Taiwan English News
Date: July 13, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier

A man was arrested today, just 5 hours after a woman was stabbed to death in the parking lot of the Jinlong fruit and vegetable market in Kaohsiung City this morning, July 13.

A woman named Wang (王), 46, accompanied by her 20-year-old daughter, had just arrived at the market at around 8:10am, when her daughter’s boyfriend, a 21-year-old man named Han (韓), approached them and requested Wang’s daughter to leave with him.

Ms Wang refused to let her daughter leave, and Han pulled out a fruit knife.

Traffic monitor video footage showed Wang attempting to run away from the man before being stabbed in the left lower jaw and neck.    [FULL  STORY]

The 14 illegal aliens will be repatriated

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/14
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Fourteen Vietnamese on a Taiwanese fishing boat trying to enter Taiwan illegally were intercepted by the country’s Coast Guard off the coast of the southwestern city of Tainan in the early hours of Saturday (July 13), Central News Agency (CNA) reported on Sunday.

The Coast Guard’s Pingtung Fleet Branch said that it obtained a tip a few days ago when it was working on an organized crime case that a human trafficking group in southern Taiwan would take advantage of the summer vacation, when the Coast Guard would be busy with maritime search and rescue operations, to smuggle Vietnamese to Taiwan to work illegally, CNA reported.

The Pingtung Fleet Branch reported the tip to the Pingtung District Prosecutors Office, and a task force consisting of the Coast Guard and Kaohsiung City Police Department’s Gangshan Precinct was formed to investigate the tip, according to the news outlet.

At 3:15 a.m. on Saturday, a vessel dispatched by the Coast Guard intercepted a suspicious fishing boat off the coast of Qiu Mao Park (秋茂園), a former coastal attraction in Tainan City, and found 14 smuggled Vietnamese consisting of eight men and six women, as well as three Taiwanese human traffickers on the boat, CNA reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/14
By: Joseph Yeh

Basseterre, July 13 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has arrived in Taiwan's diplomatic ally of St. Kitts and Nevis, the second stop of her 12-day visit to the United States and four Caribbean allies, following a half-day visit to Haiti earlier in the day.

Tsai was warmly received by Prime Minister Timothy Harris and Taiwanese compatriots in the country who were holding Republic of China (Taiwan) national flags at RLB International Airport in the capital Basseterre to welcome Tsai upon her arrival at around 10 p.m. Saturday.

President Tsai is scheduled to visit Nevis on Sunday, which will make her the first sitting Republic of China (Taiwan) president to visit the island.

Nevis and the neighboring island of St. Kitts constitute the ally officially named the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.   [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 15, 2019
By: Yang Chun-hui and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, in NEW YORK, with staff writer and CNA

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) held closed-door meetings and spoke with US officials, including

having a teleconference with US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during her layover in New York, National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said.

Tsai Ming-yen made the remarks on the president’s chartered flight as the delegation left the US for Haiti on Saturday.

Tsai Ing-wen met American Institute in Taiwan Chairman James Moriarty soon after her arrival in the city on Thursday afternoon, and the following day met former US secretary of state Richard Armitage, before speaking with Pelosi on the telephone, he said.

The president expressed gratitude for the US’ and Pelosi’s support of Taiwan, including the US House of Representatives’ passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 on Friday, which includes a section supporting continued US arms sales to Taiwan, Tsai Ming-yen said.    [FULL  STORY]

STATISTICAL CAUTION: Strandings might be reported more due to an increased focus on conservation, so long-term observations are needed to prove a trend

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 14, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Dissections of turtles found stranded ashore showed that more than half had consumed plastic and

other waste produced by humans, while most were found on the coasts of southern and eastern Taiwan, the Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA) said in a report on Friday.

Established in April last year as part of the Ocean Affairs Council, the OCA in April released the first of its quarterly reports on strandings of cetaceans and sea turtles.

Mass strandings of cetaceans have been reported around the globe this year, the agency said, citing reports that more than 260 dolphins have beached along the northern Gulf of Mexico since February.

In the second quarter, the agency received reports of 71 stranded turtles — 24 more than the average reported in the same period for the previous three years, the report showed.
[FULL  STORY]

It may seem a triviality but few things make Beijing bristle like lending legitimacy to the Taiwanese government

National Post
Date: July 12, 2019
By: John Ivison

Canada doesn’t have much leverage when it comes to the release of Canadian citizens detained in

China, but one way of influencing Beijing may be lending diplomatic support to Taiwan.

Since Canada recognized the People’s Republic of China nearly 50 years ago, it has had no official relationship with Taiwan due to the “one China” policy. Officially, Canada “takes note” of China’s claim to Taiwan without endorsing or challenging it.

But strains in the relationship with Xi Jinping’s regime over the arbitrary detention of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have led to calls for a relaxation of the one China policy.

An opportunity to do that has presented itself at the triennial assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, being held at its Montreal headquarters at the end of September.    [FULL  STORY]

Populism will be the downfall of democratic institutions in Taiwan.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/07/13
By: Hiro Fu

Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) hit the streets this week to appeal to the common folk, a demographic he desperately needs before the Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate is announced on Monday, July 15.

From running the company that manufactures iPhone chips to becoming the richest man in Taiwan, Gou seemed unlikely to shake the attitude of elitism that followed his corporate success. But he used his bourgeois status to his advantage while shaking hands and listening to pleas of street vendors and residents.

He acted like the reversal prodigal son: the boy who left his simple life to build a tech empire and returned home a business mogul to become champion of his people. His visits were received with much fanfare.

A populist approach to a presidential race is not uncommon today. The United States had Donald Trump. The Philippines had Rodrigo Duterte. France had Marine Le Pen. Populism is now a pandemic.    [FULL  STORY]

MOFA has protested and is demanding Fiji reverse its decision

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/13
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Saturday (July 13) it had protested to the Pacific island nation of Fiji as Chinese pressure had forced it to change the name of the Taiwanese office.

The office would have to replace the name “Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji” with Taipei Trade Office in Fiji, the Liberty Times reported.

The two countries had maintained close if unofficial relations since 1971, with cooperation in fields like healthcare, fisheries and agriculture, yet China had used its growing financial clout to bully Fiji into demanding the name change, according to the report.

MOFA said it had protested, but was also continuing efforts to persuade Fiji to reverse its decision.
[FULL  STORY]

Fiocus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/13
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, July 13 (CNA) A brutal killing of a kitten in Chiayi City in southern Taiwan has raised a public outcry, with a local NGO urging members of the public to help catch the killer.

The body of a kitten was discarded in front of the Family Education Center in broad daylight on July 11 with all of its legs amputated, ears cut and brain tissue removed, according to the Animal Protection Association of Chiayi City.

According to a veterinarian, the cat's mutilation could only have been done by a human being, association chairman Wu Yu-tsai (吳育才) told CNA on Saturday.

"The killing and the way the body was left appears to be a provocation," Wu said, adding that the association is asking people who were in the area in the eastern part of the city between 8 a.m.- 9 a.m. on July 11 to contact them if they saw anything suspicious.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 12 July, 2019
By: Paula Chao

President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan will continue strengthening ties with the United States. Tsai made the statement Thursday during a stopover in New York.

The president is leading a delegation to visit four of Taiwan’s allies in the Caribbean. She is scheduled to stop in New York for two nights.

Tsai said Taiwan will work hard to boost interaction and exchanges with Washington. She said that there has been some progress in these areas in recent years.

Tsai said that although Taiwan is not a big country, it is an irreplaceable part of the international community, making contributions in the areas of humanitarian assistance, medical care, and epidemic prevention.    [FULL  STORY]