Protest to decry Chinese student rules
Protest to decry Chinese student rules‘CROSS-STRAIT CONSIDERATIONS’: Groups said that the Ministry of Education’s policies excluded Chinese and students should not be blocked over political issuesStaff writer, with CNAThe Taiwan International Student Movement yesterday said it would protest today outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei against a policy that excludes some Chinese students from returning to Taiwan amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The students’ group criticized the policy on Facebook, calling the exclusion of Chinese students an example of politics overriding the right to study. Chinese students should not been blocked due to political factors, the second group said. The council on Wednesday night said that there have been several cases recently of Chinese authorities preventing Chinese students from traveling to Taiwan. National Taiwan University yesterday said in a statement that it “deeply regrets” the ministry’s decision not to include Chinese students in its latest policy.
Source:Taipei Times
August 06, 2020 15:56 UTC
Stop pointing fingers, MOFA spokeswoman tells China
Stop pointing fingers, MOFA spokeswoman tells ChinaBy Lu Yi-hsuan / Staff reporterThe Chinese government should tackle its internal problems before pointing fingers at others, given that it has become a “global troublemaker,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said yesterday, after Beijing criticized a planned visit to Taiwan by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou speaks at a news conference at the ministry in an undated photograph. The Chinese government should listen to its people and stop making irresponsible comments on the global stage, she said. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday had also weighed in on Beijing’s response at a news conference in Washington. US Cabinet members have traveled to Taiwan in the past, and Azar’s visit is “consistent with the policies of previous times,” Pompeo said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 06, 2020 15:56 UTC
Bribery Case: Former NPP chairman quits party over scandal
Bribery Case: Former NPP chairman quits party over scandalBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterFormer New Power Party (NPP) chairman Hsu Yung-ming’s (徐永明) withdrawal from the party over his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal failed to appease some young members, with two Taipei city councilors saying that they have also withdrawn from the party in protest of its handling of Hsu’s caseHsu was on Tuesday released on bail of NT$800,000. The party confirmed that it had received Hsu’s application to leave the party via fax at 3:50pm yesterday before its Disciplinary Committee’s scheduled meeting at 5pm. New Power Party acting chairman Chiu Hsien-chih speaks at the party’s office in Taipei yesterday after former chairman Hsu Yung-ming, who is facing bribery charges, resigned and left the party. “As independent legislators, we would continue to oversee the Taipei City Government and residents in the city,” they said. The two said that they joined the relatively young party and ran in local elections to reform politics in Taiwan, so that more young people’s voices could be heard.
Source:Taipei Times
August 05, 2020 16:00 UTC
Seeds, soil from China prompt warning
Seeds, soil from China prompt warningBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterNine cases of unsolicited packages containing seeds or soil from China have been reported, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday. Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung briefs reporters in Taipei yesterday about packets of seeds or soil sent from China. The two Facebook orders were made by people who ordered seeds and expected them to be locally sourced, but received seeds from China, Chen said. The other three packages contained fertilizer or soil, including two attached with ordered products and one sent by itself, he said. A Council of Agriculture spokeswoman in Taipei yesterday shows photographs of packets of seeds and soil that were forwarded to the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine.
Source:Taipei Times
August 05, 2020 15:56 UTC
Vanguard to boost capital spending
Vanguard to boost capital spendingGROWING DEMAND: Most of the additional spending would be earmarked for the company’s newly acquired fab in Singapore, where Vanguard aims to boost capacityBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterVanguard International Semiconductor Co (世界先進), which makes power management ICs and driver ICs for displays, yesterday said that it would raise capital spending by about 35 percent for this year to boost 8-inch wafer capacity amid strong customer demand. For the whole of this year, Vanguard plans to spend NT$3.5 billion (US$118.62 million) on new equipment and facilities, up from a capital spending budget of NT$2.6 billion disclosed in February. Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei TimesThe Singaporean fab has a maximum production capacity of 60,000 wafers a month, Vanguard said. As 8-inch wafer capacity worldwide is limited, “demand is to exceed supply significantly in the second half of this year. This quarter, customers continue to show strong appetite for driver ICs used in large TV panels and power management ICs, Vanguard said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 05, 2020 15:56 UTC
Chunghwa Precision posts highest-ever Q2 profit
Chunghwa Precision posts highest-ever Q2 profitBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterWafer probing services provider Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (中華精測) yesterday said net profit last quarter reached NT$233 million (US$7.9 million), its highest second-quarter revenue ever, and maintained a cautiously optimistic outlook for the second half of this year. Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co chairman Lin Kuo-feng, left, and president Scott Huang pose for a photograph at the company’s quarterly earnings conference in Taipei yesterday. Chunghwa Precision attributed the strong growth to resilient demand for its services for a variety of chips used in 5G smartphones. With prices of 5G smartphones falling rapidly, Chunghwa Precision is optimistic about global 5G smartphone growth, chairman Lin Kuo-fang (林國豐) told an investors’ conference in Taipei. Chunghwa Precision said rising demand for its vertical probe card business contributed to its optimistic outlook.
Source:Taipei Times
August 05, 2020 15:56 UTC
Makers to export turnkey factories instead of masks
Makers to export turnkey factories instead of masksBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterRather than exporting masks, the nation’s leading mask manufacturers plan to export turnkey mask factories as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect much of the world. As a solution to unmet global demand for masks amid the pandemic, Taiwan Comfort Champ Manufacturing Co (台灣康匠) is offering a “total solution” for mask production, including the raw materials, production equipment and testing technology. “We have miniaturized our mask production line so that it fits in a shipping container. Each miniature mask factory costs as little as US$5 million and can produce as many as 600,000 masks per day if continuously operated, Taiwan Comfort Champ said. Despite the unprecedented demand for masks internationally, Taiwan Comfort Champ did not get to cash in on the opportunity because the government set pricing controls, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 04, 2020 16:06 UTC
Union protests overtime pay delay, new schedule
TRA workers have yet to receive overtime pay they are due for May and June, due to a budget shortfall, the union said. Members of the Taiwan Railway Union protest outside the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei yesterday, demanding that the Taiwan Railways Administration pay them nearly NT$30 million owed for overtime pay for May and June. The agency organized the new schedule without adequate communication with its employees, and it plans to suspend overtime pay and force workers to accept its new schedule, the union said. At the beginning of this year, we secured the legal right to distribute employees’ benefits, which include overtime pay,” Lin said. However, the TRA said that it has submitted an analysis of the additional funding needed for overtime pay to the ministry.
Source:Taipei Times
August 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Officer’s family donates his organs
Officer’s family donates his organsBy Lai Hsiao-tung and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe family of rookie police officer Yang Ting-hao (楊庭豪), who died after being severely injured in a traffic accident on Sunday, has donated his organs and corneas, family members told a news conference yesterday at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). His family said that they believe Yang would have wanted his organs to benefit others. Such an amendment would provide justice for Yang and provide legal protection for parents of accident victims, she said. Last year there were 62 traffic accidents in which children or adolescents aged 13 to 17 were killed, the lawmaker said. A “certain group” of juvenile delinquents should be targeted in the move to strengthen the law, she said, without elaborating.
Source:Taipei Times
August 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Somaliland office to open soon: MOFA
Somaliland office to open soon: MOFADIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soonBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterA representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou speaks at a news briefing at the ministry in Taipei on July 7. The office is scheduled to be opened at the end of this month or early next month, Ou said at the briefing. Office of Parliamentarian Affairs Deputy Executive Director Paul Chen (陳盈連) is to become the office’s director, she said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Court orders three legislators detained
Court orders three legislators detained‘CORRUPTION’: One DPP lawmaker and two KMT legislators were held incommunicado, while former NPP chairman Hsu Yung-ming was released on bail in the Pacific Sogo caseBy Wen Yu-te, Chen Wei-tsu and Chang Wen-chuan / Staff reportersThe Taipei District Court yesterday ordered that three lawmakers be held incommunicado amid a probe into allegedly bribery relating to an ownership dispute over Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨). Former New Power Party chairman Hsu Yung-ming, center, leaves the Taipei District Court yesterday after he was released on bail of NT$800,000 in connection with a bribery case involving the ownership of Pacific Sogo Department Store. The case involves the largest number of lawmakers simultaneously detained since the nation was democratized in 1992. Chao was released on NT$1 million bail on Sunday, while his former aide Lin Chia-chi (林家騏) was detained incommunicado. The prosecutors’ office on Monday said that Chao should be detained, and has appealed the court’s decision.
Source:Taipei Times
August 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
B&Bs in Penghu warned against inflating rates
B&Bs in Penghu warned against inflating ratesBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterBed and breakfast (B&B) operators in Penghu County are to be disqualified from receiving government subsidies if they deliberately inflate room prices for the second phase of “disease prevention tours,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung talks to the media after a news conference held by Taiwan High Speed Rail in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times“The Tourism Bureau told Penghu County Government officials that operators found to engage in this kind of behavior a second time should be disqualified from applying for tourism subsidies,” Lin said. To ease traffic congestion in the Hsuehshan Tunnel during the Mid-Autumn Festival in October, the National Freeway Bureau would implement measures to redirect the traffic, Lin said. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications would reinforce public transport connecting the east and west coasts, Lin said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
KMT, DPP suspend privileges of three detained legislators
KMT, DPP suspend privileges of three detained legislatorsBy Lin Liang-sheng, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writerThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) suspended membership privileges for legislators Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) and Chen Chao-ming (陳超明) after they were detained by the Taipei District Court yesterday, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) announced, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) said the party had suspended Legislator Su Chen-ching’s (蘇震清) membership privileges after he was detained in the same corruption probe. The KMT Disciplinary Committee is launching investigations into Sufin and Chen, and the result of those probes would determine if the pair lose their KMT membership, Chiang said. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang, center, attends a celebration to mark International Nurses Day in Taipei yesterday. The decision to take punitive measures if Sufin and Chen were detained had been made on Saturday, he said. All party members should endeavor to refrain from such acts, Chiang said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: Infection of Belgian likely happened in Taipei: expert
Virus Outbreak: Infection of Belgian likely happened in Taipei: expertBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterA Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei TimesAlthough the center has not listed the case as imported or locally acquired, health experts have said that the man might have contracted the disease in Taiwan. Among the four scenarios, contracting the disease in Belgium or being infected twice are the least likely, he said. Risk stratification and precise testing should be conducted, especially among six groups at higher risk of infection from an asymptomatic cases, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
August 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Hagupit spares nation, but CWB warns of damage
Hagupit spares nation, but CWB warns of damageBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterPeople in the nation’s south and southeast should be alert to possible damage caused by heavy precipitation as Typhoon Hagupit moves away from the nation and heads toward China, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. As of 6pm yesterday, 30 domestic flights were canceled and 45 were delayed, Civil Aeronautics Administration data showed. People walk through a rainstorm in Taipei yesterday as Typhoon Hagupit moves away from the northwest coast of Taiwan. Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei TimesInternational flight services were not affected by the typhoon, the data showed. Although the typhoon is moving away, Hsieh said that a south wind would bring rain to the nation’s south and southeast this morning.
Source:Taipei Times
August 03, 2020 15:56 UTC