A passionate advocate for green energy voices his frustration with Taiwan’s progress on developing its renewables sector.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/12
By: David Green

The target set by Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government to raise the

proportion of Taiwan’s energy generated from renewable sources to 20 percent from the current 5 percent by 2025 is drawing closer. As the government scrambles to fulfill its obligations to voters and phase out nuclear power, and ahead of national anti-pollution protests set for this weekend (Dec. 17), The News Lens sat down with Anton Ming-zhi Gao (高銘志), a Ph.D in Energy Law from the KU Leuven in Belgium and secretary general of the Taiwan Environmental Law Association, to discuss the realities of the DPP’s energy policy.

TNL: You sent me an article you had authored suggesting that Taiwan’s energy transition was a ‘renewable scam.’ What was your motivation for writing that piece?

Anton Ming-zhi Gao (AMG): After the election last year, the government talked a lot about renewable energy. At first I was very excited because I was a big fan of this kind of energy. But observing law and policy development over the last two years I found the government actually did nothing to promote this energy transition. I was depressed and this turned to anger so I wanted international investors to know the situation.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/12/12
By: Taiwan Today,Agencies

President Tsai Ing-wen said Dec. 11 that as a free and democratic country, Taiwan is

committed to strengthening its contributions to the U.S. Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy and safeguarding the rule-based international order.

Taiwan and the U.S. have a strong relationship, with the two sides continuing to enhance ties built on shared values, Tsai said. Bilateral cooperation will help promote economic development and ensure peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific, she added.

Tsai made the remarks while receiving American Institute in Taiwan Chairman James Moriarty at the Office of the President in Taipei City. Moriarty, now on his third trip to the nation since taking the post last October, is in the country for a seven-day visit that will conclude Dec. 16.

The president said that over the past year, Taiwan-U.S. relations have continued to strengthen across the board. She cited as examples a major arms package approved by the Department of State in June under the Taiwan Relations Act and various contributions to regional development made by both sides through the Taiwan-U.S. Global Cooperation and Training Framework.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/12
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan and Liu Li-jung

Taipei, Dec. 12 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Tuesday hailed a law

amendment lowering of the thresholds for referendums as a “historic moment” that ushers in a new era in which “people are the masters” of the country.

In a post on her Facebook page following the passage of the amendments to the Referendum Act in the Legislature, the president said the existing Referendum Act, which is “fraught with faults,” has become history.

The new amendments have given back power to the people and broken them out of the “birdcage,” Tsai said.

Since it was enacted in 2003, the law has been dubbed the “birdcage Referendum Act” due to its high thresholds for a referendum to be held and for its outcome to be declared valid, as well as the review committee being allowed to turn down a referendum proposal even though it meets the threshold standards.    [FULL  STORY]

OFFENSE: A factory worker died on the job and the Ministry of Labor determined that he was overworked, but a court still ordered his family to compensate the factory

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 13, 2017
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

Employers forcing their employees to overwork should face criminal punishment,

members of the Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries said yesterday, adding that the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法) should be amended to stipulate such punishments.

The association staged a protest at the Taipei Garden Hotel, where Premier William Lai (賴清德) was having a breakfast meeting with business leaders.

They later held another protest outside the Legislative Yuan to make their appeals known.

Association representative Ho Kuang-wan (賀光卍) said that Lai pushed for the amendments to the labor act because he wanted to give businesses the flexibility they needed to adjust work hours.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-12-11

The top US official in charge of ties with Taiwan — American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)

Chairman James Moriarty — is on a one-week visit to Taiwan. AIT serves as the de facto US embassy in the absence of official diplomatic ties.

Moriarty made a trip to Taiwan’s legislature on Monday to meet with Legislature President Su Jia-chyuan and prominent lawmakers. Su later spoke about his meeting with the visiting US official.

“We spoke about domestic and global issues including Southeast Asia, and whether Taiwan can have more exchanges on US trade issues,” said Su.

Su said Moriarty also asked about how transitional justice would be carried out. The legislature passed an act on transitional justice last week. Moriarty expressed concern that related actions might lead to division in society and a response from China. He said he hoped Taiwan’s government would not take overly extreme measures.
[FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/11
By: Morley James Weston

This collection of mostly Taiwanese artists touches on subjects from food waste to psychedelics.

“Parklife,” the housewarming exhibition at the newly-relocated Chi-wen Art Gallery, is a diverse yet cozy collection of contemporary art with an emphasis on video and photography.

The exhibition is named for the relocation of the gallery from downtown Taipei to the a sleepy neighborhood in the suburb of Tianmu nestled between three city parks. As the effusive gallery founder Chi-Wen Huang (黃其玟) told The News Lens, “You have to step back and get away from the city if you want to really see it.”

The centerpiece of the exhibition is Chien-chi Chang’s (張乾琦) two related pieces: “The War that Never Was” and “You and the Atomic Bomb.”

The former is a video installation focusing on the artist’s mother’s life in the Taiwanese countryside contrasted with the shifting, violent geopolitics of the outside world. The artist’s mother describes the hardships of life in the countryside and her decades of washing clothes as armies goose-step around town squares and G.I.s slog through swamps. Taiwanese kids in hoodies stare at their smartphones as the Middle East explodes and walls fall. The piece is compelling for it’s focus on the mundanity of life in rural Taiwan — we all get caught up in political drama and fail to see the much more relevant universe full of people scrubbing socks and frying food.    [FULL  STORY]

A couple of trails in Zhuzihu have been renovated and connected by Taipei’s Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) to serve as a reminder of the local rice culture in the old days.  

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Most people know that Zhuzihu (竹子湖) ) is home to

Yangmingshan’s calla lilies, but few have any idea that the valley tucked between Taipei’s Mt. Tatun and Mt. Qixing was the earliest breeding base of Ponlai Rice (Japonica rice) when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule (1895 to 1945). A couple of trails in Zhuzihu have been renovated and connected by Taipei’s Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) to serve as a reminder of the local rice culture in the old days.

During the Japanese colonial period, a Japanese engineer found that the Zhuzihu area was very suitable for planting short-grained Japanese rice cultivars because the area was situated on high terrain, the temperatures were low and the water quality was good. Therefore, cultivation of rice began in the area as early as in the 1920s.  [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/11
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Dec. 11 (CNA) The government on Monday proposed amendments that it hopes

can address Taiwan’s poor air quality and reduce the frequency with which red air quality alerts that signal severe air pollution occur.

Dubbed the “14+N” strategy because it involves 14 measures and maybe more in the future, the proposed amendments to the Air Pollution Control Act are aimed at cutting Air Quality Index red alerts from 997 times in 2015 to 698 times in 2018 and 499 times in 2019, the government said.

The major change to existing regulations would be to address pollution “at its sources,” Tsai Hung-teh (蔡鴻德), director-general of the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control said at a press conference.
[FULL  STORY]

LEGACY: Transitional justice centers on unveiling wrongdoings, not celebrating achievements, a minister told KMT lawmakers demanding due credit to the Chiangs

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 12, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

The examination of past authoritarian rule as part of the transitional justice program

should be carried out without commemorating the achievements of former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), because the examination is aimed at revealing state violence during their authoritarian rule, Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday.

Cheng was debating the legacy of the two former presidents with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, who asked the Ministry of Culture (MOC) to give due credit to the former presidents while examining their human rights violations.

KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) asked Cheng and Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) to name three achievements of the two presidents, but both refused to do so, saying that enough of their achievements have been taught through state education.

“Examining the truth is not about comparing their achievements with wrongdoings, but to discover the truth about persecution,” Cheng said.    [FULL  STORY]