Do more for Hong Kongers: KMT
“Before the [Jan. 11 presidential election], the Tsai administration told everyone that it supports Hong Kong, but so far the Tsai administration’s support for Hong Kong appears to be just talk,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee chairwoman Alicia Wang (王育敏) told a news conference in Taipei. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu criticizes the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Tainan yesterday, saying that its claims to support Hong Kong and Hong Kongers are just a joke. The Tsai administration’s Hong Kong Humanitarian Aid Project only applies to people who enter Taiwan legally, he said. “Although on the surface the Tsai administration says it wants to support Hong Kong, in reality, it appears to be taking advantage of Hong Kong,” Chen said. The DPP should prioritize the proposed amendments to the Hong Kong and Macau act in the upcoming session, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 15, 2020 15:56 UTC
BirdLife boots out Taiwanese group over politics
BirdLife boots out Taiwanese group over politicsBy Dennis Xie / Staff writer, with CNA and AFPA Taiwanese bird protection group yesterday said that it has been kicked out of BirdLife International — a global conservation partnership — after it refused to sign a statement saying it would never advocate independence. The Taipei-based Chinese Wild Bird Federation said that BirdLife International last week voted to remove it, ending a partnership that had been in place since 1996. Photo: Liu Hsiao-hsin, Taipei TimesThe federation said that it was informed that its Chinese name — which contains “ROC” — “posed a risk” to UK-based BirdLife. Signing such a statement would be inappropriate, because “we are a conservation organization,” not a political one, it said. There are no national borders for birds, it said, adding that cross-border collaboration on bird conservation efforts is important.
Source:Taipei Times
September 15, 2020 15:56 UTC
FSC fines Shin Kong Life for reckless investment
FSC fines Shin Kong Life for reckless investmentPOOR INTERNAL CONTROLS: Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa said the company is expected to get back on track while its chairman is suspendedBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterThe Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) NT$27.6 million (US$939,415) for a reckless investment that endangered its solvency, and suspended its chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進) for poor supervision. The penalty is the second-highest in a single case after Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) was fined NT$30 million in September last year and its chairman Du Ying-tzyong (杜英宗) suspended for two years, the commission said. Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa, center, announces a NT$27.6 million fine for Shin Kong Life Insurance Co at a news conference in New Taipei City yesterday. “We expect the insurance company to get back on track by overhauling its mechanisms for investment and risk management while Wu is absent,” Shih said. The commission did not set a deadline for Shin Kong Life to trim the ratio, but demanded that it not buy any local or foreign stocks and exchange-traded funds before the adjustment is completed, Shih said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 15, 2020 15:56 UTC
China rebound drives 32% jump in Tong Yang profit
China rebound drives 32% jump in Tong Yang profitBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterTong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業), a supplier of automotive metal sheets and bumpers, yesterday reported that pretax profit last month surged 32 percent to NT$135.29 million (US$4.6 million) from July thanks to recovering demand in the Chinese market. It was the fourth consecutive month of pretax profit growth for Tong Yang, indicating that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are easing, the Tainan-based company said. Although a monthly increase, the figure was a decline of 36 percent from a pretax profit of NT$211.21 million that it made a year earlier, company data showed. A man looks at a Tong Yang Industry Co automotive bumper at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall in an undated photograph. Aftermarket business refers to the secondary market in the automotive industry, which offers the sale, distribution and installation of vehicle parts, chemicals, equipment and accessories to people who have purchased from automakers.
Source:Taipei Times
September 15, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus raises demand for Sharp low-end displays
Virus raises demand for Sharp low-end displaysBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterSharp Corp is to restart production of mid to low-range display panels to take advantage of demand generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Sharp president Tai Jeng-wu (戴正吳) said yesterday. Speaking at a news conference in Taipei, Tai said that he expects another strong year for notebook computer sales thanks to demand generated by distance learning. “This wave of demand took us by surprise, and most of it has targeted mid to low-range display panels,” Tai said. Photo: Chen Rou-chen, Taipei TimesAlthough Sharp specializes in advanced, high-end displays, restarting its production of mid to low-range displays would better satisfy market demand and help to supply Tokyo-based laptop maker Dynabook Inc, its wholly owned subsidiary, he said. The relatively new plant would keep Sharp on the cutting edge of manufacturing new panel displays, Tai said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 15, 2020 15:56 UTC
Airlines’ losses could have been much worse: Lin
Airlines’ losses could have been much worse: LinBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThe nation’s airlines would have sustained greater financial losses if it were not for the government relief package and booming air cargo service market, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) statistics showed that all of the airlines reported financial losses during the first half of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei TimesCAL’s subsidiary Mandarin Airlines and EVA’s Uni Air sustained NT$340 million and NT$18.40 million in losses respectively. “The financial losses sustained by Taiwanese flight carriers have been relatively smaller compared with those of international carriers in other countries,” he added. Revenues from an increase in their air cargo services helped compensate local airlines for their losses, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 15, 2020 15:56 UTC
Strong backbone can thwart China
Strong backbone can thwart ChinaBy Yeomin YoonA nation existing globally respects what other nations think, and appropriates other nations’ perceptions of itself. On this occasion, the residents and political leaders of East Asian nations should reflect on their China policy. East Asian countries, especially China’s smaller neighbors concerned over how the “risen China” will treat them, should learn from young Taiwanese. I wonder if the young people found in China’s smaller neighbors have the kind of backbone and strong determination displayed by these young Taiwanese. One cannot rule out that subjugated Asian nations could become another Tibet, Xinjiang or Inner Mongolia.
Source:Taipei Times
September 15, 2020 15:56 UTC
NHI program marks 25 years
NHI program marks 25 yearsBy Lin Hui-chin and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday thanked the public and healthcare providers for their long-term support as it celebrated the 25th anniversary of the National Health Insurance (NHI) program and the record-breaking number of registers on its “My Health Bank” service. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, front row fourth left, Premier Su Tseng-chang, front row fourth right, and National Health Insurance Administration Director-General Lee Po-chang, front row third right, attend an event in Taipei yesterday celebrating the 25th anniversary of the National Health Insurance program. Following the introduction in February of the government’s real-name system for mask rationing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of My Health Bank accounts increased from 1.68 million to 5 million, Su said. The proposal would allocate NT$10.3 billion to hospitals for compensation for critical care and medicine services, among other items, it said. The proposed budget, which is still under review, would take effect on Jan. 1 next year at the earliest.
Source:Taipei Times
September 14, 2020 15:56 UTC
Tree to bar to gold
Tree to bar to goldTaiwan’s high-end, tree-to-bar chocolate has burst on to the international scene in the past few years, but what makes it so special? Zeng Zhi-yuan (曾志元) “talks” to his cacao beans and compares the fermenting process to devotedly caring for a child. A TAIWANESE FLAVOR? But ultimately, he says up to 80 percent of the final product’s flavor profile comes from the fermenting process. “It’s why the bean doesn’t stand out, but also why it’s special.”Hsu also speaks of the evenly-hybridized nature of Taiwan cacao.
Source:Taipei Times
September 14, 2020 15:56 UTC
KMT boycotts Straits Forum ‘as party’
KMT boycotts Straits Forum ‘as party’ON THEIR OWN: The KMT has decided not to participate as a party at this year’s forum, and if any members do go, they would not be representing the party, Alicia Wang saidBy Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday announced that it would not send a delegation “as a political party” to this year’s Straits Forum, after a Chinese TV program described the planned visit to the annual meeting as “suing for peace.”The 12th forum is scheduled to open in Xiamen, China, on Saturday. On Tuesday last week, the KMT announced that former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) would lead the party’s delegation to the forum, with KMT Secretary-General Lee Chien-lung (李乾龍) as deputy head. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Mainland Affairs Department director Tso Chen-dong announces at a news conference in Taipei yesterday that the party will not be sending representatives to the Straits Forum. Asked if any KMT members would attend the forum, Wang said the forum is a non-governmental exchange event and KMT members could attend it in their personal capacity. If people who had tentatively been included in the planned KMT delegation did attend, it would be their personal decision and they would not be representing the KMT, the party said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 14, 2020 15:56 UTC
Body of camper caught in flash flood found
Body of camper caught in flash flood foundBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporter, with CNARescuers on Monday recovered the body of a man who disappeared in a flash flood that swept away two tents near Lishi Creek (栗栖溪) in Nantou County’s Renai Township (仁愛) on Sunday. Rescuers in Nantou County yesterday carry the body of a 53-year-old man who died in a flash flood along Lishi Creek in Renai Township on Sunday. State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) yesterday said that its initial investigation showed that faulty insulation around communication cables likely caused a short-circuit that opened the No. 6 floodgate at Nantou Shuili Taguan Power Plant (大觀電廠), upstream of the Lishi Creek, at 4:12am on Sunday. 6 floodgate opened for unexplained reasons again at 5:08am, but the operator discovered the incident “within one minute” and shut the gate again with minimal flooding, Taipower said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 14, 2020 15:56 UTC
CECC reports imported case in migrant worker
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC’s spokesman, said that the worker, in her 20s, arrived in Taiwan on Thursday last week. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Twelve passengers who sat near her on the flight to Taiwan have been placed under home isolation, he said. The CECC would contact Philippine authorities to identify the contacts and place them in isolation upon their arrival in Taiwan, Chuang added. Chen was asked about a specialist’s remark that the government should focus investments on only one or two vaccine developers to accelerate the local development of COVID-19 vaccines.
Source:Taipei Times
September 14, 2020 15:56 UTC
Policies needed to support publishing, legislators say
Policies needed to support publishing, legislators sayBy Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) and Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜), as well as representatives from the publishing industry, yesterday called on the culture and finance ministries to support the publishing industry with better policies, as the number of new books published in the nation continues to fall. “Reading is a symbol of the national power of a country,” Chiud told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Democratic Progressive Party legislators Chiu Chih-wei, left, and Kao Chia-yu attend a news conference in Taipei yesterday, calling on the government to do more to support the publishing industry. She said that while the publishing industry had initially been excited about the Ministry of Culture’s “Arts FUN Go” (藝FUN券) voucher program, due to the vouchers’ wide range of uses, only a portion has gone to the publishing industry. Steve Wu (吳政鴻), president of the New Taipei City Publishers Association, said that the publishing industry has seen about a 20 to 30 percent drop in sales this year, citing the association’s estimates.
Source:Taipei Times
September 14, 2020 15:56 UTC
Constitution ‘not valid’: experts
Chang Kun-sheng (張錕盛), a law professor and secretary-general of the Taiwan Administrative Law Association, said that it is time to draft a new constitution. The ROC Constitution was adopted during a National Constituent Assembly meeting in Nanjing shortly after World War II and before the Chinese Civil War had fully erupted, Chang said. Taiwan Administrative Law Association secretary-general Chang Kun-sheng speaks at a public hearing convened by the Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei yesterday. “As Taiwan was only apportioned 18 representatives for that meeting, we really have to question this 1946 ROC Constitution, whether it has any legally binding power over the people of Taiwan,” Chang said. The ROC Constitution has no legitimacy for Taiwanese, Chang said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 14, 2020 15:56 UTC
Number of sea turtle nests increasing across Taiwan
A baby sea turtle is pictured on Dawan Beach in Pingtung County’s Kenting area on Saturday. The five turtle species commonly seen off Taiwan’s coastlines are the green sea turtle, loggerhead sea turtle, olive ridley sea turtle, hawksbill sea turtle and leatherback sea turtle, the officials said. In 2017, a nest of 27 newly hatched green sea turtles was discovered in Pingtung County’s Kenting (墾丁). It urged local residents and tourists to avoid beaches where sea turtles nest from 8pm to 5am the next day, and to refrain from using artificial light sources near the beaches, which disturb nesting sea turtles. The agency encouraged the public to call the toll-free coast guard hotline (118) if they find an injured or lost sea turtle.
Source:Taipei Times
September 13, 2020 15:56 UTC