Thanks to China, it doesn’t know when it will be back again.

The New York Times
Date: July 29, 2018
By HengHeng
Kim Song is an editorial cartoonist.

Several American airlines have scrubbed reference to Taiwan from their websites for destinations like its capital city of Taipei. The deletion has occurred under pressure from the Chinese government, which claims the democratic, independently ruled island as its own territory.  [SOURCE]

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/07/29
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, July 29 (CNA) Over the past few years, Taiwan has seen slower growth in the number of “new immigrants” arriving in the country, a category that predominantly refers to the foreign and Chinese spouses of Taiwanese nationals, who live in Taiwan.

The slowdown is largely attributable to a sharp decline in the number of Chinese spouses of Taiwanese citizens, although there has been a slight increase in the number of spouses from other foreign countries, Hong Kong and Macau over the past few years, according to a report compiled by the Budget Center of the Legislative Yuan.

As of the end of March, the number of new immigrants resident in Taiwan totaled 533,159, including 338,940 Chinese spouses and 101,333 Vietnamese spouses, the report indicated, citing National Immigration Agency (NIA) statistics.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/29
By Wang Cheng-chung and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, July 29 (CNA) Taiwan is experiencing a severe imbalance in talent inflows and outflows, with the majority of Taiwanese leaving the country to work having higher education degrees that qualify them for professional jobs, while most foreigners working in Taiwan are non-professionals, a government research report indicates.

The number of Taiwanese working in foreign countries increased from 662,000 in 2009 to 728,000 in 2016, according to a July report reviewing manpower policy, published by the Budget Center at the Legislative Yuan.

Among Taiwanese working overseas in 2016, 534,000, or 73.4 percent, were college or university graduates, or those with higher academic degrees, the report said.

In contrast, the number of foreign professionals working in Taiwan has risen much more slowly, from 27,319 in 2008 to 30,928 in 2016, the report said. However, only 2,634, or 8.52 percent, were high-ranking executives at oversea Taiwanese-invested or foreign companies, the report added.    [FULL  STORY]

MEDIA EVENT: Taichung’s mayor is to hold an international news conference today in Taipei to publicize the harm that Beijing is doing to the sports world, the city said

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 30, 2018
By: Su Ou-mei and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday told Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) to

continue infrastructure work needed for the East Asian Youth Games, despite the East Asian Olympic Committee’s (EAOC) decision to revoke Taichung’s right to host next year’s Games.

He also slammed China for the political suppression of sports and called on the public to show support for Taichung.

At a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday, EAOC chairman Liu Peng (劉鵬) and six of the eight committee members voted to remove Taichung as the host city, reportedly based on “political factors.”

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday said that the move was related to a referendum campaign in Taiwan to have the nation take part in international sporting events — including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — as “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei.”
[FULL  STORY]

Then ANC leader Nelson Mandela meets with Chinese Communist Party General

Quartz
Date: July 28, 2018
By: Christopher Williams, University of the Witwatersrand

It is 20 years since South Africa and the People’s Republic of China, or mainland China, established formal diplomatic ties. Though China is now South Africa’s largest trading partner and a co-member of the BRICS grouping which also includes Brazil, Russia and India, relations between South Africa and China were not always so close.

When president Nelson Mandela took office in May 1994, he was immediately confronted with a vexing foreign policy problem: how to balance the country’s diplomatic relations with Taiwan—inherited from the apartheid government—with Beijing’s “One China principle”. This principle holds that Taiwan is part of China, and that Beijing is the only legitimate authority over all of China.

In a recently published paper based on archival material as well as interviews with former South African officials, we shed light on the texture and timing of the decision to recognize China and cut ties with Taiwan.

After Mandela’s inauguration it was widely expected that the new, democratic South Africa would soon recognize mainland China. The world’s most populous country had a rapidly growing economy and significant international influence, including a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. At the time 159 states recognized the People’s Republic of China, while only 29 had diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: July 28, 2018
By: Phillip Charlier  

Three suspects have been arrested after an elderly woman and her daughter were found bound and gagged, one dead, and one unconscious, in their Xinzhuang District apartment on the evening of July 26.

At around 8:00pm Thursday evening, a man named Lee called police after being unable to contact his mother and sister, and finding the door of their Zhonghe Road residence locked. After firefighters forced the door open, the two women were found bound, gagged, and blindfolded, laying on the floor wrapped in blankets.

The 90 year-old mother was found without trace of heartbeat or breathing, and was declared dead at the hospital. The deceased woman’s 67 year-old daughter was unconscious, and was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.

After regaining consciousness, Ms Lee provided information to police that pointed to a suspect named Lin. As the investigation progressed, two accomplices, Zhang and Peng, also became suspects.    [FULL  STORY]

Juann Choir was barred from performing at UN Center in Vienna

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/07/28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwanese junior high school choir which was forced to abandon a performance at a United Nations building in the Austrian capital Vienna due to bullying by China moved an audience at a retirement home to tears, reports said Saturday.

The Juann Choir (濁岸合唱團) from the Min Ho Junior High School in Nantou County was in Vienna to participate in the World Peace Choral Festival but its plans to sing at the UN center were scrapped due to pressure from China, the Central News Agency reported Friday.

However, their other performances went ahead in other parts of the Austrian capital. Wearing traditional indigenous clothes and jewelry, and carrying traditional musical instruments, they performed at a retirement home Friday evening.

One of the elderly ladies in the audience was so moved by the songs that she broke out in crying, and five of the choir members walked over to help her wipe away her tears, CNA reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/28
By: Hsiao Po-yang, Elaine Hou and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, July 28 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Saturday that Taiwan will not back down in the face of Chinese bullying, which prevented a Taiwanese choir from performing at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in Vienna.

The ministry said it is following the case closely and has directed personnel in its office in Austria to offer assistance to members of Min Ho Junior High School in central Taiwan’s Nantou county, which was invited to attend the World Peace Choral Festival in Vienna July 26-29.

China has been trying to belittle Taiwan more aggressively recently “through rougher manners, which shows Beijing’s lack of respect for the human spirit represented in cultural and sports events worldwide,” the ministry said.

Taiwan will not shy away from the challenge posed by China and will continue to seek to participate in the global community through soft power, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

RECIPROCITY: Taiwan hopes to resume stationing military police at its offices in the US to show that military cooperation between the two nations has ‘entered a new stage’
By Su Yung-yao and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 29, 2018
By: Su Yung-yao and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The US is to station Marine security guards at the American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT)

new complex in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), which is to begin operations in September, sources familiar with the matter said.

The mission of Marine security guards is different from that of other US Marines, whose primary mission is combat, the sources said.

According to internal US mechanisms, before sending the guards overseas, the US assesses the safety conditions of the country and of the embassy facilities, and uses this information to determine how many guards to send, they said.

Rather than an increase in security standards, the stationing of the guards at the AIT could be considered a representation of how much the US values its relationship with Taiwan, they said.

In response to media speculation that US Marines would be stationed at the complex, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said that the AIT’s internal security arrangements are its own affair and that the Presidential Office has no comment.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-07-27

Taiwan’s Mandopop diva Jolin Tsai is calling on the public to donate money to help lift

disadvantaged children out of poverty. At the invitation of the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, the singer was featured in a short film.

In the film titled a “Poverty-Free Generation,” Jolin Tsai, as a teacher, visits an 11-year-old girl named Mary. Mary’s mother was paralyzed in a car accident ten years ago. She now has to take care of her mother and do household chores while still finding time for schoolwork. Mary’s mother is very proud of her daughter but she said she is also heartbroken.

A survey released by the foundation shows that nearly half of minors from disadvantaged families did poorly in maths and English, and about one third failed in all five core subjects last year. The foundation said poor academic performance affects children’s futures and their opportunity to escape from poverty.    [FULL  STORY]