Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/01
By: Lu Hsin-hui, Phoenix Hsu and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, May 1 (CNA) The Cabinet spokesman said Tuesday that the National Taiwan

University (NTU) violated the law when it allowed Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) to fill multiple positions at Taiwan Mobile without signing a collaboration agreement, and should therefore not have approved of his nomination for presidency.

Kuan was holding three different positions at Taiwan Mobile during while working for NTU as head of its Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, said the Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) in a radio interview.

According to Hsu, the MOE has concrete evidence that Kuan had not obtained approval from the school to serve as a member of Taiwan Mobile’s audit and compensation committees before he started doing so.

Kuan started attending meetings of both committees in August but did not obtain NTU’s approval to hold those positions until Sept. 22, Hsu said.    [FULL  STORY]

POACHING: A KMT lawmaker urged Beijing to refrain from intervening in Taiwan’s diplomatic affairs, saying it only creates distance between the two sides of the Strait

Taipei Times
Date: May 02, 2018
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Lawmakers across party lines yesterday called for a new diplomatic strategy to curb a

“domino effect” after the Dominican Republic shifted diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not alert to signs of the impending switch, such as the Caribbean nation ignoring Taipei’s request that it advocate for Taiwan’s attendance at the World Health Assembly next month as an observer, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said at a news conference in Taipei

The incident was particularly ironic considering that Taiwan this year gave the Dominican Republic 50 high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, or Humvees, with a two-year warranty that reportedly cost NT$70 million (US$2.36 million), Lee said.

The Dominican Republic switching diplomatic recognition followed Panama’s cutting of official ties with Taiwan in June last year, indicating that Beijing’s move to poach Taiwan’s diplomatic allies has created a domino effect, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese Printed Circuit Board manufacturers have reported 12 factory fires over the past 8 years

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/30
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Including the fire that broke out at a printed circuit board (PCB)

in Taoyuan, Taiwan on Saturday, killing seven, there have been 12 other fires reported at Taiwanese-owned PCB plants over the past eight years, reported EBC.

Saturday’s deadly fire at a Chin Poon Industrial Co (敬鵬工業) PCB factory in Taoyuan’s Pingzhen District which claimed the lives of five firefighters and two Thai migrant workers, is the latest in a long string of blazes that have occurred at Taiwanese PCB plants in recent years.

In the year 2000, a fire also broke out at the same plant in Pingzhen when hot kerosene overflowed from a pressure plate and led nearby diesel fuel to ingnite and cause a small explosion, fortunately, there were no injuries. Because the PCB manufacturing process require the use of many flammable materials and chemicals, including strong oxidizers such as sodium permanganate, fires can easily occur due to improper preservation, processing or pipeline maintenance.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/04/30
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, April 30 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen will have the Ministry of the Interior (MOI)

conduct a review of fire safety rules after a massive blaze in an electronics factory in Taoyuan took the lives of five firemen and two migrant workers Saturday night.

Accompanied by Interior Minister Yeh Jiunn-rong and Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (???), Tsai paid her respects to the victims of the fire and extended condolences to the families at a funeral home in the city.

Tsai later headed to a hospital and visited two other firefighters injured in the fire. Before leaving the hospital, she said the MOI will carry out a review into the accident and make improvements on fire safety rules to make it safer to fight fires.

Cheng said the city’s environmental protection department will ask the printed circuit board factory — Chin Poon Industrial — to suspend operations and fine it for causing air and water pollution in the wake of the fire.    [FULL  STORY]

STICKING WITH KUAN: Facebook posts were the forum of choice for many, while the Ministry of Education was defended by its new boss and the Northern Taiwan Society

Taipei Times
Date: May 01, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

National Taiwan University’s (NTU) election committee yesterday said it would not

choose another president for the school, despite the Ministry of Education’s decision on Friday that Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) was unqualified to be president.

The committee would not hold another election unless the ministry has a good reason for not approving Kuan, spokeswoman Yuan Hsiao-wei (袁孝維) said, adding that the committee on Saturday had said it would not accept the ministry’s decision since it had followed regulations in electing Kuan.

Although Deputy Minister of Education Yao Leeh-ter (姚立德), a committee member, said on Saturday that not all members had agreed to issue the statement, Yuan said the statement represented more than half the members.    [FULL  STORY]

The disaster follows a string of recent accidents in Taiwanese factories, raising questions about safety standards.

Agence France-Presse
Date: April 29, 2018

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Seven people – 5 of them firefighters — died in a fire that broke out late Saturday, April 28, in an electronics factory in northern Taiwan, the local fire department said.

The inferno raged through the 8th-floor building of a circuit board maker, located in an industrial district in Taoyuan City.

Seven firefighters were trapped by large fallen objects as they tried to search for people inside the factory.

They were rescued early Sunday, April 29, but only two survived. The two others killed were factory workers from Thailand.

Seven other firefighters were injured, 5 of them suffering burns from an unidentified liquid, according to the fire department.    [FULL  STORY]

The man confessed to the April 25 murder in Miaoli county before fleeing to Hsinchu where he reportedly killed himself

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/29
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Police in Miaoli and Hsinchu are conducting an investigation

into a murder-suicide, after a male body was discovered at Emei Lake (峨眉湖) in Hsinchu county on Saturday, April 28.

The discovery of the body follows the murder of a 44 year old Indonesian woman surnamed Chen (陳), who was killed by her live-in boyfriend surnamed Chang (張) on April 25 in Miaoli, where they had been cohabiting for several years.

The male suspect, also 44 years old, reportedly fled the scene by car that evening, and was being sought by police.

The report from CNA notes that Chang worked as a driver for a bus company, and had become concerned that Chen was considering marriage with a new partner. In his jealousy, Chang reportedly killed his long-time girlfriend in the home they shared above a small breakfast restaurant in Miaoli.    [FULL  STORY]