The population increased by just 18,000

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/19
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Population growth in Taiwan has exhibited a downward trend for decades

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of the Interior (MoI) announced today (Jan. 19) that statistics from the household registration office have revealed Taiwan’s population increased by just 18,000 between 2017 and 2018, a new low in recent years.

The statistics reflect a growth rate of just 0.08 percent, the first time it has fallen under one thousandth of the previous year’s total population. The drop in growth is not as significant as it was between 2016 and 2017, but it is still indicative of a general downward trend that Taiwan has seen for over two decades.

According to the statistics released by the MoI, there were 11,712,913 men in Taiwan at the end of 2018, accounting for 49.65 percent of the total population, and 11,876,019 women, accounting for the other 50.35 percent. The male to female ration fell to 98.63 (men per one hundred women), likely due to the fact that women live longer, the ministry said.

Deputy director of the ministry’s Department of Home Affairs Teng Hsin-wei (鄭信偉) told CNA that the total number of births in 2018 was lower than the number of deaths, which restricted the population’s growth potential.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/19
By: Yang Sheng-ju and Frances Huang

From YouTube

Taipei, Jan. 19 (CNA) McDonald’s in China expressed Saturday regret over an advertisement posted on Youtube by Taiwan McDonald’s that sparked an outcry among Chinese netizens, who claimed the ad supports Taiwan independence.

On its official Weibo page, a popular Chinese social media site, McDonald’s China expressed regret over the ad, which labelled the nationality of a female student in the ad as Taiwan.

Many Chinese netizens posted strong protests, accusing McDonald’s of supporting Taiwan independence.

The ad appeared on YouTube Dec. 6 and was withdrawn Dec. 18 after the online protests. McDonald’s Taiwan did not say whether the withdrawal had something with the protests from Chinese netizens.    [FULL  STORY]

TOO MUCH? The coalition of trade unions called on the Ministry of Labor to ignore the National Development Council and evaluate whether Article 84-1 is still needed

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 20, 2019
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

A coalition of trade unions yesterday demonstrated outside the National Development

Union members outside the Ministry of Labor in Taipei yesterday hold signs that read: “Workers are overworked” during a protest against a proposed responsibility-based system for workers above a certain salary level.  Photo: CNA

Council in Taipei, protesting what it called the council’s attempt to pressure the Ministry of Labor into imposing a salary threshold that would allow employers to subject some employees to a responsibility-based scheme and could aggravate overwork.

The council succumbed to pressure from the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei and the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan when in August last year it overstepped its bounds and submitted a proposal to the ministry that asked it to widen the scope of Article 84-1 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), Taiwan Federation of Financial Unions secretary-general Han Shih-hsien (韓仕賢) said.

The article allows employers to bypass the act and have workers in 40 professions — including flight attendants, reporters, security guards, chauffeurs at government agencies and women working the night shift — work on a responsibility-based schedule, as long as an agreement is reached between the employer and the employee, and the agreement is forwarded to local governments.

The measure could mean that the employees would have to be on call at all times.
[FULL  STORY]

The government has engaged in a conscious effort to raise awareness of Southeast Asian cultures and traditions, writes Wei Chun-ying.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/01/18
By Wei Chun-ying

Credit: Pixabay

The long-anticipated Culture White Paper 2018 was officially published last December following the National Cultural Congress in 2017. I had the privilege to serve as member of the advisory committee in congress and would like to share some observations during the process, along with some relevant content concerning the Culture White Papers.

In the previous Culture White Papers published in 1998 and 2004, both had mentioned cultural exchange and promoting culture. This is instrumental for Taiwan’s cultural diplomacy. The 1998 Culture White Paper stated that the principle of the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) should be to ‘nourish new culture, establish the new Central Plain, re-construct new society’. This slogan demonstrated an enduring recognition of Chinese culture.

In terms of ‘cultural exchange’ (wenhuajiaoliu), the CCA claimed the arts and culture should be the means to participate actively overseas. Therefore, the main objective was to introduce Taiwanese culture to international audiences, and foster understanding among Taiwan’s allies.

The rhetoric of ‘national competitiveness’ mentioned in this Culture White Paper implied that culture has the potential to be an asset enabling Taiwan to ‘compete’ with others. I argued that although the term soft power was not used in the document then, the government recognized culture as an important asset.    [FULL  STORY]

Swinhoe was not only a diplomat, but also conducted research into the Taiwanese fauna

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Christopher Swinhoe-Standen (right) with an effigy of his famous forefather (photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Department of Cultural Affairs). (By Central News Agency)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A fifth-generation descendant of British consul Robert Swinhoe on Thursday visited the building in Kaohsiung where his forefather lived and worked in the 1860s.

During the visit to the hilltop consulate, Christopher Swinhoe-Standen posed by an effigy of his famous forefather, the first British consul in Taiwan, which at the time was ruled by China’s Qing Dynasty.

Swinhoe-Standen first visited the National Taiwan Museum in Taipei where he learned more about the history of the country, including the foreign presence on the island, the Central News Agency reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/18
By: Liu Kuan-ting and Flor Wang

DPP lawmaker Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政, right)

Taipei, Jan. 18 (CNA) A lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) voiced concern Friday over possible security failings in the area around the Presidential Office, after a report appeared in a Hong Kong newspaper with pictures of a pro-Hong Kong independence student leader allegedly meeting with an “emissary” of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in Taipei earlier this month.

Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Pao (大公報) ran a front page story Wednesday, claiming that Tony Chung Han-lam (鍾翰林), a student leader of the pro-Hong Kong independence movement Studentlocalism (學生動源), met an “emissary” of Tsai to discuss an “independence plot” at Academia Historica in downtown Taipei.

Speaking at a news conference, DPP lawmaker Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) called the news report “groundless,” but said it exposed security failures in the Bo’ai Special Zone near the Presidential Office, because apparently a reporter was able to secretly film a group of people without being challenged.

Although the report was false, Lo said such “lawless” behavior highlighted security lapses in an area of Taipei where security is supposed to be tight.    [FULL  STORY]

SHAJHU BAY PLAN: Su Tseng-chang said that before developing the bay, the central and local governments would have to solve the issue of the area’s lack of space

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 19, 2019
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Jhongjiao Beach in Shajhu Bay in New Taipei City’s Jinshan District is pictured on Aug. 23 last year.  Photo: CNA

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday pledged to transform Shajhu Bay (沙珠灣) in New Taipei City’s Jinshan District (金山) into an incubator for professional surfers and make it an even more popular tourist spot.

When Su was running for New Taipei City mayor last year, he promised to remediate all 126km of the municipality’s shoreline, to “set the stage for its beauty to be seen by all,” in the hopes that it would encourage northern Taiwan’s approximately 10 million residents to visit the bay.

Su yesterday inspected the area accompanied by his former campaign rival, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜).

The premier said the subject of developing the bay was brought up by Hou on Thursday at the Cabinet’s weekly meeting, so he decided to inspect the area himself.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: January 17, 2019
By: Phillip Charlier
Live fire military exercises designed to strengthen Taiwan’s anti-landing defense capabilities kicked off the second day of a month-long series of military drills involving the ROC air, navy, and army forces.

The exercise began before dawn on the coast of Taichung with a cardinal II UAV taking off to carry out joint surveillance. IDF fighters and Ching Chiang class (Jin-Jiang) patrol ships fired missiles at “enemy ships” off the west coast.

Thunderbolt 2000 missiles and M110A2 self-propelled howitzers fired from land, while assault helicopters attacked from the air as dawn broke, and M60A3 battle tanks and infantry fire simulated shore landing counter-attack operations.

Mirage fighter jets took off from Hsinchu Air Base in rainy conditions and headed north to defend the nation’s capital, Taipei City.    [FULL  STORY]