Radio Taiwan International
Date: 14 August, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

In the final selection for best goodwill ambassadors[/caption] In Taiwan, international goodwill ambassadors are university students chosen to help ensure that international events run smoothly. Getting into the program is tough, and even those who make it have to go through difficult training. A contest is now underway to find the best of the best.

They move around behind the scenes at each National Day celebration, making sure that the show goes ahead as planned and foreign guests are well taken care of. You can see them at plenty of other international events besides greeting, guiding, and assisting visitors from around the world. These are Taiwan’s elite “goodwill ambassadors”, young people trained to charm, but also to make sure every event they’re assigned to is a success.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said Thursday her country would seek a trade agreement and closer security ties with the United States.The Diplomat
Date: August 14, 2020
By Nick Aspinwall

Taiwan and the United States may not be official diplomatic allies, but the two countries have continued their embrace after the conclusion of the highest-level U.S. official visit to the island in decades.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar concluded a three-day visit to Taiwan on Wednesday, during which he met with President Tsai Ing-wen along with senior officials including Health Minister Chen Shih-chung and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

The visit precipitated Tsai’s proclamation on Wednesday that Taiwan would pursue closer security ties and a trade agreement with the United States, with whom she said Taiwan’s relationship “has never been closer.”

A trade agreement, she said, has been “hindered by technicalities that account for just a fraction of two-way trade” – a likely reference to Taiwan’s ban on importing U.S. pork and beef due to the use of the feed additive ractopamine, which is banned by about 160 countries.
[FULL  STORY]

23% of Tencent employees reportedly members of CCP

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/14
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As a Trump ban on transactions by WeChat is set to take effect on Sept. 15, a photo has surfaced showing top executives posing with party members and a communist flag inside the headquarters of its parent company Tencent in Beijing — making the close ties between the corporation and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) abundantly clear.

On Aug. 8, human rights activist Jennifer Zeng posted on Twitter a photo of a CCP event held inside the corporate headquarters of Tencent in Beijing's Haidian District, showing employees and CCP members holding a communist banner. The photo originates from a report on a CCP event held at the headquarters in 2016.

The event was organized by a branch of the CCP of Beijing Normal University's School of Journalism and Communications and held inside Tencent's corporate headquarters in the Zhongguancun technology hub in Haidian in late December of that year.

Titled "Entering Tencent to Acquire Wisdom of Party Building," the event was attended by 50 students, academics, and members of the CCP. Without mentioning their name, the article states that the CCP member in charge of party affairs for Tencent's Beijing office explained the party's operations inside the tech giant to the guests.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/14/2020
By: interns Grace Hu, Meryl Kao, and Eden Wang

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) The government should change how the women who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese army during World War II are referred to in Taiwanese schools and textbooks, a women's group said Friday.

The Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation urged that the standard euphemism of "comfort women" seen in junior high and high school curriculums and textbooks be changed to "comfort women: military sexual slaves," citing a 1995 United Nations report.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission defined "comfort women" as "military sexual slaves" and Taiwan should follow suit, the foundation said at a press conference on International Memorial Day for Comfort Women on Friday.

The foundation also reiterated its longstanding call for the Japanese government that established the military sexual slavery system during the war to give formal apologies to comfort women and compensate the victims.    [FULL  STORY]

COPYING HISTORY: A prosecutor said that the main suspect has a criminal record of counterfeiting and has been linked to about 20 cases over the past few decades

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 15, 2020
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Five people were detained in an operation targeting an organization that allegedly produced counterfeit Triple Stimulus Vouchers, police in Yunlin County said yesterday.

Raids at several locations in the county on Thursday uncovered a production center and warehouses after business owners had reported receiving fake vouchers in the past few weeks, police officials told a news conference.

Su Ching-wu (蘇慶梧), 70, is suspected to be the head of the counterfeit operation, police said, adding that he and a man surnamed Chang (張), who they suspect also had some control over the operation, were kept in custody, as the likelihood is high that they would flee, collude over testimony or tamper with evidence.

Two other suspects were released without bail, and another suspect, a woman surnamed Chang (張), was released after posting bail of NT$50,000 (US$1,693), police said.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 14, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

Family members of a woman who reportedly died last month by jumping from a building after writing on Facebook about having been sexually assaulted, yesterday said they hope investigations will reveal the truth about her case.

The woman, surnamed Lin (林), who worked for the New Taipei City Department of Health. She was found next to the entrance of a department building late on July 3, and pronounced dead hours later at a hospital, said New Taipei City police.

Hours before her death, Lin posted on Facebook, accusing a man of physically attacking and sexually assaulting her.

Lin wrote that she was “willing to use this life to let the truth surface.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/13/2020
By: Chang Chih and intern Liu Chien-ling

Taipei, Aug. 13 (CNA) The Shanyue Suspension Bridge, the longest in Taroko National Park in eastern Taiwan's Hualien County, officially opened Wednesday.

After nearly three years of construction, the new footbridge across the Liwu River at a height of 153 meters — which makes it the highest bridge over the gorge — was opened with the blessing of elders from the local Truku indigenous tribe.

The 196 meter bridge comes with viewing decks on both the north and south sides, accessible for those in wheelchairs or with strollers, according the park headquarters.

A bridge was first built in the location in 1914, but the original structure fell into disrepair after being largely replaced by the Central Cross-Island Highway, which opened in 1960 and runs from east to west across Taiwan, according to the park's website.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 12 August, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin says that Taiwan’s government and Taiwanese telecom firms are gearing up for the age of 5G technology.

Kung was speaking Wednesday during a tech summit focused on 5G. He said that experiments with 5G technology have begun in areas such as smart transport and autonomous vehicles, smart factories and automated manufacturing, remote healthcare and precision surgery, and remote education.    [FULL  STORY]

Epoch Times
Date: August 12, 2020
By: Frank Fang

TAIPEI, Taiwan—U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar directed more criticism toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over its mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak, on the final day of his four-day visit to Taiwan.

Compared to Taiwan’s transparent information-sharing, the Chinese regime showed “failure to share viral isolates from the initial [COVID-19] cases; the failure to disclose rapid human-to-human transmission; failure to disclose asymptomatic transmission; failure to allow in external experts to learn about the disease,” said Azar on Aug. 12, hours before he and his delegation departed Taiwan.

Azar made the remarks during a telephone briefing with journalists that was hosted by the U.S. State Department of State’s Asia Pacific Media Hub in Manila.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan seeing one of worst coral bleaching in years, exacerbated by extreme heat, sunblock

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/12
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese company providing diving services has pleaded with people not to put on sunblock with certain chemicals when swimming around Kenting (墾丁), the southernmost tourist attraction in Taiwan known for its sunshine and beaches.

Taiwan Dive Center, which offers underwater diving tours, published information in a Facebook post on Tuesday (Aug. 11) about the severity of coral bleaching the country is experiencing. In addition to inviting people to learn about the ecological woes in a livestream show, it said straightforwardly that customers using its service are “not welcomed” to engage in underwater activities after applying sunblock.

Dylan Chen (陳琦恩), founder of Taiwan Dive Center, said worryingly that Kenting and Lambai Island (小琉球) are seeing the worst coral bleaching events in 13 years. The company is asking its clients to refrain from wearing makeup or sunscreen to reduce the amount of toxic substances released into the waters, wrote CNA.

The concern was shared by a worker at Kenting National Park, who has recorded frequent extremely high temperatures in the waters in southern Taiwan. Last month the waters around Kenting saw temperatures as high as 31 degrees Celsius on the surface and 28 degrees 10 meters underwater, which have made the reefs vulnerable, wrote Liberty Times.
[FULL  STORY]