CCP’s puppet government in Hong Kong determined to undermine rule of law to hand more control to Beijing

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/06/14
By: David Spencer, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

KAOHSIUNG (Taiwan News) — There were stirring scenes in Hong Kong on Sunday as the people of the proud City-state took to the streets to oppose the systematic erosion of their rights by Communist China.

It is estimated that well over a million people took part in protests against a new law proposed by the Beijing-controlled legislature that would permit extradition of criminal suspects to China, despite that country’s deeply flawed and unjust judicial system.

To put the numbers in context, a million people would represent more than one in eight people in Hong Kong and would make it the largest single protest in Hong Kong since a similar number took to the streets thirty years ago to protest the CCP’s massacre of democracy activists in Tiananmen Square. It is nearly twice as many as are estimated to have taken part in the Umbrella Revolution back in 2014.

This serves to illustrate all too clearly the strength of feeling among the people against the growing Chinese incursion into Hong Kong affairs and the direction that the so-called ‘one country, two systems’ model is moving.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/06/14
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, June 14 (CNA) An association comprising major stakeholders in Taiwan's offshore wind energy development was set up Thursday to facilitate the long-term development of the industry.

The Taiwan Offshore Wind Industry Association, initiated by global semiconductor trade association SEMI, consists of both Taiwanese and foreign companies involved in the field in Taiwan. The foreign members include Swancor, Ørsted, Northland Power, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), wpd offshore solutions, Macquarie Group, and the Japanese utility JERA.

SEMI Chief Marketing Officer Terry Tsao (曹世綸) said it is hoped that the association can represent the joint interests of offshore wind energy providers in Taiwan, as well as serve as a communications platform for the government, industry, academia and the public.

Also attending the inauguration ceremony was Minister without Portfolio Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫), who said the development of offshore wind power, which has set a goal of reaching 5.5 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity by 2025, could boost economic growth in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

COUNTERMEASURES: Specialists leveled and buried affected crops at several farms in the county and set up pheromone traps to prevent the infestation from growing

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 15, 20190
By:: Wang Chun-chi  /  Staff reporter

With Hualien County yesterday becoming the latest area to be affected by fall armyworms that have been

wreaking havoc on the nation’s farms, Kaohsiung as well as Nantou and Pingtung counties were the only areas still free of the pest, the Council of Agriculture said.

Thirty-nine fall armyworm sightings have been reported nationwide since Thursday, when the council asked local governments to check for the pest, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said.

The moths likely flew across the Taiwan Strait from China, propelled by a southwesterly airstream, as their spread seemed sporadic rather than originating from a single location, he said.

As of press time last night, Kaohsiung, Nantou and Pingtung remained the only areas that had not been affected, council data showed.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan tanker chartered by CPC Corp sinks after being 'hit by torpedo' in Gulf of Oman

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/06/13
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An oil tanker chartered by Taiwan’s state oil refiner CPC Corp has reportedly sunk after being "hit by a torpedo" around noon today (June 13), according to a senior company official.

Wu I-Fang, CPC’s petrochemical business division CEO, told Reuters that the 800-foot oil tanker Front Altair laden with 75,000 tonnes of naptha, a flammable liquid hydrocarbon, when it was "suspected of being hit by a torpedo," at around noon today Taiwan time. There are unverified reports that it was hit by a mine.

The ship was bound for Taiwan from Qatar when it was struck about 25 miles from Jask, Iran, reports Reuters. A fire ensued and the order was given to abandon ship.

The owner of the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, Norway's Frontline shipping said the vessel had been "attacked," which led to three explosions onboard. Wu said that the vessel has since sunk, but its crew has been rescued.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 13 June, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Foreign Minister Joseph Wu says Taiwan will stand firm with Hong Kongers as they protest against a bill that

would allow extraditions to China.

Over a million Hong Kongers took to the streets Sunday to protest the highly controversial bill. The extradition bill would allow for the transfer of Hong Kong suspects to China, and critics say this means Hong Kongers could face arbitrary detention, unfair trials, and forced confessions.

In a tweet Wednesday, the foreign minister said he stands “shoulder to shoulder with the hundreds of thousands in Hong Kong fighting the extradition bill and for rule of law”. Wu also tweeted that “the will of the people will prevail.”

The bill would also allow Hong Kongers to be extradited to Taiwan. However, on Thursday, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan will not be an accomplice to the “ill-intentioned bill.”    [FULL  STORY]

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

Taiwan Customs Administration has already removed Canada and the USA from the list of countries with a low risk of drug trafficking, after a passenger arriving on a flight from Los Angeles was found with two suitcases full of cannabis earlier this month.

A Taiwanese citizen named Guo (郭) was intercepted at Taipei Taoyuan airport at 5:00am on June 1, and found to have 37 kilograms of cannabis heads packed in 66 bags in two checked-in suitcases. There had been no attempt to cover-up or hide the haul, and not and inch space was wasted.

Customs officials and police did not release details of the bust until today.

According to reports, police were tipped off around a month ago that a man named Guo was planning to transport cannabis from the USA to Taiwan, and began an investigation.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/06/13
By: Stacy Hsu

Taipei, June 13 (CNA) Former Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) urged members and supporters of the ruling

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Thursday to throw their support behind President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) after his defeat in the party's presidential primary.

Speaking to reporters in Tainan after learning of the result of the DPP's primary polls, which were released earlier that day, Lai apologized to his supporters for failing to be the one to lead the DPP to fight the upcoming election.

"But history will remember that when Taiwan is facing grave challenges and when the DPP is at its most difficult moment, we did not back down and instead courageously shouldered the burden," Lai said.

The primary not only represented a new page in Taiwan's democratic history, but has also boosted the DPP's morale, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘HISTORIC DESTINY’: The next step is to forge party unity, the party’s chairman said, while Tsai in a telephone call with Lai said that ‘one plus one is greater than two’

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 14, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday became the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential

primary, after she defeated former premier William Lai (賴清德) by 8.2 percentage points in public opinion polls.

Of the respondents in five separate three-way polls, 35.67 percent supported Tsai, while 27.48 percent chose Lai, DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told a news conference at party headquarters in Taipei.

Tsai garnered higher support when pitted against independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who received 22.7 percent, and Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who received 24.51 percent, the poll showed.

Lai also came out slightly ahead against Ko and Han, who received 27.38 percent and 23.47 percent respectively, Cho said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 12 June, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

Floodwaters in Kaohsiung Tuesday[/caption] A passing front has brought heavy rain and flooding to the southern city of Kaohsiung. Meteorologists say even more rain may be on the way.

A Tuesday morning downpour clogged storm drains in parts of Kaohsiung, and the spillover left some roads underwater.

The road running past the entrance of the city’s Shu-Te University was left impassable. Scooter riders had no choice but to get off their scooters and slosh their way forward through the floodwaters.

In wasn’t just the roads, either: rising waters seeped into the ground floor of at least one building in the city’s Gangshan District, eventually reaching ankle height.   
FULL  STORY]

As Hong Kong Students held a sit-in solidarity with their compatriots Taiwan's Digital Minister laid the blame for the unrest where it belongs: With the PRC

The News Lens
Datwe: 2019/06/12
By: Cat Thomas

NGOs and democracy rights activists held a press conference outside the Hong Kong Cultural and Economic Affairs office in Taipei on Wednesday morning to speak out against the planned amendments to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow China to apply to extradite Hong Kong citizens to the PRC mainland. Subsequently a sit-in was held outside the office attended mainly by Hong Kong students in Taiwan, that continued until the early evening.

The second reading of the bill was scheduled to be held this afternoon, with a vote to made on June 20th. Despite 1 in 7 Hong Kong citizens expressing their opposition to the planned changes at protests on Sunday – where organizers estimated just over a million in attendance – the government remained adamant it would pass the law with the second reading set for today's session in the LegCo (Legislative Council). The government stance is that the amendments close a loophole that allows fugitives to find harbor in Hong Kong. Opponents counter that the amendments will open the door to political suppression from the mainland as case-by-case extradition requests will be conducted without proper legislative oversight and once extradited the person would be at the mercy of China's opaque judicial system.

Local TV cameras and press dominated the front lines at the press conference as speakers, including Hong Kong Bookseller Wing-kei Lam (林榮基) expressed their support for protesters in Hong Kong and warned of the dangers the amendments posed to not only Hong Kongers, but anyone passing through the area. Meanwhile general attendees who had arrived for the planned sit-in hovered around the edges.

Shirley, who originally moved to Taiwan as an expat and is now living here permanently said "I'm here today because I am simply from Hong Kong and I really feel for everyone there. My girlfriend told me there is an online petition to show that we are opposing this bill being passed by the LegCo in Hong Kong. So I'm going to also go on line and sign that. I can't do much from afar, but at least we have to let them hear our voice.”
[FULL  STORY]