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Legal Challenges: Councilor pans ruling in defamation case

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 21, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) yesterday said the judges presiding over his case were biased, after the Taiwan High Court found him guilty in a defamation lawsuit filed by Hung Chi-kune (洪智坤), a former aide of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).

Wang insinuated that Hung received a bribe from Taipei Dome contractor Farglory Group (遠雄集團) in exchange for pushing the project through the city government, the court said in its ruling.

It sentenced Wang to 50 days in prison, which can be commuted to a fine of NT$50,000 (US$1,562).

The ruling was final.

Hung had also filed a civil lawsuit against Wang, asking for NT$2 million in damages and a public apology from Wang, to be published in the nation’s major newspapers.    [FULL  STORY]

Transit stop uncertainty clouds Tsai trip

The China Post
Date: December 21, 2016
By: Yuan-Ming Chiao

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday that President Tsai Ing-wen would embark next month on a tour of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Central America, but it refused to reveal the location of transit stops likely to take place in the U.S.

Tsai and her delegation is expected to make both a stopover en route to Latin America and another on her return trip to Taiwan. Deputy Foreign Minister Javier Ho said at a press conference at the Presidential Office that the precise location of the transits would be announced next week.

Asked whether the decision not to reveal the transit stops were because of political “pressure” from mainland China, Presidential Office Spokesman Alex Huang denied the assertions, saying that the work process required time to complete.

Previous reports indicated that Tsai would make transit stops in Houston and San Francisco.

Earlier this month, the ministry dismissed claims that Tsai was planning a stopover in New York, where media speculated that she would meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s senior advisers.    [FULL  STORY]

Young volunteers honored for overseas service

Taiwan Today
Date: December 19, 2016

Outstanding volunteers with the Youth Overseas Peace Corps were honored by Vice

Vice President Chen Chien-jen speaks at a ceremony Dec. 18 in Taipei City to honor outstanding volunteers in the Youth Overseas Peace Corps. (Courtesy of MOE)

President Chen Chien-jen at an awards ceremony Dec. 18 in Taipei City for offering vital aid to communities in need around the world.

“Youth Overseas Peace Corps participants have demonstrated their compassion and care for others through their volunteer work, representing Taiwan abroad by making valuable contributions to the international community,” Chen said at the presentation ceremony.

This year the Youth Overseas Peace Corps, organized by the Youth Development Administration under the Ministry of Education, provided funding for 102 teams comprising 1,067 youths from local universities and nonprofit organizations to deliver services in 20 nations. Of these groups, 58 registered to have their projects assessed by a panel of judges, with two selected to earn the top honor, two receiving the second place award and 11 picking up honorable mentions.   [FULL  STORY]

Taipei sees highest temp since start of winter

Highs on Monday reached some 28 degrees in northern Taiwan.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/19
By: Central News Agency

Thanks to warm southeasterly winds and clear skies, Taipei recorded 27.8 degrees Celsius at 11:24 a.m. Monday, the highest temperature since winter began, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The highest-ever temperature recorded in December in Taipei was 31.5 degrees in 1934, the bureau said.

Highs on Monday reached some 28 degrees in northern Taiwan, 26 degrees in central Taiwan and 27 degrees in southern Taiwan, the bureau said.

Still warmer weather is likely on Tuesday, forecasters said, but cautioned about large differences between minimum and maximum temperatures, as lows could drop to between 14-17 degrees in northern and central Taiwan early in the morning, and 18-19 degrees in the south.    [SOURCE]

New law set to improve foreign fishery workers’ rights

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/19
By: Chen Cheng-wei and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) Foreign fishery workers’ rights will be better protected when the Act for Distant Water Fisheries comes into force on Jan. 20, the Fisheries Agency said on Monday.

Under the new law, the Fisheries Agency is authorized to establish rules managing local brokers and map out measures to protect the welfare and rights of foreign fishery workers hired to work on Taiwanese fishing boats, said the agency.

The agency was responding to media reports on the death of an Indonesian fishery worker on board a Taiwanese fishing boat, the Futzuchun, last year.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT to move election to comply with charter

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 20, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff Reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday announced that the party’s chairperson election would be moved to May 20 in order to conform with the party charter.

Tsai made the announcement after a working conference at KMT headquarters yesterday, during which the schedule for the election of four types of KMT officials and a plan to end the party’s Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) military veterans’ branch’s separate election of party representatives were passed.

Both of the proposals are to be referred to the KMT Central Standing Committee for approval tomorrow.    [FULL  STORY]

Google chief calls for cooperation across generations

The China Post
Date: December 20, 2016
By: Christine Chou

The China Post–Taiwan needs integration of hardware- and software-oriented

Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光), center, Minister without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), second from right, and Google Taiwan Managing Director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰), second from left, pose for photo at the launch event for a tech community salon Mix Taiwan on Monday, Dec. 19. (Christine Chou, The China Post)

mindsets from different generations, Google Taiwan’s Managing Director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said.

Speaking at the launch event for the Ministry of Economic Affair’s (MOEA, 經濟部) new bimonthly tech salon Mix Taiwan on Monday, Chien said there is a generation gap in Taiwan in which people in their thirties and younger are digital natives living in a liberal democratic society. “They have a taste for innovation while people older than their thirties are more hardware-minded,” Chien said.

Company owners in the past have only seen the value of physical assets, but this focus on hardware has discouraged talent from returning to Taiwan, Chien said.   [FULL  STORY]

Week in Review

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2016-12-18

1)

One of the top stories from this past week was that the government passed a legal amendment to increase fines on Uber, the latest move in its struggle to combat the shared ride service’s operations. The amendment increases the maximum fine for operating a transportation service without a license to NT$25 million (US$780,000).

The internet-based service has proven as popular in Taiwan as in many other countries, leading the government to see the service as a threat to local licensed cabbies and to its authority.

A ruling party lawmaker said the goal of raising the fines was to persuade Uber to apply for an operating license and compete on a level playing field. In addition to the fines against Uber, the amendment paves the way for punishing drivers by revoking their driver’s license for between four months and one year.

2)

Also this past week, the government vowed to strengthen the inspection of small seasoning packets that are included in packaged foods imported from Japan. Deputy Health and Welfare Minister Ho Chi-kung made the vow on Friday after soy sauce packets were discovered from one of the five prefectures affected by the Fukushima meltdown of 2011. Foods from those prefectures are banned in Taiwan.

Ho said checks on the origin of packets have already been increased because of concerns over radiation contamination. Packaged foods will also be unpacked when going through customs in Taiwan and Japanese food available on the market has also come under scrutiny.

Ho said the government will continue to monitor online sales of imported Japanese foods.    [FULL  STORY]

No. 1 nuclear plant’s reactor to resume operations at midnight

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/18
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Frances Huang

Taipei, Dec. 18 (CNA) State-run utility Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower, 台電) said Sunday

No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. CNA file photo

that the second reactor at its No. 1 nuclear power plant will go back on line at midnight after being shut down for more than a day.

The reactor was shut down early Saturday morning due to oil leaks in its cooling system, and the problem was fixed at around 1 p.m. Sunday, Taipower said.

Taipower spokesman Lin Te-fu (林德福) said oil leaks in a reactor’s cooling system were not unusual, but the company decided to shut the reactor down and fix the problem for safety’s sake.

Because the plant’s first reactor has been idle since December 2014 after undergoing repairs while waiting approval from the Legislative Yuan to restart operations, the temporary shutdown of the second reactor meant that the plant stopped generating electricity altogether.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT’s Tsai denies party split into two over assets

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 19, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday denied a media report that the KMT has split into “pro-war” and “pro-peace” factions on the party assets issue, with Tsai leading the former.

“The [Chinese-language] Apple Daily’s report that the KMT headquarters have seen in-party conflicts and split into a so-called ‘pro-peace’ faction headed by [KMT Vice Chairman] Steve Chan (詹啟賢) and a ‘pro-war’ faction led by myself is utter fabrication,” Tsai, who also serves as party spokesman, said on Facebook.

Tsai said since he assumed the post as director of the KMT’s Central Policy Committee in April, he has never played a part in the KMT headquarters’ policymaking on party assets.

The reason is simple, because party assets is never part of the Central Policy Committee’s remit, Tsai said.    [FULL  STORY]