The Chinese market is the grand prize for instant noodles; how did South Korea rise to number one?

The News Lens
Date: 2018/02/21
By: Abby Huang

“Master Kong” brand instant noodles were once the best-selling instant noodles in China by

a wide margin, but have since fallen out of favor.

When Taiwanese and Japanese instant noodles first entered the Chinese market in the 1990s, the local competition wasn’t impressive. Brands like “Huafeng” only had salt and MSG for flavoring — they could allay one’s hunger, but you couldn’t really call them delicious.

When the Japanese brand Nissin entered the Chinese market, they had better-tasting products, but were a few times more expensive than Huafeng, not heavily flavored and were generally viewed as not worth the price.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s oldest champion dancer cleans KTV rooms by day, belly dances by night

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/21
By: Renée Salmonsen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Lin Ming-hui (林明惠) has come a long way from belly dancing for

fun 10 years ago to now acing international competitions.

Lin worked as a janitor diligently cleaning KTV rooms and entertainment centers every day to save enough money to take belly dancing classes. Once she did the world became her stage, no matter if she was in the office or a park, Lin could not afford to be picky about where she practiced.

At the end of 2017, Lin traveled to South Korea to compete in a belly dancing competition. Lin took home the gold in the individual dancing category, becoming the oldest Taiwanese to win a dancing champion, according to Apple Daily.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/21
By: Lee Hsin-Yin, CNA staff reporter 

Wu Chen-yao (吳禎耀) can still recall his teenage days when he played in Lyu-Chuan (綠

川), a 6.1-kilometer canal that runs through the Central District of Taichung.

“There were all kinds of fish: tilapia, eel,… and we would go into the water to catch them while our mothers washed clothes there,” said Wu, 67, head of Chikuang Ward in the district, as he remembered how the waterway has shaped the city.

Many people in the neighborhood share similar nostalgia with Wu, as the canal once created leisure and prosperity for downtown Taichung but gradually lost its glory due to water pollution and westward urban development.

The Central District is the birthplace of Taichung’s cultural and economic activities, which is crossed by two major canals of the city — Lyu-Chuan and Liu-Chuan (柳川).
[FULL  STORY]

IMPORTANT ALLY: US Senator Daniel Sullivan said the US is an Asia-Pacific country that has built up allies in the region, with Taiwan being one of the most important

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 22, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

A US congressional delegation yesterday pledged to support Taiwan’s bid to purchase

defense equipment from the US during a visit that they said demonstrated their love for Taipei, as well as Washington’s continued presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The 19-member delegation led by US Senator James Inhofe, cochair of the US Senate Taiwan Caucus, includes three other senators and one congressman who serve on the US Senate’s and House of Representatives’ armed services committees.

The delegation arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday for a three-day visit, during which its members are to meet with high-level government officials to enhance their understanding of Taiwan-US ties and regional security issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

As Taiwan-US ties have been called into question after the removal of Republic of China flags from several US government Web sites since September last year, reporters asked delegation members why they chose to visit Taiwan at this time.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/20
By: Huang Li-yun and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Feb. 20 (CNA) A tulip display at the Chiang Kai-Shek Shilin Residence in Taipei held in conjunction with the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office attracted tens of thousands of visitors over the Lunar New Year holiday, with traffic controls in place to prevent congestion, Taipei City Police Department said on Tuesday.

The police said they remain on high alert as the show, which runs from Feb. 13-28, is likely to attract a lot of people on Tuesday, the last day of the holiday.

The traffic controls in place on Yangde Blvd. and Zhongshan N. Rd. could help ease traffic, especially as the area is also home to such tourist spots as the National Palace Museum, Shilin Night Market and Taipei Children’s Amusement Park.    [FULL  STORY]

It’s time to rethink our defense commitments. Risking a catastrophic conflict is too great a price for Taiwanese independence.

The American Conservative
Date: February 20, 2018
By: TED GALEN CARPENTER

While America’s attention has been focused on the North Korea crisis, diverted

occasionally to developments in the South China Sea, another volatile East Asia confrontation has reemerged. China is adopting a growing number of measures to intimidate Taiwan, including emphasizing that any hopes the Taiwanese people and government have to perpetuate the island’s de facto independence are unrealistic and unacceptable. Hostile actions include a renewed effort to cajole and bribe the small number of nations that still maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei to switch ties to Beijing, extremely explicit warnings that China will use force if necessary to prevent any “separatist” moves by Taiwan, and a sharp increase in the number and scope of military exercises in the Taiwan Strait and other nearby areas.

The military maneuvers are especially unsettling. According to Taiwanese media accounts, China has conducted 16 military drills around Taiwan in 2017, compared to just eight in 2016 and even fewer during the years between 2008 and 2016. Chinese military aircraft engaged in exercises near Taiwan’s northern coast in December. Beijing’s naval and air power war games culminated in January 2018, when a flotilla including China’s only aircraft carrier sailed through the Strait. A senior Chinese official, Liu Junchuan, the liaison head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, boasted that “the contrast in power across the Taiwan Strait will become wider and wider, and we will have a full, overwhelming strategic advantage over Taiwan.”     [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
2018-02-20

People with disabilities will no longer have to pay service charges when using unaffiliated

ATMs (automated teller machines) for a certain number of times per month. That was the word from Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission on Tuesday. The new measure will go into effect on March 1.

Usually in Taiwan when you use an ATM that’s not connected to your own bank, you have to pay a NT$5 (US$0.17) service charge.

The new measures will allow people with disabilities to make three withdrawals each month at an unaffiliated ATM before incurring service charges. Added up, that’s a savings of up to NT$180 (about US$6) per year. Although that’s just a small amount of money for most people, it’s a courtesy for those who may have a harder time getting to an ATM.    [FULL  STORY]

Taichung MRT’s Green Line is about to undertake the final integration of communications, electricity supply and engineering facilities, officials from the city’s Transportation Bureau said Tuesday

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/02/20
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, Feb. 20 (CNA) Taichung MRT’s Green Line is about to undertake the final

integration of communications, electricity supply and engineering facilities, officials from the city’s Transportation Bureau said Tuesday.

Taichung Deputy Mayor Lin Ling-san said the 16.7-km Green Line, which connects major transportation hubs and neighborhoods such as High Speed Railway Taichung City Station, Taichung City Hall and Wenxin Forest Park, is 75-percent finished.

During a recent inspection tour of the operations control center, Lin said he expects trial runs to start on the line by the end of this year and formal operations by 2020.
[FULL  STORY]