Seven years after the disaster and relations are strong, with one exception.

The Diplomat
Date: April 12, 2018
By: Shin Kawashima

On March 11, 2011, eastern Japan was struck by a massive earthquake. The damage

wrought by the earthquake was extensive due to a compounding of three factors: the earthquake itself, the ensuing tsunami and the nuclear disaster. In addition to the efforts of the Japanese national and local governments, and thanks to assistance from other countries and action from NGOs and other private sector groups, the affected areas continue to make progress in recovering from the disaster. Stand in front of a station in Sendai, one of the affected areas, and you may be hard pressed to imagine that a major earthquake struck the location seven years prior.

In contrast, for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, any semblance of “recovery” remains a distant prospect, and many displaced citizens are still unable to return to their homes today. It is equally hard to describe radiation levels as being under control in the area. That said, agricultural produce from Fukushima Prefecture is already being distributed on the Japanese market, underpinned by requirements such as radiation testing. Consumers, however, take a less forgiving approach and represent yet another hurdle to the region’s recovery.    [FULL  STORY]

Maritime traffic banned on April 18 in area off Quanzhou

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/12
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – China announced Thursday it would hold live-fire military drills in

the Taiwan Straits on April 18, in what looked like an escalation of President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) aggressive stance against Taiwan Independence and on disputes in the South China Sea.

The statement on the website of a Fujian Province maritime department said that sea traffic would be banned on April 18 from 8 a.m. until midnight in an area in the Taiwan Straits due to live-fire drills.

The area was demarcated on the website as falling between four points on the map, namely 24-52.9N/118-50.0E, 24-52.9N/118-55.9E, 24-42.6N/118-55.9E, and 24-42.6N/118-50E, the United Daily News reported. The area lies north of the Taiwanese-held island of Kinmen, close to the coast of Fujian and near the city of Quanzhou.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/12
By: Chiu Po-sheng and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, April 12 (CNA) Men tend to be more tolerant than women of sexual harassment in

the workplace, which has been encountered by more than 50 percent of office workers in Taiwan, according to a poll released Thursday by 1111 online job bank.

The survey on gender equality in the workplace found that 46 percent of office employees who experienced sexual harassment on the job had opted not to report it and that the level of tolerance among men for such behavior was higher at 58.3 percent than among women (44.4 percent).

However, 68 percent of women in office jobs in Taiwan have been subjected to sexual harassment at work, compared with 20 percent of men, according to the poll.

Sexual harassment on the job mainly takes the form of unwanted deliberate touching (67.6 percent), verbal harassment (61.5 percent), and insulting and discriminatory comments (35.5 percent), the poll found.    [FULL  STORY]

AUTONOMY: The Ministry of Education’s refusal to approve Kuan Chung-ming’s election has affected talent recruitment and academic exchanges, it said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 13, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Action Alliance for University Autonomy yesterday

accused the minister of education and a ministry employee of malfeasance in connection with the stalled confirmation of university president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔).

The alliance filed a lawsuit against Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) and Department of Personnel Director Chen Kun-yuan (陳焜元), while about a dozen professors and students from the university, along with some alumni protested outside the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.

The protesters held banners that read “Safeguard university autonomy” and “How much longer must NTU take the insults?”

Chou Chung-hsi (周崇熙), a School of Veterinary Medicine professor and one of the alliance’s founders, said the university has been without a formal president since Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) stepped down in June last year.    [FULL  STORY]

The KMT must hold New Taipei and retake Taichung to maintain a high profile, and the Taichung race is already becoming bloody.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/11
By: Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文)

In Taiwan’s upcoming local elections in November of this year, the key races to watch are

the mayoral elections for the “big six” special municipalities. The most powerful executive positions outside the central government (similar in stature to the governors of the biggest U.S. states), the holders of these offices are high profile and top contenders for a potential future presidential run, especially the mayor of the capital, Taipei, which has been the proving ground for three of the four most recent presidents.

For the Kuomintang (KMT), the pressure is intense. In the 2014 local elections, the KMT lost three of four of the “big six” they had dominated for years and barely held New Taipei City, the only one they managed to keep, in a landslide victory for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). A similar blowout awaited the KMT in the 2016 national elections. The party lost the presidency in a landslide and surrendered control of the legislature for the first time. Politically, the KMT is in deep trouble. The KMT no longer has a large stable of popular politicians on the national stage as the old guard has been swept away, and the party desperately needs this election to both prove that they are viable and to elevate locally popular politicians onto the national stage to galvanize a new generation of leaders.    [FULL  STORY]

2018 marks the 39th anniversary of the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/11
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan’s representative to the U.S. Stanley Kao (高碩泰) (By Central News Agency)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s representative to the U.S. Stanley Kao (高碩泰) said Monday the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) had served “as a bedrock of a close and impeccable partnership between the two countries.”

The year of 2018 marks the 39th anniversary of the enactment of the TRA, which was passed by the two chambers of the U.S. Congress after President Jimmy Cater cut the diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of China in 1978 and announced to nullify the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty with the Taiwan government 24 years after its implementation.

Appointed as the representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took power in 2016, Kao said in an article published by the National Interest that the TRA “has not only enhanced peace and prosperity across the region, but has also served as a steadfast foundation for Taiwan and the U.S. to enjoy strong ties for nearly four decades.”    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018/04/11
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) will summon the Philippines’

top envoy to Taiwan on Friday to protest the Philippines’ deportation of 78 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China on April 4, a MOFA spokesman told CNA on Wednesday.

The ministry has scheduled a meeting with the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) Chairman and Resident Representative Angelito Banayo on Friday morning at MOFA headquarters to express the country’s grave concern and lodge a strong protest over the decision, spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said.

The ministry did not summon Banayo earlier because the incident happened during the just concluded Tomb-Sweeping Day vacation, and he was not in Taiwan during that time, Lee said.    [FULL  STORY]