POLICE STATE: Taiwanese who give their biometric data to Chinese authorities would be vulnerable to Beijing’s human rights abuses, a cybersecurity official said

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 20, 2018
By: Chen Yu-fu, Lu Yi-hsuan and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Chinese government’s new residency permit cards for Taiwanese,

which are to bear the fingerprints of the cardholder, pose privacy and national security risks, Executive Yuan Department of Cybersecurity Director Jian Hong-wei (簡宏偉) said yesterday.

Jian made the remarks after Chinese authorities earlier in the day published a preview of regulations for issuing residency permit cards for people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, which are to go into effect on Saturday next week.

The cards would bear the cardholder’s name, date of birth, photograph, fingerprints, address and an 18-digit serial number, employing the same identification system Beijing uses for Chinese nationals, according to the regulations.

“Fingerprints are private biometric data and there is no end to the ways Chinese authorities could use them once they get hold of them,” Jian said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: August 18, 2018 
By: Phillip Charlier

A man who robbed a post office at gunpoint in Nantou County yesterday was arrested at Taoyuan International Airport this morning, August 18.

Friday, August 17, at around 4:15pm, a man wearing camouflage pants, a plain t-shirt, a cap, and a surgical mask, entered a small post office in a rural area of Lugu Township. The man pointed a handgun at a teller, and demanded the contents of the cash draw.

The nervous teller handed over bundles of cash totaling NT$500,000 before the gunman fled.

Investigating police discovered that a man had driven to the vicinity the day previous to the robbery, and stolen license plates from a car. Yesterday, he returned to the Qingshui Post Office driving the car with the stolen license plates.    [FULL  STORY]

Yahoo News
Date: August 18, 2018
By: Ralph Jennings, Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan is responding to China’s arms buildup by developing missiles and interceptors of its own that could reduce Beijing’s military advantage over the self-ruled island, defense experts say.

Since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, Taiwan has deployed one set of missiles, perfected another and sped production of a third, the analysts say, in the latest sign of how it’s handling a Chinese military threat that is raising the chances of an armed confrontation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken a hard line against advocates of independence for Taiwan and has sent warships, bombers and fighter planes on training missions circling the democratic island in a show of strength.

While Beijing has an increasingly overwhelming military advantage, Taiwan’s missile systems advance its odds of holding off China in asymmetrical warfare, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. The term refers to effective resistance of an enemy with targeted firepower rather than overwhelming force.    [FULL  STORY]

Police are looking for a man in his 60s who appeared in footage from the gender-neutral toilet

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/08/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A woman visiting a Starbucks outlet in Taipei

City’s Neihu District found a hidden camera inside a toilet which might have taken 7,000 pictures of more than a hundred women, reports said Saturday.

Going through surveillance cameras at the coffee shop, police had begun to focus their investigation on a man in his sixties, the Apple Daily reported.

A woman discovered the camera when she became aware of a flash while she was inside a toilet, the report said. She looked around and found a working miniature camera.

On its memory card, police saw that more than 7,000 pictures had been taken of at least 100 women, but also of the culprit, which helped them compare with the footage from the store’s surveillance system, the Apple Daily reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/18
By: Kou Hsin-yi and Frances Huang 

Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) Automatic teller machines (ATMs) around Taiwan crashed Saturday morning and were down for two hours, crippling inter-bank transactions, the government-sponsored Financial Information Service Co. (FISC) said.

The problem occurred at around 7 a.m. due to an error in the information management system in the IBM mainframe, FISC spokesman Chen Chang-hsiu (陳昌脩) said.

The crash did not affect ATM withdrawals or deposits at the specific banks of the cardholders but halted the transfer of funds between banks via ATMs and online banking services, said the FISC , which is the central operator of such services.

It said cards also could not be used at any ATM other than those of the bank by which they were issued.    [FULL  STORY]

‘THINK CAREFULLY’: The president said that Beijing needs to create more amicable interactions and build more mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 19, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA, Belize City

Beijing’s suppression of Taiwan is unfavorable to cross-strait relations

and runs counter to China’s goal of becoming a respected nation, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Friday.

Tsai was commenting on an incident in which Taiwan-based bakery cafe chain 85°C (85度C) was boycotted and labeled a pro-Taiwan independence company by Chinese netizens after Tsai visited one of its stores in Los Angeles during a transit stop on Sunday last week.

The social media uproar forced the company to issue a statement expressing support for the so-called “1992 consensus.”
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-08-17

After nine hours of discussion, a review committee has finally agreed on a new minimum wage beginning next year.

Starting January 2019, a new minimum wage of NT23,100 (US$750), an increase of 5% from the current level of NT$22,000 (US$715) will go into effect. Hourly wage will be adjusted from the current NT$140 (US$4.55) to NT$150 (US$4.88), an increase of 7.14%.

Labor minister Hsu Ming-chun said the decision was reached after taking into account the annual growth rate of 17 vital basic commodities. Hsu said her office also considered the economic growth rate and the yearly growth rate of the labor productivity index. She said more than two and a quarter million people will benefit from the increase.

Hsu guaranteed that she did not side with either employers or employees in coming to the decision. She said that she had to take into consideration the living expenses of entry level employees but at the same time wanting businesses to continue to prosper.    [SOURCE]

Taiwan’s dwindling diplomatic partnerships remain essential to its future.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/08/17
By: By Lauren Dickey, The Interpreter

Since 1971, when the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 2758 and recognized the People’s Republic of China as “the only legitimate representatives of China”, Taiwan has faced increasing challenges from Beijing that impact Taipei’s ability to maintain formal diplomatic relationships. These pressures have become particularly acute in the past few years as some of Taiwan’s formal allies have been enticed into normalizing relations with Beijing.

As long as countries continue to formally recognize Taipei, Taiwan will fulfil one of the criteria of sovereignty: the ability to maintain foreign relationships.

At the time of writing, only 17 countries and the Holy See maintained formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. These small-country diplomatic relationships underpin Taiwan’s ability to assert autonomy and maintain de facto sovereignty amid Chinese efforts for unification.

A small polity, such as Taiwan, is certainly cognizant that its ability to influence international politics through military, economic, or political means may not be commensurate with the abilities of great powers. Diplomacy is thus a particularly potent tool of statecraft. Diplomatic partnerships, both formal and informal, provide a mechanism for Taiwan to influence world opinion and engage with other countries.    [FULL  STORY]

The considerable number of missiles could be used in precision strikes against Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/08/17
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – China has a stockpile of nearly 2,000 ballistic missiles of all ranges, which pose grave threats to both the U.S. and Taiwan, as they could be used to attack Taiwan in precision strikes that jeopardize and compromise the country’s political and military fortifications as well as its command center, according to the “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2018” report recently released by the Pentagon.

China could use missile attacks and precision air strikes to assault Taiwan’s air bases, radar sites, missile assets, and communications facilities, even targeting the leadership of Taiwan, wrote the Liberty Times, citing the report.

As indicated by the “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2018” report, China boasts 75 to 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 16 to 30 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, 200 to 300 medium-range ballistic missiles, and 1,000 to 2,000 short-ranged ballistic missiles, amounting to approximately 2,000 missiles.

In addition to the above-mentioned surface-to-air missiles, China’s rocket force could be even more formidable if air-to-air, submarine-launched, anti-ship, and cruise missiles are included, Taiwanese military officials warned.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/17
By: Chai Sze-chia and Ko Lin

Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) Despite the current stalemate in cross-Taiwan Strait

relations, the head of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said on Friday that it was open to having exchanges with China and hopes that the two sides can shelve their differences while interacting and trying to seek common ground.

“We will continue to remain open-minded,” SEF Chairwoman Chang Hsiao-yueh (張小月) told CNA, adding that she is willing to go to China for bilateral exchanges and also welcomes the other side to visit Taiwan.

The two sides must work together in order to understand one another, because engaging in indirect talks will only bring further misunderstandings, Chang said.    [FULL  STORY]