Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/13/2020
By: Shen Pei-yao, Wang Hung-kuo
and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Oct. 13 (CNA) The chairman of a leading educational publisher apologized on Tuesday for the workplace bullying of a whistleblowing employee, just one day before Taiwan's National Federation of Teachers Unions (NFTU) was set to launch a boycott of the company.

In a written statement, Kang Hsuan Educational Publishing Group Chairman Lee Wan-chi (李萬吉) apologized for "setting a bad example to the public" through home quarantine violations last month which preceded the incident.

He also apologized for "unsound company management" that led to "psychological trauma" and the resignation of an employee suspected of having reported his quarantine violations.

"I have reflected deeply on the criticism and comments received from various sectors of society. I believe the company made multiple errors in its handling of this issue, and am willing to humbly accept the blame for that," he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 14, 2020
By: Reuters, WASHINGTON

The White House is moving forward with three sales of advanced weaponry to Taiwan, sending in recent days a notification of the deals to the US Congress for approval, five sources familiar with the situation said on Monday.

Asked about the report, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington said it had no comment.

The news broke last month that as many as seven major weapons systems were making their way through the US export process, as US President Donald Trump’s administration increases pressure on China.

Leaders of the foreign affairs committees of the US Senate and House of Representatives were notified that three of the planned weapons sales had been approved by the US Department of State, which oversees foreign military sales, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 12 October, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

A Taiwanese man named Lee Meng-chu disappeared in China in August of last year. Now, he’s resurfaced in a video released by Chinese authorities. Lee says that he was a spy working on behalf of Taiwan. But authorities in Taiwan say that’s not true.

Lee Meng-chu was a local government consultant in Taiwan’s southernmost Pingtung County. He disappeared on August 20, 2019 in Shenzhen, China. The following month, Chinese officials said that he had been detained on suspicion of undermining China’s national security.

But there was no further news about Lee for more than a year. This week, China released a video of him saying he’s a spy, and that he was conned into going to China by Chen Ya-ling, the head of the township where Lee worked. 

Chen says that Lee was speaking under duress. Chen says that such ploys by the Chinese government play out like a joke in Taiwan. He says that if Lee really was conned into going to China, then authorities there should just let him return.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung says that the Mainland Affairs Council will handle Lee’s case.     [FULL  STORY]

Newsweek
Date: 10/12/20
By: Tom O'Connor

Taiwan has long looked to the United States for protection from the massive forces of the Chinese mainland 100 miles to the west. Now Taipei is calling for robust defense ties with Washington amid growing concerns of potential conflict as Beijing's warplanes conduct regular fly-by's, threatening reunification by force.

Aircraft of the People's Liberation Army continued to enter Taiwan's declared air defense identification throughout the weekend, even as the self-ruling island celebrated "National Day"—an occasion commemorating the end of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China, which Taiwan officially calls itself.

But as the rival People's Republic of China made its presence known, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen delivered a military message as well.

"As commander-in-chief," Tsai said, "I always have the future of our military and our military of the future in my heart."    [FULL  STORY]

After pandemic delayed permit approval, night market owner opened early citing cash hemorrhage

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/10/12
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taichung City Economic Development Bureau on Sunday (Oct. 11) imposed a fine of NT$60,000 (US$2,000) on the operator of a new night market that opened in the city’s Beitun District during the Double Ten holiday for operating without a permit.

The bureau told the operator, surnamed Yeh (葉), to shut down the night market immediately or face a fine for each day it stays open as stipulated in related regulations, according to a press release posted to the bureau’s website.

Located near Jiushe Station on the Taichung MRT's Green Line, Zong Zhan Night Market (總站夜市) opened on Friday (Oct. 9), attracting large crowds that led to issues with traffic, parking, and noise.

The operator of the night market had applied for an operation permit on Aug. 7, per the bureau, but the application is still in the final review stage. Bureau Chief Chang Feng-yuan (張峯源) led a team to the night market to investigate the early opening.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/12/2020
By: Flor Wang, Chang Shu-lin
and Lai Yen-yi

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) Taiwan urged China on Monday to stop engaging in political manipulation to avoid hurting cross-Taiwan Strait relations at a time when bilateral ties have dipped to a new low.

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) head Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) issued the call following a broadcast by Beijing-based CCTV on Sunday night, during which Taiwanese citizen Lee Meng-chu (李孟居) "apologized" for actions that he said seriously damaged China's national security.

According to the news program, Chinese intelligence authorities "broke hundreds of information leakage cases, arrested multiple Taiwanese spies and smashed spy networks established by Taiwanese intelligence agents" in a recent crackdown.

CCTV claimed the crackdown was a successful blow against Taiwan's intelligence efforts.
[FULL  STOIRY]

‘MALICIOUS HYPE’: A CCTV program featured a Taiwanese man ‘confessing’ that he shot 16 videos and took photographs of Chinese military exercises in Shenzhen

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 13, 2020
By Chen Yu-fu, Chen Yan-ting and
William Hetherington / Staff reporters,
with staff writer and Bloomberg

Taiwan has rejected a report by China Central Television (CCTV) claiming that a Chinese government initiative had “solved over 100 cases involving Taiwanese spies.”

A CCTV current affairs program that aired on Sunday night detailed what it said was a confession by a Taiwanese man, Morrison Lee (李孟居), who was arrested on Oct. 31 last year during a visit to Shenzhen after traveling to Hong Kong in August that year.

“This is China generating malicious political hype by falsely accusing Taiwanese of engaging in espionage,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a statement on Sunday evening. “[China is] destroying the cross-strait relationship, and interfering with Taiwan’s freedom, democracy and a society ruled by law.”

The National Security Bureau is monitoring the situation and would follow up on any developments that could threaten national security, the council added.    [FULL  STORY]

‘SEA OF HOPE’: China has scaled back its bellicose rhetoric regarding its claim to the South China Sea and is unlikely to incite hostility, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun said

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 12, 2020
By: Hsieh Chun-lin and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The increased frequency of Chinese military activity near or within Taiwan’s airspace over the past month is an attempt by Beijing to force the US into engaging in dialogue with it, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) said yesterday.

You made the remarks while speaking with reporters ahead of a banquet held by the group Citizen’s Congress Watch.

Although repeated crossings into Taiwan’s airspace have caused public concern, China has made concessions in its territorial claims in the South China Sea, he said.

“Therefore, barring a minor incident that gets out of hand, it seems unlikely that China would incite hostilities during the remainder of the year,” he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 10 October, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

The foreign ministry says that this year’s National Day reception has been scaled down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only the president, vice president, ministry heads, ambassadors, and representatives to Taiwan will be in attendance during the event, scheduled for Saturday evening. Foreign ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou said that other dignitaries will join the event virtually.

The foreign ministry says that Taiwan has achieved remarkable breakthroughs in its relations with friendly countries. The ministry says it is therefore meaningful for Taiwan to celebrate National Day with the international community, and to demonstrate the effectiveness of its efforts stopping COVID-19 and championing democracy and freedom.    [FULL  STORY]

The battle over the island may be a Cold War relic, but it will shape the future.

Defense One
Date: October 11, 2020
By: ichael Schuman, The Atlantic

COMMENTARY 

Taiwan is one of those flash points that has never flashed. The dispute over the island’s fate has had the potential to erupt into conflict between China and the United States for decades. But the feared Chinese invasion has never come. The situation has remained deadlocked for so long that Taiwan’s quandary often drifts into the background of Asian affairs, overshadowed by seemingly more-pressing concerns, such as North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and inflamed tensions between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.

Not now. With an erratic President Donald Trump distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as his own ill health, and already disengaged from Asian affairs, concerns have been mounting about America’s commitment to defending the region. China, by contrast, is becoming more assertive, having achieved a clampdown in Hong Kong—where it put a far-reaching and restrictive national-security law in place—with few, if any, tangible repercussions from the international community. As a result, some Taiwan watchers, and the island’s leaders themselves, are worried that the risks of war breaking out over control of the island are rising, either caused accidentally, or even purposely launched by Beijing.

“It is becoming more alarming,” Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, told me. He said he was “very concerned” that Beijing would use its long-standing claim to Taiwan as “a very good excuse … to launch an attack.” Warning lights are flashing in Washington, D.C., too: Senator Josh Hawley and Representative Mike Gallagher each introduced legislation in recent months to bolster Washington’s (rather ambiguous) defense commitment to Taiwan. “No longer can anyone harbor the illusion that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) would unify peacefully with Taiwan," Gallagher noted in a statement.

In a confrontation as old and tense as this one, with its numerous scrapes and scares, discerning when to hit the panic button can be hard. Tensions over Taiwan date back to 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists in a bloody civil war and chased them off the Chinese mainland to the island, where the Nationalists reestablished the rival Republic of China in Taipei. The Communists’ People’s Republic of China has never relinquished its claim to Taiwan, which Beijing considers no more than a wayward province, leaving the prospect of war hanging over the region. Perhaps this current bout of the jitters is just another round of political posturing and saber-rattling.    [FULL  STORY]