The China Post
Date: March 23, 2017
By: CNA

TAIPEI — One child and three adults were killed early Wednesday in a factory fire in

Taichung, fire officials said.

Firefighters arrived on the scene after an emergency call was placed at 4:58 a.m. and found all four individuals on the second floor of the plastics processing plant on Renyi Street in Taichung’s Wuri District, according to Taichung Fire Bureau officials.

The victims were a 58-year-old man who ran the factory, his 55-year-old wife, their 2-year-old granddaughter, and the man’s 80-year-old mother, officials said.

None of the four people showed any signs of life when they were found by firefighters.

Hospital officials said the child and the 80-year-old woman died before arriving at the hospital, while the man regained a heartbeat four times as medical workers tried to save him before he died from excessive smoke inhalation.

His wife also died after attempts to revive her were not successful, officials said.
{FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-03-20

President Tsai Ing-wen is calling on Taiwanese in Japan to support her administration’s

social reforms and infrastructure projects. She made the call on Monday while meeting with leaders of the Taiwanese expatriate community in Japan.

President Tsai said the government will upgrade the industry structure now that there has been progress in social reforms and the economy has gradually taken a turn for the better.

Tsai also said she hopes that businesses in Taiwan and Japan will be able to work together to explore market potential.

Also on Monday, the government has decided to change the name of its representative office in Japan. That’s after Japan in January changed the name of its Taipei representative office from Interchange Association, Japan to the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association.    [FULL  STORY]

The survey found 87.1 percent of the respondents liked the Southeast Asian nation the best, followed by Japan.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/20
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Singapore has been named the favorite country among

Taiwanese in a survey carried out by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation released Monday.

The survey found 87.1 percent of the respondents liked the Southeast Asian nation the best, followed by Japan, Canada, the European Union, Australia, and the United States.

While Japan had always been on top of the list, this year’s survey shows a different result. A professor at Taiwan’s Shih Hsin University’s Speech Communication Department said in a UDN report that she believes Singapore came out on top because the two countries share the same language, while the strict laws which are in place to ensure a low crime rate is another thing that Taiwanese people liked most about the city-state.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/20
By: Ku Chuan and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, March 20 (CNA) Taiwan’s Executive Yuan has decided to spend NT$300 billion (US$9.84 billion) over the next eight years to build infrastructure to generate green energy and preserve water.

A special budget totaling NT$50 billion has been planned for green-energy related infrastructure, aimed at ensuring the country’s sustainable development and transforming Taiwan into a nuclear-free homeland by 2025, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said Monday.

Taiwan’s government is hoping to increase green energy’s contribution to the country’s overall electricity generation from 5.1 percent in 2016 to 20 percent in 2025, Hsu said at a press conference.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 21, 2017
By: Ho Shih-chun, Wu Po-wei and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Hakka Affairs Council Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得) has sparked controversy by

criticizing the Taipei City Police Department for stopping him at random and demanding that he show his national identity card.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Lee said he was stopped earlier in the day by police officers near a convenience store close to the Taipei Bus Station.

Lee wrote that he felt he was unlawfully stopped while he was out shopping and had refused to provide identification.

“This is unbelievable. I was just going to the convenience store to buy stuff and five or six police officers showed up, demanding my papers. When did Taipei become a police state?” he wrote.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/19
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

If you visit Jinshan, a town in New Taipei city located on the coast of northern Taiwan,

don’t just visit its old street and patronize the popular “duck meat” restaurant because such a trip would be too boring for anyone who would like to have a little fun in the outdoors. A visit to Jinshan’s Mystery Coast and Guangwu Tunnel is on the top of must-do activities if you are near the northern coast of Taiwan.

Thanks to the Hollywood movie Silence directed by Martin Scorsese, which shot a scene on the Mystery Coast, this wonderful natural landscape on Taiwan’s northern coast is now better known by Taiwanese people as well as foreigners.

When taking the pilgrimage to the Mystery Coast, take Buses 1815, 1068 and 953 for visitors from Taipei, Taiwan Tourist Bus “Crown Northern Coast Line” for visitors from Tamsui, the Crown Northern Coast Line and Bus 790 for visitors from Keelung, and other buses that are not mentioned here.

When in Jinshan, go to the visitors’ center on Gonyuan Road near the entrance of the Shitoushan Park, a park situated on the town’s seaside range that separates the town from the sea. After entering the park, just follow the main trail to the crest line of the range, where the Twin Candlesticks, the landmark of Jinshan, is visible. Visitors like to take photos with the famous landmark as the backdrop.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/19
By: Sabine Cheng and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, March 19 (CNA) Two high school students and an artist, all women, won the

top honor in three categories of the ninth TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) Youth Calligraphy and Seal-Carving Competition, as the awarding ceremony was held in Taipei on Sunday.

Lee Chia-yen (李嘉晏), a freshman of National Hsinchu Girls’ Senior High School, won the first prize of the clerical and regular script category with a couplet of Yuan Mei (袁枚, 1716-1797), a Qing dynasty poet.

Chang Pei-hsien (張珮嫻), a junior of Taichung Municipal Hui-Wen High School, won the first prize of the cursive and semi-cursive script category with an excerpt of an essay of Su Shi (蘇軾, 1037-1101), a Song dynasty poet.

Artist Lo Shu-chiao (羅淑嬌), who has learned seal-carving for 11 years, won the first prize of the seal-carving category with three characters “Lion Heart” (獅子心).
[FULL  STORY]