Taipei Times
Date: Mar 30, 2018
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) should step down over Guosheng

Nuclear Power Plant’s No. 2 reactor tripping on Wednesday during test operations, while Premier William Lai (賴清德) should present an ad hoc report on the incident to the Legislative Yuan, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said yesterday.

During a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee last week Shen assured legislators that no problems would arise after the reactor was reactivated and that if it were to encounter another failure, as it did in May 2016, he would “mete out punishments,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) told a news conference at the legislature.

However, Wednesday’s incident occurred only about 25 hours after the reactor was restarted following maintenance work and inspections that lasted more than 600 days, Lee said.   [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/03/28
By:  Agencies

TAIWAN TODAY–Almost 1,500 professionals from 62 countries and territories have

received instruction to date at the Taiwan International Health Training Center, underscoring the nation’s commitment to advancing medical care development around the world, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare March 27.

Established in 2002 by the MOHW, the center is part of government efforts to realize the principle in the World Health Organization Constitution stating that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being.”

The facility is operated from Taipei Hospital in New Taipei City and comprises a network of 56 public and private sector medical institutions. It delivers courses spanning cutting-edge medical technology, emergency and health care management and traditional Chinese medicine. TIHTC also shares Taiwan’s experiences in implementing the National Health Insurance program, the country’s world-leading universal health care system.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/28
By: Lin Meng-ju and William Yen

Taipei, March 28 (CNA) State-run utility Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) and oil refiner CPC

Corp. Taiwan (CPC) signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to invest in two geothermal power plants in Yilan County, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said.

The project will begin in the county’s Renze area with the construction of a 2 MW geothermal power plant that will have the capacity to supply electricity to about 3,000 households for a year after it becomes operational in 2022, the MOEA said.

According to Taipower, the Renze plant will be built at cost of approximately NT$600 million (US$20.57 million), and a second geothermal plant will be set up later in Tuchang.

When both plants are completed, they will have a total capacity of 8 megawatts, Taipower said.    [FULL  STORY]

CONTESTED: Yang Li-huan refused to accept results of the polls, saying they did not conform with the preliminary results her aides had gathered during the polling process

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 29, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) is poised to represent

the KMT and compete against Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) in November’s mayoral election after he yesterday defeated two other candidates in the party’s primary.

According to the average results of three opinion polls released by the KMT’s Taoyuan chapter yesterday, Chen garnered a support rating of 35.68 percent, followed by Taoyuan City Councilor Lu Ming-che (魯明哲) with 33.06 percent and former KMT legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) with 31.24 percent.

Chen, who is serving a fourth term as legislator, is expected to be officially nominated by the KMT at a meeting of the party’s Central Standing Committee next week at the earliest, the party said.

If his nomination receives the committee’s support, Chen would be the second special municipality mayoral candidate nominated by the party after KMT Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who secured her nomination as the party’s Taichung candidate on Wednesday last week.    [FULL  STORY]

Business Insider
Date: March 27, 2018
By: Alex Lockie

• China has lived with Taiwan just miles off its shores as an existential threat to the ruling communist party for years, but lately rhetoric has heated up and China’s military has become more powerful.
• A cyberwarfare expert told Business Insider that China would likely kick off a fight to take Taiwan by attacking the US with a devastating cyber attack.
• This model follows how Russia took over Crimea in 2014, and most top military experts look at it as the future of warfare.

China’s has long lived with what it considers an existential threat just a few miles off its

shores, the breakaway province of Taiwan, a democratically ruled island whose very existence scares China’s ruling communist party to its core.

But with President Donald Trump’s friendly approach to the island, and a new, pro-independence government in power in Taipei, China has been seen flexing its military muscle and talking tough about Taiwan in increasingly alarming ways.    [FULL  STORY]

“It’s a tiring journey but worthy”, doctor Lin said

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/27
By: Alicia Nguyen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Teams of doctors from several Taiwan hospitals recently traveled

to remote regions of the Amazon rain forest to provide free consultations and diagnoses to Peruvian Indian tribes.

Starting from February 10, Taiwan hospitals such as Asia University Hospital (AUH), Kaohsiung Medical University, I-Shou University Hospitals along with local medical units participated in the international medical mission in Peru.

In an interview with CNA, the director of AUH’s neurosurgery department, Lin Chih-lung (林志隆), said the medical mission was harsh and tiring due to the long distance which required the team to use different means of transportation to arrive at the destination.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/27
By: Kuan-lin Liu, Wu Hsin-yun, Justin Su and Chen Chun-hua 

Taipei, March 27 (CNA) Most people in northern Taiwan are against a government plan to reopen and expand the coal-fired Shen’ao Power Plant in New Taipei City, according to a survey released Tuesday by Greenpeace Taiwan.

The poll found that 80 percent of residents in the three northern cities of Taipei, Keelung and New Taipei had not been aware of the plan and that 75 percent of them would not support it.

The biggest concerns cited were health issues, as expressed by 88.7 percent of the residents, carbon emissions (65.2 percent), and destruction of the natural scenery and wildlife habitats (58.9 percent), according the poll.

The survey was conducted by the Taiwan branch of the international environmental organization March 12-15, during the same period that the Environmental Protection Administration was carrying out an environmental impact assessment of the Shen’ao Power Plant project.    [FULL  STORY]