As a Singaporean, Taiwan’s democratic values and effective independence are something to hold dear.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/01/08
By: Roy Ngerng

I left Singapore for Taiwan more than two years ago, and it has been my home ever since.

I still remember that before I came to Taiwan, I asked a Singaporean friend, Leong Sze Hian, what he thinks about Taiwan advocating for independence.

He told me: “Taiwan is already independent!”

After I came to Taiwan, I saw for myself that it is indeed an independent nation, with people who speak up for themselves, fight for themselves, and call themselves Taiwanese, going about their lives as the Taiwanese do, very distinctly from the Chinese from China.    [FULL  STORY]

 

A third suspect escaped, police say

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/08
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Police arrested two members of a gang of pickpockets from China at the Taipei 101 shopping mall, but a third one got away, reports said Tuesday.

The group had attracted the attention of the authorities during an earlier visit last year, but had been able to leave the country, the Central News Agency reported.

During analysis of potential perpetrators at popular tourist sites such as the National Palace Museum and Taipei 101, police became aware of a three-member gang of pickpockets from China.

They recently found out that the three men, named Gong (龔), 43, Chen (陳) and Li (黎), both 56, had re-entered the country via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on tourist visas.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/08
By: Huang Huei-min and Yu-Chen Chung

Taipei, Jan. 8 (CNA) The island county of Kinmen on Monday slapped a fine of

NT$200,000 (US$6,486) on a visitor for the first time since the penalties were raised late last year for bringing meat into Taiwan, according to a Customs officer.

Kaohsiung Customs officer Lai Heng-mao (賴恒茂) said Tuesday that the NT$200,000 fine was imposed on a Chinese tourist, who was attempting to enter Kinmen by sea with 0.4 kilograms of sausages.

The sausages were seized at Shuitou Pier and handed over to the Kinmen Inspection Station, a unit of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ), Lai said.

Since the fines were increased Dec. 18 last year amid fears over African swine fever (ASF), more than 45 people have each been fined NT$200,000 at various ports in Taiwan for attempting to bring meat products into the country in violation of its laws, according to BAPHIQ data.    [FULL  STORY]

DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: A group of hundreds of female doctors bought half-page ads on the front pages of two newspapers in support of the president and her views

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 09, 2019
By: Su Yung-yao and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Opposition to China’s “one country, two systems” framework is “the most important

Taiwan consensus,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.

Tsai made the remarks at a meeting with Nauruan President Baron Divavesi Waqa at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.

Taiwanese oppose the “one country, two systems” framework, a stance also shared by the ruling and opposition parties, Tsai said.

“Rejection of the ‘one country, two systems’ framework is the most important ‘Taiwan consensus’ of this year,” she said.
[FULL  STORY]

Tsai Ing-wen came under fire for not recognizing the ‘1992 Consensus,’ but Xi’s speech last week proved that her strategy was the correct one.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/01/07
By: Hilton Yip

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had a rough 2018, and 2019 started off in a

similar manner. After ushering in the new year with a New Year’s Day address to the nation, Tsai had to reply the next day to a strong speech by Chinese leader Xi Jinping calling for Taiwan to accept “unification.” She then had to face a public challenge on Jan. 3 from several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) figures calling for her to step down for the 2020 presidential election, which she also rebutted.

Xi’s “unification” demand might be worrying, but it also vindicates Tsai’s tough stance towards China.

Tsai has faced heavy criticism for refusing to acknowledge the “1992 Consensus,” which China demands that Taiwan’s government agree to. Taiwan’s previous president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had no problem agreeing to the so-called consensus, but Tsai has declined to do so since taking power in 2016. As a result, China has punished Taiwan by refusing any official contact with Taiwan, snatching away five of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, pressuring international companies to cease any recognition of Taiwan, and obstructing Taiwan’s participation in international forums. It has also reduced the number of Chinese tour groups bound for Taiwan, which has seen the number of Chinese visitors to Taiwan drop steadily since 2016.    [FULL  STORY]

Vietnamese worker and Taiwanese boss invade New Taipei home, force woman to take nude photos for blackmail

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/07
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Vietnamese worker and his Taiwanese employer were arrested on Saturday (Jan. 5) for entering a woman’s home and subjecting her and her daughter to an over six-hour ordeal that included nude photos for blackmail, reported CNA.

A 35-year-old Vietnamese worker surnamed Pham and his 53-year-old Taiwanese employer surnamed Ting (丁) were arrested on Saturday for robbery and forced obscene acts (強制猥褻), after they held a mother and daughter hostage for over six hours and forced former to take nude photos.

On Jan. 2, dressed in rain coats and motorcycle helmets, Pham and Ting were seen on surveillance footage using keys to enter the home of a 50-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃) in New Taipei City’s Shulin District. When Huang returned to her home at 5:40 p.m., the men pounced on her, and though she tried to resist, they wrapped her in a quilt and beat her.

When Huang’s 23-year-old daughter, surnamed Lee (李) returned home at 7:40 p.m., she noticed that the front door had not been closed and as soon as she entered the house, she noticed that there were signs of a struggle. Before she had time to react, she too was abducted and assaulted by the men.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/07
By: Huang Li-yun and William Yen

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) Another five of the 148 Vietnamese tourists who left their tour groups and disappeared shortly after entering Taiwan in December were found Monday, according to the National Immigration Agency (NIA).

As of 3:40 p.m. Monday, a total of 52 of the 148 Vietnamese nationals had been located, and the search continues for the 96 people who remain unaccounted for, the NIA said.

Of those found so far, 24 have been arrested and 28 surrendered to police.

The agency said 152 of the 153 Vietnamese nationals who entered Taiwan as part of four tour groups that arrived on Dec. 21 and Dec. 23 were reported “missing” after entering Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

’HAWK EAGLES’: The drones can reach an altitude of 4,000m and stay in the air for up to four hours, and are to boost the Forestry Bureau’s aerial survey efforts

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 08, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday unveiled two new uncrewed aerial vehicles

developed by a local firm to improve its aerial surveys and assist in quarantine measures against African swine fever.

The disease has spread to 23 provinces in China and pig carcasses have been found across Taiwan over the past weeks, but only one found in Kinmen County on Dec. 31 had tested positive for the disease as of yesterday.

The fixed-wing drones could be used to help the coast guard hunt for pig carcasses drifting at sea, in addition to surveying agricultural lands and crop production, COA Deputy Minister Lee Tui-chih (李退之) told a news conference in Taipei.

The nation’s pork products are safe and supplies are stable, he said, adding that the council would continue to protect the local hog industry against the disease.
[FULL  STORY]

South China Morning Post
Date: 06 January, 2019
By: Lawrence Chung

• A recent speech by the Chinese president used a ‘one-China’ principle that redefined the cross-strait understanding
• A different emphasis and different interpretation by Beijing and Taipei

Official talks between Taiwan and mainland China are unlikely to be held in the foreseeable future now that an understanding intended to allow the two sides to ditch their differences has been redefined, leaving the self-ruled island with no room to manoeuvre, observers said.

In a speech on Wednesday to mark the 40th anniversary of Beijing’s call to end military confrontation across the Taiwan Strait, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the two sides should begin talks on reunification to end the decades of animosity.

But in laying the “1992 consensus” as the sole foundation for talks with the self-ruled island, Xi rephrased it as an understanding that “the two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China, jointly seeking to achieve cross-strait unification”, which was a departure from existing versions of the consensus, analysts and officials in Taiwan said.

Xi also asked Taiwan to select representatives from various sectors for “peaceful unification” talks on using the “one country, two systems” approach.

“What Xi said fully exposed Beijing’s intention to destroy the Republic of China and its ambition to take over Taiwan,” Chen Ming-tung, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said at a news conference on Thursday in Taipei.

Xi’s version of the consensus sharply differed from that formerly held by Beijing and now held by the mainland-friendly opposition Kuomintang (KMT) in Taiwan, he said.
[FULL  STORY]

They are concerned that the practice might bring African swine fever virus to Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/06
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An association of young pig farmers in Taiwan will stage a demonstration in Taipei on Jan. 17 to request the government to totally ban feeding kitchen leftovers to pigs as they are concerned that the practice might bring African swine fever virus to Taiwan, according to a Central News Agency report on Sunday.

The association chairman Guo Jia-yu (郭嘉育) said that even though African swine fever has reached an alarming level in China, Taiwan has not seen a case of the animal disease, the report said.

Guo said that as African swine fever can spread via kitchen leftovers, the planned demonstration has only one goal, and that’s to appeal to the country’s Council of Agriculture (COA) for banning the practice of feeding leftovers to pigs.

He added that many pig farmers still have appalling memories of the scenes of the pig culling amidst the foot-and-mouth disease that ran rampant in Taiwan more than 20 years ago.    [FULL  STORY]