Amid the release of a Greenpeace report chronicling cases of physical abuse and financial exploitation of migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, The News Lens reveals the commonplace practice of dumping bodies of deceased migrant fishermen at sea.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/24
By: Nick Aspinwall

Wardino figures he came to Taiwan for the same reason as most of his 650,000 fellow migrant workers – to make money and send it home. “In Indonesia, the work is very hard, and the salary is very low,” he says. “I had no choice.”

The 36-year-old had just interrupted his midday nap to amble off the fishing boat and greet us.

Growing up in the town of Brebes in central Java, Wardino has worked as a fisherman since he was 12 years old. He left Indonesia for the inshore vessels of Yilan’s Nanfangao Port in 2010, where he became president of the 100-member Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union (YMFU), the only labor union of its kind in Taiwan, in 2014.

As the bright May sun glistened off his broad shoulders, he spoke with pride about the importance of his role. “I really wanted to help people,” he says.    [FULL  STORY]

Allegations emerged in April that the winning design for the centerpiece of Taoyuan’s Yongan Fishing Port Cultural Park project had been plagiarized from an architectural student in London

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/05/24
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taoyuan City Government has completed an investigation

into allegations of plagiarism that emerged after a preliminary investment of NT$9,176,000 (US$306,000) for the Yongan Fishing Port and Cultural Park project was approved by the Office of Public Construction in late March.

After the allegations emerged, the city took the matter seriously and conducted an investigation. The city announced on Thursday, May 24 that there was no evidence of plagiarism in the design, with the Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) voicing his agreement with the finding.

Originally netizens claimed that the winning design for the center piece of the Cultural Park, the so-called “Conch” building, which is reminiscent of a large conch shell, was plagiarized from an architectural student in London, Michael On, who goes by the ID “mik3yon” on Instagram.      [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/24
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, May 24 (CNA) The recent actions by China to pressure Taiwan reflects Beijing’s

anxiety and lack of confidence caused by the significant progress Taiwan has made in building economic and security ties with like-minded countries, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Thursday.

Tsai called an impromptu press conference at 8:50 p.m. Thursday to address the nation after Burkina Faso announced it was cutting diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the second country to switch allegiance to China in a month following the Dominican Republic on May 1.

China has increasingly sought to pressure Taiwan by flying military aircraft around the nation, forcing Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to sever ties and international enterprises to change Taiwan’s designation, preventing Taiwan from attending the World Health Assembly (WHA) and other international organizations, Tsai said.    [FULL  STORY]

STAGNANT WAGES: The groups called on the government to raise the minimum monthly salary to NT$29,189 and the hourly rate to NT$186

Taipei Times
Date: May 25, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

A coalition of youth groups yesterday protested outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei,

demanding that the government do more to improve salaries.

The Executive Yuan last week unveiled a series of measures to increase wages and attributed the problem of low wages in part to the increasing number of university graduates and migrant workers in recent years.

A dozen students from the Taiwan Higher Education Union, the Alliance Against the Commercialization of Education and other groups “bowed” and “apologized” before the Executive Yuan building, holding instant noodles — which they said were one of the few things they could afford.

“The Executive Yuan said the nation’s average monthly salary would have been NT$59,852 if migrant workers’ salaries were not included. That made us realize we have also been lowering the average salary, because we make less than NT$30,000 a month. We are very sorry for that,” said Tamkang University student Hsieh Yi-hung (謝毅弘), an alliance member.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-05-23

The foreign minister, Joseph Wu, says that Taiwanese funding for sporting facilities in the

Solomon Islands will be provided through a loan rather than a donation.

The island nation, one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, is preparing to host the Pacific Games in 2023. The country has requested Taiwan’s assistance in building the facilities it will need. This request has raised questions about whether Taiwan will help cover the cost of the building projects.

Asked about the issue at the Legislature on Wednesday, the foreign minister said Taiwan’s assistance will take the form of a strategic financial plan. He said that in addition to providing a loan, the plan will allow Taiwanese firms to invest in the Solomon Islands and let Taiwanese companies help build the facilities for the games.

Wu said this plan will benefit the Solomon Islands and its people as well as Taiwanese businesses. He also said that further discussions will be needed before Taiwan makes any loan. He said Taiwan must also confirm the Solomon Islands’ credit and confirm the country’s ability to repay the loan.  [SOURCE]

Toys, cars and even refrigerators are being hooked up to the internet, but more must be done to stop your appliances turning into botnets.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/23
By: Timothy Ferry, Taiwan Business TOPICS Magazine

People have long followed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s example of taping a piece of paper over their notebook’s camera to ensure their privacy, and Chinese manufacturer Huawei’s plans for the U.S. market have likely been permanently derailed by chronic rumors that its devices send private information straight back to the Chinese government.

Yet the market for web-connected IoT (internet of things) smart devices continues to rise despite well-known vulnerabilities to hacking. News accounts abound of household devices such as smart thermostats and IP cams becoming surreptitious monitoring devices that acquire vast stores of private data, including images and recordings used for blackmail, revenge, financial data theft, and even burglary.

IoT devices rely on slim, low-power processors that generally can’t run antivirus software, rendering them vulnerable to hacking. Even products of leading international brands have been shown to have backdoors by which hackers are able to gain entry and control.
[FULL  STORY]

The lecture was going to be given to high school freshmen by four members of Taiwan’s LGBT community

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/23
By: Alicia Nguyen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Students at a high school in Kaohsiung city hung rainbow flags outside classrooms to disclose their objection against school’s suspension of lectures presented by members of the LGBT community amid parents’ disapproval.

A lecture which was related to homosexuality was originally scheduled to take place on May 15 for first-year students at Ruei-Siang Senior High School.

Close to the date, the school announced the talk had been postponed because the teaching materials needed reviewing. However, a group of students and teachers suspected that the cancellation was due to parents’ disapproval of homosexuality.

As a result, some students and teachers at the high school decided to hold a protest against the cancellation by hanging rainbow flags outside the classrooms and demanded the school to retain the lecture, according to the local news reports.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/23
By: Tai Ya-chen, Tang Pei-chun and Kuan-lin Liu

Geneva, May 23 (CNA) eSwatini’s representative to the 71st World Health Assembly

(WHA) said during her speech at the plenary meeting on Wednesday that it was a shame Taiwan was being left behind for political reasons.

Sibongile Ndlela-Simelane, health minister of the southern African country known until recently as Swaziland, said Taiwan should have the opportunity to “participate in all World Health Organization (WHO) meetings, including the WHA, in order to learn and share experiences with other countries.”

The health minister, whose country has had diplomatic ties with Taiwan for 50 years, said the United Nations’ sustainable development goal of universal health coverage for all encompasses everyone, including Taiwan’s 23 million nationals.    [FULL  STORY]

China’s leaders are giving up on political hopes of reunification – and considering military options.

Foreign Policy
Date: May 22, 2018
By: Derek Grossman

Just hours after staging the largest display of naval forces in its history in the South China

Sea on April 12, China announced that it would abruptly pivot to conducting live-fire military drills in the Taiwan Strait six days later. The bombastic exercises went ahead — and Beijing followed up with several recent bomber flights around the self-governing island as well.

According to the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, Beijing felt compelled to proceed with the exercises to “check ‘Taiwan independence’” and because “the US has been containing China on the Taiwan question.” And it’s been exactly Beijing’s perception or misperception of these two factors — the political status of Taiwan and how close Taipei and Washington have become — that have come to dominate cross-strait relations in recent months, substantially raising the risk of military conflict.

As left-wing parties have collapsed, the sole option remaining for voters is conservatism or right-wing populism.    [FULL  STORY]