Focus Taiwan
Date: 017/01/05
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) The Presidential Office on Thursday unveiled gifts President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will present to the leaders of four of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies during her upcoming trip to Central America.

Tsai is scheduled to depart Taiwan on Jan. 7 for Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.

For Honduran President Juan Orlando, who loves to exercise, Tsai will give him a multisport GPS watch by Garmin, a brand co-founded by Taiwanese businessman Min Kao and American Gary Burrell, according to Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺).

In Nicaragua, Tsai will give President Daniel Ortega a replica of Taiwanese sculptor Huang Tu-shui’s (黃土水) “Water Buffaloes (水牛群像),” which represents Ortega’s spirit of working hard in a difficult environment, the spokesman said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 06, 2017
By: Chang Yi-chen, Yang Chun-hui, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee will look into the issue of Chinese Nationalist Party

(KMT) workers’ salaries after it receives a list of workers from the party, committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday, while proposing that the committee, the KMT and the workers hold a meeting on the issue.

The KMT last week applied to withdraw funds from its frozen assets to pay its workers, asking for NT$55 million (US$1.7 million), but did not provide a list of party workers to whom the money would be paid.

Speaking in a radio interview, Koo said the KMT had asked for the money to give its workers’ severance pay before the end of this month.

KMT party workers on Wednesday petitioned the Taipei Department of Labor for an “enforced negotiation” session over the money owed to them by the KMT, saying they only received half their salary in November and last month due to the freezing of the party’s assets.   [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: January 6, 2017
By: James Lo

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Protesting a fee hike imposed by Taipei City Government, Taipei Agricultural Products

Marketing Co. yesterday threatened to go on a three-day strike before the Lunar New Year.

Taipei Agricultural handles produce auctions and is a key player in the local wholesale market.

The Taipei City Government had previously announced it would raise the privilege fee levied on the company for its use of wholesale market spaces, parking locations and cold storage units, from the current 10 percent to 15 percent.

Taipei Agricultural held a press conference yesterday, saying the rate hike had been sprung on them without notice or opportunity for negotiation.

Taipei City Government’s proposal would greatly affect the livelihoods of Taipei Agricultural members, as it would send rent soaring by over 50 percent, the company said.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/01/04

Vietnamese authorities on Jan. 1 deported four Taiwanese suspects to China, reports CNA. The four

were arrested on suspicion of telecommunications fraud in late December.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that it tried negotiating with the Vietnamese authorities to have the four sent back to Taiwan for investigation, but failed as Beijing had also demanded the suspects to be deported to China.

Last June, 25 Taiwanese nationals also suspected of telecom fraud in Cambodia were deported to China.   [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/01/04
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – With the Lunar New Year around the corner, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) of the Taipei City Government announced Wednesday the trash collection schedule for the upcoming holidays, those who need to get rid of trash before leaving for the holidays might need to take notes.

According to the DEP, garbage collection will be suspended from the first day of Chinese New Year through the third day. Additional vehicles will be dispatched at noon and night time on Chinese New Year’s Eve to collect garbage before the holidays.

Regular trash collection will be back to service on Wednesday, February 1 while the service will not be available from January 28 through 30. Those who need to get rid of trash before leaving for the holidays can drop them off at 41 trash collection points across the city at designated time slots.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/01/04
By: Sophia Yeh and Elizabeth Hsi

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will meet with Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega Saavedra during her visit to Central America next week, although the meeting was not listed on the itinerary given to the media, Taiwan’s Presidential Office said Wednesday.

Tsai’s visit Jan. 7-15 to Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador — four of Taiwan’s allies in Central America — includes meeting with all four heads of state, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said in response to reporters’ questions about her itinerary.

“There will be definitely a meeting between President Tsai and Ortega,” Huang said.

The itinerary, which was released to the media Wednesday, showed bilateral meetings between Tsai and all the heads of state in the host countries, except Ortega.   [FULL  STORY]

CATACLYSMIC:Issues that surfaced when the feasibility of the changes was being debated were not addressed and the controversy is ripping the nation apart, Hung said

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 05, 2017
By: Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday said that the KMT would

not sit on its hands while the public suffers from potential price hikes caused by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration’s changes to labor laws, adding that the party’s lawmakers and a think tank are drawing up amendments to fix the problem.

At an afternoon meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, Hung said action must be taken in light of Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) remark that the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” policy would inevitably lead to a general rise in the cost of living.

Lin said in an interview with the Chinese-language China Times published on Tuesday that the amendment of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) was aimed at reducing the working hours of employees, but it is impossible that can be achieved without an increase in consumer prices.

President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has neglected to address issues that surfaced when the government was still debating the feasibility of the changes, Hung said, adding that the controversy is ripping the nation apart.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
dATE: January 5, 2017
By: Stephanie Chao

TAIPEI, Taiwan — “Taiwan’s greatest advantage in heading southbound lies within its experiences with

small-scale enterprises. These can really solve the problems facing countries in ASEAN and South Asia,” Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) told The China Post.

Since President Tsai Ing-wen assumed office in May and the Executive Yuan Office of Trade Negotiations began operation in mid-September, the government’s attention has been turned toward countries to Taiwan’s south, with actions ranging from loosening visa restrictions to providing a suitable environment for businesses looking to expand.

For Deng, tasked with leading the Tsai administration’s “New Southbound Policy,” these policies will decide how Taiwan could pave its own path between Beijing and the U.S. in an uncertain world.

This mammoth effort falls before the Executive Yuan Office of Trade Negotiations, of which Deng serves as top representative.

“What the government wishes to do is to assist the society and businesses, regardless whether those efforts are directly or indirectly helpful to them,” Deng said.

Deng considers his office an aggregator of resources and information not only for Taiwanese businesses and students, but also for enterprises and potential human talent for the people of the so-called New Southbound countries as well.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: January 03, 2017

A special exhibition commemorating the life and career of late glove puppetry master Huang Hai-tai

kicked off Jan. 2 in southern Taiwan’s Yunlin County.

Organized by the Yunlin County Government, the show features puppets used by Huang as well as scripts penned by the renowned performer. The exhibition, held to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Huang’s death, will run through Jan. 15 at the Yunlin Hand Puppet Museum in Huwei Township.

“Master Huang was the single most influential figure in the development of glove puppetry in Taiwan,” Yunlin County Magistrate Lee Chin-yung said at the opening of the show. “His work helped spawn many local troupes, transforming Yunlin into a major hub of the performing art.”

Born in 1901, Huang founded Wu Zhou Yuan Puppet Troupe in 1925. The group helped the art form achieve widespread popularity during the Japanese colonial period, which lasted from 1895-1945.   [FULL  STORY]

A conspiracy from Chinese netizens seeking to undermine national unity?

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/01/03
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taipei (Taiwan News) – Fake news stories have not only run amok in the United States and left a huge

impact on its November elections but have also gone wild in Taiwan, vexing the Tsai administration, which sees them as a conspiracy from Chinese netizens seeking to undermine national unity.

Late last year, fake news stories began circulating through Line and other social networking apps. The first batch of apparent fake news stories concerned radiation-tainted foods from Fukushima, later in December, an image surfaced of a Chinese military aircraft supposedly caught on camera flying alarmingly close to Taiwan.

An article titled “See How the U.S. FDA Handles Foods from Fukushima” spread rapidly through the Internet and social networking and chat groups, claiming that the U.S. FDA was able to detain any food products exported from 14 areas of Japan with no need to justify inspection, but the truth is that the U.S. was only rejecting the imports of food products which are also banned in Japan. A food safety official discovered that the fake news came from China, which first appeared in 2015 but made a comeback in 2016.    [FULL  STORY]