Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/25/2020
By: Hou Wen-ting and Joseph Yeh

Kaohsiung, Oct. 25 (CNA) Oil spillage from a freighter that sunk in waters off the coast of Kaohsiung on Friday are not expected to cause an environmental emergency, Taiwan's Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA) said Sunday.

The Tuvalu-registered Seatran Ferry 12 lost power and sunk in open seas some 28 nautical miles southwest of Kaohsiung. Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) later managed to rescue five crewmen, but the five others on the ship were still missing as of Sunday afternoon.

All the crew members are believed to be Thai citizens, according to the CGA.

While the CGA is continuing its search for the missing crew, Deputy OCA Director-General Sung Hsin-chen (宋欣真) said the OCA has been monitoring the oil that leaked from the vessel.
[FULL  STORY]

The babysitter has pleaded guilty to negligent homicide.

Mothership
Date: October 24, 2020
By: Tanya Ong

In 2019, a babysitter suffocated 11-month-old "Rui Rui" at a childcare centre in Taiwan while trying to get him to take a nap.

The babysitter Liao Xiao Ping has since pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, according to Taiwan Apple Daily.

CCTV footage of the incident has also circulated, showing Liao leaning her body weight onto the child and wrapping herself around him using her arms and thighs. She reportedly did so for around 19 minutes.

The child can be seen struggling, but eventually stops moving.    [FULL  STORY]

"We don’t want to be manipulated or caught in a great power competition," said Evan Tsao, 31, a master’s degree student from Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan.

NBC News
Date: Oct. 24, 2020
By: Louise Watt

TAIPEI, Taiwan — As China challenges the global dominance of the United States, tiny Taiwan finds itself stuck, rather uncomfortably, smack dab in the middle of the conflict between the two international giants.

Economically, Taiwan is dependent on Beijing. But for its security and for international political support, it relies on Washington.

"Recently, the Taiwanese people tend to think that we don’t want to be a piece on the chessboard anymore," said Evan Tsao, 31, a master’s degree student in international relations from Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan. "We don’t want to be manipulated or caught in a great power competition."

He added that "Taiwan is forced to choose sides amid the rivalry. It’s wrestling between economic power and political power.”    [FULL  STORY]

Pacific Air Forces confirm that contrary to previous statement, no US aircraft flew over Taipei

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/10/24
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The United States Air Force has retracted confirmation that one of its RC-135W electronic surveillance aircraft flew over Taipei earlier this week, reports said Saturday (Oct. 24).

Originally, Twitter flight tracking accounts Golf9 and Tokyo Radar reported Wednesday (Oct. 21) the plane, also known as a Rivet Joint, had flown at an altitude of 31,500 feet above central Taipei. Most USAF flights stay away from Taiwanese airspace, and in this case the island’s military immediately denied such a flight had taken place.

A USAF spokesman surprised observers by confirming the flight did occur “as part of an operational intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission,” the news web site The War Zone reported. However, on Friday (Oct. 23), the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) contacted the news site to retract the previous confirmation.

“We did not have any U.S. aircraft in that area on the date and time in question,” The War Zone quoted Lieutenant Colonel Tony Wickman, PACAF director of public affairs, as saying.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/24/2020
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Oct. 24 (CNA) Overseas Indians in Taiwan on Saturday celebrated the Navratri Festival with traditional dances, preserving their culture in their home away from home.

The celebration, dubbed Dandiya Nite 2020, was organized by the Indians' Association of Taipei (IAT).

The Northern Indian festival involves a nine-day worship of the Hindu Goddess Durga in her nine forms, one form per day, by fasting at day and dancing at night, said Purnima Kshatriya, one of the planners of the event,

This year's Navratri, which means nine nights, began on Oct. 17 and lasts until Oct. 25, according to the Hindu calendar, she said, and the IAT held the celebration on Saturday so that more people could join.    [FULL  STORY]

If we do not fight back, bullying will get worse\

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/10/21
By: Chang Guo-tsai 張國財, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwanese people learned on Monday (Oct. 19) from a foreign media outlet, Asia Pacific Report, of an assault on one of our own diplomats in Fiji by two Chinese counterparts.

The assault was not mentioned in the press release issued earlier this month by our representative office in the South Pacific nation following a National Day celebration event there.

This inevitably led to questions: when was our Minister of Foreign Affairs informed of the attack by China's "wolf warrior” diplomats? If Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), our foreign minister, learned of the news only from a foreign report, then our office in Fiji should be censured.

If he did know of the matter earlier, then Wu should take the blame. That Fiji reportedly wanted to keep the matter out of the headlines should be of no consequence.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/22/2020
By: Chung Ching-wen and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Oct. 22 (CNA) 2020 Art Taipei, one of the largest art fairs of its kind in Asia, will get underway on Friday with a total of 77 gallery collections and standalone exhibitions on display.

Guests including Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and Culture Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得) attended the show's opening ceremony Thursday at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1.

Taiwan Art Gallery Association (TAGA), the event organizer, said this year's show will include displays from 53 domestic galleries and 12 international galleries, as well as eight exhibitions of work by up-and-coming Taiwanese talents and four exhibitions showcasing Indigenous artists.

Eleven galleries will be attending for the first time, it added.    [FULL  STORY]

‘COMMON PHENOMNENON’: More students say they have been actively or passively involved, and a majority would try to solve problems on their own, a survey found

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 23, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

Nearly half of the nation’s students say that they have been involved in cases of cyberbullying — nearly twice the rate in 2016, a Child Welfare League Foundation survey released yesterday showed.

The Ministry of Education in July amended the Regulations Governing the Prevention and Control of Bullying on Campuses (校園霸凌防制準則) to include online harassment, the foundation said, adding that the move indicates that cyberbullying has become a common phenomenon on school campuses.

In a survey on cyberbullying among students, the foundation found that 10.7 percent of respondents said that they had engaged in the cyberbullying and 18.1 percent said they had been victims thereof, while 18.2 percent said they had both bullied and been bullied.

However, a majority of students (53 percent) said that they had never been involved, the foundation said.    [FULL  STORY]