Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/18
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Ko Lin

Taipei, Dec. 18 (CNA) Fines will be imposed on eight companies which have been found to have imported foods from Japan’s radiation-affected areas, Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Sunday.

As of Sunday, a total of 39 Japanese food products and nearly 60,000 items have been pulled from store shelves in Taiwan, with many of them being soy sauce and wasabi packets that go with Japanese natto, or fermented soybeans.

FDA Northern Center Senior Executive Officer Wei Jen-ting (魏任廷) said 103 importers and 849 distributors island-wide have been questioned since Monday, urging vendors to check the food items they are selling, and notify health authorities if their products came from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures.   [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2016-12-17

Former employees of defunct airline Trans-Asia Airways have held a protest at Taipei’s Songshan Airport over severance pay they say falls below what they were promised.

Trans-Asia’s sudden dissolution in November made headlines. The airline had struggled to recover financially after fatal crashes in 2014 and 2015 that led to a drop in bookings. The airline’s sudden closure left 1,700 people out of work.

Trans-Asia had promised its employees that it would pay out more in severance packages than required by Taiwan’s labor laws. However, more than 100 members of the airline’s union protested Saturday after former employees reported that the first severance payment fell below the standards they had been promised.   [FULL  STORY]

The Taiwanese won’t charge forward and declare independence, Obama said.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/17
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

United States President Barack Obama on Friday surprisingly touched on the thorny

Taiwan issue, which is widely believed to be associated with Donald Trump’s 10-minute call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen earlier on. The island’s government later thanked the Obama Administration for recognizing Taiwan’s efforts in maintaining the status quo, but gave no comment on Washington’s foreign policy.

In a final year-end press conference on Friday, Obama said it was fine for President-elect Donald Trump to review Washington’s one-China policy toward Taiwan but cautioned that a shift would lead to significant consequences in the U.S.-Beijing relationship.

Obama noted that the parties involved have reached a consensus of maintaining the status quo and China has recognized that Taiwan is an entity. On the other hand, Taiwan has been honoring the consensus of keeping the status quo which allows it “to be a pretty successful economy and a people who have a high degree of self-determining,” although the consensus is not completely satisfactory to all stakeholders.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/17
By: Rita Cheng and Jay Chen

Taipei, Dec. 17 (CNA) Taiwan’s Presidential Office on Saturday thanked the U.S.

government for deepening U.S.-Taiwan relations and said it hopes to further strengthen ties with the incoming administration under President Donald Trump.

Alex Huang, the spokesman for the Presidential Office, said Taiwan thanked the administration of President Barak Obama for its support over the past eight years, including selling arms to Taiwan, helping to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, upgrading bilateral trade and economic relations and helping Taiwan participate in international activities.

“As a democracy just like the United States, we also thank the U.S. government for not treating its relationship with Taiwan as subordinate to or an extension of U.S. relations with other countries and for strengthening U.S.-Taiwan relations step by step,” Huang said.    [FULL  STORY]

TESTY:Taiwanese can enunciate any thoughts on the ‘status quo’ themselves, and a foreign government cannot speak on Taipei’s behalf, Lai I-chung said

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 18, 2016
By: Peng Wan-hsin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

US President Barack Obama’s comments on Friday regarding the relationship between

Taipei, Washington and Beijing provoked mixed reactions in Taiwan.

Obama said during his year-end news conference that there has been a long-standing agreement between China, the US and, to some degree, Taiwanese, that there should be no change to the “status quo.”

“The Taiwanese have agreed that as long as they’re able to continue to function with some degree of autonomy, that they won’t charge forward and declare independence,” he said.

Taiwan Thinktank member Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said he thought it was inappropriate for Obama to make remarks on behalf of Taiwanese.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/12/16
By: ZiQing Low

Amendments to the Highway Act that would increase maximum fines against Uber and

allow the government to stop Uber’s operations in Taiwan have passed the third reading at the Legislative Yuan today, state-run Central News Agency reports. The amendments would increase the fines against “illegal transport operators” from NT$50,000 to NT$150,000 (US$1,500 to US$4,600) to NT$100,000 to NT$25,000,000 (US$3,100 to US$780,000).

The Ministry of Transportation said that amendments to separate articles within the act would take up to six months, and that the new penalties against Uber would not come into effect until mid-2017. The amendments also include a reward for members of the public who report Uber drivers.    [FULL  STORY]

Deserts Chang has spoken out at public hearings on the subject

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/16
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Award-winning indie singer Deserts Chang said Friday she

was willing to talk to members of the public about same-sex marriage and other topics next week.

The 35-year-old star is known as an independent thinker and has participated in official hearings about gay marriage, which is to be discussed at the Legislative Yuan on December 26.

Polarization between supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage has intensified over the past weeks as both sides held massive rallies, each mobilizing an estimated more than 100,000 marchers.

Chang said that after having spoken at the hearing in favor of amending existing laws to allow for same-sex marriage, she felt she could still do more, such as exchanging views face-to-face with interested members of the public.    [FULL  STORY]