Wilson to board 10 p.m. EVA Air flight

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – American 3D-printed gun maker Cody Wilson has arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to board a flight to Houston at 10 p.m. Saturday, according to media reports.

Earlier in the day, reports said he was likely to be deported to the United States within 48 hours to face charges of sex with an underage girl.

Wilson, 30, arrived at the airport at 6:40 p.m. in the company of National Immigration Agency (NIA) agents, the Central News Agency reported. He didn’t speak a word to reporters and wore a surgical mask, sunglasses, and a hoodie over his head.

According to the Apple Daily News, he was scheduled to board EVA Air flight BR052, scheduled to leave at 10 p.m. for Houston, Texas.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/22
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) Taiwan on Saturday expressed hope that a provisional agreement

between the Vatican and Beijing on the appointment of bishops signed earlier in the day can lead to greater religious freedom in China.

A provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops was signed by the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China on Saturday in Beijing, according to statements issued by both parties.

The Vatican said it hopes the pact “will contribute positively to the life of the Church in China, the good of the Chinese people and peace in the world.”

The issue had been a stumbling block in decades-long attempts by the Vatican to promote Catholicism in China and push for better relations with Beijing.
[FULL  STORY]

ONLINE SOVEREIGNTY: China is ‘essentially ruling’ Taiwanese on the Internet by collecting their data and forcing them to select ‘Taiwan, China’ on job banks

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 23, 2018
By: Chung Li-hua  /  Staff reporter

Chinese state-sponsored online job banks have created interfaces that require

Taiwanese to register personal information, which would result in that information being obtained by the Chinese government, academics said yesterday.

The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) and the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) stipulate that Taiwanese online job banks are not allowed to post job vacancies in China, or they would face fines of NT$100,000 to NT$500,000.

However, a slew of Chinese online job banks — including zhaopin.com (智聯招聘), Ahighpin.cn (智聯卓聘), lagou.com (拉勾網), 51job.com and zhipin.com (Boss直聘) — allow Taiwanese to sign up for accounts using a cellphone, which means they do not have to be in China to look for jobs and can have interviews online.

Taiwanese wanting to use the Chinese job banks are required to select “Taiwan, China” when registering their location, which acknowledges Beijing’s “one China” principle, academics said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-09-21

President Tsai Ing-wen is standing firm on the government’s decision to turn Taiwan into

a nuclear-free country. Tsai was speaking Thursday while meeting with the British trade envoy.

At the Presidential Office, President Tsai extended her warm welcome to Lord Richard Faulkner, the British trade envoy. She said Lord Faulkner offered a lot of encouragement and suggestions about the development of offshore wind power.

Tsai said Taiwan hopes to decommission its nuclear power plants by 2025 with renewable energy making up 20% of national power generation. Tsai also said the government will focus on the development of solar power and offshore wind power. She said energy transformation and electricity reforms are already in place to meet that goal.

Taiwan and the UK have established a mechanism to exchange views on green technologies, but Tsai said she hopes that there is more room for cooperation. She said Britain has a dominant role in the offshore wind farm development.    [FULL  STORY]

China’s wild allegations of Taiwanese spying may be a direct response to Taiwan’s investigations of China’s own spy network.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/21
By: By Brian Hioe, 破土 New Bloom

Chinese spying efforts in Taiwan have been under closer scrutiny in past months. This can be observed in several incidents, including an official investigation into Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠) and several other young spokespersons of the reunification-skewing New Party for efforts to establish a Chinese spying ring in Taiwan in collaboration with Chinese exchange student Zhou Hongxu, and what some suspect to be the Chinese financing of “White Wolf” Chang An-lo’s (張安樂) Chinese Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), though Chang denies this.

Credit: Reuters / TPGChinese student Zhou Hongxu is escorted by police as he arrives at the High Court for a hearing on suspicions of attempting to develop a spy network for China, in Taipei, March 26, 2018.
An Al-Jazeera documentary on Chinese influence in Taiwan was also released early this month, becoming a hotly discussed topic as a front-page article in some newspapers. The documentary revealed that the pro-unification Chinese Concentric Patriotic Association (CCPA) has ties within the Taipei city police, claims to be compiling a list of supporters of Taiwanese independence living in China, and is politically monitoring Chinese students studying in Taiwan in order to make sure that they do not step out of line.

In the wave of backlash against the CCPA after the release of the documentary, the CUPP publicly announced it would be distancing itself from the CCPA. This came despite the previous tight alliance of the two groups, with frequent interchanges between members.    [FULL  STORY]

Wilson was apprehended at a hotel in Taipei’s Wanhua District

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/21
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Police arrested American 3D-printed gun advocate Cody Wilson in Taipei City’s Wanhua District Friday evening, just a day after it became known he was wanted in Texas for paying a 16-year-old girl for sex, the Apple Daily reported.

His arrest and expected transfer, first to the Criminal Investigation Bureau and later to the National Immigration Agency, brings to a quick close a case which had police hurrying to check out his movements since his arrival in Taiwan on September 6.

Wilson, 30, first checked in at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the capital‘s Dunhua North Road after a flight from the U.S. However, he left the following day by taxi for an unknown destination, reports said.

As it became known that Wilson was a wanted man in his native country, Taiwan police launched a search for his whereabouts. A real estate agent who saw the reports about the American on TV alerted the police to his recent visit to sign a six-month rental agreement for a studio, reports said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/21
By: Tai Ya-chen and Elizabeth Hsu 

London, Sept. 20 (CNA) British Army veteran Gerald Fitzpatrick was buried in Leeds on Thursday with military honors but the honor guard detail comprised four officers of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the flag draping his coffin was also that of the ROC.

Fitzpatrick, who was deployed to Asia in the 1940s, had requested before his death on Aug. 27 at the age of 99 that his coffin be draped with the ROC flag as a symbol of his gratitude to the ROC troops who rescued him and 7,000 other British soldiers during the Battle of Yenangyaung in Burma during World War II.

In keeping with his wishes, the ROC flag covered his coffin at the funeral service at a church in Leeds and was later folded and given to his wife at the cemetery.

The attending honor guard comprised four ROC military officers who are currently studying in the United Kingdom, although they were not in uniform at the funeral.
[FULL  STORY]

ZONING LAWS: Wei Ming-jen said that those who are to demolish illegal parts of his property on Wednesday next week would be ‘severely punished by the motherland’

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 22, 2018
By: Chang Tsung-chiu and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Changhua County Government yesterday suspended power and water supply to a

former Buddhist temple that was converted into a shrine to Chinese communism by a local businessman, and said it would demolish illegal buildings on the property next week.

Former military officer Wei Ming-jen (魏明仁), who works in construction, acquired a Buddhist temple in the county’s Ershuei Township (二水) seven years ago. He ousted the temple’s four nuns and began flying the national flag of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the complex.

The New York Times on Wednesday called Wei’s actions a move to establish “an extravagant shrine to China’s communist party.”

Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) yesterday at a news conference in the county rejected claims by some locals and county councilors that his inaction on the issue and was “a shame on Taiwan,” saying that they were not aware of the entire story.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-09-20

A mountain train line in Taipingshan, Yilan county opened on Wednesday and many

people lined up to be the first to ride it after its reopening.

The mountain train in Taipingshan, Yilan County is now up and running again after a six year suspension. The train takes passengers along a 3 kilometer scenic route through Taipingshan, the largest national forest park in Taiwan. The service was suspended twice due to damages from two typhoons. Each of the four yellow trains on the line is decorated with one of Taiwan’s protected species.

There were long lines on Wednesday as many wanted to be among the first to ride the train.  One visitor said he had only been on it once before, so he came to relive the experience. The train opened just in time before the Moon Festival holiday and is offering passengers 50% off tickets through the end of September. The beginning of autumn is a perfect time to enjoy the 20-minute ride through Yilan’s beautiful mountains.
[FULL  STORY]

The axes are out for a politician advocating for languages other than English and Chinese to be kept out of the classroom.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/20
By: Eryk Smith

In a video report from August, the Kuomintang (KMT)’s Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said public schools should only teach Chinese (Mandarin) and English. “Home languages should be taught/learned at home,” Han said.

The comments were not welcomed by those who support in-school instruction of Taiwanese, Hakka and or native Taiwanese languages. But does Han have a point?

Language requirements for local students evoke strong reactions from many, including expats. But unless you have a child or children in the Taiwanese public-school system or are from or connected to one of the language communities that would be affected by public-school polices, maybe just give the arguments on both sides some thought rather than going keyboard warrior.

This week, representatives from a Hakka-promotion/preservation community met to denounce Han’s comments, and while there appeared to be some partisan politics involved, I do not doubt the sincerity of many who said they don’t want to see their language (which is of course deeply connected to their culture) die out.
[FULL  STORY]