Former Chinese spy makes shocking allegations about Beijing buying influence in Taiwan and Hong Kong

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/23
By: Taiwan News

​Update: Taiwan TV stations reject defector's allegations of China funding

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The former Chinese spy who defected to Australia has disclosed a list of

Taiwanese media companies that have been bribed by the Chinese government.

During recent interviews with Australian media, including The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and 60 Minutes, William Wang (王立強) revealed a treasure trove of information about China's techniques to interfere in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia's politics. Wang admitted he entered Taiwan with a fake South Korean passport to spread misinformation against current Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

He also pointed out the Chinese government has provided funding to several Taiwan news companies to spread Chinese propaganda. He said that CTi News, Chinese television (CTV), and EBC News all agreed to support China and Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), after receiving a total of RMB$1.5 billion (US$210 million), reported Stand News.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/24
By: William Yen

Taipei, Nov. 23 (CNA) Taiwanese director Chung Mong-hong's (鍾孟宏) family drama "A Sun" (陽光普照) and Taiwanese director John Hsu's (徐漢強) psychological horror film "Detention" were the biggest winners at the 56th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei Saturday.

"A Sun," which entered the competition with 10 nominations, came away with best feature film, best director, best leading actor, best supporting male actor, best film editing, and the audience choice award at the ceremony held at Taipei's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall that day.

The nearly three-hour feature is about a family of four, in which the father, A-Wen, is a driving instructor, the mother, Qin, is a hairdresser, and the elder son, A-Hao, is a high school senior preparing for his medical school entrance exam.

The film focuses on the problems of the younger son, A-Ho, who has been "different" since he was a child.    [FULL  STORY]

‘ESPIONAGE ACTIVITIES’: Wang Liqiang said he posed as a South Korean to interfere in the elections and helped funnel about US$2.8 million to Han Kuo-yu’s campaign

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 24, 2019
By: AP, PERTH, Australia

A self-confessed Chinese spy has given Australia’s counterespionage agency inside intelligence on

how Beijing conducts its interference operations abroad and revealed the identities of China’s senior military intelligence officers in Hong Kong, media reported.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg yesterday told reporters that the detailed accusations of China infiltrating and disrupting democratic systems in Taiwan, Australia and Hong Kong are “very disturbing.”

The Nine network newspapers reported that Chinese defector Wang Liqiang told the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization (ASIO) that he was involved in the kidnapping in 2015 of one of five Hong Kong booksellers suspected of selling dissident materials.

The incident has been a reference point for protesters during the unrest in Hong Kong.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 22 November, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

Cotton: Not a diet food[/caption] When looking for information online, it’s best to treat whatever you find with a healthy dose of skepticism. That’s what one young woman in Taiwan has learned after following a dangerous bit of diet advice she picked up on the internet.

The so-called “cotton ball diet” is the dangerous practice of eating cotton with the belief that it will help with weight loss. As a 16-year-old in Taiwan found out to hard way, eating cotton can have serious consequences.

This young woman slowly ate a cotton blanket over the course of a year until she began to vomit and feel pain in her stomach. Doctors found that she had given herself an intestinal obstruction.

She was lucky that she didn’t suffer worse: doctors say that cotton products aren’t usually made just from pure cotton. They also tend to include synthetic fibers and plastics, and doctors say there is a chance that if eaten, these materials can punch a hole in the intestines.    [FULL  STORY]

2019 marked a new height of U.S.-Taiwan relations. Here's a review of what has been accomplished this year between the two countries.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/11/22
By: Sumit Kumar

Photo Credit: Shutterstoc

With the aim of enhancing ties with Taiwan to another height, the U.S. Senate has unanimously passed the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative Act in October 2019. This bill will enable the U.S. State Department to consider “reducing its economic, security, and diplomatic engagements with nations that take serious or significant actions to undermine Taiwan.”

Shortly after the bill's passage, the United States and Taiwan held the first-ever joint exercise to boost Taipei’s capabilities to effectively foil cyberattacks from China.

These two developments are transformative: first, unlike in the past, there is an increasing realization in the U.S. administration of the need to extend full support to Taiwan in resolving conflicts with China; second, other countries have also begun to support Taiwan’s independent existence.

But these are not insolated developments toward building a strong relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan. In the last 40 years, successive American administrations have taken liberated efforts in this regard. However, the recent bilateral engagement highlighted the priority that the Trump administration has attached to the relationship with Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

NIA is preparing to send 82-year-old Hori back to Japan

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The National Immigration Agency (NIA) is preparing to send a man home to Japan who overstayed his visa by 36 years while living in the Hualien County countryside.

The 82-year-old, surnamed Hori (堀), had been living in a modest dwelling up on a hill in Fuli, in the far south of Hualien County, the Central News Agency reported.

His presence came to light after a resident reported an elderly man had been living in poverty, and local police visited him. They found he had entered Taiwan in 1983 on a tourist visa and had never left or applied for a residency permit.

As he could not speak Chinese, Hori reportedly explained in broken English how he had launched a mining venture which went wrong, and stayed in Taiwan doing odd jobs afterward.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/22 23:29:21
By: Flor Wang, Elaine Hou, Lu Tai-cheng

Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) The government will pay NT$2.55 billion (US$83.6 million) to Orchid Island

residents to compensate them for infringing on their rights by maintaining a nuclear waste storage facility there over the past five decades, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced Friday.

Tsai announced the compensation at a news conference in Taitung and hailed the move as reflecting the goal of the current government to pursue transitional justice for indigenous tribes based on fact-finding efforts.

"Evidence we collected showed that the then-government decided to build a nuke waste storage in reserved lands for the Yami people on Orchid Island without their previous knowledge or agreement," Tsai said.

She described the payment as a step toward compensating Orchid Island and its people, but said there was still a lot to do to "correct our past errors."    [FULL  STORY]

COMMON THREAT: Brent Christensen said the US and Taiwan both face challenges from disinformation campaigns and have been working to combat misinformation

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 23, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is concerned about possible Chinese interference in Taiwan’s

elections through disinformation campaigns, AIT Director Brent Christensen said yesterday in Taipei, but added that the US’ de facto embassy enjoys good relations with the major local parties.

Christensen made the remarks in response to media queries at a news conference at the institute’s offices in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), where he delivered a speech on enhancing people-to-people ties between the US and Taiwan.

The speech was the last of his “four promotes” — promoting US-Taiwan security cooperation; bilateral economic and commercial relations; Taiwan’s role in the global community; and people-to-people ties — that he set as priorities when he assumed the post in August last year.

Asked if the US would send more warships through the Taiwan Strait to help ensure that the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections are fair, Christensen said that the US remains firm in its belief in the freedoms of navigation and flight as allowed by international law.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: November 21, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier  

A suspect who was cornered after a police chase was found dead in his vehicle after shots were exchanged in Keelung City this morning, November 21.

According to reports in Liberty Times and United Daily News, police from Jiaoxi Township, Yilan County proceeded to Keelung City after being informed of the location of a man named Chen, who was wanted on suspicion of drug trafficking and intimidation.

At around 11:00am, plain clothes officers driving an unmarked vehicle went to make an arrest, but the suspect named Chen ran and jumped into a car in an attempt to escape.

Police shot at the car, and according to the reports, both sides fired at each other with a total of more than 10 shots fired.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 21 November, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Election fever has hit Taiwan and is affecting people’s work and mental health. This episode looks at this phenomenon. Also, we take a closer look at the growing number of Southeast Asian immigrants and how they’re changing Taiwan.  

Plus:

– A popular skywalk that offers incredible views
– Guess what top artist made waves this week, on Who in Taiwan!

– Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation’s Michael Hsiao talks about Taiwan’s immigrants

– The entertaining memes of Premier Su Tseng-chang     [FULL  STORY]