Yangmingshan Park to appeal fine over deaths of buffaloes
Yangmingshan Park to appeal fine over deaths of buffaloesBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThe Yangmingshan National Park Service on Wednesday said it would appeal a NT$75,000 fine from the Taipei City Animal Protection Office, which accused the park of causing the deaths of water buffaloes by corralling them with fences. In the past few months, 24 dead water buffaloes have been found in Yangmingshan (陽明山), the office said. Water buffaloes walk in Yangmingshan National Park in Taipei on Wednesday. The park service said that there has yet to be a determination on which agency would be responsible for the water buffaloes. In that scenario, the park service could manage them as part of natural resources in the park, the council said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Enoch Wu joins bid for DPP Taipei chapter chairperson
Enoch Wu joins bid for DPP Taipei chapter chairpersonBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterEnoch Wu (吳怡農), one of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) rising stars, yesterday registered for the race to head its Taipei chapter, with the vote scheduled for Jan. 31. New Frontier Foundation deputy chief executive Enoch Wu, center, submits an application to enter the race for the Democratic Progressive Party’s Taipei chapter chairperson at the party’s Taipei headquarters yesterday. Surrounded by the press, Wu, the deputy chief executive officer of the New Frontier Foundation, yesterday morning filled out the registration papers at the DPP Taipei chapter office. He is viewed as a strong potential contender for the Taipei mayoral race next year. Another candidate for the Taipei chapter post is former Taipei city councilor Yen Sheng-kuan (顏聖冠), who is the daughter of former DPP Legislator Yen Chin-fu (顏錦福).
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
FSC to boost whistle-blower rewards
FSC to boost whistle-blower rewardsBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterThe maximum reward for people who report financial crimes would be raised to NT$4 million (US$140,701) next week, a 10-fold increase to encourage whistle-blowers, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) told a news conference in New Taipei City yesterday. For lower-level crimes drawing fine of between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million, whistle-blowers would receive NT$50,000, also five times higher than the current amount, he said. It has paid NT$2.32 million in rewards since the program began, the FSC said. The commission would investigate information provided by anonymous whistle-blowers, but would not issue rewards in such cases, he said. “A few anonymous whistle-blowers claimed rewards after reporting companies that were fined or sentenced.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
DPP legislator calls for TutorABC probe
DPP legislator calls for TutorABC probeBy Huang Hsin-po and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writerDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) yesterday called for an official investigation into the online English-language education platform TutorABC, amid concerns that it is skirting restrictions on Chinese investment in the education industry by labeling itself as a technology company. TutorABC is the largest online English-language education platform in Taiwan, constituting a significant proportion of the market, Lin told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei TimesChina’s Ping An Insurance Group in 2019 purchased a controlling stake in iTutorGroup, which reportedly operates the TutorABC brand, Lin said. Many Chinese media reports have also called TutorABC a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance, Lin added. With its 200,000 members in Taiwan, TutorABC holds a considerable amount of personal data valuable to China, Lin said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Battery exchange robbed five times since opening
Battery exchange robbed five times since openingBy Huang Shu-li and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerAn environmentalist in Yunlin County who makes cushioned footstools for people to buy with used batteries has been robbed five times in six months, he said on Tuesday. Hsieh Wen-ta, an environmental campaigner and footstool and curtain maker, holds a cushioned footstool at his kiosk in Yunlin County on Tuesday. Hsieh began promoting battery recycling 20 years ago over concerns about the damage discarded batteries do to the environment. His recycling kiosk, which is next to the county’s Environmental Protection Bureau, is the first of its kind in Taiwan, he added. Over the past 30 years he has recycled about 7 million batteries, and given away nearly 30,000 footstools, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
EDITORIAL: Xi’s worrisome new powers
EDITORIAL: Xi’s worrisome new powersTwo recent developments relating to the reform of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could have far-reaching implications, not just for Taiwan, but the entire world. First, on Friday last week, revisions to China’s National Defense Law came into effect that increase the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) hold over the military. China’s unique political structure is characterized by multiple layers of competing and overlapping governance. Powerful provincial-level administrations are subordinate to a vast bureaucracy of the central government, which is itself subordinate to the CCP. Positioned at the apex of China’s political pyramid, the party operates a plethora of “leading groups,” “steering groups” and commissions that exert influence over central government departments.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Commission seeks to return ill-gotten assets to owners
Commission seeks to return ill-gotten assets to ownersBy Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Transitional Justice Commission is drafting a bill that would return ill-gotten assets to the families of wealthy businesspeople and landowners whose assets were confiscated during the White Terror era, the commission said on Monday. A total of 177 people had their properties confiscated during the White Terror era, Formosan Political Prisoners’ Association honorary director-general Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕) said. The commission would submit a draft act this month, and would seek to compensate victims’ families either through the return of assets or monetary compensation, it said. The commission looked at more than 500 cases of confiscated assets listed among records held by the Ministry of National Defense, including 300 that were only recently uncovered, it said. The 3.2-hectare plot is one of the properties confiscated from Huang Tien-liang, he added.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: Four imported cases with UK strain found: CECC
Virus Outbreak: Four imported cases with UK strain found: CECCGENOME SEQUENCING: The likely more transmissable virus strain was found in previously confirmed cases who did not pose a risk to local communities, the center saidBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterFour COVID-19 cases in Taiwan were confirmed to be infected with the new virus strain discovered last month in the UK, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it also reported two new imported cases. As the new COVID-19 variant is believed to be much more transmissible than other strains, the CECC in the past few weeks began genome sequencing of samples from confirmed cases with high viral loads. Samples of 33 confirmed cases were subject to genome sequencing, Chen said. Moreover, Chen said that two imported cases were confirmed yesterday, bringing the total number of cases in Taiwan to 819. Chang said that analysis of confirmed cases shows that the virus is more likely to be cultivated if the person’s CT value is lower than 27 and symptoms appear within 10 days of infection.
Source:Taipei Times
January 06, 2021 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: Food sampling banned at annual Dihua Street market
Virus Outbreak: Food sampling banned at annual Dihua Street marketNEW MEASURES: Existing stores would not be affected, but temporary stalls offering food and beverages would be banned in the area before the Lunar New Year holidayBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterStalls offering ready-to-eat food or beverages and free food samples would be banned at this year’s Lunar New Year market on Dihua Street (迪化街) in Taipei’s Datong District (大同) as part of the city’s COVID-19 prevention efforts, the Taipei City Government said yesterday. It would be the first time that the stalls would be banned at the annual market. The market usually opens two weeks before the Lunar New Year, offering customers foodstuffs and snacks for the holiday. People walk along Dihua Street in Taipei’s Dadaocheng area yesterday. The office would also help print posters to inform visitors that food samples would not be offered, he added.
Source:Taipei Times
January 06, 2021 15:56 UTC
KMT plans major weekend pork referendum drive
KMT plans major weekend pork referendum driveBy Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) plans to collect signatures on Saturday and Sunday at 159 locations nationwide in support of a referendum to overturn the government’s decision to allow imports of pork containing ractopamine residue, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang(江啟臣) said in Taipei yesterday. The lifting of the ban on imports of pork containing traces of the animal feed additive took effect on Friday last week. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang speaks to reporters in front of a portrait of Sun Yat-sen at the party’s headquarters in Taipei yesterday. To be able to hold the referendum in August, the KMT must submit the petition forms to the Central Election Commission for review by March 21, he said. Under the act, Aug. 28 is the next possible date for a referendum in Taiwan.
Source:Taipei Times
January 06, 2021 15:56 UTC
Taipei’s kings of fish paste
Taipei’s kings of fish pasteThirty shops offering various seafood paste products across Taiwan were honored in a national competition last monthBy Han Cheung / Staff reporterChiu Chia-hao (邱家豪) once desperately chased down a butcher truck to obtain caul fat to recreate his late grandma’s signature dragon-phoenix leg (龍鳳腿), a fish paste snack made to resemble chicken wings. Shih Mo-chou has run the Xie Cheng fish ball brand for 52 years. Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei TimesChiu’s Dragon-Phoenix Leg (邱記龍鳳腿), Cheng’s Da Fong Fish Ball (大豐魚丸) and Shih’s Xie Cheng Fish Ball (協成魚丸) were among 30 nationwide winners in the government-sponsored Fish Paste King competition (魚漿王爭霸戰), the results of which were announced late last month. Her late husband was having difficulty finding work, so a fish vendor at Taipei’s Dalong Market (大龍市場) suggested that they start a fish ball operation, which was lucrative at that time. At one point Shih had created 48 different offerings (not all of them included fish paste).
Source:Taipei Times
January 06, 2021 15:56 UTC
Groups call for trained animal protection police unit
Groups call for trained animal protection police unitBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterAcademics and animal rights advocates yesterday called on the government to create an animal protection police unit, due to an increase in reports of cruelty and violence against pets and wild animals in the past few years. Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network secretary-general Ho Tsung-hsun lead a media briefing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei organized by a coalition of animal welfare organizations and civic groups. Ho said that lawmakers in 2017 passed amendments to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), which imposed more severe penalties for cruelty to, or mistreatment or killing of animals. Academics and animal rights advocates from a coalition of animal welfare organizations and civic groups yesterday pump their fists at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. When arriving on the scene, local police most often record such incidents as a case of “animal welfare and protection,” Ho said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 06, 2021 15:56 UTC
Bureau officer one of six suspects in lighthouse case
Bureau officer one of six suspects in lighthouse caseCORRUPTION CASE: Investigators said Sheng received bribes from a contracting firm owner, and colluded with a law firm to forge paperworkBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterA Maritime and Port Bureau technical officer surnamed Sheng (盛) was among six people yesterday listed as suspects in a probe into allegations of bid rigging, bribery and collusion involving work on the nation’s lighthouses, after raids conducted this week. A contracting company owner surnamed Pu, front right, is escorted into court in Taipei for a bail hearing yesterday. Investigators said that Sheng attended banquets and received regular gifts from the owner of the contracting firm, surnamed Pu (卜), and one of his staff surnamed Chen (陳). The law firm allegedly produced forged documents to fake progress at the lighthouse projects, which Sheng allegedly signed and approved, despite the work falling behind schedule and not being inspected. Prosecutors accused Sheng of colluding with the law firm.
Source:Taipei Times
January 06, 2021 15:56 UTC
Farmers’ association paid in yuan: DPP
Farmers’ association paid in yuan: DPPNOT LEGAL TENDER: The Ministry of Labor said that local firms should pay workers in NT dollars, and the association could face a fine, even if there are no complaintsBy Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNANantou County’s Lugu Township (鹿谷) Farmers’ Association paid its members in Chinese currency twice in 2017, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday. Association members were allegedly paid in Chinese yuan equivalent to NT$6,000 (US$211 at the current exchange rate) for working overtime in June 2017, and December 2017 or January 2018, Chen said. Shueili Borough Warden Chen Kuei-you, third left, and Democratic Progressive Party Nantou County chapter member Tseng Tsung-kai, center, take part in a news conference in Nantou County yesterday calling attention to a local farmers’ association paying its members in Chinese yuan. The Ministry of Labor yesterday said wages should be paid in legal tender, citing Article 22 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法). The Nantou County Farmers’ Association in early March 2017 held elections for new chairpersons, supervisors and directors-general.
Source:Taipei Times
January 06, 2021 15:56 UTC
Ample looks to surpass 10% growth
A 5G phone uses 25 to 40 percent more passive components than a 4G model, the company said. Ample Electronic Technology Co chairman and president T.Y. Washington is considering extending its semiconductor ban to passive components, the firm said. Asked about trends in component prices, Ample said that it matches the moves taken by its customers. Ample’s existing customers are mostly from Taiwan and China, including Yageo, Chilisin Electronics Corp (奇力新) and Walsin Technology Corp (華新科).
Source:Taipei Times
January 06, 2021 15:56 UTC