Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-02-25

Transportation Minister Ho Chen Tan has laid out a course of action for the government

in the wake of a fatal tour bus crash earlier in the month.

The accident, which happened on February 13, was one of the deadliest tour bus crashes in Taiwan’s history, killing 33. Among the factors believed to be behind the crash was driver fatigue. There have been claims that the driver of the bus had been working for 14 consecutive days over the Lunar New Year holiday.

During a visit to a rest facility for drivers in Hsinchu County Saturday, the transportation minister said that investigating the accident and ensuring the rights of victims’ families, drivers, and tour operators must be a priority.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/25
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As the 70th anniversary of the 228 Incident approaches,

Taiwan’s Academia Historica has revealed a newly unearthed document of a telegraph dated March 2, 1947, that shows the double-dealing tactics made by Chiang Kai-shek’s appointed official in an attempt to buy time for rearmament by making false promise, which resulted in a more deadly repression against Taiwanese intellectual elites and dissidents, and endless suffering of their families and descendants.

Between 18,000 and 28,000 people are estimated to have died in the uprising and following repression. The 228 Incident became a taboo subject until then-President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) launched the beginnings of a process of redressing and apology which is still continuing to this day.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/24
By: Huang Ya-chuan and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) The rainfall in northern Taiwan in recent days has brought 5.3 million cubic meters of water to drought-affected Shimen Reservoir, helping stop the depletion of its reserves as of Friday afternoon, according to Water Resources Agency (WRA) data.

With the arrival of a moist cold front, a total of 24 millimeters of rain fell from Tuesday midnight to 3 p.m. Friday, allowing the reservoir to maintain reserves equal to 52.44 percent of its capacity for most of Friday afternoon, the WRA said.

Shimen Reservoir provides water to Linkou, Banqiao and Xinzhuang districts in New Taipei along with Taoyuan and Hsinchu, and its dwindling reserves led the WRA to decide to impose first-stage water restrictions on those areas beginning March 1.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: February 26, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Kuomintang Legislator and great-grandson of former President Chiang

Kai-shek Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said that both the former president’s contributions and errors should be presented in full now that Taiwan is a democracy.

The government should allow the presentation of Chiang Kai-shek’s full legacy, instead of underscoring only the misdeeds as it carries out its transitional justice policy, Chiang said.

Chiang Wan-an was speaking in response to a new Cabinet campaign to “neutralize” a complex of buildings in Taipei memorializing Chiang Kai-shek.

The lawmaker said that during Taiwan’s period of authoritarian rule, the “paramount leader” could only be praised and not criticized.

Today, the government under Democratic Progressive Party was interpreting history with a subjective ideology, highlighting only what they perceived to be Chiang Kai-shek’s wrongs, he said.

“What’s [the] difference between these two practices?” he said.

The Democratic Progressive Party government is not attempting to restore the historical truth in an objective way, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-02-24

228 teaches that the people own the nation: Pres. Office (CNA photo)

The 228 Incident is a reminder that the people are the masters of a nation. That’s the word from Presidential Spokesperson Alex Huang on Friday. Huang was speaking in response to plans by China’s government to mark the 70th anniversary of the controversial events of 1947.

The 228 Incident was a bloody crackdown on protests against the newly arrived Nationalist or Kuomintang government in Taiwan that began on February 28, 1947. It is not known how many people died as a result of the violence, but academics put the figure at somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/24
By: MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer,Associated Press

The banned chemical weapon VX is considered by some experts to be the nastiest of the nasty nerve agents known to exist. With a consistency similar to motor oil, it lingers for long periods in the environment and even a tiny amount causes victims’ bodies to flood with fluids, producing a feeling of drowning before death.

So when Malaysian authorities announced Friday that VX was to blame for the Feb. 13 death of the North Korean leader’s exiled half brother inside a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, it raised nearly as many questions as answers.

First, with a substance so potent, how is it possible that the two women who allegedly attacked Kim Jong Nam with it could have survived? Second, given that particles can remain in the environment for possibly weeks after being released, why didn’t the airport undertake specialized decontamination measures to ensure the public’s safety?
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/24
By: Wang Shu-fen, Kuo Chih-hsuan, Chiu Chun-chin and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) The weather in Taiwan has been mostly dry since late last year,

making this winter the second driest on record, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Friday, warning that the dry spell could last into spring.

Since the beginning of winter, there has been less rainfall around Taiwan, especially in the west of the country, the bureau said, making this the driest winter since 1963.

Weather stations in Tainan and Kaohsiung, the two largest cities in southern Taiwan, recorded no precipitation in January, the CWB said.

Since the beginning of February, the weather in Kaohsiung has remained dry, with no rain recorded by the city’s weather station, the bureau said. The northern city of Keelung also saw dry weather during the same period, it added.   [FULL  STORY]

IN THE KNOW:Chiang Kai-shek read and approved a document requesting troops to quell protests and promoted officials involved in the crackdown, a researcher said

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 25, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Evidence shows that Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) should be held responsible for the 228

Incident, an academic said on Thursday.

A document dated March 2, 1947, requesting the dispatch of at least a regiment to help quell protests, which was read and approved by Chiang, and the fact that then-Taiwan governor Chen Yi (陳儀) and Peng Meng-chi (彭孟緝), a major-general at the Kaohsiung garrison, were promoted after the crackdown demonstrates that Chiang has ultimate responsibility for the incident, said Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Modern History.

Chen Yi-shen made the statement at a conference in Taipei to launch six more volumes of the Collected Files of the 228 Incident published by Academia Historica.
[FULL  STORY]