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Sulfur dioxide additive plan by FDA criticized

COMPLAINTS: Companies had urged the agency to reclassify the gas so they would not be fined for using sulfites, but critics say the idea is misleading

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 26, 2018
By: Wu Liang-yi and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Medical professionals and food safety experts have decried a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposal to legalize sulfur dioxide as a food additive, with one calling it meaningless and potentially misleading.

Sulfur dioxide is an allergen that could cause stomach and bowel irritations or in severe cases trigger asthma attacks, physician Yan Tsung-hai (顏宗海), a clinical toxicology specialist at Linkou Chang Gung Medical Hospital, said on Saturday.

Sulfur dioxide is an unintended chemical byproduct from sulfites, legal additives commonly added to preserved foods for freshness and color, said Hsu Tin-chen (許庭禎), a professor of food science and technology at Taiwan National University.

Their comments came in response to the FDA’s announcement on Wednesday of its revised food safety regulations, which are set to take effect within 60 days after a period of public comment.    [FULL  STORY]

US signals a sea change on Taiwan 4 decades after severing ties

Trump’s signing of travel bill pleases Taipei and angers Beijing

Nikkei Asian Review
Date: March 24, 2018
By: KENSAKU IHARA, Nikkei staff writer

TAIPEI — Relations between the U.S. and Taiwan, severed diplomatically about 40 years

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, left, at an event held by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei on March 21. © Reuters

ago, are arriving at a turning point.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act, which allows high-ranking officials to meet with their Taiwanese counterparts and vice versa, into law on March 16. Already having passed Congress, the bill would have automatically gone into effect past that day even if Trump had not signed it.

Trump had the option of not signing as a show of consideration for China, but he acted at the last minute.

The U.S. president has played his “Taiwan card,” said Fan Shih-ping, a professor at National Taiwan Normal University here.    [FULL  STORY]

Air pollution hits far south, Kinmen, Matsu

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-24

Air pollution has hit Taiwan’s far south as well as the outlying island groups of Kinmen and Matsu.

Early Saturday, orange alerts were issued in Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, Kinmen, and Matsu, as monitoring stations recorded poor air quality. Under Taiwan’s six-tiered air quality scale, an orange alert indicates air that is unhealthy for sensitive persons. The Environmental Protection Administration says that poor air circulation is behind the lowered air quality.

According to an administration official, next week could see poor air quality continue in parts of Taiwan, especially in the more heavily populated western side. The official says there is a chance that some areas could see red alerts for air quality during the next week. The more serious red alert indicates air that is generally unhealthy.
[SOURCE]

Taiwan luxury car dealer accused of hiding two illegal Filipina maids

Two women were transferred to detention center before deportation

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/24
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A distributor of luxury cars and his wife have been accused of

Taiwan luxury car dealer accused of illegally employing Filipinas. (By Associated Press)

illegally employing and hiding two women from the Philippines at their Taipei home, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported Saturday.

Yun San Motors (永三企業) Chairman Chang Po-shin (張伯欣), 86, imports European and Japanese fashion brands as well as Bentley, McLaren, Aston Martin and Bugatti luxury cars, and once served as chairman of the Chang Hwa Bank.

Last Tuesday morning, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) visited Chang’s home on the capital’s Xinsheng South Road and found two illegally employed Filipinas, identified as Nancy and Mary, according to the Apple Daily. As a result, Chang could face a fine of NT$750,000 (US$25,600) per illegal worker.    [FULL  STORY]

Earth Hour events in Taiwan call for real action to protect Earth

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/24
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, March 24 (CNA) Numerous events will be held across Taiwan to observe Earth

CNA file photo

Hour, including turning off lights for an hour Saturday evening, to encourage real action to reduce energy consumption, event organizers said.

Members of the public are encouraged to turn off unnecessary lights for one hour to “get connected to Earth,” said Liu Yue-mei (劉月梅), chairwoman of the Society of Wilderness (SOW), which coordinates the events islandwide each year.

“This year we want to also highlight the importance of biodiversity and invite people to mitigate climate change and human disturbances to the environment,” Liu said.

In Taipei, an event will be held outside the Taipei City Hall between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., with the lights-off action to take place at 8:30 p.m., according to the society.
[FULL  STORY]

Protesters call for Sunflower violence justice

PHOTO EVIDENCE: About 10 protesters blasted the government for its inaction in finding the police officers who were accused of excessive violence in 2014

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 25, 2018 – Page 3　
By: Su Fang-ho and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Protesters early yesterday gathered outside the National Police Agency headquarters in

A mask painted with the slogan “consciousness swallowed by a cat” is left outside the Executive Yuan and National Police Agency buildings early yesterday to protest the government’s failure to identify police officers who they say used excessive force on Sunflower movement protesters in 2014.  Photo: Provided by a reader

Taipei, spraying paint on a wall and demanding justice for police violence during the 2014 Sunflower movement. One person was arrested at the scene.

“Fourth anniversary of March 23,” protesters wrote on one of the building’s outer walls, referring to the day in 2014 when students and others protesting a controversial cross-strait service trade agreement attempted to occupy the Executive Yuan after occupying the Legislative Yuan.

Riot police at the time used excessive force against non-violent protesters, the protesters said.

Photographs taken on March 24, 2014, when riot police arrived at the Executive Yuan to evict protesters at about 5am, clearly show police beating protesters with batons, “splitting their heads open” and firing on others with water cannons, one protester said.

The images, which were published in international media, show police using excessive force, but the government says that the perpetrators cannot be found, they said.

About 10 people were involved in the painting yesterday, some of whom were also involved in the attempted occupation four years ago, the protester said.    [FULL  STORY]

Trump’s U.S.-Taiwan policy shift

Axios
Date: March 23, 2018
By: Bill Bishop of Sinocism

Since the signing of the Taiwan Travel Act last week, the U.S. has sent two senior officials

American Institute in Taiwan director Kin Moy, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, AmCham Taipei chairman Albert Chang and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alex Wong (from l to r) toast during a banquet in Taipei on March 21, 2018. Photo: Sam Yeh / AFP / Getty Images

to Taiwan — Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alex Wong and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing Ian Steff, South China Morning Post reports.
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Quick take: Trump did not have to sign the Taiwan Travel Act as it would have come into force anyway. Beijing views his affirmative signing as a signal that Trump may be reverting to his pre-inauguration inclination to reconsider the “One China Policy,” one of the foundations of the U.S.-China relationship.

Bigger picture: Recent administration appointments may also drive a re-evaluation of U.S. policy towards Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

#MeToo movement reaches Taiwan’s judiciary

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-23

The secretary-general of Taiwan’s judiciary, Lu Tai-lang, says all judicial officials should undergo training in gender equality, starting with the justice minister and deputy minister.

The call on Friday comes amid criticism of the handling of a sexual harassment case involving a former Taipei judge. The judge was initially dismissed for sexually harassing his assistant but reinstated on appeal.

Lu Tai-lang on Friday said the culture within the judiciary needed to change and that all officials, from the top down, should undergo training in issues of sexual equality and discrimination.

Lu said a group of experts had been invited to teach such a class on Wednesday next week. He said the judiciary’s top officials, from the minister and deputy minister on down, would be attending.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese woman’s journey to achieving full body tattoo

The illustrated woman: Tattoo artists shares experiences receiving full body tattoo

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/23
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Hori Mayi. (Photo by Huang Hui)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Last Friday (March 16) Taiwan News interviewed and photographed a Taiwanese tattoo artist who shared her experience achieving a full body tattoo.

Born Hu Yu-hsin (胡毓欣) in Nantou County, the heart of Taiwan, Hu later took the artistic name Hori Mayi (彫舞, tattoo dance) when she became a tattoo artist.

During middle school, Hori first became interested in tattoos, but because of the conservative society in Taiwan at the time, she did not dare to get one.

When Hori turned 18, she decided she was ready and gifted herself a tattoo of a butterfly on her left shoulder blade. She found that it took about 40 minutes and was not as painful as she thought it would be.    [FULL  STORY]

Over 400 fraud suspects arrested in four day sweep: CIB official

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/23
By: Liu Chien-pang and William Yen

Taipei, March 23 (CNA) Authorities in Taiwan have arrested over 400 fraud suspects in a

Interior Minister Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮, front left)

four-day sweep, including some involved in an unprecedented case, a Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) official said Friday.

A total of 418 alleged cash mules were arrested, with NT$34 million (US$1.17 million) and eight cars seized, CIB Commissioner Tsai Tsan-po (蔡蒼柏) said at a National Police Agency press conference held Friday.

Multiple fraud cases have been cracked, including the first case of Taiwanese fraudsters deceiving Chinese people in the United States by pretending to be authorities from China, Tsai said.

Tsai said the central government has been actively combating fraud by concentrating their efforts on cash mules, and 201 cash mules were arrested during a sweep at the end of last year before a second wave of operations were carried out from March 19 to 22 this year.    [FULL  STORY]