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MAC urges HK protestors to abide by laws when entering Taiwan

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 09 December
By: Natalie Tso

Hong Kong protesters on International Human Rights Day (photo: Yeh Tse Ying)

The Mainland Affairs Council is urging people from Hong Kong to follow the law when entering Taiwan. The comments followed a story in the New York Times on Sunday which said that over 200 Hong Kong protestors have fled to Taiwan for safety.

The council said Taiwan has a legal framework in place to enable people from Hong Kong and Macau to enter for humanitarian reasons or other purposes. It urged travelers to respect the law.

President Tsai has spoken out in support of the democracy protests in Hong Kong. But the government has been reluctant to pass a special asylum law for political refugees coming from Hong Kong or China.

The New York Times article described a network of lawyers, churches and fishermen who have helped the demonstrators find haven in Taiwan. Many have come because they fear they will be detained and not receive fair treatment in Hong Kong.    [FULL  STORY]

Lunar New Year a challenge in swine fever fight: COA

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 10, 2019
By: Hsiao Yu-hsin  /  Staff reporter

Government efforts to prevent African swine fever from spreading to Taiwan during the Lunar New

Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung, right, inspects intercepted pork products during a visit to a Chunghwa Post mail processing center in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Hsiao Yu-hsin, Taipei Times\

Year holiday next year would be more challenging than this year, as the virus has infected more nations, Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said yesterday.

This year, Taiwan only had to guard against the outbreak in China, but since then, the virus has spread to 10 East Asian nations, he said while inspecting quarantine procedures for parcels from abroad at Chunghwa Post Co’s (中華郵政) mail processing center in Taipei.

Travelers carrying hams, sausages and other cured products from overseas are the largest source of illegal meat products and could affect epidemic prevention efforts during the Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 25, said Chen, who is also the head of the central emergency operation center for African swine fever in Taiwan.

Parcel deliveries are the second-largest source, he added.    [FULL  STORY]

An Uneasy Partnership: Pan-Green Competition and Cooperation in Taiwan’s 2020 Elections

The News Lens
Date: 2019/12/09
By: Milo Hsieh

Photo Credit: CNA\

As the election date is quickly approaching, many are turning their attention to the legislative race. What does the competition ⁠— or cooperation ⁠— look like in the pan-Green coalition?

Taiwan’s 2020 election campaigns are in full swing. Although the presidential race has grabbed much media attention, intra-coalition and intra-party intrigues are characterizing the legislative race.

Numerous political parties in both the pan-Green and pan-Blue coalition have emerged to compete in the 2020 elections. The pan-Green coalition is defined more than just by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which currently holds the presidency and a legislative majority. It is made of parties and people who have traditionally favored Taiwanese nationalism and making movements toward the formal establishment of the Taiwanese state. This has pitted them against the pan-Blue coalition, composed mainly of parties and people advocating closer ties with China. The pan-blue coalition is led by the Kuomintang (KMT).

The DPP, the largest party in the pan-green coalition, has been working to both integrate smaller candidates and cooperate with allies in local races. This year’s election, however, is marked by subtle changes in the power dynamic of the coalition. Since Taiwan has a two-vote system for the legislative election ⁠— one for local candidates and another for the party list ⁠— the DPP is competing with many of the pan-green parties it is cooperating with over the party ticket.
[FULL  STORY]

Hong Kong protesters warned against fleeing to Taiwan illegally

The New York Times says over 200 Hongkongers have sneaked into Taiwan to avoid persecution

Taiwan News
Date: .2019/12/09
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
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Riot police detain a protester in Hong Kong. (AP photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Hong Kong residents have been cautioned against illegally entering Taiwan, as reports circulate that more than 200 pro-democracy protesters have fled to the island country.

The New York Times reported on Sunday (Dec. 8) the young protesters have escaped to Taiwan in clandestine operations carried out by a group of pastors, lawyers, and other supporters. The operations involve wealthy donors paying for airplane tickets, volunteers transporting protesters to and from airports, fishermen offering boat rides at up to $10,000 per head, and pastors arranging smuggling routes for those who have had their passports confiscated.

The youths are fleeing over fears of unfair treatment, abuse, torture, and even sexual assault — should they get arrested. There are also protesters who seek medical aid in Taiwan, as hospitals in the Chinese city have allegedly become places where arrests take place, the report suggested.

Asked for comment, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) told CNA that Taiwan does not welcome Hongkongers entering the island country illegally. Existing regulations including those pertaining to Hong Kong and Macau are sufficient to accommodate entry requests based on humanitarian principles.    [FULL  STORY]

Hsinchu records season’s lowest temperature of 7.9 degrees

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/09
By: Wang Shu-fen and Evelyn Kao


Taipei, Dec. 9 (CNA) A continental cold front and radiative cooling effects sent temperatures in low-lying areas around Taiwan to their lowest level this season early Monday morning, Central Weather Bureau (CWB) data showed.

The overnight low, recorded in Baoshan in Hsinchu County at 3:30 a.m., was 7.9 degrees Celsius, the lowest of any low-lying part of Taiwan this winter season, and the mercury also dipped below 9 degrees Celsius in many other plains areas.

Temperatures fell to 8.1 degrees in Emei in Hsinchu County, 8.2 degrees in Guangfu in Hualien County, and 8.4 to 8.7 degrees in Miaoli, Yunlin and Taitung counties, CWB data showed.
[FULL  STORY]

You Bet Taiwan Wished It Had Nuclear Weapons

And it nearly happened. 

The National Interest
Date: December 8, 2019
By: Kyle Mizokami


It would have been one of the greatest crises of postwar Asia: the revelation of a Taiwanese atomic bomb. For Taiwan, the bomb would have evened the odds against a numerically superior foe. For China, a bomb would have been casus belli, justification for an attack on the island country it considered a rogue province. Active from the 1960s to the 1980s, Taipei’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons were finally abandoned due to diplomatic pressure by its most important ally, the United States.

Taiwan’s nuclear program goes back to 1964, when the People’s Republic of China tested its first nuclear device. The test was not exactly a surprise to outside observers, but it was still Taiwan’s nightmare come true. Chinese and Taiwanese air and naval forces occasionally skirmished, and it threatened to turn into all-out war. Suddenly Taipei was confronted with the possibility that such a war could turn nuclear. Even just one nuclear device detonated on an island the size of Maryland would have devastating consequences for the civilian population.

From Taiwan’s perspective, a nuclear arsenal would be the ultimate guarantor of national sovereignty. Even if the United States split with the country, as it eventually did, Taiwanese nukes would keep the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at bay, a deterrent not only against Chinese nuclear power, but against conventional forces as well. In hindsight, this would have had a good chance of success, as North Korea’s own procurement of nuclear weapons has made the United States and South Korea reluctant to retaliate over the country’s various military provocations.

The Taiwanese bomb program began in 1967, using the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology’s Institute for Nuclear Energy Research as a cover. In 1969, Canada sold the country a heavy-water nuclear research reactor as a prelude to what it hoped were commercial energy-producing reactor sales—none too soon, as the Trudeau government recognized the People’s Republic of China in 1970. The reactor, known as the Taiwan Research Reactor, went critical in 1973, and Taiwan set about creating a stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium.
[FULL  STORY]

Police release video to refute drunk driver’s claims of excessive force after shots fired at vehicle

Taiwan English News
Date: December 8, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier
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Taipei City Police released video footage of an incident, and held a press conference today, to refute claims made by a man charged with drunk driving that officers had fired shots at him, and had beaten him during the subsequent arrest, after he failed to stop at a police roadside drunk-driving checkpoint.

According to reports, Mr Chen, a 41-year-old real estate agent, drove his Mercedes Benz sedan through a police checkpoint on Chang’an East Road in Zhongshan District at around 2:00am November 3.

At least one officer drew his handgun, and a total of 9 shots were fired at the vehicle.

Chen then stopped his vehicle and exited with his hands up, shouting “sorry, sorry.”
[FULL  STORY]

China faces pushback on its debt-trap diplomacy: Taiwan think tank

Anti-China sentiment on rise in BRI countries amid growing concerns about debt traps

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/08
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
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(AP photo)\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Sri Lanka's recent proposal to undo the previous government's contract to lease its southern port of Hambantota to a Chinese company is not only a major setback to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) but also a sign of growing awareness in South and Southeast Asia of the national security threat posed by China, said the chairman of a Taiwanese think tank.

Sri Lanka's new government wants to revoke a contract signed in 2017 between former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Chinese state-backed enterprise China Merchants Port Holdings Co, citing national interest. The deal allows the company to lease Hambantota's port for 99 years in exchange for lifting US$1.1 billion of debt accrued in its construction.

The former governor of Sri Lanka's central bank, Ajith Nivard Cabraal said in an interview recently that the country "would like them to give [Hambantota Port] back." He also expressed hope that the island nation could "pay back the loan in due course in the way that we had originally agreed without any disturbance at all."

The new government is said to be under pressure to honor its election promise to revisit the debt-equity swap agreement, which targeted Hambantota for its maritime significance and strategic value.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan to apply for U.S. border preclearance: minister

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/08
By: Elaine Hou and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 8 (CNA) The Taiwan government will officially apply soon to join the United States

Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍)

border preclearance system, in a bid to expedite entry by its citizens into the U.S., Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said Sunday.

In a keynote speech at a Taipei seminar on U.S.-Taiwan relations, Lin said the two countries have already exchanged letters of intent on a One-Stop Security arrangement, which allows recognition of security screening at Taoyuan International Airport so that checked luggage originating there can be transferred to connecting flights in the U.S. without having to be screened again.

Taiwan is hoping to expand the One-Stop Security arrangement to hand luggage before 2022 and is preparing to apply soon for inclusion in the preclearance program, Lin said.

"In principle," the U.S. has given approval for Taiwan to join the preclearance system, and as soon as it provides the details of how to proceed, the Taiwan government will officially make the application, Lin said.    [FULL  STORY]

2020 ELECTIONS: Whole world watching vote due to HK events: president

DECISION: Taiwanese must safeguard their sovereignty, otherwise they would have to take to the streets to wrestle it away from China, President Tsai Ing-wen said

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 09, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday urged voters to re-elect her, saying that the Jan. 11

President Tsai Ing-wen speaks at a campaign rally in support of independent legislative candidate Hung Tzu-yung, front second left, in Taichung yesterday.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times\

elections are pivotal, because “the whole world is watching Taiwan” due to the protests in Hong Kong.

Tsai visited Penghu’s Magong City (馬公) in the morning, attended rallies in central Taiwan afterward, and stumped for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative candidates and those from smaller pan-green camp parties.

“The world wants to see what Taiwanese will decide. [The international community is] concerned that what has been taking place in Hong Kong might happen in Taiwan as well,” she told the crowds.

Speaking about China’s “one country, two systems” formula, Tsai said: “This is not an option for Taiwanese.”    [FULL  STORY]