The Ministry is considering various punitive measures for airlines that disrespect Taiwan’s sovereignty

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/08/06
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications is reportedly considering a range of possible counter measures to penalize airlines that have chosen to designate Taiwan as part of China in accordance with the dictates of Beijing.

According to Liberty Times, one option the Ministry might be considering would be to limit the offending airlines from accessing jet bridges for their passengers while they disembark, and possibly also limiting the time available for them to use airport facilities when landing at Taiwan’s airports.

On Monday Aug. 6, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said the Ministry has asked the airlines to change their designation of Taiwan back to its previous iteration, and to rightly list Taiwan as a independent country. However, the Wang also said that Taiwan must consider some form of punitive measures for the airlines which disrespect the sovereignty of Taiwan.

The report suggests that the Ministry is considering increasing the jet bridge fee for offending airlines which is charged for each plane’s use of the jet bridges. That money would then be invested into Taiwan’s aviation industry and into upgrading facilities at the nation’s airports    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/06
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Aug. 6 (CNA) Taiwan will spend more than one-fifth of its defense budget

next year on the development of indigenous weapons, in line with the government’s policy of strengthening national security, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Monday.

In the government’s proposals for the 2019 national budget, defense spending has been increased by NT$18.3 billion (US$592.6 million) from the previous year to NT$346 billion, which represents 2.16 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, Tsai said.

Of the total defense budget, NT$73.6 billion, or 21.3 percent, will be spent on developing indigenous defense systems, an increase of NT$25 billion, as part of the effort to build Taiwan’s warfare capability, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

WARFARE CAPABILITY: The nation is to spend NT$73.6 billion, or 21.3 percent, of its defense budget on the development of indigenous weapons, the president said

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 07, 2018
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA

Taiwan will spend more than one-fifth of its defense budget next year on the

development of indigenous weapons, in line with the government’s policy of strengthening national security, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.

In the government’s proposals for next year’s national budget, defense spending is to increase by NT$18.3 billion (US$597.5 million) from the previous year to NT$346 billion, which represents 2.16 percent of the nation’s GDP, Tsai said.

Of the total defense budget, NT$73.6 billion, or 21.3 percent, is to be spent on developing indigenous defense systems, an increase of NT$25 billion, as part of the effort to broaden the nation’s warfare capability, she said.

The proposals also include NT$95.1 billion for military investment, an increase of NT$13.9 billion from the previous year, Tsai said during the unveiling of a plaque at Navy Command Headquarters.   [FULL  STORY]

Scientists agree on blueprint for what would be the world’s longest rail tunnel but politics means it is likely to remain a pipe dream for now

South China Morning Post 
Date: 06 August, 2018
By: Stephen Chen

After years of debate, Chinese scientists are close to a consensus on the design for what would be the world’s longest undersea railway tunnel, connecting the mainland to Taiwan.

If realised, shuttle trains could be whizzing through a 135 kilometre (84 mile) undersea section of the tunnel at up to 250km per hour by 2030.

The ambitious undertaking would include a multi-billion-yuan engineering and technical “warm-up” project, according to plans the scientists have sent the Chinese government, the South China Morning Post has learned.

China’s new J-16 fighter jet ‘targeting Taiwan’ may soon be combat ready
Despite this technological progress, rising political tensions between the self-ruled island and Beijing, which regards it as a renegade province, mean that the scheme is unlikely to come to fruition any time soon.    [FULL  STORY]

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/08/06
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), addressing an increasingly “overbearing” China, told supporters that Taiwan will not yield an inch to Chinese pressure.

She cited recent incidents such as Taichung losing the right to host the 2019 East Asian Youth Games due to Chinese demands, along with China pressuring Taiwanese actress Vivian Sung (宋芸樺) to apologize for saying Taiwan is her favorite country.

Speaking at a campaign rally for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Tainan mayoral candidate Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), Tsai said China’s moves to undermine the morale of the Taiwanese people and disrupt society will fail, no matter how great the pressure.

Tsai also touted her administration’s achievements in domestic affairs at the rally and told supporters the government has not let everyone down, even under very difficult circumstances associated with China’s suppression of Taiwan.
[FULL  STORY]

Japanese comedian Kenji Kansai suspected of physically abusing 4-month-old daughter

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/08/06
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Japanese comedian, who has become a TV star in Taiwan, is suspected of badly battering his 4-month-old infant daughter.

The daughter 42-year-old Kenji Kansai (葛西健二), who has become a celebrity on Taiwanese TV and married a Taiwanese woman in 2012, took his daughter to a clinic on Saturday (Aug. 4) with serious head trauma, a nose contusion and numerous abrasions on her body, causing doctors to quickly become suspicious that the wounds had been inflicted by him, reported News Magazine Asia.

Oddly, earlier that day, Kansai had posted a photo of his baby being bathed and a large red mark was visible on her forehead, as well as welts on her cheeks, arms and navel. Concerned netizens soon wrote to him asking him if the water temperature was too high, to which he responded “Thank you for your advice, I will pay more attention to the water temperature next time I bathe her.”

After doctors examined the baby at the hospital, they found that she had suffered a skull fracture and symptoms of brain edema. When questioned by police, Kansai said that a month ago when he was not paying attention, his daughter “had fallen on her head, but fortunately she was not badly hurt,” reported ETtoday.  At 3 months, babies are not yet able to crawl, but some can begin to roll somewhat at that stage.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/05
By: Emmanuelle Tzeng and Elizabeth Hsu

Paris, Aug. 4 (CNA) The Republic of China (Taiwan) flag was waved during the

colorful opening of the 2018 Gay Games in Paris Saturday, not just by the Taiwanese team but also by teams from other nations or areas that support Taiwan.

The Taiwanese athletes entered the venue at Stade Jean Bouin waving the ROC flag and a banner reading “The 1st Asian country to legalize equal marriage.”

The flag was also waved by some members of the French team and by a team from San Francisco.

Yang Chih-chun (楊智群), head of the Taiwanese team, said they had given several dozen ROC flags to French softball alliance members, who said they would fly the flag during the opening parade.    [FULL  STORY]

UTMOST GOODWILL: County Commissioner Chen Fu-hai explained his vision of ‘three new links’ with China, but the Cabinet said the idea needs to be dicussed

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 06, 2018
By: Lu Yi-hsuan  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

Kinmen County yesterday began importing water from China’s Fujian Province to

stabilize its water supply, while county Commissioner Chen Fu-hai (陳福海) said he hopes to boost bilateral ties with the Chinese province through what he called “three new links.”

Separate ceremonies were held in Kinmen and China’s Jinjiang City to mark the opening of the water supply system, with Chen and other local politicians attending the ceremony in Kinmen.

The county government held the ceremony as scheduled, despite calls by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) to delay it after Beijing pressured members of the East Asian Olympic Committee to revoke Taichung’s right to host the East Asian Youth Games next year.

The “water link” — one of Chen’s “three new links” — is the result of an agreement that Taiwan and China signed in 2015 to provide Kinmen with water for 30 years, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]

The National Interest
Date: August 4, 2018 
By: Sebastien Roblin

Taipei would like to acquire newer submarines, but it is confronted with a series of major obstacles.

Taiwan’s defense planners have a uniquely unenviable mission—the defacto island state of twenty-three million somehow seeks to deter an invasion from mainland China, a rising superpower only a hundred miles away.

Realistically, the breakaway Republic of China cannot hope to prevail in a knockdown-dragout fight with Beijing. However, Taipei’s gambit is to make such a battle so potentially costly that Beijing will not be tempted to abandon its strategy of seeking reunification through peaceful means.

Submarines could potentially prove a useful conventional deterrence to attack by interdicting the waters around Taiwan from amphibious landing ships and harrying the PLA Navy’s numerically superior naval forces, while remaining submerged at sea to avoid attacks by China’s land-, sea- and air-launched anti-ship missiles.

However, the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) has only four submarines. Two of these, the Hao Si and Hai Pao, are American Tench-class boats that date back to the end of World War II. The oldest submarines still in service anywhere on the world, they are used only for training purposes.    [FULL  STORY]

Hong Kong Free Press
Date: 4 August 2018
By: Hilton Yip

It is no secret that China is not happy with Taiwan’s current president and

administration. Ever since Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, China has engaged in threats and luring away Taiwanese diplomatic allies to try to isolate Taiwan in the global arena.

Over the last month, China’s efforts to bully Taiwan have intensified to the point they border on absurdity. But the effect of China’s bullying is no laughing matter.

The most notable example of China’s recent bullying of Taiwan was forcing dozens of international airlines to change how they refer to Taiwan on their websites so that the word “Taiwan” is either removed or listed with “China” behind, implying Taiwan is a part of China.

When several American airlines did this at the end of July, they were the last holdouts. Airlines from Europe to India and even Japan had already caved in to Beijing’s orders.
[FULL  STORY]