CEC still has to decide whether to accept Chen Shui-bian's application to run as legislator-at-large in January’s elections

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/21
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Update: The deputy chief of Taiwan's Central Election Commission said at the Legislative Yuan on

Thursday (Nov. 21) that anyone who is serving prison sentence will not be allowed to register as a legislative-at-large candidate. The comment is considered to have dashed Chen Shui-bian's hopes, as the paroled ex-president has not yet completed his sentence.

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), now on medical parole, has agreed to be nominated by a newly formed pro-independence party as a legislator-at-large in the Jan. 11 vote.

LTN reported that Chen has accepted an invitation from the Taiwan Action Party Alliance (TAPA) to run as its legislator-at-large in the 2020 elections.

Calling himself a gardener for the party that considers him as its spiritual leader, Chen spoke to his supporters on Wednesday (Nov. 20), when TAPA leaders brought application papers to his residence for signature, asking them to vote for the minor party to help him secure the seat.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/21
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Nov. 21 (CNA) A Thai couple who spent the night inside Taiwan's Presidential Office Building, said they were impressed by the wall-less compound, noting that the 100-year-old structure reflects the openness of Taiwan's government to the people.

"We saw how close the place is to the people," said Kanisorn Pringthongfoo and Varaporn Rasmeekajorndej, Thai vloggers who operate the travel website ibreak2travel, on Thursday.

The ibreak2travel website won the Best Informative Blog Award, organized by hotel and flight booking site Traveloka, in 2017.

There are usually large walls around prime ministerial residences or VIP offices, making them forbidden areas, Pringthongfoo told CNA in an interview after the two Thai nationals spent a night in a guest room inside the Presidential Office Building. "But here, it's open," he said.
[FULL  STORY]

STOP SCRATCHING: Doctors warn that long-term use of steroids can lead to higher risks of cataracts and glaucoma, especially for those with eye allergies

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 22, 2019
By: Su Chin-feng and Dennis Xie  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

A teenager, who used steroids over a long period to treat atopic dermatitis (eczema), developed retinal

detachment after rubbing their eyes too hard.

Asia University Hospital Eye Center deputy director Lin Chun-ju (林純如), who treated the patient surnamed Chang, said that before the retinal detachment occurred, the patient had 20/25 vision in the left eye and 20/20 vision in the right eye when using glasses or contacts.

However, the patient’s long-term use of steroids triggered early cataracts, causing the vision in both eyes to drop to 20/200, Lin said, without specifying the gender of the patient.

Because the patient also suffers from allergic conjunctivitis — commonly known as “pink eye,” which occurs when the eye comes into contact with allergens — and was rubbing their eyes too hard, the force applied to right eye caused the retina to detach, Lin said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radiio Taiwan International
Date: 20 November, 2019
By: Paula Chao

A seminar on the sound management of energy resources in the Asia Pacific region is under way in Taipei.  

The seminar aims to promote regional cooperation in the management of energy resources.  It is being held under the aegis of the Global Cooperation and Training Framework, a joint initiative by Taiwan, the US, Japan, and Australia.

At the opening ceremony, American Institute in Taiwan director William Brent Christensen said Taiwan is a reliable partner. He said that with its expertise, Taiwan will make contributions in areas that include the management of energy resources.

Christensen talked about regional cooperation.    [FULL  STORY]

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: Nov. 20, 2019
By: Katherine Kornei

TAROKO NATIONAL PARK, TAIWAN—The frequent crackle of tumbling rocks overhead is unnerving, especially when you're picking your way through a pile of jagged debris. "I hate walking down roads like this," says Niels Hovius, a geomorphologist at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. "I know what can happen here."

Taroko National Park, famous for a precipitous marble gorge that cuts through it, is in a futile fight with gravity. Rockfalls litter the park's serpentine main highway. The scars of at least a dozen landslides punctuate the view in all directions. Maintenance crews are perpetually spraying concrete on slopes in a last-ditch effort to stabilize them. The park gives out safety helmets for free, and strongly encourages visitors to wear them.

For Hovius, all this moving rock and soil makes for a perfect laboratory. For the past 3 years, he and his colleagues have scrambled and rappelled across the park, installing dozens of instruments in what will end up being Taiwan's most comprehensive landscape dynamics observatory. One goal is to monitor landslides and understand their triggers. A bigger aim is to investigate their hidden impact on the climate: As massive chemical reactors, landslides draw carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the sky and sometimes belch it out, too. Understanding their role as both carbon source and sink could help researchers better model the carbon cycle that ultimately controls our planet's climate and habitability.

The recipe for landslides requires three basic ingredients: steep hillslopes, earthquakes to weaken them, and water to make them slick. Taiwan has all three in spades, making it one of the most landslide-prone countries in the world. The island was born 6 million years ago in an ongoing collision of tectonic plates that lifts mountains and generates a drumbeat of earthquakes. And its location in the tropical western Pacific Ocean means typhoons come regularly, occasionally dumping meters of rain in just days. "You can learn a lot by looking at extremes," says Susan Brantley, a geochemist at Pennsylvania State University in State College.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese voters are torn between ‘5 loathes’

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/20
By: Pin Min Ming, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

In the 2020 elections, the people of Taiwan will choose their president, vice president, and legislators, in other words the politicians which will manage important national affairs in the country.

Taiwan has been facing the strongest international pressure in its recent history, while the domestic political, economic and social environment is also facing a critical situation.

A general observation has found that Taiwan’s voters are being torn between so-called “five loathes” in this election.

The so-called “5 loathes” are: first, “loathing China,” second, “loathing Han Kuo-yu,” third, “loathing Tsai Ing-wen,” fourth, “loathing the Kuomintang (KMT),” and fifth, “loathing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/20
By: Yu Hsiao-han and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) A depression east of the Philippines was upgraded to Tropical Storm Fung-Wong Wednesday, with its periphery expected to bring rain to Taiwan as early as Thursday, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The CWB forecast that intermittent showers could be expected in northern and eastern Taiwan from Thursday, with a chance of heavy downpours in the northeast.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 19 November, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

President Tsai Ing-wen highlighted the positive changes and outlook for Taiwan’s economy during a

President Tsai Ing-wen speaking at the American Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday (CNA photo)[/caption]speech at the American Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.

The US-China trade war has had a major impact on the world economy but Taiwan has had an optimistic year. President Tsai said that Taiwan has worked to develop a new economic structure, encourage innovation, and reduce reliance on production facilities in China. These changes have enabled Taiwan’s economy to be both resilient and responsive.

For the first three quarters of the year, Taiwan’s economic growth has led the 4 Asian tigers. Many Taiwanese companies are returning to invest in Taiwan. The government has approved NT$700 billion (US$23 billion) in investment from returning Taiwanese companies this year. This will create an estimated 55,000 jobs in Taiwan.

Tsai also cited the growth of foreign investment in Taiwan this year. She said many foreign companies are bullish on Taiwan due to Taiwan’s free and open society, intellectual property rights protection, strong talent and tech sector. Many global giants like Google, Microsoft and Amazon are planning larger investments in Taiwan and will bring in many high paying jobs.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese people recoil when they hear "China." But Han Kuo-yu, a China-conciliatory presidential candidate, hopes to charm them nonetheless.

SupChina
Date: November 19, 2019
By: Ralph Jennings

Opinion polls tip Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文 Cài Yīngwén) to win a second term in office in large part because of her tough stance on China, to the point of backing anti-Beijing demonstrations in Hong Kong. Han Kuo-yu (韩国瑜 Hán Guóyú), her chief opponent in the forthcoming January 11 election, embraces closer relations with Beijing, including a resumption of formal talks that China severed under Tsai. Could he possibly win?

Han hit a public opinion stride last year when he won the mayoral race in a southern city where voters normally prefer Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party party. His populist, get-things-done appeal — accentuated by a shiny bald head and blue work shirts with sleeves rolled up to the elbows — gave him street creds. He won the Nationalist Party’s presidential nomination in July.

But his willingness to engage China as Hong Kong protesters keep clashing with police stands to hurt him, political scholars say. China hopes someday to rule Taiwan as it governs Hong Kong now. Tsai was leading by 49 percent to 40 percent as of November 4, coming back from 44 percent to Han’s 48 percent in July, Taiwan’s TVBS News found in a poll.

Han gave a media briefing last Thursday — the first one with foreign media in Taiwan — in which he spoke extensively about China. Here are four takeaways — and how his comments might help him in the upcominig elections.

1. Support the “1992 Consensus”

This is China’s chief condition to get along with Taiwan on any level. The consensus refers to an informal understanding that each side will call itself “China,” subject to different ideas about what the term means. For Taiwan, it would mean the government’s constitutional name Republic of China. Beijing sees it as the People’s Republic of China.

Beijing rejects the term “Taiwan” as a replacement because it implies separation from China rather than a move toward its goal of unification. The two sides have been ruled separately since the Republic of China lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taiwan in December 1949.
[FULL  STORY]