On the anniversary of the March, 1990 mass student protests, ‘Taiwan in Time’ takes a look at the decade of campus activism that led up to the main event

Taipei Times
Mar 13, 2016
By: Han Cheung / Staff reporter

On May 11, 1985, student protesters marched through the National Taiwan

University (NTU) campus shouting “general elections (普選)” and “I love NTU.”

Mirroring the era’s national political situation, only class representatives could vote for student president. School officials tried to stop the students, who had been calling for direct elections since 1982, but after some fierce arguing, the students went ahead with the plan.

Taiwan was still under martial law and public gatherings were illegal. Students were handed demerits by the school and nothing would change for a few more years.

But this event marked the first open student operation after years of simmering campus unrest. It started with the clandestine circulation of flyers about free speech in 1981 and culminated in the massive Wild Lily Student Movement (野百合學運), where students occupied Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Square (today’s Liberty Square) from March 16 to March 22, 1990.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-12
By: EMILY WANG, MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (AP) — Japanese gathered in Tokyo and along the

country’s ravaged northeast coast to observe a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. Friday, exactly five years after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck offshore, triggering a devastating tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people and sent reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant into meltdown.

Some teared up as they held hands or bowed their heads in prayer as sirens sounded on a chilly afternoon in northern Japan. Japanese Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, all in formal wear, led a ceremony in Tokyo attended by officials and survivors.

“Many of the people affected by the disaster are aging, and I worry that some of them may be suffering alone in places where our eyes and attention don’t reach,” Akihito said. “It is important that all the people keep their hearts together so that not a single person still in difficulty is overlooked and they can return to normal life as soon as possible.”

Five years on, the most heavily damaged communities have yet to be rebuilt. About 180,000 people are still displaced, including those reluctant to return to homes in Fukushima. Much of the disaster-hit Tohoku coast remains empty except for huge mounds of dirt that are raising the ground to minimize the risk of future tsunami before any rebuilding.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/12
By: Tang Pei-chun and Lilian Wu

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Taiwan’s Cabinet said Saturday that while the government respects the appeals of the people who took to the streets to protest the use of nuclear power, it hopes they would view the issue rationally.

In a news release issued after a series of nationwide anti-nuclear rallies earlier in the day, the Cabinet said energy policy is a highly political and complex matter that involves special expertise.

In view of the fact that Taiwan imports 98 percent of its energy, the priority is to ensure a stable supply of electricity, the Cabinet said.

“The government respects the appeals of the people who marched (today), but it hopes the public could think rationally, respect the views of the professionals and empathically consider the fate of nuclear power in Taiwan,” the Cabinet said.     [FULL  STORY]

DISMISSING RUMORS:The PFP chairman said that reports of him meeting president-elect Tsai Ing-wen to discuss a new job in a top government position were not true

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 13, 2016
By: Chen Yu-fu and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Saying that the teachings of Republic of China (ROC) “founding father” Sun

Yat-sen (孫逸仙) are the greatest assets of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP), PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday expressed disapproval of a proposal to remove Sun’s portraits from schools and other public buildings.

Soong, who founded the KMT splinter group after the 2000 presidential election, made the remarks yesterday on the sidelines of an event to remember Sun on the 91st anniversary of his death.

Soong was referring to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng’s (高志鵬) proposal to abolish a legal requirement to hang a portrait of Sun in public buildings.

In a meeting with president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Wednesday, Soong said the DPP should recognize the ROC Constitution as a commonly held consensus in the nation and that Sun’s ideals were accepted on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

“The teachings of Sun are the greatest spiritual legacy left to the KMT and the PFP, and both parties should not be too concerned with monetary gains,” Soong said yesterday, adding that while there must be a division between the national coffers and party assets, the DPP should prioritize promoting peace and harmony rather than settling old scores.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-11
By: Chia Lee, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan and former Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-

pyng were both invited to the memorial for the quake victims, an annual event organized by Japanese nationals in Taipei.
The memorial mourned the thousands who lost their lives in the massive natural disaster on the day five years ago, when the nine-magnitude quake struck the nation and triggered a 10-meter high tsunami that crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead and 160,000 people forced to leave homes.

Su Jia-chyuan, Wang Jin-pyng, alongside Lee Chia-chin, chairman of the Association of East Asian Relations, attended the event and were seen offering condolences to the event participants.

Japan’s representative to Taiwan, Mikio Numata, in his speech expressed gratitude for Taiwan’s timely assistance following the disaster, and stressed Japan’s continuing effort to advance Taiwan-Japan ties.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/10
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, March 10 (CNA) Three U.S. conservation groups on Wednesday

petitioned the U.S. government to help protect Taiwanese humpback dolphins (臺灣白海豚) to prevent the extinction of the species that the groups say now has a population of fewer than 75.

The petition calls for the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service “to encourage Taiwan to address pollution, illegal fishing, boat traffic and other threats these small dolphins face in the shallow waters along Taiwan’s densely populated west coast,” according to a joint statement by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians.

“This small population of dolphins is in serious trouble,” Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the AWI, was quoted as saying in the statement. “Once it disappears, it is gone forever. The U.S. should do everything it can, including listing it under the ESA (Endangered Species Act), to prevent this from happening.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: March 11, 2016

A Taiwan firm is soaring to new heights in the unmanned aerial vehicle industry

on the strength of its state-of-the-art technology and an R&D team boasting extensive experience in the military aircraft industry.

Carbon-Based Technology Inc. (UAVER) has produced fixed-wing UAVs made of composites since its establishment in 2007. The Taichung City-based outfit’s drones are used in such fields as aerial mapping, agricultural survey and forest monitoring.

UAVER Chairwoman Lu Ching-wen said the firm’s No. 2 ranking in the global market is down to an innovative and experienced team taking great pride in thinking outside of the box.

“My husband and General Manager Lin Cheng-yun assisted the ROC Ministry of National Defense in developing the Indigenous Defense Fighter for more than 20 years,” Lu said. “Many of our employees developed their know-how and expertise while working for National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology.”

This rich knowledge and talent base is reflected in the popularity of UAVER’s Avian RTK. The drone can fly at speeds of 63 to 81 kph and photograph an area of 6 square kilometers.     [FULL  STORY]

Bangkok Post
Date: 10 Mar 2016
By: Staff Writer: AFP

TAIPEI – Activists Thursday vowed to revise Taiwan’s animal protection laws

after a court upheld a ruling overturning a fine against the owner of a private zoo over the death of a famous performing hippopotamus.

A Ho, a male hippo who regularly performed at the Taichung zoo, died in December 2014 after breaking a leg and sustaining other injuries while being transported from the site.

The zoo owner, only identified by his surname Chang, was fined Tw$500,000 ($15,000) by the Taichung city government but appealed.

The High Administrative Court overturned the fine in September 2015, saying the owner did not abuse the hippo, nor did he injure the animal on purpose that led to its death.

The Supreme Administrative Court rejected Taichung’s appeal in its final ruling on February 25, which was received by the city government and Chang Thursday.

The two-tonne beast was apparently panicked when it jumped from a moving truck, crushing its diaphragm and breaking a leg, only to sustain further injuries the following day when it was crushed inside a container while returning home from medical treatment.     [FULL  STORY]