Radio Taiwan International
Date: 18 October, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

Three US government agencies have sent a joint letter to 500 US companies calling on them to invest more in Taiwan. Officials from the US State Department, the US Commerce Department, and the US Department of Agriculture signed off on the letter.

The letter says that Taiwan is the United States’ eleventh-largest trading partner, its ninth biggest market for agricultural exports, and its seventh- largest source of international students.
[FULL  STORY]

Food delivery company practices pose threat to public safety: labor officials

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taipei City Government on Friday (October 18) fined Uber Eats NT$300,000 (US$9,800) for Occupational Safety and Health Act violations related to the death of one of the company's motorcyclist deliverymen in a traffic accident.

Issues surrounding the status of delivery drivers came to the fore during last week’s Double National Day holiday, when several of the motorcyclists were involved in fatal accidents.

The companies stirred further controversy by claiming there was no employer-employee relationship with the drivers, whom they described as outside contractors.

The capital’s Department of Labor Affairs ruled that the delivery companies’ practices threatened public safety, since the deliverymen were paid in relation to the speed with which they could deliver the food to the customers, the Central News Agency reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/18
By: Yang Ming-chu and Elizabeth Hsu

Tokyo, Oct. 18 (CNA) Japan Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on Friday tweeted his thanks to Taiwan for the sympathy expressed in the wake of a typhoon that killed about 80 people, injured hundreds and left thousands homeless last week.

Abe retweeted a message posted Oct. 13 by Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who expressed sympathy over the damage and loss of life caused by Typhoon Hagibis the previous day and said Taiwan stood ready to assist Japan.

In Abe's response, he tweeted in Chinese and Japanese that Taiwanese are old and valued friends.

"We are sparing no efforts on the rescue and restoration work," he said. "With the sympathy of our old Taiwanese friends, we feel that Taiwan is with us at the time. To us, Taiwan means important partners and friends sharing common basic values."    [FULL  STORY]

NEW TAIPEI CITY:Incentives, including prizes and lottery tickets, brought the city together to clean up cigarette butts from beaches, water and sidewalks

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 19, 2019
By: Dennis Xie  /  Staff writer, with CNA

The New Taipei City Government has launched a campaign encouraging people to protect the

environment by collecting discarded cigarette butts.

According to the government, cigarette butts have become one of the biggest ocean polluters, as toxins contained in the fibers of cigarette filters flow through sewers, rivers and eventually reach the oceans.

These toxins — which pollute the land and water as well as the ocean and sea animals — might eventually find their way back to our bodies through biological accumulation, it added.

The city reiterated the call on Thursday, encouraging the public to participate in its campaign called “A Homeland Without Cigarette Butts” to encourage removal of cigarette butts in New Taipei City.

During the campaign period from Aug. 13 to Oct. 31, people can exchange cigarette butts for gifts, it said.
[FULL STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 17 October, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan will continue to hold exchanges with the world despite Chinese

efforts to stop its international participation.

Tsai was speaking Thursday during a meeting with high ranking military and police officers from Latin America and the Caribbean. The officers are in Taiwan as part of an educational program held at National Defense University.

Tsai said she wants the global community to know that Taiwan is willing and able to contribute to the world.

Tsai said that since she took office, Taiwan has enjoyed close exchanges with Latin America. She said that on visits to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the region, she has seen the results of bilateral projects and the hard work of locally-based Taiwanese people.    [FULL  STORY]

The country’s defense minister told parliament that the $4.5 billion upgrade program for 142 F-16 fighter jets is on schedule.

The Diplomat
Date: October 17, 2019
By: Franz-Stefan Gady

Taiwan’s Minister of Defense, Yen Teh-fa, assured parliament on Wednesday that an estimated $4.5

billion (some sources state $5.3 billion) upgrade program for 142 Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) F-16 fighter jets is proceeding according to schedule.

The defense minister told lawmakers that all problems with the Ministry of National Defense’s Phoenix Rising Project, which was launched in 2016 and aims to upgrade 142 ROCAF A/B Fighting Falcon combat aircraft to the F-16V configuration by 2023, have been resolved, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on October 16.

Parliamentarians had raised their concerns earlier following the revelation that Taiwan’s state-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) failed to deliver six refitted jets in the first quarter of 2019.

“AIDC was to complete upgrades of four F-16s in 2018, followed by 24, 27, 34, 36, and 15 in the years after,” the SCMP reports. “But, after meeting last year’s target, AIDC has only managed to complete work on a further six jets so far this year, instead of six in each quarter of 2019.”
[FULL  STORY]

Han says changes have left both business and workers grumbling

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/17
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said

Thursday (October 17) he would abolish President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “one fixed day off, one flexible day off” (一例一休) labor reforms if he won next January’s election.

Revised just last year, the formula stipulating that employees must have one mandatory day off and one flexible day off per seven days has been unpopular both with business groups and with labor activists. The government has defended the measure as a balanced way of protecting workers’ interests.

Han pointed at the widespread dissatisfaction with the formula to say he would come out and abolish it if elected president next January 11.

A spokesman for Han said that the Labor Standards Act needed to be changed again, under the precondition that the flexibility of management and workers’ rights were safeguarded, the Central News Agency reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/17
By: Lin Hung-han and Joseph Yeh

Los Angeles, Oct. 16 (CNA) A Taiwanese-American recently launched an online fundraising

campaign to design and give away free T-shirts in support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters at the Oct. 22 National Basketball Association (NBA) season opener at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, a U.S. news outlet reported earlier this month.

The fan, identified only by the pseudonym "Sun Lared," told the LAist news website that he launched the campaign on the social media website Reddit Oct. 6, as the world's most popular pro hoop league was coming under heavy fire in China for a pro-Hong Kong democracy tweet by the general manager of the Houston Rockets, one of the league's 30 teams.

Sun Lared said he is a Taiwanese-American in his 30s, works in tech in the Bay Area, and has friends in both Hong Kong and China, according to an article published online on Oct. 9.

The Rockets' executive had posted an image on Twitter earlier this month that read "fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong," drawing strong opposition from China and leading to the team being put on a blacklist by China's top state broadcaster, who said it would not broadcast any Rockets games in the coming season.    [FULL  STORY]