Transitional Justice Commission calls for removal of images of Chiang Kai-shek from Taiwan’s coins and bills

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/18
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As of its biannual report, the Transitional Justice Commission (TJC) yesterday (Dec. 17) called for the removal of images of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from Taiwan’s currency because of their authoritarian symbolism.

At a news conference held yesterday, Acting Commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠) said the commission recommends that, along with the many authoritarian symbols which should be eliminated from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the likeness of Chiang Kai-shek should be removed from Taiwan’s currency. She specifically listed the NT$1 (US$0.32), NT$5, old NT$10 coins and NT$200 bill as currency that should be modified to remove Chiang’s image, reported ETtoday.

Yang said that formal notice has been sent to Taiwan’s Central Bank to request that it provide the estimated cost to change the 2000, 2002, 2005 editions of the paper notes, before the changes will be further studied, negotiated, and discussed. Shih Tsuen-hua (施遵驊), director-general of the bank’s Department of Issuance, yesterday said that it was the first time that the TJC had contacted it about changes to the nation’s currency.

Yang noted that, due to the massive popularity of claw machines, the Central Bank will be issuing more NT$10 coins next year. She then asked, if the Central Bank is already going to issue a large number of coins for the crane claw craze, “Why not change them for the sake of transitional justice?”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/18
By: Liu Lee-jung and Ko Lin 

Taipei, Dec. 18 (CNA) Legislative by-elections for seats to be vacated by lawmakers who won the recent local government head elections in Tainan, Changhua and Kinmen will be held March 16, the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced Tuesday.

One election will be held for the seat representing Tainan’s second electoral district, which will be left vacant by Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), who was elected as the city’s new mayor during the Nov. 24 local government elections.

The other election will fill the seat representing Changhua’s first electoral district after Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) became the county’s magistrate-elect.

The same will also apply to Kinmen, where a seat will be left vacant by Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) after he won the outlying county’s magistrate race.    [FULL  STORY]

ONE STEP AT A TIME: The EPA is to introduce bans on single-use tableware, plastic straws and other items in three phases, starting with a ‘restriction’ on their use

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 19, 2018
By: Hsiao Yu-hsin and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

While the amount of plastic bags found in local waters has significantly decreased, plastic

straws are becoming a greater contributor to marine debris, the Taipei-based Society of Wilderness environmental group said on Monday.

Since 2004, the group has participated in the International Coastal Cleanup, with cleanups taking place nationwide in September each year, society executive director Liu Yueh-mei (劉月梅) said.

This year, plastic bottles (46,976), bottle caps (43,733) and plastic straws (36,660) were the most common types of marine debris volunteers found, she said.

They also collected 16,364 plastic bags, which made up 5.7 percent of all items collected, Liu said, adding that this percentage has drastically fallen over the past decade.

Under the draft law amendment, foreign workers will be granted the right to remain in Taiwan if they are exposed to some disaster on the job, the NIA said.

The agency issued the statement after several immigrants’ rights groups called for better protection of the rights and interests of new immigrants in Taiwan earlier in the day.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 17 December, 2018
By: Jake Chen

Migrant workers protest against exploitation, lack of gov’t control
The Taiwan International Workers’ Association and about 50 migrant workers protested in front of the Ministry of Labor on Monday. They were speaking out against what they say is increasing exploitation of foreign laborers.

In 2016, the government revised a law that had required migrant workers to exit and re-enter Taiwan every three years. The goal was to prevent employment agencies from charging migrant workers a high brokerage fee to return to Taiwan.

However, the agencies are now charging workers between NT$60,000 and NT$80,000 (US$2,000-2,600) each time they change their job or employer, which is illegal. That puts the workers in a situation where they have to either pay a heavy fee or face repatriation when they cannot land a job without going through a broker. The workers say the exploitation is worse now than it was before the laws were revised.    [FULL  STORY]

After two years of tensions, mainland-friendly wins in Taiwan’s cities encourage a new high profile to the annual forum

South China Morning Post 
Date: 17 December, 2018
By: Lawrence Chung

Mainland China is sending its largest delegation in two years to the self-ruled island of Taiwan for a city-to-city forum which has been rejuvenated after a period of rising cross-strait tensions.

A record 250 local scholars, industry experts, and municipal officials from Taipei will join 135 delegates from Shanghai at the forum, which in past years has achieved around 30 cooperation agreements on a range of issues, including travel, culture, and environmental protection.

The Shanghai delegates will be led by executive vice-mayor Zhou Bo, the highest-ranking official to attend the event in recent years, according to the city government.

The 2018 Taipei-Shanghai Forum, which kicks off in the island’s capital city on December 19 for three days, is hosted in rotation by the two cities and has been a prominent annual cross-strait event since it was first held in 2010.    [FULL  STORY]

Outspoken lawyer Lin Hsien-tung has requested Ma Ying-jeou refrains from releasing his memoir

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/17
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Just days prior to the scheduled release of a memoir from

former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), a high-profile lawyer has stated he is resorting to courts to request Ma corrects content regarding wire-tapping and breach of trust cases.

Ma’s “A Memoir of My Eight-Year Presidency” ( 八年執政回憶錄, tentative translation), is slated for publication this Thursday (Dec. 20) under Commonwealth Publishing Group. The book contains a chapter about the judicial persecution he faced after serving his second presidential term.

The memoir is also said to contain Ma’s harsh criticism against the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement (太陽花運動), which he states should share the blame for the country’s recent economic downturn. The Sunflower Movement involved students and civic groups occupying the Legislative Yuan for nearly a month in protest of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA).

Lawyer Lin Hsien-tung (林憲同) said in a statement on Dec. 17 that it is extremely inappropriate for Ma to justify his conduct over the legal cases (which are still under investigation) through his memoir, instead of the legal system. Lin believes the act constitutes a breach of the constitution.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/17
By: Kuo Chih-hsuan and William Yen

Taipei, Dec. 17 (CNA) A certified South Korean paraglider fell approximately 100 meters to his death while paragliding in Pingtung County on Monday.

The Pingtung County Bureau of Fire and Emergency Services said in a statement that the victim is believed to have fallen to the ground at around 3 p.m. before being rushed to the hospital with no vital signs, where he was pronounced dead.

The person who runs the paragliding venue in Sandimen where the accident occurred, Su Pei-lun (蘇沛倫), said the 49-year-old victim surnamed Mun (文) was in the air for around 10-20 minutes when others in the air saw his parachute collapse, causing him to plummet around 100 meters into hillside bushes.    [FULL  STORY]

CTV News
Date: December 16, 2018

As Taiwan’s economy stagnates, claw crane arcades where customers lower a grabber to try to pick up a prize from a glass box are booming as affordable entertainment, while operators see them as a way to make a fast buck.

According to official figures, there is one claw crane outlet for every two convenience stores in Taiwan, with the number more than doubling last year to become the fourth largest tax income source in the entertainment industry.

The concept is simple — for as little as TW$10 (C$0.43), customers manually lower a metal claw into a pile of prizes, which are usually soft toys, but can also include electronic gadgets and fashion accessories.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT Dep. Chair Hau Lung-pin’s hyperbolic criticisms of Taiwan-Japan relations were mocked by a former DPP legislator Lin Cho-shui

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/16
By: Duncan Deaeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A leader of the Kuomindang (KMT) party has stirred speculation and raised tension between Japan and Taiwan, by claiming that recent referendum to ban the “nuclear food” from Japanese regions of Fukushima and neighboring provinces will likely lead to Japan’s refusal to allow Taiwan entry into the CPTPP regional trade agreement.

KMT Deputy Chair Hau Lung-pin (郝龍斌) has claimed that upholding the ban on Japanese foods from regions affected by the Fukushima incident will ultimately threaten Taiwan’s chances of being accepted into the CPTPP.

Japan has expressed disappointment after the success of a public referendum to maintain a ban on foods from the region, with some speculation that Japan may file a WTO case against Taiwan if the government continues to uphold the ban. In an effort to put pressure on Taiwan and shore up relations with Japan, China recently eased import restrictions on foods from the affected regions.

In recent statements that could be damaging to Taipei’s relations with Tokyo, Hau said the trade relationship between Japan and Taiwan has always been unfairly tilted in favor of Japan. Hau said that if Japan does block Taiwan from joining the CPTPP framework on account of the food ban, it would expose the friendship between Japan and Taiwan as a sham.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/16
By: Wu Hsin-yun, Chen Chao-fu and William Yen

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) A total of 17 cases of travelers attempting to bring meat products into Taiwan have been caught in the third day of heavier fines that came into force, according to the latest Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) data released Sunday.

The data, which was collected between Saturday 4 p.m. and Sunday 4 p.m., shows that 13 of the individuals attempting to bring in meat products were Taiwanese, two were from China, and one each from Thailand and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, 10 of the 17 cases originated from China, with four caught at both Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TTIA) and Taipei Songshan Airport, and one each at Taichung International Airport (TIA) and the offshore county of Kinmen, BAPHIQ data shows.

Of the 10 cases, five were pork meat products, with the culprits fined NT$50,000 (US$1,618) each, while the others were four cases of meat products made from poultry, with the travelers fined NT$30,000 each and one case of dog and cat food, which landed the perpetrator with a fine of NT$10,000, according to the data.    [FULL  STORY]