Chinese disinformation in Taiwan is nothing new, but the CCP is spreading it more effectively than ever before through the internet and social media.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/26
By: By Russell Hsiao, China Brief

At the height of the ongoing controversial pension reforms debate in Taiwan, LINE – the most popular messaging application on the island – and internet users reportedly began seeing a flood of messages and numerous websites that falsely claimed that the central government was planning to impose draconian restrictions on pensioners.

Alerted by the potential instability that such rumors may cause in a society already on edge over the issue, the Taiwan government quickly issued a statement denying the fake news. According to Taiwan’s national security apparatuses, a growing volume of disinformation are the products of “content farms” emerging from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The disinformation campaign concerning the pension reform is one example in a long history of the use of propaganda and disinformation as political tools across the Taiwan Strait. While Taiwan may have enjoyed an advantage at the beginning of the information war due to access to more resources and technology (e.g., help from the United States), that advantage is eroding as Beijing, while remaining a close authoritarian government, exploits the openness and transparency of Taiwan’s democratic and economic system to unduly influence Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s foreign ministry has accused China of intentionally delaying the delivery of important information to Taiwan during emergency disease outbreak situations

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/26
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Following a statement made by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) on April 25, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) expressed anger and regret over China’s intentionally misleading information intended to play down the importance of Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA).

In a regular media briefing, Ma told media that Taiwan’s absence from the assembly won’t cause any complications for the region’s disease control network, and that the island will obtain real-time information on worldwide disease prevention and control, through arrangements with China and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Ma was rebuked the next day by Taiwan’s foreign ministry, when an official stated that the Taiwanese health department’s Chinese counterpart has often been slow to update Taiwan with the latest outbreak warnings from WHO authorities, which has in turn put public health at risk in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/26
By: Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, April 26 (CNA) Eight Taiwanese nationals found guilty of attempting to smuggle

one ton of amphetamine into Indonesia in July 2017, received the death penalty on Thursday at the South Jakarta District Court, according to the Jakarta Post.

In two separate hearings, the district court found the three men waiting at Anyer Beach in the province of Banten to offload the drugs, and the five-man crew on the yacht transporting the drugs, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of violating Indonesia’s Narcotics Law.

The English daily first reported on the hearing involving the three defendants on the beach — Chen Wei-chuan (陳威全), Hsu Yung-li (徐勇立) and Liao Kuan-yu (廖冠宇) — who were responsible for the distribution of the drugs in Indonesia, which took place earlier in the day.

Despite an earlier appeal for leniency by the eight suspects, the court found no mitigating factors in the case of the three defendants for a lighter sentence, the Jakarta Post said.
[FULL  STORY]

PENSION REFORM PROTEST: The Cabinet is mulling introducing a bill that toughens the penalties for assaulting a police officer, Premier William Lai said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 27, 2018
By: Su Yung-yao, Lee Hsin-fang and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Presidential Office yesterday condemned the outbreak of violence at Wednesday’s

pension protest and vowed to continue with its pension reform, while Premier William Lai (賴清德) said the Cabinet could lead legislative efforts to toughen the penalties for assaulting a police officer.

Violent lawbreakers do not represent the nation’s patriotic and loyal soldiers, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Wednesday on Facebook, hours after rioters assaulted and injured 68 police officers and 16 journalists at a protest staged by the military veterans’ group 800 Heroes.

“This administration will not bow down to violence and it will not budge from the path of reform. I ask the nation to stand with reform and take the administration’s side,” Tsai wrote.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-04-25

The government on Tuesday responded to remarks from China’s government threatening

to escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait, calling them unhelpful and displaying intent to intimidate.

Earlier in the day, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said recent military exercises in the Taiwan Strait were aimed at curbing “Taiwan independence forces and activities.” Ma said China would take “further action” if “Taiwan independence” speech and activities continue within Taiwan.

In response, Cabinet spokesperson Hsu Kuo-yung said freedom of speech in Taiwan is a part of a democratic nation and is a basic right protected by the country’s constitution. Hsu said intimidatory language is not helpful to cross-strait peace or to regional stability.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory even though the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have been ruled separately for nearly 70 years. Beijing has stated its willingness to use force to achieve its ultimate goal of unification.    [SOURCE]

Voting is already underway in the Identity Redesign contest, and many entries have proven controversial.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/25
By: Morley J Weston

Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior (MoI) and Ministry of Culture (MoC) and a team of design experts are holding a contest to inspire a redesign of the country’s national identification card (國民身分證), leading to a hot debate over Taiwan’s shifting national identity and social values.

Voting on public submissions for the ID cards has been underway since April 21, and a winning entry will be chosen on May 11, which will serve as a starting point for the next national ID card. The winning team will receive a prize of NT$120,000 (US$4,055).

Graphic designer Aaron Nieh (聶永真), one of the five judges of the contest, told The News Lens that the contest was held to get public input on the design, including elements such as how to arrange all the information on the new ID card “in a more appropriate and contemporary way.”    [FULL  STORY]

An Tso Sun appeared at hearing in handcuffs

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/25
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In his first public appearance in 29 days, the Taiwanese student

suspected of plotting a mass attack against his school in the United States told reporters Wednesday he “only wanted to read comics.”

An Tso “Edward” Sun (孫安佐), the son of celebrities Di Ying (狄鶯) and Sun Peng (孫鵬), was detained on March 26 after a fellow student reported a threat he made of planning a mass shooting at his school on May 1. Subsequent searches turned up large amounts of ammunition and a handgun he built himself, according to police statements.

At a preliminary hearing at a Pennsylvania court Wednesday morning local time, Sun arrived in handcuffs, and when Taiwanese journalists shouted questions at him, he replied that he only wanted to read comics, the Apple Daily reported.    [FULL  STORY]

‘GROUNDLESS’:Prosecutors in their probe into the sale of three media outlets have violated the principles of confidentiality, objectivity and proper procedure, Ma said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 26, 2018
By: Hsieh Chun-lin and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday exercised his right to remain silent

during questioning at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office as part of an ongoing inquiry into an alleged breach of financial regulations during the sale of three media companies formerly run by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

The KMT in 2005 sold Central Motion Picture Corp (CMPC, 中影), China Television Co (CTV, 中視) and Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC, 中廣), after an amendment to the Broadcasting and Television Act (廣播電視法) in 2003 barred political parties, the military and politicians from owning media outlets.

Ma, who was then-KMT chairman, is accused of illegally facilitating the sales of the media outlets below market value, which would be a breach of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法).

Ma left the office after four hours of questioning and immediately issued a statement, saying the prosecution is procedurally unjust and that he exercised his right to silence.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/25
By: Huang Li-yun, Ku Chuan, Wang Cheng-chung, Liu Kuan-ting, 
Elaine Hou and Kuan-lin Liu 

Taipei, April 25 (CNA) Police arrested 63 people in Taipei on Wednesday for disorderly conduct during a protest against the government’s planned military pension reform.

The protesters from the veterans group “800 Warriors” had gathered peacefully in the morning outside the Legislature while the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee was holding a public hearing on the reform proposal.

Around 3 p.m., however, clashes with police in the area erupted as the protesters tried to tear down the police barricade to enter the Legislature building.

Some protesters threw bottles, plastic chairs, sticks, stones and smoke bombs, which resulted in injury to 32 police officers and 11 reporters, according to information released by Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇).    [FULL  STORY]

The move is set to counter the increasing threat from China’s provocative actions 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/24
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s leading state-funded research and development institute

of defense technology and weapons is reportedly set to prepare for mass production of two types of missiles with extended range, which are believed to be capable of traveling more than 1,000 and 2,000 kilometers, respectively, or reaching Beijing.

People familiar with the matter told Upmedia that the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology (NCSIST, 中科院) was looking for procurement of more than 600 sets of ring laser gyroscopes (RLG) and control panel components from the United States, with the purchase believed to be preparing for mass production of the country’s self-developed extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE, a surface-to-surface cruise missile, and of the Cloud Peak medium-range missile.

The highly accurate ring laser gyroscopes can assist missiles to obtain data about course, speed, altitude, and other useful information in order to improve the accuracy of hitting the target.    [FULL  STORY]