Focus Taiwan
Date 2019/01/22
By: Jay Chou and Ko Lin

Jakarta, Jan. 22 (CNA) Taiwan on Tuesday made another US$500,000 donation to Indonesia to support relief efforts following a deadly tsunami that left hundreds dead last December.

The donation was made in Jakarta by Taiwan’s representative to Indonesia Chen Chung (陳忠) to Ginandjar Kartasasmita, acting chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross Society.

Chen, also thanked the Indonesian government and those who helped the family of six Taiwanese tourists seek medical attention after they were found stranded in a mountainous area in Lampung Province where the disaster struck.

Taiwan’s government has decided to make another donation to help with post-disaster relief work and aid reconstruction in areas affected by the natural disaster, Chen said.
[FULL  STORY]

The New York Times
Date: Jan. 21, 2019
By: Javier C. Hernández

BEIJING — A beer in one hand, a microphone in the other, Meng Xiaoli stood in a crowded restaurant and began to sing.

Your smile is as sweet as honey,

Just like flowers blooming in the spring breeze.

I wonder where I’ve seen you.
During the workweek, Mr. Meng, 53, a strait-laced budget analyst who wears a red Chinese Communist Party pin on his lapel, spends his days shuttling between meetings and poring over reports as a budget analyst for a state-owned firm.

But on weekends, he retreats to what he calls his “spiritual home,” a two-story restaurant and museum in Beijing that is a shrine to the woman he considers a goddess: the Taiwanese pop singer Teresa Teng, one of Asia’s most celebrated artists.

“She knows what it’s like to be human — to find love and to make mistakes,” Mr. Meng said.

Ms. Teng, who died suddenly in 1995 at age 42, was renowned for turning traditional Taiwanese and Chinese folk songs into maudlin Western-style hits. She was once banned in the mainland, her music denounced by the authorities as “decadent” and “pornographic.”    [FULL  STORY]

Huang explains that he has to set aside time for developing policy reform

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/21
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) announced on his Facebook page early Monday that he is stepping down as the chairman of the New Power Party (NPP), while he didn’t elaborate on his future role in the party.

In the beginning of the post, the 45-year-old former Academia Sinica researcher and one of the Sunflower Student Movement leaders, spoke of the background and his rationale of joining the pro-Taiwan independence party in 2015. He continued to say that the party has won more and more support from voters over the years, as seen by winning five seats at the Legislature in 2016’s national election and 16 seats at local councils across the country in 2018’s local elections.

“As the party is growing on a stable pace, it’s about time to unload my duty as the chairman and to focus on critical reforms,” he added.

On the other hand, Kuomintang, another winner in last year’s local elections, staged a bizarre political drama at the same time, in which the party chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) kept claiming credit in a media interview for the victory of KMT’s Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) in the Kaohsiung mayoral election, saying it was won “on the back of Wu’s campaign team and running strategies.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/21
By: Wu Che-hao and Ko Lin

Taipei, Jan. 21 (CNA) An internet celebrity from Taipei renowned for taking photos of herself in a bikini after hiking up mountain peaks across Taiwan died Monday from suspected hypothermia, after a fall in central Taiwan, Nantou County Fire Department said that day.

Identified as Gigi Wu (吳季芸), the woman’s body was found in a gorge at Penjushan at about noon, but rescuers said she showed no signs of life by the time they reached her, according to Lin Cheng-yi (林正宜), head of the Third Squadron of the Nantou fire department.

Wu called for assistance on her satellite phone on Saturday, indicating she was in distress and unable to move after falling into a 30-meter deep gorge at Penjushan.

However, poor weather conditions prevented the rescue team deployed to find Wu from using a helicopter so they set out on foot.    [FULL  STORY]

RIGHT TO REFUSE? A flight attendant says EVA Airways was at first indifferent to her plight of being asked to wipe the behind of a physically challenged male passenger

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 22, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday asked EVA Airways Corp to take

action against a male passenger who, after using the toilet during a flight from Los Angeles to Taipei on Saturday, asked a flight attendant to remove his underpants and wipe his behind.

The flight attendant, surnamed Kuo (郭), who posted her story and photographs from the flight on Facebook, which were later reported by local media, spoke in detail about the experience at a news conference held by the union yesterday afternoon.

The passenger, who was the last passenger to board and was in a wheelchair, was about four times as big as Kuo, she said.

About two-and-a-half hours after takeoff, the passenger requested to use the business-class lavatory, as the one in economy was not large enough, she said, adding that he asked the flight attendants to lift him onto the toilet, citing a hand injury.
[FULL  STORY]

Global News
Date: January 20, 2019
By: Josh K. Elliott National Online Journalist, International  Global News

WATCH ABOVE: The tensions surrounding the future of Taiwan’s independence makes it the top hotspot to watch for Paul Stares, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations.

President Xi Jinping wants to restore China to its former glory – and that means bringing Taiwan under the Communist Party’s control, one way or another.

That was the gist of Xi’s direction-setting New Year’s speech on Jan. 2, when he addressed a packed house at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi’s speech marked 40 years since China stopped regular artillery bombardment of Taiwan-controlled islands off the Chinese coast. While he spoke at length about peace, he also made it clear that he’s running out of patience for polite politics.

“We are willing to create a vast space for peaceful unification, but we will never leave any room for any sort of Taiwan independence or separatist activities,” Xi said from his seat at the front of the auditorium. He then directly addressed the scope of action China may use to enforce this: “We do not promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option to use all necessary measures.”    [FULL  STORY]

The volunteers in green shirts comprise of Indonesian migrant workers, caregivers, white-collar professionals, and students

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/20
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – On weekends, a group of people in green shirts can be sighted at parks, mountains, and beaches in Taiwan, carrying garbage bags filled with glass and plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and other non-decomposable waste. They are volunteers from Indonesia who want to make their second home sustainable, and a better place to live.

Instead of hanging out with friends at shopping malls, Mayasari and Mas Ade Warhanto, co-founders of Universal Volunteer based in Taiwan, choose to meet their fellow Indonesian and Taiwanese friends outside work for hiking tours across Taiwan. The hiking tour is, however, like no other, in which Mayasari and her trekkers pick up one or more bags of garbage as “souvenir” after each trip since starting in 2016.

Mayasari told Taiwan News that she joined a group – Taiwan Hiking Community – in her first year working in Taiwan. The group was formed by a small group of Indonesian migrant workers who are nature lovers and they go hiking together on weekends. In the beginning, they picked up litter along the way with bags.

In April of 2018, Mayasari and Warhanto began naming the initiative “the cleanup project” under their newly co-founded non-profit organization “Universal Volunteer,” which aims to help those in need, regardless of race, gender, age, or socio-economic status.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/20
By: Tsai Peng-min and Chi Jo-yao

Taipei, Jan. 20 (CNA) Orsted A/S, a Danish investor in offshore wind-power sites in Taiwan, has suspended its part in the nation’s offshore wind-power development program amid what it described as a re-evaluation of its investment in the country.

Orsted has informed its supply chain that it has suspended the execution of ongoing contracts to install wind-power facilities off the western coast of Taiwan, Wang Hsin-chieh (汪欣潔), the company’s official in charge of corporate communication, confirmed Saturday.

For those contracts that have not yet been carried out, the company will renew price negotiations with the relevant businesses, Wang said, explaining that the decision was made as Orsted is assessing whether or not to continue its Taiwan investment.

The suspended contracts include the construction of onshore substations with Taiwan Cogeneration Corp., underwater structures with China Steel Corp. (CSC) and Century Iron and Steel Industrial Co. Ltd. (CISI), according to Wang.    [FULL  STORY]