Taiwan English News
Date: July 2, 2018 
By: Phillip Charlier

Heavy rains caused by convection associated with Typhoon Prapiroon, which is currently located over Okinawa, has caused flooding in Taiwan’s south-western districts. The Central Weather Bureau has issued heavy rain alerts for 9 counties and cities from Miaoli in the north, to Pingtung County.

In Changhua County, torrential rain this morning caused heavy flooding to the historic Lugang District, with the shopping district around the Tianhou Temple, Lugang Old Street, and Longshan Temple flooded. Many businesses were forced to close for the day, while the area around Longshan Temple lost power for about an hour from 11:00am.

In Chiayi County, Lucao Township saw an accumulated rainfall of 300 millimeters in 24 hours, bringing road closures and crop losses. The local farmer’s association said that around 90% of the rice crop has already been harvested, but crops of watermelons and maize were underwater.    [FULL  STORY]

MECO issues statement lamenting listing of Philippines as 2nd most hated country by Taiwanese 

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/07/02
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Many Taiwanese and Filipino netizens alike are perplexed by the

results of a survey by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation released on June 17, which listed the Philippines as the second-most-hated country by Taiwanese respondents.

The poll, released by the non-governmental and non-profit institute, revealed that Taiwanese respondents most hate North Korea at 70.9 percent, followed by the Philippines (52.9 percent), China (43.9 percent), South Korea (33.8 percent) and Russia (29.7 percent). The country that Taiwanese like the most is Singapore at 88.2 percent, followed by Japan (84.5 percent), Canada (82.3 percent), the European Union (74.8 percent) and the United States (70.6 percent) rounding out the top five.

What is concerning to the 150,000 Filipinos working in Taiwan is that the Philippines was second only to North Korea in terms of most hated nations, a majority at 52.9 percent dislike the Philippines and they hated the country even more than China, despite its constant bullying.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/02
By: Chen Chun-hua and Flor Wang

Taipei, July 2 (CNA) Taiwan welcomes a Chinese reporter who has been denied an entry

permit to re-apply, as long as he cools down and refrains from making emotional remarks, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said Monday.

Chen was referring to Ye Qinglin (葉青林), a reporter with Fujian- based China Southeast TV, and said he is welcome to re-apply for an entry permit to cover news in Taiwan.

Chen’s remarks came after Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光), spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office under China’s State Council, said at a June 27 regular news conference that Taiwan has set a bad precedent in cross- Taiwan Strait journalist exchanges by refusing to issue an entry permit to Ye.

Ye was denied an entry permit to re-enter Taiwan because a report he made about the Hualien earthquake that occurred in February this year was “quite twisted,” Chen said.
[FULL  STORY]

UNSURPRISING RESULT: Young people were the most enthusiastic about the cuts to public employees’ pensions, while a majority of KMT supporters opposed the changes

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 03, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

More than half of respondents were happy with the pension reforms that took effect on

Sunday and believe that they would help the nation retain talent and keep pension funds sustainable, a poll by the Taiwan NextGen Foundation said.

Under the new pension system, the majority of civil servants and public-school teachers, as well as most retired military personnel, have seen their pensions cut, while a preferential 18 percent interest rate on some retirees’ savings would also be phased out over two to 10 years, depending on the profession.

Despite a seemingly strong backlash from opposition groups over the past year, the poll found that most respondents supported the reform, foundation board director Wang Zhin-sheng (王智盛) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

When asked whether they supported reforming the pension system for the public sector, 64.2 percent of respondents said they did, while only 25.3 percent said they did not, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

The Telegraph 
Date: 30 JUNE 2018
By: Nicola Smith, taipei

Flamboyant, big-budget Chinese period dramas have been credited with making the Taiwanese public view China more favourably over the past year, despite escalating political tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

While China still features on the list of Taiwan’s least favourite countries, on which it is only marginally more popular than North Korea, the positive shift has been attributed in part to the influence of widely-viewed costume dramas that delve deep into China’s feudal and dynastic past, such as Nirvana in Fire.

Viewers have been enthralled by successful TV series including Empresses in the Palace, with its stunning costumes and intricate plot about back-stabbing concubines in the Imperial Palace of the Qing dynasty, which are awarded prime-time slots on Taiwanese channels.    [FULL  STORY]

Model maker Hank Cheng’s dioramas are something special.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/06/30
By: Saigoneer

The amount of detail in these works is remarkable.

Hank Cheng is a Taiwanese artist who creates realistic miniature models of streets scenes, restaurants, and even dystopian wastelands. Cheng started to create the small-scale models three years ago. His first model was based on a Japanese restaurant he used to visit while studying there, according to Reuters.

Since then, Cheng has been challenging himself to produce smaller and more difficult models. Although the work is labor intensive – many objects have to be created from scratch and involve 12 hours a day in the workshop – Cheng said immersing in the “small people world” helps him feel relaxed.

Each of Cheng’s creations carry a theme: a room of a boy who’s obsessed with Japanese manga, a dystopian wasteland, a midnight canteen, a miniature rendition of his own room, a scene inspired by the Japanese science fiction franchise Gundam.
[FULL  STORY]

Fraud rings recruit foreign citizens to evade Taiwanese authorities

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/06/30
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A Malaysian bus driver was arrested by police in Tainan

Friday for working as a money mule for a telecom fraud ring.

The 25-year-old ethnic Chinese man, surnamed Yen (顏) according to Taiwanese police, was a former bus driver for foreign tourist groups who had been looking for more stable work, the Central News Agency reported.

While still in Malaysia, he had voluntarily sought contact with fraud rings and found a group prepared to pay for his flight to Taiwan as well as for food and lodging, police said. He arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on June 25 as a tourist.

However, on his first job on behalf of his new employers, Yen aroused suspicion when he withdrew a total of NT$105,800 (US$3,470) in three times from an ATM at a supermarket in Tainan City’s Anping area, CNA reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/30
By: Hsieh Chia-chen, Matt Yu and Ko Lin

Taipei, June 30 (CNA) New pension systems set to impact an estimated 333,000

retired public servants, teachers and military veterans, come into force on Sunday.

The pension reform plan for civil servants, which were passed by the legislature last year, sets a minimum monthly pension payment of NT$32,160 (US$1,085) for public school teachers and civil servants.

A separate pension reform bill proposed by the Cabinet for military personnel, which was approved by the Legislative Yuan on June 20, set the minimum monthly pension for retired military personnel at NT$38,990.

Also under the bill, the income replacement rate for military retirees who serve 20 years is set at 55 percent, with an increase of 2 percent for every extra year of service beyond 20 years until it reaches 95 percent for noncommissioned officers and 90 percent for commissioned officers.    [FULL  STORY]