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Tsai vows to keep strengthening Hakka culture, ethnic diversity in Taiwan

Taiwan Today
Date:: April 22, 2019

President Tsai Ing-wen (center) is joined by Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (fourth right), novelist Chung Chao-cheng (seated) and other officials in giving the thumbs-up at the launch of a culture park dedicated to the Hakka writer April 20 in the northern Taiwan city. (CNA)

President Tsai Ing-wen said April 20 that the government is making significant progress in strengthening Hakka culture and ethnic diversity in Taiwan.

It remains a top priority of the government to keep revitalizing Hakka culture while safeguarding the language and heritage of Taiwan’s minority groups, Tsai said. This is being achieved under relevant legislation designating the Hakka tongue as a national language and ensuring it is taught in schools, as well as establishing radio stations, she added.

Equally important are three projects aimed at developing a special industry based on promoting Hakka culture, tourism and traditions, Tsai said, adding that they are transforming three regions with large Hakka populations in northern, southern and eastern Taiwan.

Tsai made the remarks during the launch ceremony of a Hakka culture park dedicated to renowned novelist Chung Chao-cheng in Taoyuan City, northern Taiwan. The 95-year-old Chung is considered a trailblazer in Taiwan literature for daring to produce texts containing strong local elements during the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945).
[FULL  STORY]

British media paints Terry Gou as brash, bad for US-Taiwan relations

Financial Times has dubbed Foxconn Chief Terry Gou as Taiwan’s ‘disrupter-in-chief’ emulating Donald Trump

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/22
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Terry Gou storming out of the 2019 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue, April 16 (By Central News Agency)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The British news site Financial Times has labeled Foxconn founder and recently announced presidential candidate, Terry Gou (郭台銘), Taiwan’s “disrupter-in-chief.”

Claiming that Gou is “off to a fine start” if his goal is to emulate U.S. President Donald Trump in his approach to electoral politics.

The article notes that Gou, even before announcing his presidential bid, made an impact and grabbed headlines by causing a stir at a regional security conference when he began “ranting against Taiwan’s political establishment and the country’s most important ally (the U.S.).”

At the 2019 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue, hosted by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Gou became angered by DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) for being “rude,” because Gou claimed that she refused to make eye contact when he asked her a question. The question was which country is more important for Taiwan’s economy and the country’s ability to participate in regional organizations, the U.S. or China?
[FULL  STORY]

Han Kuang drill kicks off with computer-aided war games (update)

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/22
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, April 22 (CNA) The computer-aided war games section of this year’s Han Kuang

Image taken from Pixabay

military exercises, Taiwan’s biggest annual military drill, kicked off Monday with a simulated invasion by Chinese forces.

For the first time, the computerized war games feature a drill on how the military would respond to a disinformation campaign launched by Beijing, a military source told CNA.

In the ongoing war games, the military will conduct a drill on how it would use its existing news agencies, such as the Youth Daily newspaper and Military News Agency to track down the source of such disinformation before revealing it to the general public as a countermeasure, the source said.

The computerized war games will conclude on Friday, according to the Ministry of National Defense.    [FULL  STORY]

Police hunting for father suspected of killing his kids

FILICIDE? New Taipei City police found the bodies of a girl, 10, and a boy, 7, who apparently died of suffocation, in their father’s apartment

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 23, 2019
By: Tseng Chien-ming and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, staff writer and CNA

New Taipei City police were yesterday looking for a man, surnamed Wu (吳), who is suspected of murdering his two children at their residence in the city’s Taishan District (泰山).

On Sunday, first responders were called to the scene by Wu’s estranged wife, who had entered the apartment in search of their children, after he failed to return them as per their custodial agreement and to respond to her calls, the New Taipei City Police Department said.

The bodies of the children, a girl of 10 and a boy of seven, were found respectively on the top and bottom bunk of a bunk bed, each with a blanket pulled over their faces, police said.

Although the exact cause of death is pending until autopsies could be performed, preliminary examinations indicate that the children had died of suffocation, police said yesterday.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT presidential hopeful Terry Gou slams President Tsai for taking his words out of context

Formosa News
Date: 2019/04/21

President Tsai Ing-wen and KMT presidential contender Terry Gou have been engaged in a war of words online. President Tsai’s recent criticism of Gou’s 2014 comment that “one cannot eat democracy” has prompted Gou to create an online poll on Facebook. Insisting that Tsai quoted him out of context, the infuriated tycoon asked netizens if they thought Tsai did this because she was, quote “stupid and naive or malicious and deliberate.” Today, Tsai hit back in a subsequent Facebook post, drawing attention to the plight of imprisoned dissidents and Xinjiang reeducation camps in China.

Terry Gou, the head of Hon Hai Precision Industry, seemed to be in a good mood as he wheeled his elderly mother around a park. But only yesterday the tycoon lashed out at President Tsai Ing-wen over her recent claim that Gou had once said “you cannot eat democracy.” An angry Gou insisted he had been quoted out of context and organized an online vote on Facebook asking netizens if Tsai had made an incorrect conclusion about him because she was stupid and naive or because she was deliberately being malicious.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan plans new forward bases for Army Frogmen on Kinmen and Penghu

Port facility upgrades will increase ARB-101st’s rapid deployment capability in Taiwan Strait

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/21
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Army ARB-101st “Frogmen” (MNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwanese military has reportedly begun accepting bids from contractors for the development of two forward operating bases and equipment upgrades for the Taiwan Army’s 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion (ARB-101st), better known as the Frogmen (海龍蛙兵) special forces.

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has drafted plans to upgrade special port facilities on the outlying islands of Kinmen (金門), and Penghu (澎湖), to assist in the rapid deployment of Frogman units in the Taiwan Strait.

The MND is prepared to invest over NT$400 million (US$12.9 million) into the project, with NT$260 million going to the base in Kinmen, and NT$165 million for the facilities in Penghu.

With China’s increasingly threatening actions around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, the MND views rapid response capabilities around Taiwan’s outlying islands a top priority for national defense.    [FULL  STORY]

Uber drivers protest planned changes to rental car regulations

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/21
By: Chen Wei-ting and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Hundreds of Uber drivers rallied in front of the Presidential Office on Sunday to protest planned regulations that would require Uber-supported transportation services to adopt hourly or day-based fare rates and bar them from driving around looking for passengers.

Some 200 Uber vehicles parked on Ketagalan Boulevard to protest the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ (MOTC’s) planned revision to the “Regulations for Automobile Transportation Operators.”

The amendment would add Article 103-1 to the regulations that would prohibit drivers of vehicles from rental car companies to drive around seeking passengers or schedule shifts to accommodate customers calling for a ride.

It would also require fares to be charged by the hour or the day.    [FULL  STORY]

Decriminalize cannabis, group says

STOP THE STIGMA: Advocates said that they organized a peaceful parade to publicize their cause, encourage open dialogue and curb the stigma attached to using cannabis

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 22, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Advocates on Saturday called for health officials and the government to approve cannabis for medical use, saying that they plan to lobby legislators to decriminalize the drug in Taiwan.

“We will ask legislators to amend the law, which lists cannabis and its derived products as a Category 2 narcotic in the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例),” said Chung Ho-yun (鍾和耘), one of the organizers of a rally held outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to mark 420 Day, an international day for cannabis-related events and protests.

“Our goal is to have it decriminalized — to permit cannabis for medical treatment and other beneficial uses,” he added.

Cannabis advocates are working with the New Power Party (NPP) to introduce an amendment in the legislature, Chung said, adding that they are also seeking support from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).    [FULL  STORY]

Wife to visit Taiwan human rights worker in China jail next week

China refused to allow visits for 4 months

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – China has given the green light to Lee Ching-yu (李淨瑜) for a visit

Lee Ching-yu (right) with U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback during his Taiwan visit in March (By Central News Agency)

next week to her husband, Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who is sitting out a five-year prison sentence for subversive activities in Hunan Province, reports said Saturday (April 20).

The Mainland Affairs Council has confirmed that the activist’s wife will be allowed to travel to China next Monday (April 22) for her first meeting with her husband in four months, the Liberty Times reported.

The refusal of the Chinese authorities to allow such a meeting over the past few meetings drew widespread international condemnation, with threats of action from the United States and Europe.

Lee Ming-che first disappeared after entering China in March 2017, with China waiting months before it confirmed he had been detained for his contacts with dissidents and human rights activists.    [FULL  STORY]

Taichung Power Plant ordered to build new waste treatment facility

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/20
By: Tsai Fan-min and Ko Lin

CNA file photo

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has requested state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) to build a new waste treatment facility for its coal-fired power plant in Taichung in two years, it said Saturday.

According to the Taichung City government, the plant is the largest single stationary source of air pollution in central Taiwan and has recently been found to have repeatedly discharged polluted wastewater.

Taipower has therefore been asked to increase the Taichung Power Plant’s wastewater treatment capacity, with the project due for completion within two years, Deputy Economic Affairs Minister Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said.

Before that, however, Taipower has serious short-term challenges.    [FULL  STORY]