DPP to hold public dialogues to highlight abuse of power by opposition parties

2024-06-09

The DPP is waging a PR war in the wake of the legislature’s passage of bills proposed by the opposition that would increase legislators’ oversight of the government. The ruling party will be holding a series of public lectures around the island to expose what it calls an abuse of power by the opposition, which holds the legislative majority. The month-long campaign will kick off on June 14 in Hualien, the constituency of KMT Caucus Whip Fu Kun-chi, followed by more talks in Taipei and New Taipei to win over the hearts and minds of the public.

Political science professor Chen Fang-yu and convener of the think tank Taiwan Economic Democracy Union Lai Chung-chiang launched an "online lecture event" to talk about the legislative battle over the expansion of powers of the legislature.

Lai Chung-chiang
Convener, Taiwan Economic Democracy Union
We want to explain to people the extent of the abuse of congressional power this act causes.

Chen Fang-yu
Assistant professor, Soochow University
Does this whole series of congressional amendments have anything to do with China?

The Bluebird Movement, which is the name given to the protests against the legislative reform bills, has even spread across borders with an ad featured in New York’s Times Square. However, as the movement loses momentum, civic groups are now holding dialogues at the grassroots across Taiwan, hoping that more people would see what the opposition parties are up to; their attempt to expand legislative powers is in fact an abuse of power. As the KMT is also engaged in its own counter-action by holding lectures in rural areas, the DPP has announced that it will launch a nationwide campaign to “counter the abuse of power and protect democracy" on June 14.

Lin Yu-chang
DPP Secretary General (6.8)
The first location will be Hualien, and then Taipei and New Taipei, which are of course the political and economic centers of the country. We’ve picked these three locations for demonstration and launch of the campaign.

The first session will be held in Hualien, targeting the constituency of KMT Caucus Whip Fu Kun-chi. The DPP’s plan will be carried out in two phases to coincide with the Legislative Yuan’s handling of the motion to reconsider the bills, as the party strengthens dialogue with society. So far three lectures focusing on the themes of “anti-abuse of power and protection of democracy” have been planned. This will be an extension of the Bluebird movement and a war of words on the Internet. It’s a multi-pronged approach, starting from Party Central to the party caucus, as the ruling party wages a PR campaign.

Rosalia Wu
DPP caucus secretary-general
The 51 warriors in the legislative caucus will all sound their voices. Therefore, such publicity in various places, combined with the lawmakers’ daily attacks on social media, will all be a very important action for us to accumulate political energy.

Cho Kuan-ting
DPP spokesperson
During the regular meeting of the Central Standing Committee on Wednesday, the chairman will announce to everyone who and which party officials will be giving the lectures. All the relevant activities are being planned right now.

As the opposition parties continue to occupy the legislative chamber, the DPP will seek the support of civic groups to launch a counter attack. The battle between the ruling and opposition parties is far from over.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

民進黨"反濫權"宣講6/14啟動 "三管齊下"捍衛民主

2024-06-09

為凸顯在野黨的國會改革修法是實為"擴權"，民進黨將展開一個月的"反濫權、護民主"全台宣講行動，6/14第一場選在傅崐萁選區花蓮登場，周末兩天則在北市跟新北。立院民進黨團也將配合中央規劃，舉辦下鄉宣講、延續青鳥及網路空戰等三路並進方式，要全面反制藍白濫權。

政治學教授陳方隅、經民聯智庫召集人賴中強等人，發起"線上開講活動"，聊的是立法院上個月的國會擴法大戰。

[[經濟民主連合智庫召集人賴中強]]
“跟大家說明國會濫權法案的實質危害”

[[東吳政治系助理教授陳方隅]]
“這一系列國會修法的過程當中，到底跟中國因素有沒有關係”

青鳥行動甚至跨國串聯，登上美國紐時廣場。但效應隨時間遞減，公民團體六月開始在全台各地陸續展開草根對話，希望更多民眾理解藍白濫權真相。面對國民黨也祭反制行動，將辦下鄉宣講，民進黨也宣布6/14將啟動"反濫權、護民主"，全台宣講行動。

[[民進黨秘書長林右昌(6/8)]]
“第一個點選在花蓮，另外台北跟新北，當然就是全國的政治經濟中心，先選在這三個地方進行示範跟啟動”

首場選在花蓮，劍指傅崐萁選區，綠營規劃分兩階段進行，配合立法院處理覆議案及延會日程，強化民進黨和社會對話能力，初步規劃3場「反濫權、護民主」宣講、延續青鳥及網路空戰多管齊下、三路並進，從黨中央到黨團，全面啟動輿論戰。

[[民進黨團幹事長吳思瑤]]
“立院黨團51位戰將，都是最主要的發聲者，所以這樣的各地宣講，搭配立委平時的社群作戰，都會是我們累積政治能量，非常重要的行動”

[[民進黨發言人卓冠廷]]
“禮拜三中常會的時候，主席會跟大家宣布，到底是哪些人、哪些黨公職，會前來進行宣講，目前我們也正在規劃相關的活動”

藍白聯手打算堅守議場，民進黨則跟民團分進合擊，朝野大戰，未完待續。

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民視台灣台（152頻道）週日至週五晚上9:30
民視新聞台（53頻道）週二至週六凌晨1:00

Jensen Huang surpasses Dell founder to rise in list of billionaires

2024-06-09

De facto Japanese embassy brings Japanese expats to Hualien to boost local tourism

The east coast city of Hualien has been devastated after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off its coast on April 3, and the local tourism sector has been especially hard hit. Japan has donated money to Taiwan to help with recovery efforts, but now it has gone a step further. The de facto Japanese embassy, Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, is encouraging Japanese expats in Taiwan to visit Hualien, and over the weekend it led a group of 40 Japanese to the city. The group described having an enjoyable trip that featured dolphin sightings, indigenous archery, dancing and food. One even said he would be back later with his family.

The Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association over the weekend invited Japanese living in Taiwan to visit Hualien. Tourism in the county has taken a hit since a magnitude 7.2 quake struck the area in early April.

The group of 40 Japanese boarded a whale-watching vessel, and was fortunate to snap some pictures of dolphins frolicking in the water near the boat.

Kakizawa Michi
Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association
Our members really enjoyed seeing all the dolphins, and it felt great to be by the ocean. So, I’d really encourage people to visit Hualien.

Chiu Hsi-tung
Whale-watching tour operator
They came here specially to encourage us and to check out Hualien. We hope this atmosphere of promotion can continue.

Whale-watching tours are a great reason to visit Hualien, but there are also activities to experience Amis culture.

At one event, the Japanese visitors learned an Amis dance, following along to instructions from a teacher. The visitors also got to try their hand at archery.

Kids also took part in the fun. One member of the group said he would come back to Hualien again in the future with his family.

Nishidai Tatsuya
Japanese tourist
The food was great, as is the local culture. It’s my first time in Hualien. Next time I’ll bring my family.

Katayama Kazuyuki
Japanese representative to Taiwan
I want to express my encouragement to locals affected by the earthquake. I will post about Hualien on Facebook and X, so other Japanese could know about it. This is my first time visiting Hualien, and I’m really touched by it.

Japanese representative to Taiwan, Katayama Kazuyuki, joined the group in Hualien at his own expense, and had nothing but good things to say about the east coast county. Katayama also said he would tell others about Hualien, which means more Japanese visitors may be making a trip to the county in the not-too-distant future.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-06-09

Over 14,000 tourists visit Liuqiu on first day of Dragon Boat Festival long weekend

2024-06-09

Meet Joanne Missingham, Taiwan’s Goddess of Go: Part 1

Joanne Missingham is Taiwan’s top female Go player, with a formidable Go ranking of 7 dan. In her 20s, she took on modeling work, gaining fame in entertainment. What many people don’t know is that Joanne was born in Australia. She has mixed-race heritage, with an Australian father and Taiwanese mother. Her great love affair with Go began at age 6, when her mom gave her a chance introduction to the game. And she hasn’t stopped playing since. Today in our Sunday special report, we kick off a three-part introduction to Taiwan’s Goddess of Go.

Taiwanese-Australian Joanne Missingham was born on May 26, 1994, in Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. Her Chinese name is Hei Chia-chia.

Her father is Errol Mark Missingham, an Australian, and her mother was the Taiwanese Hei Nan-ping: a cross-cultural love story.

Their first daughter was Hei Hsuan-hsuan, and little Joanne, their second daughter, was born two years later.

Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
My mom went to study in Australia, to graduate school. My dad was a professor there. That’s how they met. My sister and I were born in Australia. Later, they decided we would move to Taiwan, mainly because my parents really wanted us to be bilingual.

Hsuan-hsuan Missingham
Sister of Joanne Missingham
My dad would get home from work, and my sister was great at being all cutesy. She would say, “Daddy, you’re home!” and rush straight at him, and push him over to get the cash out of his pocket!

It was a happy family. The Missinghams believed in supporting their daughters’ interests, and so the girls had many hobbies.

Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
Our parents wanted us to develop wide interests. They took us to lots of classes, we could find our own interests among them.

Joanne studied gymnastics, ballet, and the pipa lute in the Chinese orchestra. Her first experience of a Go lesson was at the age of 6.

Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
I started at 6. Actually, originally I wanted to study Gomoku. But my mom couldn’t find a Gomoku class for me. So she took my sister and me to try a Go class. I got really into it. My sister thought it was really boring, just black and white tiles.

Based in Yonghe, Chou Ko-ping had founded “Dongdong Children’s Go Studio.” He was Joanne’s first Go teacher, and it was he who inspired her talent to blossom.

Chou Ko-ping
Teacher of Joanne Missingham
What was different about Joanne was how focused she was in class, with amazing reactions. She was better at Go than other children right from the very beginning. Perhaps her mind is very clear in that regard.

Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
I saw a very famous anime when I was about 8. It’s called “Hikaru no Go.” Watching it gave me more of an idea of the world of professional Go players. Before that, I knew my teacher was a pro. But I didn’t really know what that meant, or what he actually did. After I’d seen “Hikaru no Go,” I thought, “Wow, you can have a job as cool as playing Go!” “I can just do what I want to do, play Go And someone will pay me for it!”

Joanne’s mother supported her dream. She searched for an advanced teacher, who would help Joanne hone her skills.

Lin Sheng-hsien
Joanne Missingham’s Go teacher
When children play Go, generally they try to capture their opponent’s stones. But Joanne was lucky because her teacher was a professional, a colleague of ours. So her very first teacher taught her to think more about “territory.” So, unlike other children, she wasn’t so fixated on capturing stones. That’s very helpful for later study.

Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
I think what first attracted me was capturing stones. Capturing stones was great fun. Then I realized, capturing stones is just a tiny part of Go. In the end, it’s about who has more territory, i.e. more unoccupied points. Along the way, you need a lot of tactics to gain territory. You have almost unlimited choices. Go has been played for thousands of years.

Joanne was a bright and talented child. Her grades were excellent, and she was popular at school.

Cheng Chao-ching
Joanne Missingham’s third and fourth grade class teacher
Joanne’s schoolwork was excellent. You could see how hard-working she was, how brave she was in expressing her opinions. She was quick-thinking and creative. So her grades were always very good, among the best in the class. She liked to help others, to stand up for justice. All her classmates liked her. She was fun, humorous and sweet. She looked so cute and did so well in school that she was never short of friends. All the other children liked to play with her.

With her mother’s attentive guidance, Joanne excelled in literacy, playing the pipa, Go, calligraphy and art.

Cheng Chao-ching
Joanne Missingham’s third and fourth grade class teacher
In a moment you can see a photo of Joanne’s handwriting, which is beautiful. Her characters are so neat. She worked very hard on her homework. In her essays, you could see lots of little creative flourishes. She was full of imagination. In natural science, we grew silkworms. All the kids were afraid of them. But Joanne seemed to think they were cute, they were so soft and white. In an essay, she wrote how a classmate had eaten one of the baby silkworm’s poos! Apparently, in traditional Chinese medicine, silkworm waste is a medicinal ingredient. So she put that interesting story in her essay.

With her angelic and unusual looks, those big eyes and glossy hair, Joanne became a child star, shooting commercials and music videos, and appearing in many TV variety shows.

But commercial shoots can run into the night. Joanne’s mother thought school came first. When Joanne was 10, her mother encouraged her to join the school swim class, as a way to gain strength for Go. But as soon as she began, Joanne qualified for the first 100, and joined the school team.

Huang Yi-hsi
Joanne Missingham’s elementary swim teacher
She had good flexibility, good coordination and a sense for the water. She performed better in all those areas than the other kids who tried out. So, of course she was chosen for the swim team.

But joining the swim team meant bidding goodbye to her precious long locks!

Huang Yi-hsi
Joanne Missingham’s elementary swim teacher
We don’t want the kids’ swim training to have an impact on their normal schooling. So usually we ask the girls in the team to cut their hair short, if possible. It cuts the time spent changing and drying hair. It lessens the risk of getting sick. We want them to get back to class promptly, and get back to their normal lessons.

Next was a grueling training regime. Joanne got up at 6 a.m. on schooldays. She would swim 3,000 meters at school to build strength, before classes began.

Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
I swam from third to sixth grade. So I got to school before the other kids. I might get up at 6, and get there before the others to swim.

Hsuan-hsuan Missingham
Sister of Joanne Missingham
I think she’s very strong! Because, if I remember right, she trained before class in the morning, and after class in the evening. The pool at Xiulang Elementary didn’t have any heating at first. It was freezing in winter. I think she’s amazing!

Huang Yi-hsi
Joanne Missingham’s elementary swim teacher
Her first strength was tolerating pain, hard work.She had a very strong will. When we did the aerobic stamina training, which is the worst, she could just grit her teeth, and persevere through whatever I set for her. Some kids are easier on themselves and give up. That means they stop and drop out of the team.

The tough swim training was energizing. Joanne’s will and stamina belied her years. That desire to excel applied to Go, as well. By age 11, she had an amateur 6 dan rank, and often went abroad for Go contests.

Chou Chun-hsun
The “Red-faced Go Master”
I met Joanne in 2004 at the World Youth Go Championship. She was on the Taiwan Youth Go team. I was invited to be the tutor for the team at that championship. So from 2004 on, we played a weekly game of Go, and after each game, I helped her analyze it. In 2005 I went with her to Barcelona, Spain, for the World Youth Go Championship.

As Joanne’s Go skills progressed, just before she finished elementary school, her father was sent to the U.S. for a job. The family moved with him, and Joanne was thrown out of her comfort zone. Next week in our Sunday special report, join us as we follow her into an alien Western country and struggles to continue her pursuit of Go.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-06-09

Graduating students in Yunlin given a special steak dinner by a local business

Graduating students in Yunlin have been given a special dinner by a local business. A Yunlin steak restaurant treated all the graduates of Feisha Junior High to a dinner to congratulate them on completing their exams. In rural Sihu Township, a proper steak isn’t available on every street corner, so many students said they’d been really looking forward to the meal. The restaurant also gave a valuable scholarship to an exceptional student. It hopes its philanthropic work will inspire students to give back to the community when their time comes.

A mouthwatering steak is served, filling the room with a sizzle and a delicious scent.

A Yunlin business offered these students a graduation gift of a delicious steak.

Feisha Junior High graduate
We’re in a rather remote place, and normally the only place we’d get a steak is at a night market, because it’s really far away.

The business owners were delighted to see students enjoying the special dinner.

Chen Ying-hsien
Steak chain restaurant executive director
It’s a blessing to be helped, but it’s an even greater blessing to help others. We wanted to make a small contribution to encourage others to do the same, and contribute to a more positive social environment.

Many students said they had been looking forward to the treat ever since they saw the class of 2023 enjoying it last year. Now it’s finally their turn.

Feisha Junior High graduate
Ever since the exam, I’ve been really looking forward to coming to the steak restaurant. I want to thank the principal and the restaurant for organizing it.

Aside from the meal, each graduate also received a small gift. The restaurant also presented a NT$20,000 red packet as a scholarship.

Chen Chao-lung
Feisha Junior High principal
For children in rural areas, it’s a great thing to look forward to, a steak dinner.

The company plans to continue its support of local students, and hopes that when they grow up and find success, they will want to give back to the community too.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-06-09