Taipei Times
Date: Mar 17, 2017
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Fu Jen Catholic University gave College of Social Sciences dean Hsia Lin-ching (夏林

清) a lenient punishment by suspending her for one year for her malfeasance in handling an alleged sexual assault on campus, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.

The university handed down the punishment late last month.

Hsia allegedly tried to cover up an alleged rape by blaming the victim, a psychology major surnamed Wu (巫), before putting the coed on a “show trial” during a discussion attended by department of psychology faculty and students.

Hsia openly accused the victim and her boyfriend, surnamed Chu (朱), of “defaming” the department of psychology by posting on Facebook about the college’s handling of the incident, saying that the sexual assault was a result of “lust” shared by Wu and the alleged rapist, a student surnamed Wang (王).    [FULL  STORY]

Arrivals in Taiwan from New Southbound Policy countries up by 42 %

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan is preparing visa waivers for tourists from India,

Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar within the next three years, the government said Wednesday.

The administration of President Tsai Ing-wen has made closer economic, cultural and tourism ties with countries in Southeast and South Asia a priority.

Tourist arrivals from 18 countries targeted by the “New Southbound Policy” were up by 42.8 percent in January compared to the same month last year, the government said Wednesday.

In January, 68,000 citizens of those countries arrived in Taiwan for tourism, in the largest rise of this kind in four years, according to statistics from the Tourism Bureau released by the Executive Yuan’s economic and trade negotiation office Wednesday. The office said that if economic development in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar kept roaring ahead, Taiwan’s tourism sector would benefit as visa waivers were introduced over the next three years.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/15
By: Elaine Hou and Wang Shu-fen

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport has been named as

having the world’s best airport staff in the 2017 World Airport Awards organized by Skytrax, a British consultancy that runs an airline and airport review and ranking site.

Taoyuan airport, Taiwan’s main international gateway, beat out Incheon International Airport in South Korea and Japan’s Haneda Airport for the award.

During a ceremony held on Tuesday in Amsterdam, Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁), chairman of Taoyuan International Airport Corp., accepted the awards for the world’s best airport staff and Asia’s best airport staff from Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted, the airport company said. [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: March 16, 2017
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Local civic groups protested at the groundbreaking ceremony of

subterranean-railway project in Tainan Wednesday, claiming that a series of planned expropriations linked to the construction had “no legal basis.”

Members of a civic group opposing the local government’s plan to expropriate their homes protested from afar during the ceremony, holding signs reading “unfinished review process, autocratic construction.”

The civic groups’ spokesman, Chen Chih-hsiao (陳致曉), called the construction a “blatant act of slaughter,” claiming that the local government had not even begun the land expropriation process yet had already contracted the construction.

He added that with as many as 204 households still petitioning against the expropriations, the construction itself had “no legal basis.”    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-03-14

The reality of Chinese espionage attempts can be taken for granted. That’s the word from

the head of the Mainland Affairs Council, Katherine Chang, on Tuesday.

Chang was responding to media claims that there may be around 5,000 mainland Chinese agents operating in Taiwan. She told the Legislature that the government has never made public its estimates of the extent of Chinese spying operations. But she said protecting information security is a top priority for the government.

“Our situation is very unusual, especially the opposite side of the strait always eying us,” said Chang. “The government has always given close attention to performing effective security operations. The existence of Chinese intelligence agents is something we take for granted, and we have to be ready with our security mechanisms.”   [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/14
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Jay Chou and Hannah Quinlivan (from Chou’s Facebook page).

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou (周杰倫) and his wife Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌) were spotted traveling on a budget flight from Paris to Barcelona, reports said Tuesday.

The singer and actor’s fortune has been estimated at NT$5 billion (US$161 million), but he nevertheless still traveled by low-cost airline on a ticket costing an estimated NT$2,800 (US$90) per person, Hong Kong’s Chinese-language Apple Daily reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/14
By: Huang Ya-chuan and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, March 14 (CNA) Thirty-three percent of Taiwan’s Ph.D graduates would

consider working overseas sometime in the next five years, with the most desired destinations being the U.S. and China, a survey from the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) revealed on Tuesday.

The survey showed that of those interested in working overseas, 37 percent prefer the U.S. and 26 percent China, while 77 percent said they would be willing to return to Taiwan after a period abroad.

Ph.D graduates 40 years old and younger showed most interest in working overseas, the survey added.    [FULL  STORY]