Over 650 people attend Indian Holi Festival in Taipei
 
Taiwan News   
Date: 2019/03/17 
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The “Indian Holi Taipei” festival held on Saturday (March 16) in Taipei saw over 650 attendees celebrate Holi, the “Festival of Colors, and enjoyed the day with delicious Indian cuisine, music, and dance performances.

The festival, which was hosted by Mayur Indian Kitchen in coordination with Taiwan’s Indians’ Club (TIC), was held at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m and featured 40 plus performers.

The Holi festival is well-known as a “festival of colors” where participants throw colored dye and powder at one another. At Saturday’s festival, organizers provided dye mixed with water, which hundreds of participants eagerly splashed on each other.

Soon, a vibrant rainbow of colors spread to the clothing and faces of revelers as they gyrated to the music. In addition to the “festival of colors,” there were DJ’s playing popular Indian music, professional Bollywood dancers, a live Western band Mojo Music, and a wide array of food stalls which served delicious traditional Indian cuisine.
[FULL  STORY]

Local authorities are appointing ‘Taiwanese sci-tech special commissioners’

Taiwan News   
Date: 2019/03/17
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Prefectures in China are appointing Taiwanese agricultural commissioners to assist village farming projects, which could be violating the 1992 cross-strait relations act.

CNA reports Taiwanese citizens are being recruited to act as “Taiwanese sci-tech special commissioners” to provide agricultural assistance to farmers in Chinese villages. This latest move follows a series of measures implemented in the southern city of Xiamen and Pingtan County to integrate Taiwanese specialists into state-run community development projects.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said working in such positions violates Article 33-2 of the “Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.”

The act stipulates that any authorities, institutions or legislative organs at any local government level in Taiwan must not coalesce with any local authorities in China without prior consultation with the Ministry of Interior. MAC said it is to review the nature of the new “special commissioner” position.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/17
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 17 (CNA) Eswatini Minister of Health Lizzy Nkosi arrived in Taiwan Sunday

for a five-day visit aimed at enhancing bilateral exchanges in the areas of health and medical care, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said that day.

The health minister, who was appointed in November last year, is accompanied by a delegation that includes Velephi Okello, deputy director of health services under the ministry, according to a MOFA statement.

During their visit, the two will meet with Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and attend a banquet to be hosted by Vice Foreign Minister Miguel Tsao (曹立傑).

During their meetings, Nkosi and various Taiwanese officials will discuss ways to enhance two-way exchanges in health and medical care and how to help Taiwan’s bid to attend this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA), the highest decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), which will take place in Geneva May 20-28, MOFA said.    [FULL  STORY]

RESPONSIBLE OWNERSHIP: ‘Lucy’s Law’ requires those wanting to buy or adopt a puppy or kitten younger than six months to deal directly with breeders or shelters

Focus Taiwan
Date: Mar 18, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Lawmakers and animal rights advocates yesterday discussed the feasibility of legislation

similar to England’s so-callled “Lucy’s Law,” which prohibits pet shops or dealers from selling puppies and kittens younger than six months.

Dozens of animal lovers, animal welfare groups, academics, legislators and representatives of pet breeders and commercial dealers attended a conference at National Taiwan University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in Taipei to discuss ways to eliminate puppy and kitten mills, and the abuse and health problems associated with such breeding practices.

Lucy’s Law was passed by the British Parliament in October last year and announced by British Undersecretary of State for Food and Animal Welfare David Rutley on Dec. 23. It only applys to England.

The law aims to “put an end to unnecessary animal cruelty and help eradicate forms of irresponsible dog breeding and selling, such as puppy farming, smuggling and trafficking.”

Georny Liu (劉偉蘋), chief executive of Supporting Team Social Enterprise and the organizer of yesterday’s conference, said Lucy’s Law forces anyone looking to buy or adopt a puppy or kitten to either deal directly with a breeder or with an animal rehoming center, which might help protect animals by holding breeders accountable and making the process transparent.    [FULL  STORY]

The populist mayor of Kaohsiung is a cultural phenomenon who looks set to make his presence known in Taiwan’s presidential race.

The Diplomat
Date: March 15, 2019
By: Nick Aspinwall

Han Kuo-yu is everywhere. To his supporters, he is a movement politician; a harbinger of

hope smashing an ineffectual Taiwanese political order. To others, his rapid ascent from fringe figure of the Kuomintang (KMT) to mayor of Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second-largest city, is a civic catastrophe. Regardless, Han Kuo-yu is ubiquitous, dominating news cycles like no other public official in Taiwan.

In a poll published in February by the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Han, who has been mayor for less than three months, notched a 35.1 percent approval rating for Taiwan’s upcoming 2020 presidential election, beating out other KMT presidential hopefuls and incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Han remains mum on whether he plans to run, but the fact Taiwan is having this conversation is itself astounding.

Han, 61, is not exactly a political novice. He had a stint as KMT legislator from 1992 to 2001, mostly nondescript other than an incident in which he assaulted then-lawmaker and future President Chen Shui-bian. Han was a KMT outcast for years before resurfacing as head of a farmer’s association – in his mayoral campaign, he would call himself a “bald guy who sells vegetables.” In May 2018, he was quietly nominated by the KMT to run for mayor in the DPP stronghold of Kaohsiung, one year after losing a bid for KMT chairman in which he picked up just 5.8 percent of the vote. He received almost no party support in a race seen as a surefire win for DPP candidate Chen Chi-mai.    [FULL  STORY]

No injuries reported, driver tests negative for alcohol

Taiwan News   
Date: 2019/03/16 
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – After crashing a Lamborghini costing NT$12.58 million (US$407,500), the driver who had rented the car said it would have to be written off completely.

The driver, surnamed Cheng (鄭), was traveling from Yilan County to Taipei City at 8 a.m. Saturday when he missed a bend in the road and crashed against a rail, the Apple Daily reported.

The grass-green Huracan RWD Coupe saw its front section severely damaged, with shards of metal landing on the other side of the railing.

Nobody was injured in the accident, and Cheng tested negative for alcohol, according to the Apple Daily.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/16
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) made a slight comeback in legislative by-elections Saturday after a landslide loss in local government elections late last year, picking up two seats, while the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) grabbed one.

In the four by-elections in New Taipei, Tainan, Changhua and Kinmen, DPP candidates won the first two, with the KMT taking Changhua and an independent picking up Kinmen, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

The elections brought the total number of DPP lawmakers to 68 in the 113-seat Legislative Yuan, back to the same level as after the 2016 legislative elections.

Compared with 2016, the number of KMT seats dropped two to 33 due to the Kinmen loss and the suspension of lawmaker Chien Tung-ming (簡東明), who was found guilty of vote buying.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 17, 2019
By: Hsiao Yu-han and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The abrupt ouster of the chairman of the board at Minjian Investment Ltd Co (民間投資)

on Thursday is widely seen as a tactic to take over control of Formosa TV (民視) in the upcoming vote for board chair at the network, sources within Formosa TV said.

Minjian Investment has a seat on the Formosa TV board of directors and owns a 49.7 percent stake in the network, meaning that whoever it supports in the election would likely become its chair.

Minjian’s board sacked Kuo Pei-hung (郭倍宏) as chairman after a vote of no confidence to a motion proposed by board member Huang Ming-chan (黃明展), but Kuo remains chairman at Formosa TV.

Kuo received board approval to take out a NT$500 million (US$16.19 million) loan from Taishin International Bank using company shares as collateral, Huang said.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatiomnal 
Date: 14 March, 2019
By: Andrew Ryan

This has been an action-packed week for us in Taiwan. As the nation’s military prepares for the annual Han Kuang Military exercises in May, we get a sneak peak at jet fighters landing on highways, and more.

This week on Taiwan Insider, Andrew Ryan and Natalie Tso dive into the topic of Taiwan’s defense. A recent request to buy 66 F16-V fighter jets from the United States prompted a closer look at how prepared the country is to fend off an attack. Plus, you may be surprised to learn that even though Taiwan’s military budget and manpower pale in comparison to China’s, there’s a continuing effort to demilitarize outlying Taiwanese islands. This month, Taiwan opened up Dadan Island — a tiny islet of the coast of China — to tourism.

Come for the missiles, stay for the pandas? Today’s #Taiwan will guide you through the on-line response to the suggestion that China gift a pair of pandas to the southern city of Kaohsiung. Mayor Han Kuo-yu says the pandas can be called “Make A Lot of Money” and “Make a Fortune,” but not everyone is buying it.    [FULL  STORY]