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Hot-blooded Taiwanese girl calls for blood donation before Chinese New Year as supplies running low

A 20-year-old Taiwanese girl along with 29 other young people on Sunday urged the public to donate blood before the Chinese New Year holiday as blood stocks are running low

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/21
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—A 20-year-old Taiwanese girl along with 29 other young people

Chung Chia-ling (鍾佳凌) is making her 14th blood donation (By Central News Agency)

on Sunday urged the public to donate blood before the Chinese New Year holiday as blood stocks are running low.

The Taipei Blood Center of the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation (TBSF) mobilized 30 young students to come forward to call for young people between 17 and 20 to cultivate the habit of donating blood voluntarily to stock the blood banks with enough blood that is readily available to help save lives. The legal age to donate blood in Taiwan is 17 years old.

Chung Chia-ling (鍾佳凌), who just turned 20 and is a student at the Nursing Department of Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, has donated blood 14 times, which is the most numerous among the group of students who participated in the campaign for blood donation.     [FULL  STORY]

Tour route on Canary Islands in memory of late Taiwanese writer

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/21
By: Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Jan. 21 (CNA) The tourism promotion authorities of the Spain-ruled Canary

Image taken from Pixabay

Islands in the Atlantic Ocean have mapped out a tour route in memory of the late Taiwanese writer Sanmao (三毛), in the hope of attracting millions of Chinese Sanmao fans, according to a report from China.

Sanmao, a pseudonym, was born as Chen Mao-ping (陳懋平) in Chongqing, China in 1943. At the age of 6, her family fled the Communists, moving to Taiwan.

In 1976 her autobiographic book, “Stories of the Sahara,” which portrays her experiences living in the then-Spanish-controlled Western Sahara with her Spanish husband José María Quero, was published in Taiwan. This established Sanmao as a travel writer in Chinese society with a unique voice and perspective.    [FULL  STORY]

Government pushes data act to get papers to archives

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 22, 2018
By: Lee Hsin-fang and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Executive Yuan plans to prioritize a proposed political data act (政治檔案條例) in the next legislative session and require government agencies to complete a survey of all political documents — including those from during the Martial Law era — within six months of the act’s implementation, sources said yesterday.

This would allow documents that have been verified as political documents to be sent to the national archives, the sources said.

To allow the government to gather political documents held by different agencies, political parties and civil groups — such as those from the Martial Law era that involve the violation of human rights — Premier William Lai (賴清德) has reportedly instructed the National Development Council (NDC) to draft a political data act that contains the qualities of a special law.

The instruction was made after the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) passed its third reading in the Legislative Yuan on Dec. 5.    [FULL  STORY]

ICRT Radio in Taiwan

Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration has expressed “strong regret” over
China’s condemnation of Taiwan’s move to put extra Lunar New Year
cross-strait flights on hold amid a dispute over the controversial M503
route.

In a statement on its official website, the Civil Aviation Administration of
China (CAAC) “condemned” Taiwan’s move to delay approval of applications by
two China-based airlines to operate extra flights in protest of China’s
decision to launch a northbound M503 route.

The statement contended that Taiwan’s act of “revenge against China” will
eventually hurt airlines and people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait —
and the rights of Taiwanese people in particular — and that “the Taiwanese
authority should take full responsibility for all the consequences.”

Meanwhile . . .

Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Adminstration urged China to start negotiations
with Taiwan as soon as possible, in line with an agreement reached by the
two sides in 2015.    [SOURCE]

Didi makes first move outside mainland China with Taiwan launch

Didi
Date: Jan 19, 2018
By: Steven Millward

China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, with 450 million users across mainland China,

Taipei. Photo credit: Tommy / Unsplash

today embarked on its first expansion.

With its Taiwan launch, Didi is going after Uber, which first launched on the island of 24 million people back in 2013.

But Didi is being forced to do things differently in Taiwan, where the powerful taxi lobby has prevented ride-hailing apps from tapping into ordinary people driving their own cars. Didi is partnering with a Taiwanese firm, LEDI Technology, to run the franchise on the island using only taxi drivers.

Uber was forced to ditch its ordinary drivers in Taiwan in early 2017 after it suspended operations for two months. It now uses only official limo operators.    [FULL  STORY]

Premier praises Yunlin County’s work on providing care to elderly

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-01-20

Premier William Lai has praised Yunlin County for its work providing care for the

Premier William Lai (front, second from left) visits an elder care facility in Yunlin County Saturday, accompanied by Yunlin County Magistrate Lee Chin-yung (left) and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (right).

elderly. Lai visited the county Saturday, making a stop along with other officials at a local elder care center.

At the center, county head Lee Chin-yung said that Yunlin County is home to over 120,000 elderly people. Lee said that elderly people account for 17.5% of the county’s population, making it Taiwan’s second-oldest county.

Lee said the county has implemented the Tsai administration’s policy of making care more accessible by opening a variety of facilities countywide.

Premier Lai commended the county on the speed with which it has implemented the central government’s long-term care policy. He said the county has exceeded the health ministry’s expectations.    [FULL  STORY]

Temperature to drop to 14 degrees Celsius in northern Taiwan in the coming week

Another week of chilly, rainy weather is forecast for northern Taiwan

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/20
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — According to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB)’s latest

(By Central News Agency)

forecast on Saturday, the weather for northern Taiwan will see another wave of northeasterly winds, making the coming week cold and wet with temperatures dropping as low as 14 degree Celsius.

The CWB forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said there are chances of rain in the north, east and mountainous regions in central and southern Taiwan due to the accumulated clouds all over the country on Saturday morning, as reported by the Central News Agency.

The weather throughout the weekend will hover between 19 and 20 degrees in northern Taiwan, while temperatures in Taichung Tainan, Taitung, and Yilan will range between 22 and 24 degrees during day time with clouds and temperatures between 17 and 19 degrees during the night, according to Liu.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan-Philippine ties will flourish: Taiwan representative

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/20
By: Emerson Lim and Ko Lin

Manila, Jan. 20 (CNA) An increase in investment and people-to-people interaction

CNA file photo

between Taiwan and the Philippines is expected to continue this year, Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines Gary Song-huann Lin (林松煥) said Saturday.

Taiwanese investment in the Southeast Asian country reached an estimated US$19.71 million last year, Lin said, noting that he expects the figure to increase thanks to a new bilateral investment agreement (BIA) signed between the two countries last December.

The BIA establishes the terms for investment between participating countries, including factors such as most-favored-nation treatment, fair trade treatment and dispute resolution.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT confirms it is laying off 20 party employees

RUMORS TRUE: The KMT had rejected stories of a retrenchment plan, but has now said layoffs are necessary because the assets committee’s efforts have left it strapped for cash

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 21, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday confirmed that 20 party employees have been made redundant before the Lunar New Year holiday next month, saying it is a necessary decision given the party’s financial situation.

“It is true that after the KMT’s completion of its year-end performance evaluation, 20 party staff have been laid off,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said.

The 20 employees, who are slated to leave their posts at the end of this month, are spread across different divisions and were selected based on performance evaluations and their divisions’ future needs, Hung said.

“It was done with reluctance, but it is a necessary adjustment due to the party headquarters’ financial difficulties,” he said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘Sky Row’ Calls for Debates on China in Taiwan

China’s unilateral announcement of new flight routes should spark a rethink of Tsai’s cross-strait policy.

The Diplomat
Date: January 20, 2018
By: Charles I-hsin Chen

The row over the new air routes in the west half of the Taiwan Strait, which China

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/ shimin

launched on January 4 without prior negotiation with Taiwan, raised immediate concerns over the island’s aviation safety and national security.

China’s unilateral decision this time is just another hostile gesture toward Taiwan since its pro-independence leader, President Tsai Ing-wen, was inaugurated in May 2016. Chinese President Xi Jinping froze all official dialogues with her due to the lack of mutual trust or a common political background. Xi’s move means that he regards the 1992 Consensus — which recognizes one China but with different interpretations — as the prerequisite in his Taiwan policy. Sadly, it is unfair but true.

In response to the new flight paths, Tsai has condemned the growing assertiveness from her Chinese counterpart and intends to seek support from the international community, particularly from the United States, but, honestly speaking, the result may not be desirable. China is not legally obligated to negotiate with Taiwan over these new routes in its own flight information region; though the International Civil Aviation Organization has suggested its members do so, there is no real regulation. There are no signs to show that the U.S. State Department will do anything more than call for a “constructive dialogue” between the two sides, which its spokesperson did when this issue was first raised by the press on January 5.    [FULL  STORY]