Taiwan’s educational landscape is shifting as parents and institutions adapt to a future that mandates coding skills from middle school through to university.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/06
By: Rosemary Chen

This is the second of a 2 part series. You can read part 1 here. In part 2, Rosemary Chen

goes back to school as Taiwan’s kids and their teachers struggle to adapt to demands for a universal coding future.
With thick round glasses and strays of grey hair neatly tied back into a long pony-tail, Wang Xiu-lan (王秀蘭) sits in the seating area patiently waiting for her son to get out of class on a Saturday morning at OrangeApple — Taiwan’s first coding school for kids.

Previously preoccupied by the cross-stitch on her table, she cautiously puts it aside to answer questions. Her child is in fourth grade and has been coming to the academy every weekend since September last year. “I think information technology (IT) education is important and there are few opportunities at school for teacher-student interactions in Taiwan,” she says.    [FULL  STORY]

Spectacular photos of the bizarre ‘roll clouds’ that were spotted over Taiwan yesterday

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/03/06
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As new cold air front swept into Taiwan from the north, residents of Miaoli County and Taichung City yesterday (March 5) witnessed a rare “roll cloud” formation ominously approach like a scene from an apocalyptic disaster film.

“Roll clouds” are a type of arcus cloud which are rarely seen and are formed from the downdraft of a thunderstorm. They are given their name because they can form almost perfect tubes that appear to be “rolling” on a horizontal axis.

Many residents of Miaoli County and Taichung City witnessed the strange phenomenon and shared their photos on Facebook groups such as 苑裡串起來 and the Facebook page for Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典), director of the bureau’s Meteorological Research and Development Center.

On his Facebook page, Cheng wrote, “This was a leading cloud of a cold air mass which is has appeared in the form of a long, solitary line referred to as a ‘roll cloud’ with a relatively large width. It is caused by the outflow of cold air, with the heavier cold air lifting the warm and wet air ahead of it, causing the warm and wet water to condense and produce this type of linear cloud.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: D2018/03/06
By: Liu Chien-pang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, March 6 (CNA) Taipei City Government established a cooperative venture with

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and seven local universities Tuesday.

The move marks an effort to promote cloud-based big data services and a platform that educational institutions can use by taking advantage of big data provided by the city, according to the city government.

With this venture, the city government has joined the AWS Public Data Set platform through which it will provide the public with access to the big data it generates, the Taipei City Department of Information Technology said in a statement.

Initially, 18 categories of big data services will be provided on the Taipei AWS platform, including real time public bus and metro train information, information on available parking spaces and tap water quality test results, the department said.    [FULL  STORY]

Channel News Asia
Date: 05 Mar 2018 

BEIJING: China signalled on Monday (Mar 5) it was hardening its stance on dissent in

Taiwan and Hong Kong, where it faces growing frustration with the increasingly authoritarian government of President Xi Jinping.

In a report to the opening session of the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang warned China “will never tolerate any separatist schemes” in Taiwan, amid increasing tensions between the mainland and the self-ruled island.

The warning to the almost 3,000 members of the mostly ceremonial legislature followed the omission of language supporting the political autonomy of Hong Kong and Macau that had featured prominently in previous years.

The report said Beijing would continue to uphold its “one China” principle and promote “peaceful growth” relations with Taiwan under the 1992 consensus, which agrees that there is only one China without specifying whether Beijing or Taipei is its rightful representative.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/china-signals-hardened-stance-on-hong-kong-taiwan-10013316

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-05

The foreign ministry has lodged a strong protest against Japan over the harassment of a

Taiwanese fishing boat by a Japanese vessel. That was the word from foreign ministry spokesman Andrew Lee on Monday.

Lee said the Japanese vessel chased the Taiwanese boat on Saturday and Sunday while it was off Taiwan’s northeast coast. The Japanese vessel also threatened the Taiwanese boat with a water cannon.

Lee said the government lodged a strong protest against Japan on Monday because it had “enforced the law in an excessive manner”. Lee also accused the Japanese vessel of closely following the Taiwanese boat near Taiwan’s territorial waters.    [FULL  STORY]

Liu Jieyi, deputy director of the TAO told reporters that the Central Committee’s plans for government restructuring are still under consideration

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/05
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – After last week’s reports coming out of China of a rumored

merger of the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) with the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, the recently appointed deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, Liu Jieyi (劉結一) has stated that the rumors “are not authoritative.”

Liu’s comments were made at the start of first session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) on Monday, March 5, when responding to a reporter’s questions about the alleged office merger.

Liu Jieyi has also served as the Chinese representative to the UN since 2013, and has acted as the President of the UN Security Council on four occasions. He is rumored to be up for promotion to the director of the TAO following this Congressional session.

While his comments do not appear to directly contradict the rumor, the TAO deputy director emphasized that “the institutional reforms of the Central Committee are dedicated to increasing the efficiency of government, but people must wait patiently for any specific measures to be announced.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/05
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan, Lu Hsin-hui and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, March 5 (CNA) A retired colonel who sustained a severe head injury in a protest

on Feb. 27 against the government’s plan to cut pensions for military personnel died Monday after his family agreed to take him off life support.

During the protest, 62-year-old Miao Te-sheng (繆德生) of the Blue Sky Actions Alliance was trying to climb the wall of a legislative building to raise the national flag when he fell from a height of about 5-6 meters.

Miao hit his head when he landed on the ground, and went into cardiac arrest. He was then rushed to National Taiwan University Hospital and was resuscitated there, but remained in a coma and under observation in the intensive care unit.

After several days of care, the hospital announced Monday he was brain dead, and his family decided at around 2:50 p.m. to take him off equipment that was keeping him alive.
[FULL  STORY]