Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Brent Christensen, also announced a major event in April to commemorate the 40 year anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/30
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

American Institute in Taiwan Director Brent Christensen (By Central News Agency)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Brent Christensen, gave an exclusive interview with the Central News Agency this week and emphasized that the U.S. remains resolutely opposed to China’s use violence or coercion to alter the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.

In his first full length interview with Taiwanese media since taking up the post of AIT Director last August, Christensen affirmed U.S. support for Taiwan in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), and when asked about recent cross-strait affairs, he urged Beijing towards a constructive dialogue with Taipei.

The AIT Director also announced that the institute is planning a major event in April to celebrate the 40 year anniversary of the TRA.

In response to Xi Jinping’s recent address discussing Taiwan, Christensen referred to section two of the TRA, which includes the following passage.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/30
By: Chiang Chin-ye and Chung Yu-chen

Washington, Jan. 29 (CNA) U.S. intelligence agencies indicated Tuesday that they expect

Beijing to continue its efforts to force Taiwan to accept its “One China” framework and ultimately Chinese control.

Top U.S. security officials, including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray, Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, presented their annual global threats assessment to the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday.

According to the assessment, Beijing will almost certainly continue to use both pressure and incentives to try to force Taipei to accept its One China framework and eventually Chinese control.

Moreover, China continues to monitor U.S. reaction to gauge its resolve in the region, the report said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 30, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

People going abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday are advised to arrive at Taiwan

Taoyuan International Airport three hours earlier than their departure time due to the seasonal increase in travelers, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said yesterday.

The company estimates that the number of travelers accessing the airport during the nine-day holiday would exceed 150,000 per day, while the total passenger volume would rise by about 6 percent compared with the holiday period last year.

The busiest day would be on Sunday next week, the last day of the holiday, when the airport is to accommodate 785 flights, it said.

Several Taiwanese airlines have announced that their counters would open early.
[FULL  STORY]

Your weekday morning news brief from Taiwan.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/01/30
By: TNL Daily News

Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), the wife of jailed Taiwanese democracy advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), urged Beijing on Tuesday to allow Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and international rights groups to visit her husband on her behalf, CNA reports.

The Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TACHR) said on Monday Lee Ching-yu had been barred from visiting her husband for at least three months after being accused of Chishan Prison in Hunan province of distorting facts after her previous visit on Dec. 18.

Lee Ching-yu, at a news conference at Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, urged Beijing to release videos recorded during her visit should they believe her account of prison conditions is incorrect.

She said at a Dec. 24 news conference that her husband’s bank account had been frozen, leaving him unable to buy clothes and food, and said the food at the prison was mostly rotten.    [FULL  STORY]

Three Chinese visitors have been deported for failing to pay the NT$200,000 fine

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A Chinese visitor arriving in Taiwan carrying pork products was refused entry Tuesday after he was unable to pay the NT$200,000 (US$6,490) fine for violating rules aimed at preventing African swine fever entering the country, the Council of Agriculture announced.

The incident was the third case since Taiwan introduced tougher measures, and all three of them involved citizens of China, the Central News Agency reported.

The traveler in question, a 28-year-old, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 9 a.m. on China Airlines flight CI-922 from Hong Kong, and was found in possession of 2.92 kilos of sausages, pork products and roasted duck meat which he failed to declare.

As he did not pay the fine, he was put on a 1 p.m. Air China flight to Beijing in accordance with the new rules introduced on January 25. As long as he has not paid the fine in full, he will not be allowed into Taiwan, CNA reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/29
By: Hsiao Bo-wen and Shih Hsiu-chuan 

Taipei, Jan. 29 (CNA) Taiwan dropped two spots in the latest global corruption index, down to 31st out of the 180 countries and territories rated by Transparency International in 2018, highlighting areas in which Taiwan needs to improve, the organization’s Taiwan chapter said Tuesday.

On a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean, Taiwan received 63 points this year, the same as last year, but still fell from 29th to 31st least corrupt country, surpassed by the Seychelles and Portugal.

According to Berlin-based Transparency International, which has conducted the annual ranking since 1995, the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) reveals that most countries are failing to significantly control corruption and that is contributing to a crisis in democracy around the world.

More than two thirds of countries scored below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of 43, Transparency International said in a statement.    [FULL  STORY]

EVOLVING THREAT: A defense ministry official said the ministry has pushed up production of Tien Kung III missile systems to finish two years ahead of schedule

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 30, 2019
By: Jonathan Chin  /  Staff writer, with CNA

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has ordered the Ministry of National Defense to prioritize

deploying air defense missile systems to counter the changing nature of the military threat against Taiwan.

Tsai yesterday spoke to military recruits after her tour of Taichung’s Chenggong Ling (成功嶺) military training camp, where she inspected live-fire sharpshooter practice and had lunch at the canteen.

Tsai said she recently toured an installation of Tien Kung III air defense weapons systems in Hualien, visited the 53rd Engineer Group in Taoyuan, and instructed the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to accelerate missile production.

She has a personal interest in seeing the policies through, thus fulfilling her promise to develop a self-sufficient defense industry, Tsai said.    [FULL  STORY]

The Tsai administration must provide a functional roadmap towards calming animosity and developing positive relations with China, writes Kent Wang.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/01/28
By: Kent Wang

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Jan. 2 speech reiterated Beijing’s policy of “peaceful unification” with Taiwan and proposed launching a cross-Strait consultation on using the “one country, two systems” framework for unification.

In response, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) rejected the “1992 consensus” with more force than ever before, saying Xi had equated the so-called agreement to governance under “one country, two systems” – which, if it were to take the form of Hong Kong, could see shots ultimately called in Beijing.

The “1992 consensus” has been at the center of a partisan conflict between the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which does not recognize the consensus, and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which allegedly brokered the agreement in a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in 1992.

Tsai has received plaudits for her rejection of the consensus. However, what if she is, in fact, deliberately misinterpreting a perfectly functional agreement?    [FULL  STORY]

The former advisor to Donald Trump says there is ‘tremendous support’ in the United States for the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/28
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – On Jan. 27, Chinese real estate tycoon and political exile, Guo Wengui (郭文貴) uploaded video of former U.S. presidential advisor Steve Bannon speaking on China-US relations, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

During their talk, Bannon is asked by Guo how he thinks the United States would respond if China launched a military attack against Taiwan.

In response, Bannon says that “economic incompetence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” may lead Beijing to promote an invasion of Taiwan to the Chinese people.

Mentioning his experience in the U.S. Navy, his visits to Taiwan, and the historical relationship between Taiwan and the U.S., Bannon says there is a “deep love for Taiwanese people” among Americans.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/28
By: Liang Pei-chi and Elizabeth Hsu 

Taipei, Jan. 28 (CNA) Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), a physician-turned-independent politician, described the loss of the candidate he backed in a legislative by-election in Taipei Sunday as part of life, but admitted difficulty in soliciting grassroots support without being affiliated with any political party.

Ko-backed Chen Su-yu (陳思宇) finished a distant third in the by-election, in which five candidates were vying for the legislative seat left vacant by Yao Wen-chih (姚文智) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who resigned as lawmaker during his unsuccessful bid for Taipei mayor last November.

While the race was widely regarded as Ko testing the water for the presidential election in 2020, the popular mayor told the press on Monday that “no matter if it is a success or failure, it’s nothing but part of life,” after being asked about the election results.

What’s different is that “one has to write more review reports on a defeat than a success,” said Ko. As for the results, he added, “I see that it’s pretty much the same as indicated by public polls before the election.”    [FULL  STORY]