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Tsai’s dissatisfaction rate rises in poll

CRITICAL MASS:The reason for the dip in Tsai’s approval rating is that more people have switched their stance from ‘neutral’ to ‘dissatisfied,’ a polling company representative said

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 31, 2016
By: Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter

Results of a survey yesterday showed that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval rating has dropped slightly, while her dissatisfaction rating went up by more than 10 percentage points over the past two months.

According to the poll conducted by Taiwan Thinktank, Tsai’s approval rating fell to 49.1 percent from 52.4 percent found in the previous poll that the group conducted two weeks after Tsai took office on May 20, while her disapproval rating increased by 13.5 percentage points to 36 percent.

The percentage of people holding a “neutral” view on Tsai fell from 35.1 percent in the June 3 survey to 14.9 percent.

“Some people might interpret the results as a decline in Tsai’s approval rating, but if you look closely, the change in the approval rating is minimal, and the disapproval rating increasing sharply in the past two months might be due to people who initially held a neutral view of Tsai now being dissatisfied,” Taiwan Thinktank deputy executive director Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) told a news conference.     [FULL  STORY]

Parting the Sea

The China Post
Date: July 31, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The attractive “Moses Parting the Sea” scenic spot in the outlying island county of Penghu was packed with more than 2,000 visitors on Saturday, July 30, as people were eager to access the unusual water path on the weekend.    [source]

Call for allowing heavy motorcycles on National Highways gains support

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-27
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

As of 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 6,600 people have agreed that heavy 6771569motorcycles should be allowed on National Highways, according to a petition on the government’s Public Policy Network Participation Platform.

Whether heavy motorcycles should be allowed on National Highways has been debated for a long time, which prompted netizen “meowlike” to launch the petition.

Meowlike cited Wikipedia as stating that of the 48 countries which have superhighways, only Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and Venezuela prohibit heavy motorcycle riders from using superhighways, while other advanced counties, such as Hong Kong, the U.S., Japan, the European Union, and even Vietnam allow heavy motorcycles on their superhighways.     [FULL  STORY]

Majority of workers suffer from smartphone withdrawal: poll

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/27
By: Yu Hsiao-han and Christie Chen

Taipei, July 27 (CNA) A total of 57.1 percent of surveyed workers become anxious or 201607270014t0001worried if they do not use their mobile phones for a certain period of time, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Ministry of Labor (MOL).

Among them, 30 percent said they can tolerate not using their mobile phones for up to 12 hours, 15 percent can tolerate not using their phones for 13-24 hours, 8.1 percent can stand going phoneless for one to three days, and only 4 percent can bear being phoneless for more than three days, according to the poll.

The poll results show that women, young people and those with higher education are more likely to be addicted to their phones.

The results also show that 8 percent of the respondents have had their personal information leaked when using the Internet, 5.3 percent have encountered fraud when using the Internet, and 3.4 percent have been victims of online verbal abuse.

ROC stance on South China Sea award garners headlines in Philippines

Taiwan Today
Date: July 27, 2016

The Republic of China (Taiwan) government’s rejection of the recent award rendered

Taiping Island, as well as its surrounding waters, is an inalienable part of ROC territory and the government is committed to protecting the nation’s sovereignty and rights in the area and throughout the South China Sea. (LTN)

Taiping Island, as well as its surrounding waters, is an inalienable part of ROC territory and the government is committed to protecting the nation’s sovereignty and rights in the area and throughout the South China Sea. (LTN)

by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the South China Sea arbitration initiated by the Philippines, as well as its reasons for doing so, is receiving widespread media coverage in the Southeast Asia nation.

In the article, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines Representative Gary Song-huann Lin said “a peaceful, law-abiding and non-threatening Taiwan/ROC has turned out to be the biggest innocent victim of the PCA award.” He added that “to the government and people of Taiwan/ROC, the tribunal’s decision is unacceptable, unfair and double standards.”

Comprising numerous decisions, the July 12 PCA award classified Taiping Island in the Nansha (Spratly) Islands as a rock and not an island. This would call into question the ROC’s rightful claim to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone around Taiping Island.     [FULL  STORY]

Farglory slams city over Dome impasse

JURISDICTION:A Taipei deputy mayor rebutted Chao Teng-hsiung’s claims that the city had overreached its purview by setting safety standards and ordering a review

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 28, 2016
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Farglory Land Development Co chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) yesterday

Farglory Land Development Co chairman Chao Teng-hsiung speaks in a radio interview yesterday, challenging Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je to a televised debate to resolve the standoff over the Taipei Dome project. Photo: CNA

Farglory Land Development Co chairman Chao Teng-hsiung speaks in a radio interview yesterday, challenging Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je to a televised debate to resolve the standoff over the Taipei Dome project. Photo: CNA

challenged Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to a televised debate over the Taipei Dome impasse.

In an interview with radio host Clara Chou (周玉蔻), Chao accused the Taipei City Government of imposing seven “illegal” safety standards on the Dome and said that Ko had been deceived by his officials.

He said he had not been given a chance to meet with Ko since January last year, adding that he would like to hold a televised debate with the mayor over the legitimacy of the safety standards.

He said several “influential” individuals had approached Farglory with an offer to help resolve the impasse, and that they all claimed that they did so on Ko’s behalf.

Travelers could face ‘transport crunch’ in Sept.: union leaders

The China Post
Date: July 28, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Conductors of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA, 台鐵) said

Hundreds of Taipower employees protest outside a briefing session to explain a new utilities law, Wednesday, July 27. Workers, who threaten to take strike action, accuse the government of seeking to break up the utility to profit corporations. (CNA)

Hundreds of Taipower employees protest outside a briefing session to explain a new utilities law, Wednesday, July 27. Workers, who threaten to take strike action, accuse the government of seeking to break up the utility to profit corporations. (CNA)

Tuesday that cuts in services may occur over the busy Mid-Autumn Festival holiday weekend if labor disputes with management are not resolved.

New regulations outlawing seven consecutive days at work will come into effect on Aug. 1.

Conductors of the state-owned railways are demanding that company management cut 200 scheduled train routes for them to enjoy the same rights as other workers. They have not ruled out possible strike action.

TRA labor union secretary-general Liu Ren-jie (劉人杰) said that the lack of manpower support from the government would not prevent conductors from seeking their legal right to take days off, including during busy vacation times.     [FULL  STORY]

Train drivers threaten action

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – If the Taiwan Railways Administration did not cut 200 train services in

The photo shows the Taipei Railway Station

The photo shows the Taipei Railway Station

August, train drivers said Tuesday they would take up leave in September, threatening normal services.

The train drivers were but the latest in a long series of employees in the transportation sector to threaten strikes or other industrial action. The wave of demands began when a flight attendants union at China Airlines walked out on June 24 and management soon gave in to their demands.

As new labor legislation requires workers to take one day off after each six working days, train drivers pointed out that there would not be enough staff left to allow them to take up the days off they had a legal right to. Even superiors would have to come down and drive trains, and people falling ill would find it hard to take sick leave, drivers said.

During negotiations with the TRA Tuesday, union delegates demanded that the state-run company cut 200 so-called “mosquito trains,” meaning train services which remained mostly empty. If the rail company refused to do so in August, drivers would start taking legal leave and weekends off beginning September 1, the union said. They would also refuse to work overtime, causing 200 services to be scrapped, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

Train drivers threaten action

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – If the Taiwan Railways Administration did not cut 200 train services in 6771510August, train drivers said Tuesday they would take up leave in September, threatening normal services.

The train drivers were but the latest in a long series of employees in the transportation sector to threaten strikes or other industrial action. The wave of demands began when a flight attendants union at China Airlines walked out on June 24 and management soon gave in to their demands.

As new labor legislation requires workers to take one day off after each six working days, train drivers pointed out that there would not be enough staff left to allow them to take up the days off they had a legal right to. Even superiors would have to come down and drive trains, and people falling ill would find it hard to take sick leave, drivers said.

During negotiations with the TRA Tuesday, union delegates demanded that the state-run company cut 200 so-called “mosquito trains,” meaning train services which remained mostly empty. If the rail company refused to do so in August, drivers would start taking legal leave and weekends off beginning September 1, the union said. They would also refuse to work overtime, causing 200 services to be scrapped, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

Kenyan court again postpones trial of 5 Taiwanese fraud suspects

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/26
By: Tang Pei-chun and Elaine Hou

Taipei, July 26 (CNA) A Kenyan court has postponed the trial of five Taiwanese suspects on 18729461charges of fraud operations in Kenya for a fifth time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday.

The Kenyan court was scheduled to have brought the Taiwanese suspects to trial Tuesday, but the trial has now been postponed to Aug. 23, the ministry confirmed.

The ministry said it will continue to closely monitor related developments and make every effort to ensure they are not deported to China.

Taiwan’s representative to South Africa John Chen (陳忠) called a news conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, urging the authorities there to respect the human rights of the Taiwanese suspects and calling for Kenya to send them back to Taiwan.

It was the fifth time Kenya had postponed the trial since April, when the African country announced the opening of a court session on the fraud case involving the Taiwanese suspects, the MOFA said.     [FULL  STORY]