Los Angeles Times
Date: April 08, 2019 
By: Ralph Jennings

With a new de facto American Embassy in Taiwan nearly completed, a spokesperson announcing the opening of the 161,000-square-foot, privately run compound said last week that U.S. Marines have periodically protected the organization’s headquarters since 2005 and did not rule out future deployments.
For years, the U.S. had not commented on the presence in Taiwan of any military personnel, who are said to have operated discreetly inside the compound of the American Institute in Taiwan rather than standing guard at entrances.

The vague acknowledgement from a spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan could ruffle feathers again in China, which has long claimed that Taiwan is a part of its territory. It is the latest in a series of incidents over the past year with the potential of further roiling U.S.-China relations.

Over the last nine months, U.S. Navy ships have passed five times through the Taiwan Strait separating the island from China. And less than a month ago, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said her government had asked Washington for a package of American-made F-16V fighter jets.    [FULL  STORY]

Epoch Times
Date: April 8, 2019
By: Frank Fang, Epoch Times

TAIPEI, Taiwan—About 3,000 people took to the streets of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan on April 7, in protest of Beijing’s proposal to rule the island under the “one country, two systems” model.

The model is currently used in Hong Kong, since the city’s sovereignty was handed over from Britain to China in 1997, which was intended to preserve its autonomy and freedoms while under mainland Chinese rule. However, the city has seen the encroaching influence of Beijing impact local politics, education, and freedom of the press in recent years.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly suggested this model as a way to bring Taiwan under the reign of Beijing, including most recently in a January 2018 speech before Chinese Communist Party members.

Relations between Taiwan and China are fraught, as the Chinese regime considers Taiwan a renegade province under its sovereignty, despite the fact that the latter is a de facto independent country with its own elected officials, constitution, military, and currency.    [FULL  STORY]

A 5 year contract of US$9 million for unspecified modifications to Patriot platforms granted to Raytheon

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/08
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – U.S. weapons manufacturer, Raytheon, has been granted a US$9 million contract to develop and upgrade Taiwan’s Patriot missile defense system over the next five years.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced last week that Raytheon Southeast Asia Systems was awarded the Foreign Military Sales contract to support the development of the air defense missile platform to safeguard the island country.

Bids to develop the Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target (PATRIOT) air defense missile systems were submitted through the internet, with a total of five bids received. Further details of the contract and system modifications have not been released.

The project is expected to be completed by April 3, 2024.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/08
By: Yang Sheng-ju and Huang Li-yun and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 8 (CNA) A renowned legal expert from Taiwan who has had his local household registration recently canceled for taking Chinese citizenship has vowed to return to Taiwan and sue the government, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao daily reported Monday.

The legal expert, Shao Tzuping (邵子平), complained that Taiwan’s move was totally unconstitutional, the report said.

Shao is known for his contribution to John Rabe’s journal “The Good Man of Nanking,” which recounts the horrific events that led to the Nanking Massacre from 1937 to 1938.

He also helped produce Magee’s Testament, a film that contains footage of the Nanking Massacre itself, shot by missionary John Magee.    [FULL  STORY]

NSB ACTIONS QUERIED: Lawmakers were told the NSB refuses to turn over documents related to the Lin family murders, Chen Wen-chen’s death and the Kaohsiung Incident

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 09, 2019
By: Chen Yu-fu and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The National Security Bureau (NSB) has listed files on allegedly politically motivated

cases as “permanently classified,” thereby denying the Transitional Justice Commission access, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said yesterday.

The Presidential Office should investigate whether the head of the NSB who approved the permanent classification of such documents abused their power, and to declassify or change the classification of the documents, he said.

During a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee to review a draft political archives act, Tuan asked commission member Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) whether it was having trouble obtaining documents from other agencies.

While the commission has been successful for the most part, it has faced difficulty getting access to files from the NSB on 21 cases since August last year, Yeh said.
[FULL  STORY]

Even a single boat can throw an opponent’s strategy askew in modern naval warfare, as both the Argentine and British navies learned during the Falklands War of 1982. Time for Taiwan to get new submarines. 

The National Interest
Date: April 7, 2019
By: James Holmes

New submarines for Taiwan? Yes, please!

Submarine construction is poised to become a reality now that Washington has lifted restrictions that once prohibited exports of equipment to outfit or arm Taiwanese boats. It appears indigenous builders will construct the hulls—eight is the number bruited about—while foreign partners will supply the sensors, combat systems, and weapons along with technical advice.

A vibrant undersea fleet would pay political and strategic dividends that the current contingent of two aging and two positively elderly boats could never yield.

The World Trade Organization rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.

WWII: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk by American planes while en route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.
[FULL  STORY]

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It only makes sense for Taiwan to take charge of its own destiny. The gods of world affairs help those who help themselves. Wise societies tend to their own security and interests to the utmost extent possible rather than trust to foreign allies who could prove untrustworthy in times of martial strife.

Human nature helps explain why self-help represents the bedrock underlying international relations. General George S. Patton, a keen observer of the human condition, opined that people cheer likely victors while scorning likely losers. And so they do. Who flocks to a losing cause? Few. People either side with winners, or they side with outmatched contenders who do their darnedest in their own cause—in other words, with pugilists who could succumb yet command admiration and could prevail with help.

As the island’s presidential campaign season begins, its troubled relationship with the Chinese mainland will be front and centre stage.

South China Morning Post
Date: 7 Apr, 2019 
By: Cary Huang

The heat is on in Taiwan as the start of the island’s presidential campaign season looks

certain to stir up the already complicated three-way diplomatic dance between Taipei, Beijing and Washington.

The lead-up to the vote in January 2020 will play out against a backdrop of unusually high tension, with hostilities between the two sides of the 100-mile strait increasing at the same time as the United States and China are clashing on anything and everything from trade and technology to human rights and security.

The presidential front runners are already testing the political waters as they try to build their support bases.

Taiwan’s embattled President Tsai Ing-wen ,who is seeking re-election for her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has been trying to cement ties with Washington with a series of recent publicity offensives. Tsai used an interview with CNN to announce her nomination campaign, and a stopover in Hawaii last week to speak via Skype to the right-wing Heritage Foundation in Washington. In that interview, she thanked the US for its support of Taiwan and urged it to supply the island with advanced fighter jets that would enable it to counter military intimidation by the Chinese mainland.
[FULL  STORY]

Authorities responded to a report early Sunday morning, but were unable to save the driver

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/07
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In the early morning sometime after 3:00 a.m at the port of Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County, a car plunged into the ocean. A rescue party was dispatched at 3:25 a.m. as soon as the incident was reported.

With the help of a local diving association, the car was located at approximately 5:00 a.m., and was successfully lifted from the water onto the quay by 6:43 a.m.

Unfortunately, the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle, a 47 year old man, surnamed Chen (陳), was unresponsive and pronounced dead.

The driver’s family members were reportedly on site to confirm the identity of the deceased, reports Apple Daily.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/07
By: Ku Chuan and Flor Wang

Taipei, April 7 (CNA) Beijing’s attempt to force a change in Taiwan’s designation at Lions Clubs International (LCI) has failed after members from around the world at a recent meeting decided to shelve the Chinese proposal, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Sunday.

At a meeting of LCI’s international board of directors held in Reykjavik, Iceland Saturday, China proposed that Taiwan’s designation in the organization should be changed from “MD300 Taiwan” to “MD300 China Taiwan,” MOFA said, citing a report from the Washington-based Chinese-language Epoch Times.

LCI is one of the largest and most active voluntary institutions in the world.
[FULL  STORY]

HONORING NYLON DENG: Free speech is not an abstract concept, and ‘disinformation’ from outside the nation is a challenge to the values that Taiwanese hold dear, Tsai said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 08, 2019
By: Lin Hsin-han and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday warned of threats to the nation’s democracy

and the importance of free speech as she attended a commemoration ceremony in Keelung for democracy advocate Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕).

Yesterday’s ceremony, part of Freedom of Expression Day celebrations, marked the 30th anniversary of the death of the publisher, also known as Nylon Deng, by self-immolation in his Taipei office after a 71-day standoff with police, who wanted to arrest him on charges of sedition in January 1989 for publishing a draft “Taiwan Republic Constitution” in his magazine, Freedom Era Weekly.

“[China] wants to use our democracy against us. I simply cannot accept this, and I believe Taiwanese in general would not accept this,” she said.

“As president I will persevere in the fight for democracy,” she said.    [FULL  STORY]