Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/05
By: Huang Li-yun and Emerson Lim

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) Two people who shared a photograph said to be of earthquake damage to a road in Taipei City are facing charges for “causing public panic,” the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Sunday.

The CIB identified the two as a woman surnamed Lai (賴) and a man with the last name Wang (王). Both have been questioned by police for posting a photo with a caption claiming “massive cracks appear on Songren Road in Taipei City” on social media April 18 after a magnitude 6.1 quake hit eastern Taiwan.

The “cracks” were later confirmed by Taipei city engineers to be asphalt fillers applied to the road during previous maintenance work, but the post had already caused panic among netizens, the police said.

A taskforce created by CIB’s Electronic Surveillance Division to determine the source of the photograph first identified Lai as one of the sources of the “fake news.”
[FULL  STORY]

SHIFTING STRATEGIES: The exercise included simulated terrorist and chemical agent attacks, a maritime hostage situation and large rescue operation

Taipei Times
Date: May 05, 2019
By: Wang Hsuan-ching and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday asserted her determination to safeguard the

nation’s sovereignty as she toured a military field exercise at a coast guard base at New Taipei City’s Port of Taipei.

The joint Jin Hua and Hai An Field Exercise No. 10 simulated scenarios such as a terrorist attack; an incident involving a nuclear, biological or chemical agent; maritime hostage-taking; and a large-scale rescue operation.

“The international situation is undergoing significant changes that pose great challenges to existing counterterrorism and national defense paradigms,” Tsai said in a speech before the exercise began.

“Security strategy must account for terrorist attacks; attacks utilizing nuclear, chemical or biological agents; and attacks on critical infrastructure that are the emergent security threats of the modern age,” she added.    [FULL  STORY]

Xi Jinping’s speech marking the May Fourth Movement has been strongly criticized for its fallacious assertions

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/04
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A recent speech by Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) to mark

the centennial of the May Fourth student movement has drawn a strong backlash both internationally and from Taiwanese history experts for being an outrageously erroneous interpretation of the spirit of the movement.

The student movement took place on May 4, 1919, in Beijing, where students and intellectuals from 13 colleges stood up for a patriotic protest against the decision of the Versailles Peace Conference. This was against the backdrop of imperialistic expansion from Japan and western countries.

The event inspired a movement that explored individualism, pragmatism, and democracy, and, to some extent, gave birth to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

CNN reported that Xi hailed the event as a “great patriotic revolutionary movement,” intentionally ignoring the core values of the intellectual and sociopolitical reform movement. His speech also made the world’s intellectuals cringe as China today is known for its intolerance and quashing of open dissent.    [FULL  STORY]

China’s Military Can’t Conquer Taiwan Just Yet: Pentagon Report
Beijing does, however, have options for attacking Taiwan that do not involve a full-scale blockade or invasion. “The PLA is capable of accomplishing various amphibious operations short of a full-scale invasion of Taiwan,” the American report explains.

The National Interest
Date: May 4, 2019
By: David Axe
The Chinese military still lacks the ability decisively to conquer Taiwan by way of a full-scale amphibious invasion, according to the 2019 edition of the U.S. Defense Department’s annual report on Chinese military developments.

“An attempt to invade Taiwan would likely strain China’s armed forces and invite international intervention,” the report concludes.

But the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s amphibious capabilities steadily have improved in recent years. It might not be long before Beijing’s forces safely can conduct a major assault across the Taiwan Strait.

“The PLAN is the region’s largest navy, with more than 300 surface combatants, submarines, amphibious ships, patrol craft and specialized types,” the report explains. “It is also an increasingly modern and flexible force. The PLAN is rapidly replacing obsolescent, generally single-purpose platforms in favor of larger, multi-role combatants featuring advanced anti-ship, anti-air and anti-submarine weapons and sensors.”

The Chinese navy’s amphibious fleet has grown and modernized. “China’s investments in its amphibious ship force signal its intent to develop expeditionary warfare capabilities,” according to the American report.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: May 4, 2019
By: Phillip Charlier
In response to a spate of street brawls, and in order to prevent interference in next year’s

presidential election, the National Police Agency, in coordination with the Taiwan High Prosecutor’s Office, conducted five days of raids nationwide, arresting 397 people, this week.

Many of the arrested are members of Taiwan’s two largest criminal organizations – The Bamboo Union, and Heavenly Way Alliance. Police confiscated guns, ammunition, weapons, and drugs, and seized cash and assets valued at almost NT$100 million.

A total of 80 firearms were seized, including 15 standard guns, 32 modified guns, and 33 airguns. Six gun manufacturing operations – modifying non-lethal weapons into lethal weapons were uncovered during the sweep.

Wan Hsiao-cheng, awaiting imprisonment for his role in the death of a police officer was arrested along with his gang-boss father. Picture: Liberty Times Network.
In Taipei City, a leader of the Song-lian gang, Wan Nian-Hsiang, 51, and nine other members were arrested for cases including the beating up of construction site workers, beating up and injuring waste company contractors, and demanding protection money from vegetable market operators. Mr Wan’s son, Wan Hsiao-cheng, who is currently awaiting imprisonment for his part in the death of a police officer who was beaten to death by a mob outside a Taipei nightclub in 2014, was also arrested alongside his father.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 23019/05/04
By: Ozzy Yin and Elizabeth Hsu, CNA staff reporters

Chinese American historian Yu Ying-shih (余英時) believes the ideas of democracy and science have been carried out partially, even comprehensively, in Taiwan, but he cautioned the island to be wary of the Chinese Communist regime and to keep its democratic system intact.

China’s Communist regime is “the biggest threat Taiwan is faced with,” said the 89-year-old Yu in a recent interview with CNA at his residence in Princeton.

A Princeton University emeritus professor, Yu is regarded by his peers as the greatest Chinese intellectual historian of his generation.

He said that most ordinary people in Taiwan do not know the threat, and only think that Communist China is very rich and that Taiwan has to comprise with it to earn money.
[FULL  STORY]

‘PRECISION STRIKES’:Taiwan continues to be China’s focus, but a large-scale invasion is unlikely in favor of airstrikes aimed to degrade defenses and resolve, the report said

Taipei Times
Date: May 04, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA, WASHINGTON

China could use force to push Taiwan into unification or into unification dialogue, the

Pentagon said in its annual military report on China issued on Thursday.

In the report submitted to the US Congress, the Pentagon said that China is likely to pursue a measured approach by demonstrating its readiness to use force or take punitive actions against Taiwan.

“The PLA [Chinese People’s Liberation Army] could also conduct a more comprehensive campaign designed to force Taiwan to capitulate to unification, or unification dialogue, under China’s terms,” the report said.

Taiwan remains the PLA’s main strategic direction and serves as one of the geographic areas Beijing identifies as having strategic importance, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 03 May, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

The indigenous Paiwan people of southern Taiwan have a proud tradition of decorative embroidery. Plants, animals, human figures, and geometric designs all feature, often standing out in bright colors against a black background.

For over 60 years, one master embroiderer has been working to keep this tradition alive. But while some of her works might fetch high prices, she has no one to pass her art on to.

Chen Li You-mei never really has a plan when she sits down in her embroidery workshop. She doesn’t need one, though. She’s now 77, and has a lifetime of experience with needles, thread, and cloth.

She comes from the indigenous Paiwan group of Taiwan’s far south. Her works draws inspiration from her daily life, but they are also deeply rooted in Paiwan culture. The color schemes and patterns, and even the choice of motifs like the hundred-pacer snake all draw on old traditions.    [FULL  STORY]

Care for Taiwan’s elderly used to be a family responsibility, but demographic upheavals and urbanization have ushered in an era of domestic caregivers from Southeast Asia. A look into that industry offers a snapshot of isolation, economic desperation, and mutual culture shock.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/05/03
By: =J. Zach Hollo

After two years working as a domestic caregiver, Siti Djunaidah knows she’s not allowed to be angry. She lives with a lone 94-year-old Taiwanese woman she refers to as Ama, which means grandma in Taiwanese. Djunaidah, 46, speaks Mandarin but knows very little Taiwanese, Ama’s only language. When communication errors occur, Ama lashes out. But for Djunaidah, it’s just part of the job.

“One day she’ll be yelling at me, the next day she’ll have forgotten all about it,” Djunaidah said. “It’s okay. Old people are like this.”

Djunaidah and Ama inhabit the family’s ancestral home, a humble one-story house in a bucolic village near the city of Nantou in western Taiwan. Djunaidah’s job is all-consuming. She must do all the household chores as well as cook Ama’s meals and help her bathe once every three days. Djunaidah must watch Ama virtually all the time to be ready to respond if an injury occurs. They even sleep in the same bed, so Ama won’t roll off.

Djunaidah makes US$560 (NT$17,300) per month, well above Indonesia’s average income of less than US$300. She sends about half her earnings to family and saves the rest. Her husband and three daughters live in Indonesia’s Central Java province. When Djunaidah first left for Taiwan about eight years ago, her daughters were eight, 10 and 12 years old, and the family was in dire need of money. “In Indonesia, I didn’t have enough money to provide for my children,” said Djunaidah. “In Taiwan I made enough money for them to have food, go to school, and buy things.”    [FULL  STORY]

Over 20 percent of Taiwanese teachers have abused their students 2 or 3 times a month

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/03
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A survey by National Sun Yat-sen University has found that over 70 percent of teachers who responded to the questionnaire “physically or emotionally” abused their students in the prior six months.

A survey was conducted late last year by associate professor Chen Li-ming (陳利銘) on 604 teachers in 30 elementary, junior and senior high schools on how they had disciplined their students within the past six months, reported NewTalk. The survey found that 71.7 percent of teachers self-reported that they had treated their students with a kind of physical or emotional abuse at least once within the past six months, according to the report.

Of those that had reporting meting out physical or emotional abuse to their students, 20.4 percent said they had done so two or three times a month.

Chen said that the survey did not find a significant difference between the abuse handed out by male and female teachers. However, the poll did find that elementary school teachers abused their students significantly more than junior and senior high school teachers.    [FULL  STORY]