Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

Taiwan News
The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/22
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

Taiwanese Olympians on Wednesday voiced their opposition to a referendum on whether Taiwan should apply to participate in international sporting events under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei.”

According to Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩), who won bronze in the women’s archery event at the 2016 Rio Games, Taiwan faces exclusion from competing in Olympic-related events if the referendum passes and Taiwan needs to adhere to 1981 Lausanne Agreement.

Taiwan’s top discus thrower, Chang Ming-huang (張銘煌) said the arguments in support of the name change are illogical, because Taiwan could be suspended not only from the Olympics, but all international sporting events if it violates the Lausanne Agreement.

The statements come a day after backers of the name change referendum claimed that if Taiwan is suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), its athletes will still be accepted as independent Olympians.    [FULL  STORY]

Sun has unremittingly pursued his craft for over 50 years

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/11/22
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan news) — The 2018 National Craft Achievement Awards award ceremony was held today, and the prize was presented to pottery artist Sun Chao (孫超), 89, who has dedicated his life to crystalline glaze creations.

The Craft Achievement Awards are held each year by the National Craft Research and Development Institute. Current Minister of Culture Ming Li-chiun (鄭麗君) pointed out that the prize has been running for 12 years and has long been supported by the ministry.

The minister added that her department has always attached importance to craftsmanship and encourages artists to utilize Taiwan’s rich history of craft to reengage modern citizens with traditional cultures. She said this ought not to be the goal of individual artists but the long-term aim of cultural construction work.

Prize jurist and artistic director of design company New Chi Art said participants in the award had their works rigorously assessed by nine judges. After deliberation, judges unanimously decided Sun Chao was to be this year’s recipient.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/22
By: Huang Li-yun and Chi Jo-yao

Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Thursday

that a man who allegedly incited online for someone to kill Kuomintang (KMT) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has been questioned by the police and the case passed on to the local prosecutors office.

The man, surnamed Chao (趙), was identified as an engineer living in Taipei City who allegedly posted on PTT Nov. 14 “The people of Kaohsiung have sworn to take revenge and kill Han Kuo-yu,” the CIB said at a press conference Thursday.

PTT is one of the most popular bulletin boards in Taiwan.

The police launched an investigation and quickly found the 47-year-old suspect, who may have violated Article 305 of the Criminal Code by threatening to cause injury to others, Commander Lin Chien-lung (林建隆) of the CIB’s 9th Investigation Brigade said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 23, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Authorities have raided two underground gambling operations in Kaohsiung where

people had been betting on the outcome of tomorrow’s nine-in-one elections, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said on Wednesday.

Bureau officials also said that after receiving 124 complaints about people posting fake news, circulating misinformation or making unsubstantiated accusations against candidates, prosecutors are in the process of charging 101 suspects in 85 cases.

In the first gambling case, local police and the bureau raided a building in Kaohsiung’s Yancheng District (鹽埕), where 12 suspects, including the alleged leader, surnamed Su (蘇), were arrested, the bureau said.

Equipment, account books and NT$6.21 million (US$201,010) in cash was seized, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Science Magazine
Date: Nov. 21, 2018
By: Andrew Silver

TAIPEI—Taiwanese scientists and environmental groups are fighting to stop the planned construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal off the coast of Datan borough in the city of Taoyuan on Taiwan’s northwestern coast, which they say will damage a unique algal reef ecosystem. About 100 people gathered on the beach on 17 November to call for the project to be moved to another site.

The proposed terminal will span 9 square kilometers and include a U-shaped port with a bridge connecting it to two LNG storage tanks to be built in an existing industrial park nearby.

Taiwan’s new energy policy aims to phase out nuclear energy by 2025 and increase the share of natural gas in electricity generation to 50%. (Renewables will make up 20%, and coal the rest.) To meet those goals, a power plant in Datan will be expanded, and the only way to meet its demand schedule, according to the state-owned oil and gas firm CPC, is to build the LNG terminal nearby.

But scientists say construction will further damage a 27-kilometer reef along the Taoyuan coastline built up over 7500 years by a group of pink and purple algal species named crustose coralline algae. The reef is home to a wide variety of species, including hammerhead sharks, six species of moray eels, and the largest population of Polycyathus chaishanensis, an endangered coral species endemic to Taiwan that was first described in 2010.    [FULL  STORY]

 

 

Quartz
Date: November 21, 2018
By: Isabella Steger

Nov. 24 is a day of hyper-democracy in Taiwan. Millions of people will go to the polls to vote on 10 referendums on questions involving radioactive seafood, nuclear power, same-sex marriage—and the vanquishment of the moniker “Chinese Taipei.”

For decades, Taiwanese athletes haven’t been able to compete under “Taiwan” in international sporting events due to pressure from China, which claims the island as its own territory and endeavors to forbid it from using the nomenclature Taiwan, or its official name, the Republic of China, in any international setting.

But some voters are hoping a referendum could change that for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In addition to voting on the Chinese Taipei name change this weekend, they’ll decide on a number of crucial local elections that are seen as a test of support for the ruling party.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently reiterated its opposition to any move by Taiwan to change its name, and even warned it could be expelled from the IOC if it pressed ahead with it. The head of Taiwan’s Olympic committee has also expressed opposition to the referendum, arguing that any move to change Taiwan’s name could jeopardize its ability to participate in the games.
[FULL  STORY]

 

Monks gone wild: Buddhist monk caught making porn videos, throwing sex parties, taking drugs in western Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/21
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — News has surfaced of a Buddhist monk in western Taiwan

caught breaking every monastic vow in the book, including allegedly taking drugs, filming pornographic videos, and throwing sex parties.

Police in Miaoli County yesterday (Nov. 20) arrested a 29-year-old Buddhist monk identified as Master Kaihung (開泓法師), who’s birth name was Hsieh Jen-hao (謝仁豪), for possessing illegal drugs, among other suspected crimes. The list of alleged impious acts committed by the monk has been described by Liberty Times as one of the biggest scandals within Taiwan’s Buddhist community in many years.

When Miaoli police arrived at the Chongfo Temple (崇佛寺) yesterday with a search warrant, they were blocked from entering by four monks, who shouted to Kaihung to hide in another room. Kaihung then locked himself inside the room, but it was not long before a man surnamed Chen (陳) unlocked the door.

Once police entered the room, they first encountered a startled-looking Kaihung playing with a smart phone. Inside his wardrobe they found 19 grams of amphetamines, pipes, erection medication, anal relaxants, ultra thin condoms, and a container of Tapeijou holy water (大悲咒水) filled with sexual lubricant, reported Liberty Times.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/21
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan 

Taipei, Nov. 21 (CNA) Taiwan is a textbook case of China’s use of “sharp power” to manipulate or undermine a democracy and project its influence abroad, a situation that did not sound alarm bells until recently, political scientist Wu Rwei-ren (吳叡人) said Wednesday.

China’s recent efforts to influence Taiwan’s upcoming local government elections have finally alerted people to the inroads China’s sharp power have made into Taiwan society, Wu said at a forum.

The panoply of information operations launched by China’s cyber army against candidates during the election campaign is “the biggest crisis facing Taiwan’s democracy,” said Wu, an associate research fellow at the Academia Sinica.

“Sharp power” is defined as efforts by authoritarian influences to pierce, penetrate, or perforate the political and information environments in targeted countries, according to the United States National Endowment Foundation in a 2017 report.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 20 November, 2018
By: Shirley Lin

President Tsai Ing-wen says fake news coming from authoritarian countries is

eroding democracy more seriously than she had imagined. Tsai was speaking on Tuesday while meeting a delegation from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US think tank.

Tsai said that a report by CSIS says China has been interfering in Taiwan’s politics through spreading fake news on social media platform. She said other democratic countries are facing the same challenges.

Tsai said,”With advances in technology and social media, this kind of non-traditional threat is more serious than we imagined it to be. The chair of the American Institute in Taiwan, James Moriarty, said in an interview that outside forces have sought to manipulate public opinion and disseminate false information during Taiwan’s elections this year. He said this is a very dangerous phenomenon.”

The president said she hopes that Taiwan and like-minded countries can work together to protect the values of freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law.
[SOURCE]