Page Three

Airmen who tested positive for heroin were only taking cold medicine, prosecutors say

The China Post
Date: August 7, 2017
By: The China Post

All 10 Air Force servicemen who tested positive for heroin in March had gotten a

pixabay

false reading triggered by cold medications, prosecutors said on Monday.
The finding was confirmed in tests using their hair samples, prosecutors said.

In March, the Air Force ran urine tests on all 2,555 service members at the Taichung Ching Chuan Kang Air Force after 53 packets of heroin were discovered on the airbase late February.

Traces of heroin were found in 10 urine samples. The 10 servicemen involved all denied taking illegal drugs and instead blamed cold medication taken before the test, providing proof such as doctor visit and medication records.    [FULL  STORY]

China a ‘joke’ for barring study in Taiwan: legislator

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 07, 2017
By: Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter

The Chinese government could make itself an “international joke” by discouraging its citizens from enrolling in Taiwanese universities, New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said on Saturday.

Hsu was responding to allegations made on Friday that the Chinese Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) had denied travel documents to a Chinese student who was to attend National Cheng Kung University on the grounds that the university supports Taiwanese independence.

“Although China is a great nation, it is terrified by Taiwan’s flourishing intellectual diversity and had to obstruct its people from coming. I urge the Chinese communist regime to restrain its fears, lest it become an international joke,” Hsu said on Facebook.

As an open and tolerant society, Taiwan has never been the one to obstruct free exchanges between Taiwan and China, Hsu said.    [FULL  STORY]

East Asian Weather Report for Monday August 7

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-06

In Taiwan, Taipei in the north will be sunny with temperatures ranging between 28 and 37 degrees Celsius. Kaohsiung in the south will be cloudy with a high of 33 C.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong will see passing showers and a high of 34 C. Beijing will be partly sunny with a high of 34 C. Tokyo will be rainy with a high of 32 C. And Seoul will be partly sunny with a high of 33 C.    [SOURCE]

Taichung Power Plant shut down for emergency troubleshooting

One of the 10 units in the plant is under repair at the moment and whether there will be another power shortage remains a question.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/06
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taichung Power Plant Unit 1 was shut down for

Taichung Power Plant. (Source: CNA)

emergency troubleshooting due to abnormal sounds in the generator, but the operation of the unit would resume at 6 a.m. Monday morning and the power supply of the country in the following week should not be affected, said Lin Te-fu (林德福), spokesperson of Taiwan Power Company (Taipower，台電) Sunday.

“Taipower would hold a meeting in the afternoon and announce the latest power supply situation afterwards,” added Lin.

The country was facing a serious power shortage after Typhoon Nesat stroke the island and damaged a transmission tower in Hualien which carried 1.3 million kilowatts (kW) of power.

Taipower signaled a power supply warning on July 30, with the operating power reserve remaining less than 800,000 kW, leading people to fear power rationing.
[FULL  STORY]

Former U.S. vice president on 4-day visit to Taiwan

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/06
By: Scarlett Chai and Ko Lin

Taipei, Aug. 6 (CNA) Former United States Vice President Richard B. Cheney arrived

CNA file photo

in Taiwan Sunday on a four-day visit, during which he will attend a regional security forum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a press release.

The Prospect Foundation, a local think tank, will hold a forum to discuss security issues in the Asia-Pacific region on Aug. 8 in Taipei, during which Cheney is scheduled to deliver a luncheon speech.

The agenda of the forum includes maritime security cooperation in Asia, regional economic integration and Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy.

In its release, MOFA welcomed Cheney to Taiwan, noting that the former vice president last visited Taiwan in 1993.    [FULL  STORY]

‘United front’ includes youth exchanges

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 07, 2017
By: Lin Liang-sheng and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

China has been engaging young Taiwanese through a series of travel and work exchange activities as the latest move in its “united front” strategy, political observers said.

Statistics published by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) showed that last month 13 exchange activities were held at the provincial level in China that invited young people from several community organizations throughout Taiwan on instructions from high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.

Beijing’s “united front” approach is marked by an approach it has dubbed the “three middles and the youth” — residents of central and southern Taiwan, middle and low-income families, small and medium-sized enterprises, and young people — and the “one generation and one stratum” approach — the younger generation and the grassroots stratum — as well as its exclusion of Democratic Progressive Party local government heads.

National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Yu Zhengsheng (俞正聲) in March described plans for the launch of an “experience-oriented exchange” program designed to lure young Taiwanese through study, internships, entrepreneurship and summer camp activities.    [FULL  STORY]

70% more Chinese language teachers go to Southeast Asia

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-03

Taiwan has sent about 70% more Chinese language teachers to Southeast Asian countries year-on-year year, as per the government’s New Southbound policy.

The policy is the Tsai administration’s latest effort to promote economic and cultural exchanges with Southeast Asian countries. The initiative also covers South Asian countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Deputy education minister Chang Chin-shu said Thursday that the total number of Chinese language teachers that went to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and India has gone from 53 to 90. These nations also saw an increase in the number of Chinese teachers who teach in elementary and middle schools. In the past, teachers have only taught at university level.

The education ministry said the number of teachers that went to teach in Europe and the Americas also increased significantly in 2016.    [FULL  STORY]

I-Mei Foods begins operation of radiation laboratory, a first for Taiwan’s private sector

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/03
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Taiwan food giant I-Mei has begun to operate a food

Taiwan food giant I-Mei has begun to operate a food radioactivity laboratory, a first for Taiwan’s private sector. (By Central News Agency)

radioactivity laboratory, a first for Taiwan’s private sector, set up to test food radioactivity to ensure foods and their ingredients are safe to eat and meet international radionuclide limits.

The food company said it spent NT$15 million (about US$500,000) to purchase two radiation survey instruments from France.

Before the establishment of I-Mei’s food radioactivity laboratory, food radioactivity tests and measurements could only be done at laboratories owned by the Radiation Monitoring Center under the Cabinet-level Atomic Energy Council.

Besides the radioactivity laboratory, I-Mei is also setting up a dioxin/polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) trace pollutants laboratory, which is set to begin operation at the end of this year.    [FULL  STORY]

‘Comfort Women’ film festival kicks off in Taipei

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/03
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, Aug. 3 (CNA) Five documentaries and feature films from home and abroad will be shown at the 2017 International “Comfort Women” Human Rights Film Festival, featuring stories that detail the horrors faced by women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II and other issues of wartime violence.

Embracing the theme of “Women’s Power,” the festival started on Thursday and will run through Aug. 13. In that period several documentaries will be shown, including “Twenty Two,” which focuses on comfort women in China, “The Apology,” featuring stories of comfort women from South Korea, China and the Philippines, and “Song of the Reed,” telling the stories of Taiwanese comfort women, according to the event organizer.    [FULL  STORY]

Aboriginal group tracking Tsai’s promises

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 04, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) still has a long way to go before she fully realizes her

Members of the Indigenous Youth Front pose at a news conference in Taipei to announce the launch of the group’s new Web site, the Aboriginal Policy Monitoring Platform. Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

campaign promises, Aboriginal rights advocates said yesterday, announcing the establishment of an online platform to track the government’s progress in fulfilling its pledges.

“We feel that a big picture perspective has been missing in most discussions of Aboriginal rights, and that has created space for the government to ignore the main issues, while using minor benefits as evidence of its accomplishments,” said Kai, a Paiwan member of the Indigenous Youth Front. “We hope that this platform can cut through pretty slogans to make the monitoring of government policy and progress more transparent.”

The group’s online Aboriginal Policy Monitoring Platform features a clock counting down the remaining days of Tsai’s presidential term and tracks progress on 37 election promises, the majority of which it described as “in planning” or “just beginning to move forward.”    [FULL  STORY]