Anomalous aircraft recorded in Bashi channel on Tuesday morning

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/27
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Screen grab from Plane Finder

The website Plane Finder records a very brief 15 minute blip of a flight identified as PFA9371 in the Bashi Channel which appeared at 8:03 a.m. Tuesday morning. The flight appeared to be on a westward trajectory towards southern China before it turned around and flew back out towards the Pacific Ocean. The aircraft was flying at almost 9,300 meters above sea level and 711 kilometers per hour.

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) transponder data recorded the flight code 7270C2 for the aircraft. Although the Plane Finder site currently logs no flight information for the mystery plane, on Tuesday morning it displayed the PFA9731 as a plane registered in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Liberty Times reports that the transponder “squawk” code emitted by the aircraft was 1400, which is typically used by U.S. and NATO aircraft. Curiously, late last week, the same squawk code was used by U.S. anti-submarine aircraft reportedly traveling with the USS Green Bay amphibious transport ship, which traversed the Taiwan Strait from South to North on Aug. 23, according to Liberty Times.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/27
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) An aide to tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) would not confirm a report saying Gou

Terry Gou / CNA file photo

Gou, the founder and former chairman of iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, has been mulling an independent run for president since losing the Kuomintang (KMT) presidential primary in mid-July to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).

Speculation surrounding his candidacy has picked up recently as Gou has tried to ally himself with independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and former Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to launch a third force in the 2020 race against Taiwan's two major parties, the KMT and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Gou aide Tsai Chin-yu (蔡沁瑜) confirmed Tuesday Gou is seriously considering a run for president and said he will announce his decision before Sept. 17, the deadline for registration as a presidential candidate.    [FULL  STORY]

DEMOCRACY: At a news conference in Taipei, foreign ministry spokeswoman reaffirmed Taiwan’s support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 28, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The government supports Hong Kong protesters in their pursuit of democracy and freedom, but

Reporters ask Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam questions at a news conference in Hong Kong yesterday.
Photo: Reuters

At a regular news conference in Taipei, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) reaffirmed the nation’s support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

She had been asked about a joint declaration on Monday by G7 leaders at the end of their summit in Biarritz, France, in which they reaffirmed the existence and importance of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong signed in 1984 and called for violence to be avoided.

Taiwan is concerned about developments in Hong Kong and supports its people in pursuing democracy and freedom, but it would not intervene, Ou said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 26 August, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Taiwan and the United States have launched a talent exchange program to train professionals who

AIT deputy director Raymond Greene

The program is called the “Talent Circulation Alliance,” and is jointly sponsored by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and several government agencies. The AIT is the de facto US embassy in the absence of official diplomatic relations.

At the launch ceremony on Monday, AIT deputy director Raymond Greene said the program aims to create an environment for professionals that enables them to replicate the success of their predecessors.
[FULL  STORY]

In both the U.K. and Taiwan, a third force is disrupting the longtime two-party political balance.

The News Lens
Date: 02019/08/26
By: David Evans

As a Brit living in Taiwan, I find myself wrestling two of the world’s biggest political dilemmas.

While Taiwan struggles with its relations with the massive anti-democratic superpower just across the water, which is seeking to undermine its national sovereignty altogether, the United Kingdom is doing much the same thing.

I’ll put my cards on the table first: I support Taiwan’s right to democracy, self-determination, and reject Communist China’s flawed sovereignty claims over Taiwan. I also support the U.K.’s democratic decision to leave the undemocratic European Union and to return sovereign powers to the British Parliament in Westminster before the EU’s underlying federalist agenda swallows up European national identities once and for all.

Despite respectively being the world’s oldest democracy and one of its youngest, both U.K. and Taiwan are facing remarkably similar electoral dilemmas. Both have newly created political parties that appear likely to rock the traditional political status quo – for better or worse.    [FULL  STORY]

Designs reportedly doctored images from stock photography platform

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/26
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Controversial leopard cat design (TRA Facebook photo)

A project jointly sponsored by the Tourism Bureau and Taiwan Railways Administration has embellished trains running the Jiji Line (集集線) between Changhua and Nantou counties with a yellow leopard cat theme. The design, however, has been blasted for looking more like the leopard than the leopard cat, reported the Central News Agency.

Chiang Meng-chih (江孟芝), the Taiwanese designer behind the project, has also been criticized for allegedly plagiarizing a Russian artist's illustrations of leopards. Chiang later admitted the image was bought from stock photography provider Shutterstock but denied allegations that she was a copycat, wrote the China Times.

In response, a new team was enlisted to overhaul the leopard cat visuals with the assistance of experts from the Endemic Species Research Institute, said Chou Yung-hui (周永暉), director-general of Tourism Bureau. The new design will be released in the coming days.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/26
By: Phoenix Hsu, Ku Chuan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Monday that one of its offices in the United States has contacted police in Alabama about the search for a missing Taiwanese student there and has asked expat Taiwanese groups to provide any information that might be helpful to the process.

Auburn police on Aug. 21 said that Lai Chih-kai (賴智凱), a 21-year-old from Taiwan's National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) who was attending Auburn University as an exchange student, had been reported missing earlier in the week, according to an Alabama news site al.com.

(Image from news.auburnalabama.org)

The following day, police released more details about Lai's disappearance, saying he had been reported missing on Aug. 19 by the Auburn Taiwanese Student Association after he failed to show up for class.

Lai, who is studying computer science at NTUT, arrived in the United States from Taiwan on July 24 and last contacted his family on Aug. 17, according to the al.com report.    [FULL  STORY]

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW: The US defense secretary said the Trump administration was not the first to sell F-16s to Taiwan, adding that he expected US arms sales to continue

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 27, 2019
By: Chen Yu-fu, Lu Yi-hsuan and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer and CNA

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday thanked the US for boosting Taiwan’s self-defense

Premier Su Tseng-chang speaks to the media at the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times

The purchase of F-16V jets is a “huge breakthrough” and crucial to Taiwan’s self-defense, Su said.

“Everyone knows that only by showing our strong determination to defend ourselves can sovereignty and security be maintained,” he said, adding that the deal has received support from Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, as well as the legislative caucuses of the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition parties.

According to a transcript by the Chicago-based RealClearPolitics of Wednesday’s interview, Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin asked Esper: “The F-16 sales to Taiwan have angered China. Isn’t that provocative on the US’ part and will there be more arms sales to Taiwan?”
[FULL  STORY]