yang Tsui (楊翠), who is now acting head of the Transitional Justice Commission.

Yang Kui was imprisoned in 1949 for publishing a “Declaration of Peace,” a document that called on the government to release political prisoners who had been arrested during a brutal crackdown by the KMT after an anti-government uprising on Feb. 28, 1947 that left an estimated 18,000-28,000 people dead.    [FULL  STORY]

CONSIDERABLE COMMISSION: Sun Shao-ying took more than a year to finish nearly 130 paintings, most of which were published in a book to promote tourism in the city

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 09, 2018
By: Ou Su-mei and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Artist Sun Shao-ying’s (孫少英) watercolor paintings, which depict historic parts of

Taichung, are on display at the city’s Hong Wen Senior High School until Dec. 22.

Sun, 88, moved to Taiwan when he was 18 years old. After graduating as an art major, he worked as a designer at Kuangchi Program Service, before becoming Taiwan Television Enterprise’s artistic director.

After retiring at 60, he moved to his wife’s hometown of Puli Township (埔里) in Nantou County, and began focusing his energy on drawing scenery from across the nation, including the outlying islands.

Inspired by efforts by Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) administration to revitalize the city’s Central District (中區), Luan Art Co director Kang Tsui-min (康翠敏) proposed that the Taichung City Government commission Sun to do paintings of some of the oldest parts of the city.    [FULL  STORY]

How much of a threat is the telecommunications giant to Taipei?

The National Interest
Date: December 7, 2018
By: Wendell Minnick

Taiwan’s national security concerns do not appear to match that of its lone bodyguard, the United States , after it was discovered that Huawei Technologies has opened its first official storefront on the self-ruled island of twenty-three million.

Based in Shenzhen, China, Huawei hung its first shingle in Taipei in April and the company’s public relations effort is now in full Polar Express-mode at the Christmas extravaganza at Banqiao Station. Huawei-themed decorations dominated the show, including a children’s choo-choo train ride and a massive Santa with the company’s logo on it. My own children were giddy.

The telecommunications giant has close ties with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Ministry of State Security. The state-owned China Mobile Communications Group is Huawei’s largest shareholder, basically making Huawei an appendage of Beijing’s techno-Orwellian order. China is now constructing a massive surveillance state with a social credit system based on your attitudes and opinions of the Communist Party. Score too low and your kids do not get into university.    [FULL  STORY]

Legislative amendment inspired by recent cases of cruelty against animals

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/07
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – National education textbooks should include the topics of animal protection and animal rights, according to amendments approved by the Legislative Yuan Friday.

The change was a response to a number of cases of cruelty directed against pets, the Central News Agency reported.

Lawmakers argued the incidents showed that the knowledge of animal rights by the public at large was still lacking. According to the amendments, each level of government would share the responsibility of improving animal rights education.

Under existing laws, the approach was too passive, centering too much on healing and not enough on preventing problems, CNA reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/07
By: Ko Lin

Taipei, Dec. 7 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been ranked as the 40th most

powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine in its annual list of the world’s 100 most powerful women released Dec. 4.

This was the first time in three years that Tsai fell out of the top 20, after ranking 17th on the list in 2016 when she took office and 15th in 2017.

Describing Tsai as the first female leader of Taiwan, the magazine noted she had only 14 months left to win back voters in 2020 after her ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was defeated by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) in local government elections in November.

Taiwan will hold its next presidential election in early 2020.    [FULL  STORY]

A SERIOUS REQUEST: Prosecutors asked that the court give the harshest possible sentence to Oren Shlomo Mayer, as they say he was the mastermind

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 08, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

The three US nationals allegedly involved in the gruesome murder of a Canadian citizen

after a drug-related dispute were yesterday notified of the details of the indictment in court.

They were also denied bail in a separate hearing last night, as they are considered to be a flight risk and because of the severe circumstances of the case.

As the indictment documents are written in Chinese, the suspects’ lawyers would translate them into English, while interpreters would be present at the hearings, New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Lin Hung-sung (林宏松) told the Taipei Times yesterday.

Prosecutors on Thursday charged Israeli-American Oren Shlomo Mayer, 37, and American Odane Bent, 30, with the murder and dismemberment of Canadian Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan, whose body was found on a riverbank under Zhongzheng Bridge in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和) on Aug. 22.    [FULL  STORY]

The cops have been receiving flak for wasting taxpayers’ money on such a trivial pursuit.

News18.com
Date: December 6, 2018, 6:36 PM IST

Police in Taiwan has been receiving flak from locals after conducting DNA forensics tests

worth 18,000 New Taiwanese dollars (Rs 41,333 approx) to investigate the theft of a NT$2 (Rs 4.6) yoghurt drink.

According to a report in BBC, a woman in Taiwan’s Taipei approached local cops after she suspected one of her roommates of stealing her drink. The woman who shared a flat along with five other women, all students of Chinese Cultural University, found her empty yoghurt drink bottle in the trash one day. Despite interrogating her roommates, the woman could not get the culprit to confess. That was when she decided to approach the cops.

When fingerprint analysis wouldn’t work, she requested the cops to carry out DNA tests on all five of her roommates as well as herself to figure out the identity of the yoghurt thief. Each DNA test costs NT$3000.     [FULL  STORY]