FALLING BEHIND: Huang Kun-huei said that Taiwan’s education system has focused too heavily on testing, and was not evolving with technology and a changing economy

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 14, 2020
By: Rachel Lin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taoyuan leads in public approval of its education policies and its emphasis on education, while Taipei and Kaohsiung came in last respectively, a survey released yesterday by the Professor Huang Kun-Huei Education Foundation showed.

In the category of mayors placing sufficient emphasis on education, respondents rated Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) the highest, with 77.6 percent approval, while former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) had the lowest approval rating at 44.3 percent, foundation polling committee member Feng Ching-huang (馮清皇) said.

In the same category, Lienchiang County led other cities and counties outside of the six special municipalities, with 87.6 percent approval, while Hualien and Pingtung counties and Hsinchu City received more than 75 percent approval, Feng said.

Hsinchu, Changhua and Miaoli counties all received less than 59 percent approval, Feng added.    [FULL  STORY]

Initial test results on two students show COVID-19 not involved: CDC

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/13
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Initial test results showed students at a Kaohsiung school had not been infected by the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), officials said Saturday (June 13) evening.

Two of the 15 students showing respiratory problems had tested negative for the virus upon their arrival at a hospital, according to an announcement by the Centers for Disease Control, CNA reported. Two other students had tested negative for influenza, but their test results for the coronavirus still had to be finalized.

The same class counted a total of 30 students, and during the afternoon the Kaohsiung City Government demanded that they would not return to school after the weekend. According to official regulations, the whole school might have to suspend classes if any student tested positive for the coronavirus.

Overall results for the tests were expected to be announced Sunday at the earliest, officials said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 10 June, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei has lauded Taiwan’s success in containing COVID-19 in its 2020 White Paper. The chamber of commerce released the paper on Wednesday. The paper gives an assessment of Taiwan’s business climate, divided by sector.

The report says that Taiwan should use its success in fighting COVID-19 to encourage investment from other countries. It also says that Taiwan could play an important role in the Indo-Pacific region, emphasizing US support for Taiwan’s international participation. The paper also calls for stronger trade ties between Taiwan and the US and talks about the possibility of a bilateral trade agreement.    [FULL  STORY]

IFL Science
Date: 10 JUN 2020
By: Alfredo Carpineti

Fans of eclipses rejoice: 2020 has several lunar eclipses and two solar eclipses coming up. The first one will be an annular solar eclipse on June 21, the day after the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. The path of totality will go from Central Africa, through the Arabian Peninsula, India, China, Taiwan, and finally the Pacific. A partial eclipse will be visible across most of Africa, Asia, Southern and Eastern Europe, and Northern Australia.

The eclipse will begin at dawn in Eastern Africa (June 21, 03:45 GMT) with totality beginning about one hour later. The totality will last for about four hours as the shadow of the Moon moves across the surface of the Earth. The last location to see totality will be in the Pacific Ocean at 08:32:17 GMT.

An annular eclipse is nicknamed "Ring of Fire" because the lunar disk doesn’t completely cover the Sun, leaving a bright circle around the Moon. This happens when the Moon is near its apogee, its furthest point from the Earth, making its appearance in the sky slightly smaller than usual and allowing for portions of the Sun to be visible.   [FULL  STORY]

DPP still discussing choices to serve as interim mayor before new electionTaiwan News
Date: 2020/06/10
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) told Kuomintang (KMT) party leaders Wednesday (June 10) that his defeat in last week’s recall vote was not their fault but the result of Kaohsiung residents' dissatisfaction with him and his city government team.

While the threshold for last Saturday’s (June 6) vote stood at 25 percent of eligible voters in the southern city, a total of 42 percent cast their ballot, and about 97 percent of those approved of the recall. Han will have to leave office on June 12 and will be unable to run for mayor again for four years. The central government still has to decide on an interim mayor and a date for the new mayoral election.

The KMT moved its weekly Central Standing Committee meeting from Taipei to Kaohsiung Wednesday with Han as its main speaker. He said reports that the party leadership had failed to help him were not true, as they had frequently visited the city and given him valuable advice, CNA reported.

Han described his defeat as a judgment passed on his team by voters, not as a verdict on the KMT or its new leadership, which took over after Han lost the Jan. 11 presidential election by a wide margin.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 09 June, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu says he will not file a lawsuit to dispute the validity of the recall election vote. Han made the statement in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

The mayor was recalled last Saturday in a historic first for Taiwan. Over 939,000 Kaohsiung residents voted in favor of recalling him. That was well above the threshold of 575,000 votes required for his ouster. Only about 25,000 voters voted against recalling the mayor.

A Kaohsiung city official said on Tuesday the mayor made the decision to end confrontations between Han’s supporters and opponents.     [FULL  STORY]

• John Lee accuses foreign forces of fanning the flames of protest and suggests anti-government movement is running out of funding sources
• In Post interview marking protest anniversary, Lee stands by the introduction of the extradition bill that sparked the unrest

South China Morning Post
Date: 9 Jun, 2020
By: Christy Leung and Gary Cheung

American and Taiwanese interference have fanned the flames of the Hong Kong protests and played a role in the evolution of the anti-government movement, according to the city’s security minister.

John Lee Ka-chiu also pointed to the decline in demonstrations since the end of January and street activists’ lack of new equipment as he questioned whether the movement was losing sources of funding.

Speaking exclusively to the South China Morning Post on the first anniversary of the mass movement against the now-withdrawn extradition bill, the secretary of security said he would still introduce the proposals in the interests of justice if the clock was turned back.

John Lee, Hong Kong’s security secretary. Photo: May Tse“Without this bill, a murder case like this would not be resolved. We need somebody with supreme wisdom to answer that problem,” he said, referring to the ongoing extradition saga of Chan Tong-kai, the Hongkonger wanted in Taiwan for killing his pregnant girlfriend.    [FULL  STORY]

Global Firepower ranks Taiwan as having 26th most powerful military in world

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/09
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has been ranked as possessing the 26th most powerful military in the world by Global Firepower, a drop of four spots since last year's list.

In its 2020 ranking of 136 countries, Global Firepower took into consideration several individual factors, including each nation's war-making capabilities across land, sea, and air, giving Taiwan a "PowerIndex" score of 0.4008 (out of a perfect score of 0.0000). The U.S. again took the top spot, followed by Russia, China, India, and Japan rounding out the top five.

The 22nd spot, held by Taiwan last year, was seized by Vietnam, which was credited with a score of 0.3559.

According to the website, Taiwan has continued to keep the U.S. as its ally to counter the ever-present threat from neighboring China. Global Firepower estimates that Taiwan has 1,822,000 total military personnel, including 165,000 active-duty troops and 1,657,000 reserve soldiers. With a defense budget of US$10.72 billion, Taiwan has the ability to deploy 744 aircraft, 117 naval vessels, and 1,180 combat tanks.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 06/09/2020
By: William Yen

Taipei, June 9 (CNA) An annual Chinese language program for migrant workers in New Taipei, designed to help them assimilate more easily into Taiwan society, will kick off this year in early July, an official at the city's Labor Affairs Department said Tuesday.

The "Mandarin Course for Foreign Workers in New Taipei City in Year 2020" will begin on July 5 and will run for seven weeks, said Wang Chih-yao (王之瑤), an official in the department's Foreign Workers Service Division.

The basic-level course will cater to Indonesian, Vietnamese, Filipino and Thai workers who live in New Taipei, and will be split into four groups, respectively, Wang told CNA.

The classes of about 30 students each will be held on Sundays in July and August, focusing on everyday conversation and communication and using learning techniques such as singing in Chinese, the Foreign Workers Service Division said in a statement.    [FULL  STORY]