Taipei Times
Date: 2019/12/02
Courtesy of Chinese Culture University

Taipei, Dec. 2 (CNA) Chinese Culture University, located in a part of Taipei where the world's longest rainbow ever occurred, has developed a rainbow forecasting system aimed at giving tourists, meteorologists and photographers directions for rainbow watching.

"We hope the service, which is only available for the region, can bring more people to look for rainbows on our campus," said Chou Kun-hsuan (周昆炫), a professor from the university's Department of Atmospheric Science on Monday.

Chou told CNA that the inspiration for the system came after he, his colleagues and students documented a rainbow in Yangmingshan that lasted almost nine hours in 2017, which was recognized by Guinness World Records the next year as the longest rainbow ever recorded.

He received many inquiries wondering when it would be possible to forecast rainbows, prompting him to analyze weather conditions between Nov. 1, 2018 and Jan. 31, 2019, when a rainbow appeared on 23 of those days and established the forecasting system in June.
[FULL  STORY]

APPROACHED: Michael Tsai said that the TAO tried to invite him to a conference in China and a promised meeting with the CCP’s leader eight months after he left office

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 03, 2019
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

Former ministry of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) yesterday called for greater caution

against Beijing’s infiltration, saying that high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials had tried to establish contact with him months after he left office in May 2008.

“China’s infiltration programs target not only the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and the media, but also people in the pan-blue camp and even those in the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] and the pan-green camp,” Tsai told a news conference in Taipei.

A Taiwanese entrepreneur doing business in China had relayed a message to him from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), he said.

“The TAO wanted to invite me to attend an international conference in China and they said I would be received by the leader of the CCP,” he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Japan Times
Date: Dec 1, 2019
By: R^euters, Kyodo

TAIPEI – China is stepping up efforts to be nice to Taiwan ahead of key elections on Jan. 11, offering better treatment to Taiwanese in China and urging the democratic island to “come home,” but many there only see Beijing wielding a threatening stick.

China denies interfering in elections in Taiwan, which it claims as sacred territory, but it traditionally tries various means to influence their result, hoping politicians with a more positive view of Chinese ties get into office.

These can range from military intimidation — China fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait before the 1996 election — to what Taiwan’s government calls Beijing’s manipulation of China-friendly Taiwanese media.

China also wants to ensure that Taiwan’s huge business community in the country is happy, hoping businesspeople will go home to vote for China-friendly politicians.    [FULL  STORY]

NPR
Date: December 1, 2019
By: Emily Feng & Greg Dixon

At a recent election campaign event in Taiwan, a procession of women beat ceremonial drums, dance and wave lotus-shaped umbrellas in celebration. But beyond the slogans promising national security and prosperity, the topic on everyone's mind is what to do about China.

The star of the event is Han Kuo-yu, a pro-Beijing candidate running for president with the opposition Kuomintang, who poses a stark contrast with the current leaders.

"[The governing party] relentlessly uses Taiwan independence as a way to negate China," Han, the mayor of the city of Kaohsiung, said to rallygoers at the event in Miaoli county, just south of Taiwan's capital of Taipei. "However, Taiwan and Beijing are one family."

Taiwan, a U.S. ally, has its own government, military and capitalist economy, but the Chinese Communist Party says Taiwan belongs to the People's Republic of China.    [FULL  STORY]

Guanshan bike path recognized for being among 'top five favorite cycling destinations for Taiwanese'

Taiwan News
Dater: 2019/12/01
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Visitors were shocked on Saturday (Nov. 30) by a heavy pruning of Madagascar almond trees lining a 300-meter stretch of the popular Guanshan Township Loop Bike Lane.

Guanshan Township Office explained the trees had to be pruned in order for farming machinery to pass through, CNA reported on Saturday.

Booking.com recently revealed that Guanshan bike path is among the “top five favorite cycling destinations for Taiwanese.” The hotel booking website shows the top five cycling destinations for Taiwanese are: Yangshuo in China's Guilin City, Guanshan Township in Taitung County, Ruisui Township in Hualien County, Sanxing Township in Yilan County, and Onomichi in Japan’s Hiroshima, CNA reported on Nov. 2.

Bicyclists had to stop after riding about one-third of the 12-kilometer bikeway on Saturday because it was covered with tree limbs, the news agency reported. A visitor, surnamed Chang, said the family visited Guanshan bikeway because it was rated among the most beautiful bikeways.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/01
By: Huang Li-yun and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) Three migrant workers died while four another suffering from no life-threatening injuries in an accident at seas off New Taipei's Bali District on Sunday, firefighters said.

The seven migrant workers fell into the sea for unknown reasons from a working platform of a natural gas terminal construction project in Taipei Port around 4:40 p.m., according to a National Fire Agency press release.

The local fire department responded to a report on 5:35 p.m., and immediately sent rescuers to retrieve them from the sea, it noted.

The three were pronounced dead after being rushed to two nearby hospitals for emergency treatments, according to the hospitals.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 02, 2019
By: Chen Hsin-yu and Hsu Li-chuan  /  Staff reporters

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her main challenger, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of

the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), were out on the campaign trail yesterday, with Tsai rallying the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) faithful and others in New Taipei City, while Han made appeals to his city’s residents.

Tsai urged members of the public to support her re-election bid as she opened the New Taipei City headquarters for her campaign in Banciao District (板橋).

She has delivered on her 2016 election campaign promises to protect the nation’s sovereignty, improve the economy and take care of children and the elderly, she said.

New Taipei City has a special significance to her, as the experience she gained running for mayor in the 2010 elections helped transform her from an academic to a politician, and gave her a better understanding of the public, Tsai said.    [FULL  STORY]

The stakes are too high for Taiwan to waste money on outdated programs.

The Diplomat
Date: November 30, 2019
By: Michael A. Hunzeker and Joseph Petrucelli

Taiwan faces an existential threat. China considers it a renegade province, is actively trying to

isolate it from the rest of the world, and reserves the right to forcibly annex it. Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long believed in a “sacred duty” to assert political control over the island nation, its current leader, Xi Jinping, is growing impatient and is clearly unwilling to let Taiwan become the next generation’s “problem.”

Despite the stakes, Taiwan’s military has not always been particularly creative in how it planned to defend the island. For decades, it was content to depend upon a small inventory of expensive, but obsolete, American-made jets and ships. The thinking rested on two assumptions: Taiwan had to hold out long enough for the United States to intervene. And the United States’ willingness to sell outdated weapons somehow signaled its willingness and ability to defend Taiwan in a war with China.

China’s decades-long military modernization efforts, as well as its extensive anti-access capabilities, call both assumptions into question. 

Thankfully, President Tsai Ing-wen is pushing Taiwan’s military leaders to come up with something better. Taiwan’s new Overall Defense Concept (ODC) stands out as a particularly important result of her willingness to challenge old military shibboleths. The brainchild of Taiwan’s recently retired Chief of the General Staff, Admiral Lee Hsi-ming, ODC acknowledges that Taiwan cannot afford to match China jet for jet or ship for ship. Instead, ODC seeks to deter China by making an invasion unacceptably difficult and costly using large numbers of inexpensive weapons, including anti-air missiles, missile boats, and naval mines.     [FULL  STORY]