Taipei Times
Date: Feb 15, 2018
By: Lee Hsin-fang and Tseng Wei-cheng  /  Staff reporters

A group of Taiwanese students studying in China yesterday protested in front of the

Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Presidential Office Building in Taipei over canceled cross-strait flights during the Lunar New Year holiday, which they said have made returning home difficult.

XiamenAir and China Eastern Airlines last month canceled plans for additional flights between Taiwan and China during the holiday after the Civil Aeronautics Administration put their applications on hold due to their planned use of the northbound M503 flight route, which was unilaterally launched by China.

The students blamed the ministry for sacrificing their rights for political reasons and demanded that Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) step down.    [FULL  STORY]

AS Taiwan struggles to cope in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, China has added to its problems by announcing that Papua New Guinea had downgraded its relations with the self-ruled island.

Express
Date: Feb 13, 2018

China has become increasingly hostile towards Taiwan, claimed by Beijing as its own,

since the election in 2016 of Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, and has increased diplomatic pressure.

In a statement late last night, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said China had forced Papua New Guinea to change the name of Taipei’s representative office in the country and remove diplomatic license plates from diplomats’ cars.

Papua New Guinea had “bent to pressure from mainland China”, the ministry said.

Taiwan and Papua New Guinea do not have formal diplomatic relations, but Taiwan opened a trade office there in 1990.    [FULL  STORY]

On heels of deadly quake, Papua New Guinea kowtows to pressure from Beijing to change name of Taiwan representative office 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/13
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Monday lodged

a protest with the government of Papua New Guinea after it submitted to pressure from Beijing to remove “Republic of China” from its representative office, among other punitive measures, and condemned the timing for being too close to last week’s deadly Hualien Earthquake, reported CNA.

At a press briefing yesterday (Feb. 12), MOFA spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) expressed Taiwan’s deep dissatisfaction and regret over the pressure China’s government placed on Papua New Guinea to change the name of Taiwan’s representative office in the country, as well as remove signs with the original name and confiscate diplomatic plates from cars of Taiwan’s diplomats at the de facto embassy.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/13
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Feb. 13 (CNA) More than 15,000 Taiwanese citizens have taken advantage of driver’s license recognition pacts Taiwan has signed with American states and Canadian provinces over the past five years, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said Tuesday.

Remus Chen (陳立國), director-general of the MOFA’s Department of North American Affairs, said Taiwan has signed mutual driver’s license recognition pacts with 25 U.S. states and nine provinces in Canada since the foreign and transportation ministry initiated the program in 2013.

As of Dec. 2017, a total of 15,500 Taiwanese had made use of those agreement, with 10,700 of them using the license exchange service in U.S. states and 4,800 using it in Canadian provinces, according to Chen.    [FULL  STORY]

From big industry players to indie developers and twitchy live streamers, TGS had everything a dedicated follower of gaming could desire.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/02/12
By: Jules Quartly

After being immersed in the Taipei Game Show (TGS) for five days you slip into a kind

of mirror world of imaginary landscapes populated by terrorists and monsters, nubile women, loud music and incessant explosions. It’s easy to think of the world outside as a pale and boring imitation.

Particularly so, when all the fun is being broadcast and dissected in real time on your phone. It’s all so meta, a self-reinforcing loop of gamers and IRL (In Real Life) streamers, who comment on the action as you watch both the event and its online version. For the surging population of zhainan (宅男), homebodies who typically sit in their comfy chairs and reach out to the world through a screen, TGS is life lived large.

It’s also big business and hence the large contingent of mega companies that attended the show. Sony gave gamers a preview of their latest offerings, including “Shadow of the Colossus” and “Detroit: Become Human,” plus the recently released “Monster Hunter”. The Japanese company also roped in sports anchor and celebrity Hsu Chan-yuan (徐展元) for the “NBA 2K18” finals. Sega Games set up consoles for its new releases, while Taiwan’s Bandai Namco was determined not to be outdone with its burgeoning product lineup. France’s Ubisoft, meanwhile, gave away a Harley-Davidson on the final day of the show.    [FULL  STORY]

Not a laughing matter: Woman arrested for driving while inhaling laughing gas

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/12
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taoyuan woman was arrested yesterday (Feb. 11) for rear-

ending another driver as she inhaled laughing gas, reported Apple Daily.

Yesterday around noon, while waiting at a stop light at the intersection of Sanmin Road and Shoushan Road in Taoyuan City’s Guishan District, a 58-year-old driver surnamed Huang (黃) discovered that a 23-year-old woman surnamed Liu (劉) was repeatedly ramming her sedan’s front fender into his rear bumper.

When Huang stepped out of the car and knocked her window to confront Liu, he discovered that she was inhaling a balloon and in the passenger seat there was nitrous oxide (laughing gas) canister, so he called the police.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/12
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Feb. 12 (CNA) For the husband of Melody Albano Castro, the Filipino caregiver

killed in the recent Hualien earthquake, the grief of losing his beloved wife has caused him unimaginable pain that no one seems to know how to deal with.

“He is always crying, we don’t understand well what he is saying,” said Mishelle Pacquing Macanaya Rosales, Castro’s cousin, referring to Castro’s husband, identified as Jay-ar.

The right side of Jay-ar’s body was paralyzed in a motor accident in 2014, making it hard for him to speak clearly, and that has prevented him from expressing his feelings about Castro’s death in front of family members, Rosales said.

“The aura of his face looks like it’s very hard to accept.”

The accident was a primary reason behind Castro’s decision to leave Jay-ar and their three-year-old daughter behind to work as a caregiver in Taiwan. She wanted to save up for a brain operation for her husband, Rosales said in an online interview with CNA on Sunday night.    [FULL  STORY]