Page Two

Temperature in Taipei hits year high of 38.0 degrees

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/19
By: Chen Chen Wei-ting and CNA intern Lee Meng-tien

Taipei, July 19 (CNA) The temperature in Taipei set a new high for the year on Wednesday, when the mercury hit 38.0 degrees Celsius, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.

The reading was recorded at 12:04 p.m., breaking the year’s previous record for Taipei of 36.8 degrees, set one day earlier. Neighboring New Taipei City also recorded a year high of 37.5 degrees in Banqiao District, according to CWB data.

The bureau said, other areas of Taiwan also experienced temperatures of 37 degrees or higher on Wednesday due to a strong high pressure system over the Pacific Ocean. It advised people to take precautions against sunburn and stay hydrated.
[FULL  STORY]

Poll finds pension reform pushed up president’s ratings

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 20, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) overall approval rating has rallied to 51.6 percent on

A Taiwan Style Foundation representative yesterday displays a graphic during a news conference in Taipei as the organization released the results of an opinion poll on gaging the support ratings of President Tsai. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

the back of the passage of pension reform bills, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwan Style Foundation showed.

The poll found that more than 60 percent of respondents were satisfied with Tsai’s pension reform performance, while her approval rating climbed 4.9 percent from a July 3 survey.

However, her disapproval rating was 40.8 percent, and while 41.4 percent of those polled said they were satisfied with her overall performance — an 8 percentage-point increase from the July 3 poll — 54.3 percent said they were dissatisfied.

The approval rating of Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has also risen, from 28.7 percent on July 3 to 34.7 percent, but his disapproval rating remains high at 57.7 percent, the poll showed.    [FULL  STORY]

Former KMT lawmaker Alex Tsai has been detained on embezzlement suspicions

The China Post
July 19, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taipei district prosecutors have detained former Kuomintang (KMT)

Alex Tsai (Facebook)

Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) for allegedly embezzling over NT$300 million from a film company.

Tsai, who had been preparing to move to mainland China to take up a post as chairman of Jiangsu Min’an Automotive Co. (敏安汽車), was handcuffed and taken to Taipei Detention Center at 12:50 a.m. Wednesday.

The Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office said Tsai was being investigated for embezzling over NT$300 million from Central Motion Pictures Corp. (中央電影公司) through a capital reduction.

Prosecutors allege that in 2006, Tsai arranged for shareholders to reduce the film company’s capital by NT$580 million, an amount entrusted to his company Apollo Investment Co. (阿波羅投資公司) for investment.    [FULL  STORY]

Accident on Yangmingshan kills four

DRIVER KILLED:Police were questioning the assistant driver, as video showed him jumping from the truck shortly before it hit the oncoming traffic

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 20, 2017
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Four people were killed and nine injured yesterday morning when a cement mixer truck

Firefighters and police yesterday inspect an accident after a concrete mixer truck smashed into 22 vehicles on Yangde Boulevard in Taipei. Photo: Lu Chun-wei, Taipei Times

plowed into 22 vehicles on a downhill section of a road to Yangmingshan (陽明山) in suburban Taipei.

An initial investigation indicated that the truck’s brakes failed and it picked up speed descending Yangde Boulevard Sec 3, colliding with 13 cars and nine motorcycles and causing damage to four houses, police said.

The truck’s driver, Ruan Ying-kuei (阮英貴), 44, was among the three men and one woman killed in the accident, Taipei Fire Department officials said.

Nine fire engines and 12 ambulances were sent to the accident, and the nine injured people were taken to city hospitals.

Defense ministry did not deny US Navy presence during Liaoning passage

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-18

The defense ministry did not deny the presence of a US Navy destroyer and submarine in the Taiwan Strait during the recent passage of China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning through Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone.

The Liaoning entered the zone last week on its return from Hong Kong. The carrier had docked there as part of celebrations marking 20 years since the territory’s return to Chinese rule.

A recent media report claimed that on July 12, a US Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and a submarine were surveilling the Taiwan Strait during the Liaoning carrier group’s passage. The report said the situation seemed highly political.

In response, the defense ministry did not deny the report. It responded instead that the military had the whole situation monitored at the time.    [FULL  STORY]

Cambodia might deport Taiwanese fraud suspects to China

MOFA working to have 7 citizens moved to Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date; 2017/07/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Seven Taiwanese citizens detained in Cambodia on suspicion

Phnom Penh Central Market, Cambodia, photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbera. (By Wikimedia Commons)

of electronic fraud could soon be deported to China instead of Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday.

Over the past year, several countries which maintain official diplomatic ties to Beijing have put Taiwanese fraud suspects on flights to China, which reasons that because most of the victims were its nationals, the Taiwanese should face trial under its jurisdiction.

China supplied information to the Cambodian authorities which helped them detain 31 alleged members of a fraud ring, including the seven Taiwanese, MOFA said. The group was picked up near the capital Phnom Penh on Monday morning, and Cambodia informed Taiwan’s office in Ho Chi Minh City in neighboring Vietnam of the presence of its nationals.    [FULL  STORY]

Supporters call for ‘global memorial’ for Liu Xiaobo on July 19

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/18
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, July 18 (CNA) Supporters of Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) have called for a “global memorial” to be held on Wednesday to commemorate the deceased Chinese political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died in China on July 13 of liver cancer.

The Freedom for Liu Xiaobo Action Group urged individuals and groups around the world to participate in the “Freedom through Resistance — Global Memorial for Mr. Liu Xiaobo” on Wednesday by taking photos of themselves next to an empty chair and raising three fingers to symbolize resistance, freedom and hope.

Participants are advised to place flowers, candles, photos or other memorial offerings on the chair, and to choose a location near the sea or a river in memory of the sea burial that supporters said were forced onto Liu by the Chinese authorities.
[FULL  STORY]

Prosecutors detain military personnel in corruption case

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 19, 2017
By: Wang Ting-chuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office detained six people and released nine others on bail after launching an investigation into alleged corruption at the army’s Automobile Maintenance Base on Monday.

Eighteen long-term contracting firms are under investigation over accusations that they substituted lesser-quality materials manufactured in China to be used for maintenance of Humvees and larger vehicles, prosecutors said.

Base commander Huang Shun-hui (黃順暉) was allegedly bribed to leak information on project bids, while repairs inspector Warrant Officer Chang Hung-yueh (張弘岳) was allegedly bribed to overlook the use of parts manufactured in China, prosecutors said.

Chuang Chien-chih (莊健智), an employee of one of the contractors suspected of having organized crime ties, allegedly designated which company would receive the bid, prosecutors said.    [FULL  STORY]

A sweltering Taipei has experienced its hottest day of the year

The China Post
Date: July 18, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taipei has had its hottest day of the year, with the mercury in the

(Central Weather Bureau)

capital hitting a sweltering 36.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday afternoon.
The level was reached at 2:11 p.m., according to the Central Weather Bureau, which attributed the hot weather affecting much of Taiwan to a strong pressure system moving over the Pacific.

While it’s the hottest day Taipei has seen in 2017, it’s not the hottest it’s been anywhere in Taiwan this year. That superlative belongs to Taitung’s Dawu Township, where the mercury hit 38.2 C on June 24.

Tuesday was the first time this year that the temperature in the capital exceeded 36 C, the Central News Agency reported.

The 38.6 C reading was the hottest recorded anywhere in Taiwan Tuesday, ahead of the 35.8 C seen in New Taipei’s Banqiao District and the 35.7 C in Chiayi.  [FULL  STORY]

Establish Liu Xiaobo day, Ebadi says

PROGRESSIVE:Saying that Iranian laws tolerate discrimination against women, the Nobel Peace Prize winner praised Taiwan’s development in women’s rights

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 18, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

Taiwan should continue to protect its freedom of expression while commemorating late

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi talks to reporters during a meeting with lawmakers and human rights advocates yesterday at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times

Nobel Peace Prize-winning Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) with a memorial day to support democracy and human rights, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said yesterday.

Democracy is thriving in Taiwan, with a high level of freedom of speech and human rights protection, but China has “killed” one of its most respected dissidents, Ebadi said during a meeting with lawmakers and human rights advocates in the legislature yesterday.

“In my opinion, China is a killer, a murderer” for ignoring the medical needs of cancer-stricken Liu, which led to his death on Thursday, Ebadi said.

There are many political prisoners in Iran and other non-democratic nations who suffer the same fate, Ebadi said, calling on Taiwan to remember Liu’s death with a memorial day and commemorative ceremonies to honor his struggle against authoritarianism.
[FULL  STORY]