The China Post
Date: May 8, 2017
By: Kuan-lin Liu

TAIPEI, Taiwan — In mid-April, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would

create an office to lift the fertility rate from 1.1 to 1.6.

The Health Ministry said it would come up with short and long-term goals by June or July of this year.

According to the latest data, couples in Taiwan average 1.1 child each, whereas a total fertility rate of 1.6 is needed to balance the young and old populations.

Furthermore, according to the CIA World Factbook’s publication, Taiwan ranks third to last, at 222 out of 224 countries and territories, in 2016 for the lowest total fertility rate at 1.12 children born per woman.

The Health Ministry’s Wang Tsung-hsi (王宗曦) has commented on monetary incentives to promote birth rates, calling it a temporary and short-term solution to the problem. “Resources must be used in the right places,” which, according to Wang, is the reason behind founding the sub-replacement fertility office.   [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan raises legal labor retirement age to 61 next year

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/05/06
By: Judy Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—The age of eligibility for receiving government pensions for

workers born after the year of 1957 will be pushed back to 61 next year, due to changes in Taiwan’s Labor Insurance Act that will become effective in 2018.

The amendments made to the act push back retirement age for workers born in 1958 to 61, while those born in 1959 will have to wait till they turn 62.

Due to Taiwan’s escalating aging population, the amendments made to the act raise the age for retirement by one year in the first 10 years and then increase by one year biennially.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/05/06
By: Kao Chao-fen and S.C. Chang

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) Taiwan urged China on Saturday to step up the education of its

fishermen and stop them from trespassing into Taiwanese waters, after two Chinese fishermen were injured while trying to resist inspection by Taiwan Coast Guard officials near the Penghu archipelago in the Taiwan Strait.

The boat, from Guangdong Province’s Nan’ao County, was detected 23 nautical miles west of Penghu’s western-most Huayu Islet at around 5:20 a.m. Saturday and refused to stop for inspection, despite several warning broadcasts, according to the Coast Guard Administration.

Coast guard officers fired rubber bullets to force the boat to stop, injuring two of the crew members in the legs during the confrontation, the Coast Guard said. They were sent to a hospital for treatment and are in stable condition.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT ELITES:In an apparent swipe at Wu Den-yih, Hung Hsiu-chu said she wondered why some of the party’s best politicians lost their seats in last year’s legislative elections

Taipei Times
Date: May 07, 2017
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

The six Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson candidates yesterday held their

second and final political platform presentation, with former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), whom a media poll puts in front, fielding challenges from his two closest rivals.

Although the event was intended to be a presentation rather than a debate, KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and vice chairman Hau Lung-bing (郝龍斌) needled Wu with questions concerning his national identity and ability to unite the party, respectively.

Hung, citing former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) oft-quoted remark that he was “a Taiwanese and also a Chinese [zhong guo ren, 中國人],” and said that she endorsed that sentiment and that Wu, “as a pupil of Chiang’s,” should also agree with it.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: May 7, 2017.
By: CNA

Rescuers search for two youths in an artificial pond in Erlun Township, Yunlin, Saturday, May 6. The local fire department received a report at 2:10 p.m. yesterday that two junior-high school boys had drowned in the artificial lake. Both boys showed no signs of life upon rescue.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-05-05

Premier Lin Chuan said Friday that an epidemic prevention task force is to be

dissolved after it successfully contained a recent bird flu outbreak.

The first confirmed case of H5N6 avian flu was detected in February this year on a duck farm in Hualien County. Authorities immediately upgraded their level of epidemic prevention. That’s because H5N6 is a highly contagious strain of bird flu and one which has caused human fatalities in China.

The Cabinet set up the task force at the time to contain the spread of the virus. The task force imposed a weeklong ban on the slaughter and transport of poultry, the longest such ban in Taiwan’s history. A massive cull of poultry was also carried out in farms across the country.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s participation in the WHA “is not a question of politics, but of practical and medical common sense…”

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/05/05
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The consequences of China barring Taiwan from

participating in the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) could be deadly, according to a report in the TIME published Friday.

The 70th WHA that will take place from May 22-31 in Geneva, Switzerland, will close online registration on May 8, but Taiwan is yet to receive an invitation.

On May 1, Chinese representatives disrupted the opening ceremony of international diamond congress in Australia, using the microphone at their table to speak over the chairman of the meeting and forcing the Australian host to eject the Taiwan delegation.

The scenes were described as “disgusting” by an Australian official, but Taiwan was still sent home.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/05/05
By: Liu Shi-yi and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) The Taipei District Court sentenced Lin Hsi-shan (林錫山), the former secretary-general of the Legislative Yuan, to 16 years in jail on Friday for irregularities in the purchase of computers for the body over a six-year period.

The court also ruled that Lin be stripped of his civil rights for six years and said the NT$39.5 million (US$1.22 million) in kickbacks Lin received should be confiscated based on the Anti-Corruption Act.

Lin can appeal the ruling.    [FULL  STORY]