The China Post
Date: April 24, 2017
By: CNA
President Tsai Ing-wen, center, has tea at the Tong Blossom Festival opening event in Hsinchu County, Saturday, April 22. At the event, Tsai said the Hakka dialect was also a national language and that its preservation depended on being used. To propagate the language, a station called Hakka Radio (講客廣播電台) would be launched in June, Tsai said, hailing it as a “major step” toward ethnic transitional justice.. [FULL STORY]
Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-04-22
The interior ministry has released figures showing a drop in the number of people who acquired Taiwanese nationality last year. The figures show that over 3000 people naturalized last year, but there were 360 fewer new citizens than in 2015, a drop of 10%.
According to the interior ministry, the majority of those who naturalized last year were female foreign spouses of Taiwanese nationals, with the largest number coming from Vietnam. Foreigners married to Taiwanese nationals continue to form the bulk of those seeking naturalization.
However, efforts to prevent sham marriages, including interviews with prospective spouses outside of Taiwan, have seen the number of naturalizations drop from their peak of over 13,000 in 2008. While still at over 90%, the proportion of foreign spouses among those seeking to naturalize has also been falling since 2009. [SOURCE]
Taiwan News
Date: 2017/04/22
By: Rana Yeh, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The top stories this week included blackout in Taiwan southern science park affects 10 manufacturers; Taiwan’s low-income group to be exempted from taxes; Taipei job fair held to bridge talent and demand from South East Asia markets; Taiwan Legislature postpones pension reform until after 2 hearings; video on 16 quick Taiwan travel tips.
Watch our weekly roundup video below to find out more:
Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/22
By: Sunrise Huang and Lilian Wu
Taipei, April 22 (CNA) A Vietnamese woman who received a resident visa for investing
(CNA file photo)
in Taiwan will be deported after she was found to be “working as an intern” at a dumpling store.
Immigration and labor officials said the woman, Nguyen Thi Luyen, was in uniform making dumplings during a raid on a Ba Fang Yun Ji franchise dumpling shop in Zhonghe in New Taipei on Sept. 7, 2016.
Labor officials said Nguyen will be fined NT$30,000 (US$990) for violating the Employment Service Act because her employer had not applied for a permit on her behalf to work in Taiwan.
The owner of the store said the woman had been working as an intern for about five or six days, learning the skills of making noodles and dumplings as well as ordering supplies from franchise headquarters. [FULL STORY]
IN THE PASTIn 1969, China Youth Corps staff who were transferred to ministry jobs were allowed to include their time in the corps in their government pension request
Taipei Times
Date: Apr 23, 2017
By: Tseng Wei-chen / Staff reporter
Calculations of government pension benefits would be changed to retroactively exclude years of service in political parties and nonprofit organizations under draft legislation expected to be passed by the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus has arranged final cross-caucus negotiations on the bill tomorrow.
If passed, about 400 former civil servants’ pensions and benefits would be readjusted, while prominent Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) figures, including former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and KMT Vice Chairman Jason Hu (胡志強), would be subject to legal action if they do not pay back excess benefits to the government.
The Ministry of Civil Service said the unique pension calculation formula can be traced to 1969, when China Youth Corps employees who were transferred to government ministries were allowed to include years of service with the corps in government pension calculations under a formal directive in 1971, after several other groups were also granted the privilege. [FULL STORY]
The China Post
Date: April 23, 2017
By: The China Post news staff
TAIPEI, Taiwan — “My mother doesn’t know what National Taiwan University of Science
“My mother doesn’t know what National Taiwan University of Science and Technology is, but she is very happy!” said Hung Yu-hsin (洪玉欣), a Taitung student who won a place at the top university through a national “star-search” program,
and Technology is, but she is very happy!” said Hung Yu-hsin (洪玉欣), a Taitung student who won a place at the top university through a national “star-search” program,
Hung, one of only a handful of students to win admission, is a model student at the Kung-Tung Technical Senior High School (公東高工).
Hung’s class instructor Lin Yu-ching told reporters that Hung was an active participant in school life, acting in school films, serving as class leader and emceeing school activities.
Despite never being able to afford cram school, Hung managed to consistently stay top of her class. She told Central News Agency that she had made up her mind to study harder than the other students. [FULL STORY]
Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/21
By: Chen Chih-chung, Hsieh Chia-chen and Elizabeth Hsu
Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Chen Lien-hua (陳蓮花), one of three known surviving former
(CNA file photo)
comfort women in Taiwan, died of intestinal infection on Thursday at the age of 93, according to the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, a group that has been advocating for the rights of the former WWII sex slaves.
Chen was taken to the hospital in March when she was in pain from intestinal blockage. Doctors diagnosed that her intestines had suffered a tear, increasing the risk of infection. But after undergoing surgery, Chen became very weak and passed away with her family by her side.
Born in Xizhi (now a district in New Taipei City) in 1924, Chen was given up for adoption and had from a young age worked at a local factory. When she was 19 years old, a Japanese person came to the factory under the guise of recruiting “caregivers” and took more than 20 women, including Chen, by boat to the Philippines. After arriving in the Philippines she and the other women were forced into “sexual slavery” for Japanese soldiers. But it was too late for them to escape. [FULL STORY]
FORWARD-LOOKING?Academics expressed concern that the project could degenerate into a pork barrel, and asked the Cabinet to redraft it
Taipei Times
Date: Apr 22, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
Civic groups yesterday expressed concern that the government’s Forward-Looking Infrastructure Development Program could degenerate into a pork barrel, as debate over the plan continues.
“The problem is that in the past there have been many examples of projects that started out with good intentions, but ended with tragic results,” National Chengchi University’s Department of Land Economics professor Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮) said at a forum organized by the Economic Democracy Union.
“There is absolutely not enough ‘forward-lookingness’ in the entire program, which amounts to throwing away money,” union spokesman Hsu Po-jen (許博任) said, adding that there is danger that grants would degenerate into pork barrel aimed at securing votes from local constituencies unless civic groups are given a greater role in review.
Citing a “mixed bag” of railway construction projects, he said the proposal had been drafted too hastily and called for the Executive Yuan to require ministries to resubmit project proposals after it drafts a clear definition of “forward-looking.” [FULL STORY]
The China Post
Date: April 22, 2017
By: The China Post news staff with CNA
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Dairy cattle in Chiayi were confirmed this week to have been infected
Photo courtesy of Max Pixel
with bovine tuberculosis. Disease control authorities said Friday that there was a risk of cow-to-human transmission if a consumer drinks unsterilized milk, but that there was no cause for concern because all milk on the market must be sterilized.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said that the milk of cows infected by bovine tuberculosis do carry bacteria that can infect humans.
But all fresh milk products on the market are high-temperature sterilized, which kills the bacteria, Lo said. [FULL STORY]
Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-04-20
A Taiwanese delegation is set to travel to Geneva regardless of whether it receives an
(CNA)
invitation to this year’s World Health Assembly. That was the word from Health Minister Chen Shih-chung on Thursday.
This year’s WHA meeting is scheduled to take place from May 22nd to 31st. Taiwan has attended as an observer for the past eight years. But this year, China’s boycott of the Tsai Ing-wen administration may mean Taiwan is not invited.
Chen told a meeting of the Legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee that the Taiwanese delegation is still preparing to attend the meeting under the name Chinese Taipei. [FULL STORY]
