RIGHTFUL STANCE:The government should take human rights into consideration when deciding on extradition requests, a human rights advocate said

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 08, 2016
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

The detention of Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) in Thailand raised concerns that Taiwanese

who travel abroad could face deportation to China for advocating independence, civil campaigners said yesterday at a Legislative Yuan hearing.

“Even though [Wong] was deported back to Hong Kong, we are concerned that the day will come when activists will be sent to China, particularly a Taiwanese could be deported to China from a foreign nation on the basis of violating China’s ‘Anti-Secession’ Law,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), who chaired the hearing sponsored by the Legislative Yuan’s Parliamentary Cross-Party Group on International Human Rights, Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Economic Democracy Union.

The jurisdiction of Chinese courts over Taiwanese has been a contentious issue following Kenya’s extradition of Taiwanese implicated in telecommunications fraud to China earlier this year. In a separate fraud case in Malaysia, Taiwanese authorities fought to secure several suspects’ extradition to Taiwan, only to see them released on arrival for lack of evidence.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 8, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

Torrential rains hit Eastern Taiwan Friday, flooding many areas in Hualien and Taitung and prompting

school and work cancellations in the two counties in the afternoon.

No injuries were reported as of press time.

Heavy rains triggered by Typhoon Aere started to batter the two eastern counties, but the local governments did not cancel school or work until Friday afternoon

According to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), the Beiyuan area of Taitung’s Donghe township recorded accumulated precipitation of more than 400 millimeters between Thursday night and Friday evening.

Mountainous areas in Taitung’s Changbin Township recorded rainfall close to the level seen in Beiyuan during the period, the CWB said.

For other areas in Taitung, including Peinan, Luye, Yenping, Haitun, Chenggong and Taitung City, accumulated rainfall exceeded 200 millimeters during the period, the CWB added.    [FULL  STORY]

A group opposed to capital punishment hopes to raise awareness on the controversial issue through films and after-screening discussions.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/10/06
By: Mo Tz-pin

The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) is hosting its fifth Murder by Numbers Film

Festival this month to raise public awareness on the death penalty in Taiwan and encourage people to reflect on the subject through a series of documentaries and drama films.

The title for this year’s festival is “Made in Taiwan, Killed in Taiwan.” The TAEDP describes the death penalty as an “assembly line,” in which the nation and the media are responsible for creating “notorious criminals,” depriving them of their civil rights, and ultimately executing them “in the name of the nation and justice.”

Aside from screening movies, speakers, such as National Taiwan University law professor Lee Mao-sheng (李茂生), will discuss the films with the audience.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-06
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Four Taiwanese have been included in the Forbes magazine’s list of America’s 400 wealthiest people this year.

According to Forbes, the billionaires on this year’s ranking have a record-breaking, combined total net worth of $2.4 trillion, up from $2.34 trillion in 2015.

Bill Gates remains in the top spot as the richest person in America for 23 straight years, with a net worth of $81 billion in 2016.

Meanwhile, immigrants have enjoyed a great year as more than 10 percent of the members on the list are foreign-born, with a combined worth of almost $250 billion, and come from as many as 21 different countries, led by Israel (6), India (5), Hungary (4) and Taiwan (4), according to the ranking.

The four Taiwanese included in the list are David Sun (90th), cofounder of Kingston Technology, Min Kao (246th), co-founder of Garmin Corporation, Jerry Yang (321th), co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc., and Huang Jen-hsun (395th), co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/06
By: Jennifer Huang and S.C. Chang

London, Oct. 6 (CNA) A British court on Thursday released on bail a British citizen sentenced to a jail term in Taiwan for a hit-and-run accident that left a man dead.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court released Zain Dean on condition that his passport be held at the court.

On Sept. 23, the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland ruled that Dean, who had been detained since October 2013 after fleeing Taiwan in August 2012, should not be extradited to the island to serve his sentence.

The ruling overturned a previous finding by the Edinburgh Sheriff Court in June 2014 that Dean should be sent back to Taiwan to face justice.    [FULL  STORY]

INTELLIGENCE GATHERING:Wednesday’s live-fire drill was shelved after a Chinese coast guard vessel was detected near Orchid Island, the defense minister said

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 07, 2016
By: Aaron Tu, Chen Hsien-yi and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer

The military’s sudden cancelation of a precision weapons strike exercise on Wednesday was a

cautionary measure to prevent China from gathering intelligence about Taiwan’s missile capabilities, Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said yesterday.

The live-fire exercise plan was to have a Patriot II surface-to-air missile intercept a locally developed Sky Bow II (天弓二型) missile, but it was called off after a Chinese coast guard ship was detected in international waters to the southeast of Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼).

Foreign and National Defense Committee legislators said that the ministry should come up with a solution rather than canceling exercises whenever Chinese ships or airplanes are in the region.

In response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ding-yu’s (王定宇) question on whether the ministry has alternative solutions when weapons containing sensitive information were to be used in an exercise, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Admiral Pu Tze-chun (蒲澤春) said that the ministry was still looking into such possibilities.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 7, 2016
By: Yuan-Ming Chiao

People First Party Chairman James Soong said Thursday there may be an opportunity for him to meet

Chinese leader Xi Jinping at next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, but that it was too early to predict whether the meeting would take place.

Comparing cross-strait relations to using a rice cooker, Soong said that constantly lifting the lid to check on the rice would cause it not to cook. He said it was premature to predict whether and how a meeting between the two political figures would take place.

Discussing the possibility that he would be shunned by the Chinese delegation at the summit in Peru, Soong said his selection as representative was an indication of “the greatest goodwill” by the Tsai administration — a move that he said he hoped Beijing would appreciate.

“If the mainland won’t even make contact with James Soong, could there still be a vision for the peaceful development of cross-strait relations?” he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-06
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Ministry of Labor (MOL) announced today the latest international labor statistics for 2015, which showed a decrease in annual average working hours, from 2,135 hours in 2014, to 2,104 hours in 2015, a decrease of 31 hours. Meanwhile, Taiwan fell in the global ranking of average working hours, dropping from third to fourth place.

The statistics shows a decrease in average working hours as well as overtime hours, with a 3.5% reduction in overtime hours compared to 2014, the MOL said.

The average worker works longer hours in Asian countries than in Western countries. Singaporeans worked the longest in 2015 at 2,371 hours, followed by Mexico with 2,246 hours, Korea with 2,113 hours, and Taiwan with 2,104 hours. Japanese and American workers worked for approximately 1700 to 1800 hours, while European countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Germany worked the least at no more than 1,500 hours.

According to the MOL, due to the low percentage of part-time employees in Taiwan, as well as differences in corporate culture, most Taiwanese workers do not use up all of their annual leave, resulting in higher average working hours.     [FULL  STORY]

Recent calls from local activists and the international community for Taiwan to abolish the death penalty have fallen on deaf ears.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/10/05
By: Edward White

A high-level international delegation is in Taipei this week lobbying the government to abolish the death

penalty.

The group, which includes the U.K.’s former top public prosecutor, will hold meetings with President Tsai Ing-Wen (蔡英文) and Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), as well as several of the country’s legal and academic institutions.

Ahead of the visit, the Guardian reported that the group’s “ultimate aim” was to persuade President Tsai to abandon capital punishment. Their visit is scheduled to cover judicial reform, forensic psychiatry, judicial human rights and other issues.

As the paper notes, polls show that Taiwanese overwhelmingly support the death penalty. Nevertheless, international experience — particularly in Europe — shows that if politicians act on the issue rather than wait for the electorate to vote on it, public support will follow.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-05
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Control Yuan member Kao Feng-hsien on Wednesday volunteered to investigate a sexual harassment case in the military to determine whether the military had handled the case appropriately.

In the company of Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Hsin-yu, a soldier identified only as “Mr. B” accused the military of mishandling a sexual harassment case on Oct. 4. He said a master sergeant in the 8th Army Corps surnamed Wang had sexually harassed a female corporal several times from June to August, with behavior including bear hugging, kissing, and sexting.

MR. B said he and several of his comrades had jointly written letters to report the case to high-level authorities in the military’s chain of command, but the military only gave Wang three minor demerits for “disobedience and neglect of duty” without mentioning the alleged sexual harassment and without referring the suspect to prosecutors for investigation. Mr. B also accused the military of transferring the whistleblowers from their original units and of only handing the case to prosecutors on Sept. 30 after the whole thing was exposed to the public.     [FULL  STORY]