German officials re-affirm ‘One China policy' but say government open to cultural, economic partnerships with Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/19
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The German Bundestag said Tuesday (Nov. 19) that public hearings for the petition calling on the German government to establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan will be held on Dec. 9 but that the country is unlikely to modify its policies towards the island nation.

In September, the petition, titled "Foreign Policy – Establishment of Diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan)," was made public for people to add their signatures. The petition accumulated more than 53,000 signatures in less than a month, obliging the German Bundestag to discuss the proposed diplomatic partnership.

Michael Kreuzberg, the German citizen who started the petition, met with Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉), Taiwan's representative to Germany, in November and said that he despises communism and anything that undermines human rights. Kreuzberg told Shieh that he wanted people in Germany to understand Taiwan and see how inhumane the Chinese government is towards its opposition.

Christofer Burger, spokesperson for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a press conference that the country has insisted on the "one China policy" since becoming diplomatic allies with China in 1972. Burger re-affirmed that Germany will not change its relationship with Taiwan, according to CNA,    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/19
By: Gu Chuan and Emerson Lim

Taipei, Nov. 19 (CNA) The Control Yuan on Tuesday approved a measure requiring the Executive

Yuan, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) and Ministry of Labor to take steps to correct flaws that have resulted in nearly 500 babies born to migrant workers since 2007 being undocumented.

A total of 496 unregistered children born to migrant workers were reported to the NIA between January 2007 and June 2019, Control Yuan member Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲) said in a press conference.

The number accounts for more than 5 percent of the 9,381 babies born in Taiwan to foreign parents in the same period, she said, adding that the real situation could be far more serious, considering that some pregnant migrants give birth outside hospital, so that the government does not know about it.

"It is difficult to get an accurate number," Wang said.    [FULL  STORY]

MORE TRANSPARENCY:‘ HeyFans’ software uses big data to classify user accounts as “fans” or “haters,” making the decision to follow or block them easier

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 20, 2019
By: Jake Chung  /  Staff writer, with CNA

Two software programs designed and written by Chung Yuan Christian University students to combat

the spread of fake news have won InnoServe Awards.

Students in the department of information management developed the program as a senior project, professor Chin Chih-yu (金志聿) said.

One project titled “Keyboard Moderator” was a collaboration between students and renowned big data companies, and implemented on Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the largest electronic bulletin board system in Taiwan, Chin said.

The project designed a Web crawler to trawl through messages posted on PTT boards and compare them with a language and behavioral analyses database, Chin said.

Press TV
Date: 18 November 2019

China has, during high-level talks, warned the United States to stop “flexing its muscles” in the

disputed South China Sea and fueling tensions over self-ruled Taiwan, two main sources of friction between the two powers.

Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe made the remarks on Monday during closed-door talks with US Defense Secretary Mark Esper on the sidelines of a gathering of defense ministers in the Thai capital, Bangkok, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian.

Wu said the minister urged Washington to “stop flexing muscles in the South China Sea and to not provoke and escalate tensions in the South China Sea.”

“We (call on) the US side to stop intervening in the South China Sea and stop military provocation in the South China Sea,” the minister was quoted as saying.

The US has stepped up its military presence in the South China Sea — mostly claimed by Beijing — under the pretext of freedom of navigation operations in international waters.   [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: November 19, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier

The Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs was urged to speed up tightening regulations on the sale of nitrous oxide today, after a recent fatality related to its use as a recreational drug brought the issue to public attention.

New Power Party legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), speaking to the Economics Committee of the Legislative Yuan urged the Industrial Development Bureau to not be idle on the task after fatality in Taoyuan City on November 11 was revealed to be the third case of death related to laughing gas in the city in the last six months.

At around noon, November 11, staff at a Taoyuan City motel located on Nanping Road entered a room after the occupants failed to check out on time, and did not respond to calls. Inside the room, the staff found two naked people unconscious.

A 17-year-old girl named Sheng (盛 ) was sitting at the end of the bed with her head propped in her hands, facing the ceiling with a look of tortured laughter on her face. Sheng was found to have died some time ago, being in a state of rigor mortis, while a 20-year-old man named Xiong (熊 ), also naked, was laying on the bed unconscious, but breathing.    [FULL  STORY]

A raid last week rescued 11 Vietnamese women who were 'threatened or seduced' into a life of prostitution

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/18
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Eighteen people were arrested, including five members of the same family, as part of a prostitution crime ring in northern Taiwan, UDN reported on Monday (Nov. 18).

The Criminal Investigation Bureau made the raid last week. Officers rescued 11 Vietnamese women who were “threatened or seduced” to come to Taiwan for the purposes of prostitution, the report said.

The bureau was assisted by the police and National Immigration Agency (NIA). The prostitutes worked in the greater Taipei area and were sold "young and at a low price," according to the report.

The ring was allegedly run by a 58-year-old man, surnamed Chen, who worked with a Vietnamese woman nicknamed “Chili,” the holder of an ROC ID card.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/18
By: Emerson Lim and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and his running

mate Chang San-cheng (張善政) on Monday registered at the Central Election Commission (CEC) for the January 2020 election.

After completing the registration process around 11:30 a.m., Han told reporters at the CEC he would like to see a clean election campaign that would highlight the level of democracy in Taiwan.

"Former Premier Chang and I want to fight a clean, civil, healthy, and beautiful presidential campaign," said Han, who was elected mayor of Kaohsiung in November 2018.

Han, 62, has been complaining of mudslinging by other political parties since he declared his presidential bid in June.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 19, 2019
By:. Lu Yi-hsuan and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Germany and Taiwan should conduct military exchanges, which would be more meaningful than

exchanges with China, German lawmaker Ulrich Lechte, a member of the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs, said on Sunday.

“The free world should stand together,” the Free Democratic Party lawmaker wrote on Facebook.

The Taipei Representative Office in Germany’s Munich office shared Lechte’s post on its Facebook page, and thanked him for his continuing support of Taiwan.

The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported that 62 nations, including China, are to receive training from the Bundeswehr, Germany’s military.    [FULL  STORY]

AIRBORNE: To prevent the spread of the disease, China has implemented quarantine protocols and warned the public not to visit certain areas and to avoid rodents

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 18, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a warning after three cases of the plague have

been confirmed in China this year.

The CDC issued the warning on Saturday afternoon, saying that according to data published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing confirmed that a married couple living in Inner Mongolia had contracted the plague.

The husband began to experience fever and had difficulty breathing beginning in late October. His wife subsequently developed similar symptoms.

Both sought treatment at a local healthcare facility and were transferred to Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital on Nov. 3, with one of them in critical condition.    [FULL  STORY]

RTHK
Date: 2019-11-18

Taipei has accused China of intimidation ahead of upcoming elections by sailing an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.

The still-unnamed carrier is the first to be domestically produced by China, and has yet to be fully fitted out. It was accompanied by a group of support vessels.

Taipei's foreign minister Joseph Wu tweeted that Beijing "intends to intervene in #Taiwan's elections", adding: "Voters won't be intimidated!"

The defence ministry said it scrambled fighter jets and dispatched ships to monitor the carrier, which had been trailed through the straight by US and Japanese ships. .    [FULL  STORY]