CTBC Ladies Open starts in Taoyuan with 90 golfers
CTBC Ladies Open starts in Taoyuan with 90 golfersStaff writer, with CNAThe 2020 CTBC Ladies Open started yesterday in Taoyuan with 90 golfers, at a time when most international tournaments have been disrupted or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, the competition is not open to foreign golfers, it added. Phoebe Yao, left, and Chen Yu-ju, right walk at the CTBC Ladies Open in Taoyuan yesterday. 291 Cheng Ssu-chia said she was pleased to enter the tournament after preparing for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour, which has been canceled. The CTBC Ladies Open is free and open to the public, but spectators must follow COVID-19 prevention guidelines and provide their contact information upon entry to the venue, the organizers said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 13, 2020 15:56 UTC
Lee Teng-hui to take symbolic last route: TSU
Lee Teng-hui to take symbolic last route: TSUPRESIDENTIAL CIRCLE: A procession would take the former president’s body from Beitou to the funeral and then to a mortuary to be cremated, the TSU saidStaff writer, with CNAA funeral procession today for former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) would make a symbolic lap of the Presidential Office Building following a private ceremony at Taipei’s Chi-Nan Presbyterian Church, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. The Presidential Office said that out of respect for Lee’s family, details of the procession would not be made public. People take photographs of a wall of messages at a memorial for former president Lee Teng-hui at the Taipei Guest House yesterday. The TSU said that it has prepared figurines representing Lee that bear its emblem, which people who attend the service can get by reservation. The government’s public memorial for Lee at the Taipei Guest House, which is to end on Sunday.
Source:Taipei Times
August 13, 2020 15:56 UTC
Czech delegation expected on Aug. 30 for five days
Czech delegation expected on Aug. 30 for five daysBy Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNATaiwan expects a Czech delegation to arrive on Aug. 30 and depart on Sept. 4, with visitors including Vera Kuberova, the widow of former Czech Senate president Jaroslav Kubera, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Department of European Affairs Director-General Johnson Chiang speaks at a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei yesterday. Vystrcil’s visit has received support from the Czech Senate and is intended to show the nation’s resolve to uphold democratic values and not bow to oppression from China, Chiang said. Vystrcil, whose position is second only to Czech President Milos Zeman, would give a speech on democratic values, Chiang said. In addition to political and business dignitaries, representatives of major Czech universities and research institutions, as well as the Czech Philharmonic, would be part of the delegation, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 13, 2020 15:56 UTC
Second extra session unlikely: Ker says
Second extra session unlikely: Ker saysKMT NOT KEEN: Ker Chien-ming said that even if a second extraordinary session were held, the KMT would not allow a budget request to bypass a month of negotiationsBy Sean Lin, Huang Pei-chun and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writerDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday hinted that there would not be a second extraordinary session before the start of the regular legislative session late next month. When Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) last month approved a second special budget for COVID-19 prevention and economic relief, he believed that a second extraordinary session was unavoidable and that it would likely be this month, Ker said. This would delay review of the budget request to late next month, when the new legislative session is to begin, defeating the purpose of another extraordinary session, he said. In this context, if the DPP caucus insists on holding another extraordinary session, it is bound to meet with strong pushback from the KMT, Ker said. Separately, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that not holding a second extraordinary session would create difficulties for efforts by the government to stimulate the economy, while companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic need funds to keep running.
Source:Taipei Times
August 13, 2020 15:56 UTC
Dead woman’s family hopes judicial investigations will provide answers
Dead woman’s family hopes judicial investigations will provide answersBy Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterFamily members of a woman who reportedly died last month by jumping from a building after writing on Facebook about having been sexually assaulted, yesterday said they hope investigations will reveal the truth about her case. The woman, surnamed Lin (林), who worked for the New Taipei City Department of Health. Family members of a woman surnamed Lin speak at a press conference in Taipei yesterday. The family knows that the public has many questions about the case, and the family is also searching for answers, Lin’s cousin said. She hopes that through judicial investigations those answers will be found.
Source:Taipei Times
August 13, 2020 15:56 UTC
Renewal projects hit 65% in Taipei
Renewal projects hit 65% in TaipeiBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterPresale and new housing projects in Taipei totaled NT$189.8 billion (US$6.43 billion) in the first seven months of this year, with urban regeneration projects accounting for 65 percent, as they increasingly become the main source of properties due to a shortage of new land, the Chinese-language My Housing Monthly reported yesterday. Renewal projects based on old and dilapidated houses in Taipei reached NT$124.2 billion from January to last month, supplying a record 65 percent to the city’s new housing volume as idle lots of land are hard to find, the magazine said. Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei TimesIn the past, time-consuming regeneration projects were a secondary concern, but they have gained importance over the past few years after policymakers provided regulatory support and banks are eager to supply funding. Renewal projects last year accounted for 43 percent of presale and new housing, up from 33 percent in 2018, the magazine said. The scarcity of land leaves developers interested in Taipei with no choice but to turn old and unsafe buildings into sources of new housing projects, Ho added.
Source:Taipei Times
August 13, 2020 15:56 UTC
Protesters slam Ma’s ‘first battle will be the last’
Other protestors hold placards demanding that Ma apologize for having said that Taiwan would lose in a war with China. Photo: Jason Pan, Taipei TimesChen and other protesters called Ma “a bootlicker” of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and a colluder with an enemy state, seeking to sell out Taiwan. Members from the Taiwan Independence Party (建國黨), the Nation Building Forum (建國廣場) and a youth group advocating Taiwan’s liberation from colonial powers also joined the protest. Other protesters presented documents and news reports in which the former president and KMT lawmakers stalled legislative sessions 69 times from 2008 to 2016, eventually blocking three major arms deals with the US. During Ma’s presidency, he tried to end the development of indigenous missiles at Taiwan’s top weapons research institutes, they added.
Source:Taipei Times
August 12, 2020 16:00 UTC
Remote fishing village under threat
The 78-year-old Chen is an active “sea woman” (海女) in Taiwan’s easternmost fishing village of Makang (馬崗) in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮). She lives alone in the village, as her children have moved to the cities for work, returning for weekends and festivals. “They now realize that the tourists actually like these stone houses and come take pictures of them on weekends. “The final vote was 8-0, so New Taipei City claims that Chang wouldn’t have made a difference,” Yeh says. They can also aim to become a fishing village special district under the Urban Planning Act (都市計畫法),whereupon the residents will have a bigger say over the future of Makang.
Source:Taipei Times
August 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
Book review: Tales of the miraculous and mundane
The only big difference, perhaps, is that Christopher Logan no longer lives here but in the US state of Oregon, where his publishing company, Deep World Publishing, is based. TAIWAN THROUGH FOREIGN EYES: Stories from the Miracle Days, edited by Christopher Logan. Logan says in his Introduction that these stories were meant to be published after his book Culture Taipei! Logan includes three of his own stories in this new book, and they’re all very good, and very different. Lastly, whether the tales are set in the 1990s or the present day didn’t appear, whatever the editor said, to matter one iota.
Source:Taipei Times
August 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: NTU dean suggests shorter quarantine
New imported cases and foreign nationals testing positive after returning home from Taiwan has sparked public debate on whether the government should expand COVID-19 testing to all inbound travelers to better detect asymptomatic cases locally, he said. National Taiwan University College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen presents his policy proposals yesterday in Taipei. If travelers are tested upon arrival, quarantined for five days and tested again, more than 99 percent of cases would also have be detected, he said. Testing all travelers upon arrival might cause those who test negative to let down their guard during quarantine, he said. Strictly implementing the current policy of a 14-day quarantine and an additional seven-day self-health management would be a better method of preventing imported cases causing local infections, Fang said, adding that mask wearing remains equally important.
Source:Taipei Times
August 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
Minister denies lending former NPP chair NT$3m
Minister denies lending former NPP chair NT$3m‘SPECULATION’: Hsu Yung-ming reportedly told prosecutors that the money was loaned to him by a government official who had been a senior classmate of hisBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterMinister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday denied that he had lent former New Power Party (NPP) chairman Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) NT$3 million (US$101,557) to cover NPP expenditure. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung, front right, examines locally made products in Miaoli County yesterday. After Liao left the meeting, the official then took the money out and gave it to him, the report said. “Minister Lin is not familiar with the case, which is now under investigation. On March 4, the National Communications Commission approved TOP’s application to turn one of its local TV channels into a news channel.
Source:Taipei Times
August 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: Sercomm net profit rises 34% on virus lockdowns
Virus Outbreak: Sercomm net profit rises 34% on virus lockdowns‘BOON’: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major changes in people’s lives, such as telecommuting and distance education, Sercomm chairman Paul Wang saidBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterTelecom equipment maker Sercomm Corp (中磊) yesterday said that net profit last quarter expanded 34 percent year-on-year as remote study and work-from-home trends amid the COVID-19 pandemic boosted Internet use. Photo: Wang Yi-hung, Taipei TimesRevenue last quarter surged 36 percent sequentially to NT$9.25 billion (US$313.13 million), with fixed-mobile products contributing the most. In the April-to-June period, Sercomm’s net profit expanded to NT$241 million from NT$180 million in the corresponding period last year. On an annual basis, net profit expanded 2.77 times from NT$87 million. The pandemic “provides a boon to networking companies,” Sercomm chairman Paul Wang (王伯元) said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
Ministry approves call to select new Tatung board
Ministry approves call to select new Tatung boardBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday approved an application by some individual and institutional shareholders of Tatung Co (大同) to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting to elect a new board of directors, a month after the ministry deemed Tatung’s June 30 shareholders’ meeting invalid and rejected registering the board directors elected at that meeting. Under Lin Kuo’s instructions, Tatung blocked several shareholders, who collectively hold a 53 percent stake in the company, from voting at the June 30 annual general meeting on accusations that they received funding from Chinese investors. As the existing board is not legally capable of calling a shareholders’ meeting, the ministry said it therefore approved the petition by some rebel shareholders to hold an extraordinary meeting by the end of November to elect a new board, she said. Some of the rebel shareholders in a joint statement thanked the authorities for approving their petition and vowed to hold a fair and open meeting soon. “All shareholders’ rights will be equally respected.
Source:Taipei Times
August 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
Legal experts, party representatives say administrative court ruling aids China
Legal experts, party representatives say administrative court ruling aids ChinaBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterLegal experts and representatives of political parties yesterday accused the Taiwan High Administrative Court of aiding China in its “united front” campaign against Taiwan, after it ruled against the Ministry of the Interior, which had fined 27 Taiwanese for working for local government offices in China. Huang, along with legal experts and academics from the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP), at a briefing yesterday urged the ministry to appeal the court’s ruling on Thursday last week. Independent Legislator Freddy Lim at a news conference in Taipei yesterday criticizes a Taiwan High Administrative Court ruling, which favored Taiwanese who were working for local government offices in China. Lim said that “the ruling would permit our citizens to work for an enemy state,” which has would to go to war to annex Taiwan. Huang said the ruling showed the failure of the government’s push for judicial reform, as the Taiwan High Administrative Court had in the past few years years made rulings that went against the public’s expectations.
Source:Taipei Times
August 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
Azar praises Taiwan’s health efforts
Azar praises Taiwan’s health effortsCHASTISING CHINA: Taiwan’s approach to combating the coronavirus stands in stark contrast to the country where the outbreak began, the US health secretary saidBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterInternational organizations are not the place to play politics, especially when the matter relates to healthcare, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said in Taipei yesterday, adding that the region and the world are safer because of Taiwan’s commitment to health promotion. Thanking Azar for supporting Taiwan’s fight for international space, Wu said that the battle is not just about Taiwan’s status, but about sustaining democracy in the face of authoritarian aggression. The US would continue advocating for the contributions Taiwan can make to the world on important issues like health, Azar said, adding that he would discuss these issues and Taiwan’s global health leadership with Wu. Following his talk with Wu, Azar and his delegation attended a luncheon banquet hosted by Vice President William Lai (賴清德), representing Tsai. “The Indo-Pacific region and the whole world are safer because of Taiwan’s commitment to this public health work,” he added.
Source:Taipei Times
August 11, 2020 15:56 UTC