DURING her waitressing shift, Winnie’s boss asked her a simple question over the walkie talkie. Her response got her sacked.

news.com.au
Date: January 15, 2018
By: Frank Chung

AN AUSTRALIAN restaurant has been accused of sacking a Taiwanese worker for saying Taiwan was not part of China.

The woman, known only as Winnie, claims she was sacked from a hotpot restaurant in Sydney’s inner-west after being grilled by her boss about her stance on the hot-button issue.

According to a Facebook post, which was picked up by Chinese media after going viral, Winnie was working a night shift at the restaurant when the incident happened.

“At that time, the restaurant was not very busy, the boss called me via walkie talkie,” she wrote. “Winnie, Winnie, could I ask you a question?” he asked, according to her account. “Does Taiwan belong to China?”    [FULL  STORY]

The target audience of the campaign includes young students, village officers, indigenous groups, etc.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/15
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Beijing is said to have spent NT$10 billion (US$330 million) a year to engage with certain groups of Taiwanese people in an attempt to realign their identities with economic or cultural incentives and to expand its sphere of influence.

People familiar with the matter told the Liberty Times that the targeted groups include village officers, young students, Chinese spouses, indigenous groups, China-friendly political parties, religious groups or temples, clansmen associations, farmer and fisherman’s associations, retired military officers and so on in Taiwan. Beijing was said to have tried to leave them with a good impression and turn them into pro-China supporters.

More than NT$10 billion was reportedly budgeted for projects promoting non-official exchanges and visits to reach that end. Also, some employees of the Taiwan-based Chinese economic and trade associations or corporations are said to have worked on politically motivated projects assigned by Beijing.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/15
By: Lee Shu-hua, Wang Shwu-fen and Ko Lin

Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) Former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) celebrated his 95th birthday at his residence in Taipei on Monday, and called on people from all political parties to work out their differences to turn Taiwan into a great nation.

“The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression,” Lee wrote on his Facebook page, quoting Proverbs 19:11 from the Bible.

He said his birthday wish was for solidarity among all politicians in Taiwan and for them to work together for the benefit of the people and country.

He also thanked members of his family and close friends for attending his birthday party, including Lee’s office director Wang Yan-chun (王燕軍), as well as former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中).
[FULL  STORY]

Europe’s largest aerospace company says subsidiary behind the contract, Matra Defense, is ‘reviewing’ the penalty

South China Morning Post
Date: Sunday, 14 January, 2018

Airbus said on Saturday it had been ordered to pay €104 million (US$126 million) in fines over a missile sale to Taiwan in 1992, the latest French company to reach a settlement over disputes arising from one of the country’s biggest ever arms sales.

The scandal around French arms sales to the island in the early 1990s was one of a series of cases that underpinned accusations of widespread corruption during the final years of late French president Francois Mitterand.

Airbus, which this week agreed to sell mainland China 184 A320 planes by 2020, said in a statement it had been ordered to pay the fine “for a complaint of breach of contract concerning the sale of missiles”.    [FULL  STORY]

Could ‘On Happiness Road’ be the end of the road for its animation industry?

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/14
By: Jean-Jacques Chen, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

Animation, and Taiwan.

Two words that seemingly do not mesh automatically in the same sentence in most

people’s minds.

And most people would be wrong!

Taiwan has actually got quite a long story in the worldwide animation industry.

Ever seen those little indie animated movies called Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King and Mulan, made by an up and coming indie studio called Disney ? Well, it turns out that if all the pre-production, scripts, character designs and storyboards of these movies made in Disney’s headquarters in California, most of their animated production was actually contracted to… Taiwan!

Long before China, South Korea, and now other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia got on board; Taiwan has been, for almost 2 decades, the world’s animation production powerhouse, from the 80’s to the early 2000’s, having orders coming from the U.S., Europe and even Japan ! This period was commonly called by nostalgic Taiwanese veteran animators who are still connected to the trade nowadays, the golden era of Taiwanese animation.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/14
By: Emerson Lim and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Manila, Jan. 14 (CNA) Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines Gary Lin (林松煥) on

Sunday confirmed that at least 40 Taiwanese were among the 158 suspects arrested in the Philippines a day earlier for their alleged involvement in fraudulent telecom activities.

The representative office sent staff to the headquarters of the Philippine National Police where the suspects were detained and discovered that two more suspects have Taiwan nationality than initially reported to the office by the Philippine authorities, Lin said.

Lin said he has demanded the Philippines deport the suspects, most of whom are believed to be from China, based on their nationality, with Taiwan nationals being repatriated to Taiwan. Taipei and Beijing can then investigate under the terms of their bilateral judicial assistance agreement on criminal matters.    [FULL  STORY]

ENTRENCHED: While some events marked a point of progress, the group said, the DPP should avoid outdated mindsets and not bow to capitalist forces, which hurt democracy

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 15, 2018
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan Democracy Watch yesterday listed what it deemed the 10 most important

democracy-related incidents that occurred in the nation last year, including a constitutional interpretation in favor of same-sex marriage, the arrest and conviction of Taiwanese democracy activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲) in China, and the passage of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例).

It ranked the same-sex marriage interpretation as the most important democratic event last year.

On May 24 last year, the Council of Grand Justices issued Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 in support of allowing gay couples to register for marriage. The council has requested the legislature to amend relevant laws within two years to guarantee the rights of gay people.    [FULL  STORY]