Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 04 September, 2020
By: Leslie Liao0

A Czech clothing website has been inundated with inquiries from Taiwan about a T-shirt printed with the words “I am Taiwanese”. That’s after visiting Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil said “I am Taiwanese” in Mandarin during a speech at Taiwan’s Legislature Tuesday, drawing a largely positive response from the Taiwanese public.

The website started selling the T-shirt in two colors for 220 Czech Koruna (US$9.86). People in Taiwan sought to purchase the T-shirt, but the company does not currently ship to Taiwan. 
[FULL  STORY]

A Chinese Air force Su-35 has crashed. Reports claimed it has been shot by Taiwan air defence system.

Air Live
Date: Sep 4, 2020

The CCP’s People’s Liberation Army Sukai 35 fighter plane crashed in Guangxi. Reports claimed that the fighter jet was flying over the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

A video shows multiple flames and dark smoke claimed to be of Chinese jet. And in a second video which surfaced on social showed a Chinese PLAAF pilot severely injured and resting on a stretcher motionless.

Reports claimed the Jet have transgressed into the Taiwanese airspace in Taiwan strait. However, Taiwan Ministry of Defense denied the shut down of the fighter Jet: The Air Force solemnly refuted the information.    [FULL  STORY]

TECO Electric & Machinery Co. dismisses report linking it to China as 'baseless' and 'untrue'

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/03
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

2020/9/4 16:30 Update Central Engraving and Printing Plant (the government agency that contracts out card making) has issued a statement dismissing as "baseless" a report suggesting illegal subcontracting by TECO Electric & Machinery Co. Ltd. It emphasized Chinese-made equipment and materials are not permitted and personal data will be protected to the highest standard.

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Nearly 24 million Taiwanese citizens might be at risk of exposure to personal data breaches as a result of the government's ambitions in the field of digital identification, as foreign subcontractors for the new electronic identity (eID) cards are said to have previously assisted China with building ID systems and could export huge amounts of Taiwanese biometric data to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the Hong Kong Security Law.

TECO Electric & Machinery Co. Ltd. (東元電機), the winner of Taiwan’s eID contract, is currently under investigation for bidding with a falsified ISO 14298 certificate. The company was previously involved in a number of government projects, including the making of 20 million National Health Insurance cards in 2001, iPass in 2005, and the Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), according to the report.

People familiar with the matter told MirrorMedia that after winning the NT$3.29 billion (US$ 112 million) eID contract, TECO contracted out card production to several firms, including France's Idemia and the U.S.' Datacard, a cost of NT$2.8 billion in total. The two companies, however, are also said to be working with the Chinese government on different projects.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/04/2020
By: William Yen,
Chang Ming-hsuan and Sunrise Huang

(Updated to reflect government reversal on where masks can be exchanged)

Taipei, Sept. 4 (CNA) Consumers who have purchased China-made masks through the government's surgical face mask rationing program can return them starting Friday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

Tsai Shou-chuan (蔡壽洤), a health official and head of the CECC division responsible for materials and supplies, said the masks, which have a "Carry Mask" logo can be returned and swapped for masks made in Taiwan.

The exchanges can be done until Sept. 11 at national health insurance-contracted pharmacies and clinics, major convenience stores, drugstore chain Cosmed, and supermarket chain PX Mart, the CECC said earlier Friday.

Tsai later reversed course, however, saying that exchanges could only be made through national health insurance-contracted pharmacies and clinics because private retailers did not have enough masks on hand to provide replacements to consumers.    [FULL  STORY]

LIKE-MINDED: Envoys of the US, Europe, Japan and the Czech Republic backed a supply chain based on democracy, free markets and a respect for IP rights

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 05, 2020
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday issued a joint statement on security supply chains, saying that they would augment consultations and cooperation, especially in the information and communications technology (ICT) and medical sectors, and ensure that “supply chains are secure and free from political coercion.”

The partnership would focus on encouraging partners to bring supply chains closer to home or like-minded economies, and to develop new supply chains based on shared values, the statement read.

“Developing supply chain resilience in like-minded priority regions, such as India, ASEAN and the Visegrad Group, which will collectively reinforce the Taiwan New Southbound Policy and US Indo-Pacific strategy” will be one of the partnership’s goals, it read.

The joint statement was issued following the Forum on Supply Chain Restructuring: Improving Resilience Amongst Like-Minded Partners hosted by the AIT at the Shangri-La Hotel in Taipei.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 03 September, 2020
By: Paula Chao

[A breakthrough in US-Taiwan trade talks][/caption] Taiwan’s decision to lift restrictions on US pork and beef imports has led to many goodwill gestures from the United States this week, including an announcement that trade talks will resume.

In today’s Taiwan Insider: a closer look at the decades-long controversy over US pork and beef, and an explainer about Ractopamine, a pork additive that has people concerned.  
[FULL  STORY]

 

CNN
Date: September 3, 2020
By: Brad Lendon, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN)When a United States guided missile destroyer sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, it marked the second such transit in less than two weeks — and among the clearest signals yet of Washington's willingness to stand up for Taiwan in the face of Chinese aggression.

On Monday, the US went further still, taking the cover off previously classified commitments it made to Taiwan during the Reagan administration. Known as the Six Assurances, they spell out how US arms sales and diplomatic support to Taipei will move forward without regard to pressure from Beijing.

Though the US has remained a decades-long ally of Taiwan following the island's split from mainland China in the wake of a civil war, policymakers in Washington have traditionally refrained from overt displays of support.

China continues to view the self-governing democracy of almost 24 million people as an inseparable part of its territory, and has vowed to unify the island with the mainland.
[FULL  STORY]

Maintaining policy of strategic ambiguity for US unlikely to maintain status quo in Taiwan Strait going forward

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/03
By: Eric Chang, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — For the last 40 years, the U.S. government has chosen a policy of strategic ambiguity in respect to whether it would come to Taiwan’s defense if it was attacked by China.

The policy serves two purposes: to make China reluctant in mounting an invasion attempt on Taiwan and to dissuade Taiwan from declaring formal independence. As ambiguity is unlikely to stop today’s China and its increasing military threats in the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. should consider a policy of strategic clarity that makes explicit that America would respond to any use of force by China against Taiwan, according to a piece Foreign Policy by Richard Hass and David Sacks.

Maintaining a policy of ambiguity for the U.S. is unlikely to maintain the status quo in the Taiwan Strait going forward, as many of the reasons that made it an effective strategy are no longer viable. Beijing’s defense spending is 15 times that of Taiwan’s, while Chinese strategic planning has focused on obstructing the U.S. from being able to successfully intervene on Taiwan’s behalf, according to the report.

China now has military hardware equivalent to anything the U.S. sells to Taiwan, and as Beijing continues its military advancement, the chances that America would win in a Taiwan conflict are no longer certain. Under General Secretary Xi Jinping, China has grown more assertive in advancing its interests.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/03/2020
By: William Yen and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) In an attempt to protect its workers from exploitation, Indonesia has insisted that employers of its migrant workers, including those in Taiwan, must shoulder some of the placement fees which currently leave many Indonesians in deep debt and vulnerable to abuse, but Taiwan's Ministry of Labor (MOL) on Thursday responded by saying foreign governments should not decide labor agreements between their nationals and Taiwanese employers.

The dispute touches on a long-existing complaint from migrant workers and groups that advocate for their rights – that Taiwan's employers currently do not have to pay any of the pre-employment costs for the migrants, as the system currently allows brokers to exact fees only from the overseas laborers, who cannot afford to pay them and must go into debt to come to Taiwan for work.

In a statement to CNA, the MOL's Workforce Development Agency (WDA) said related expenses, such as air tickets, training and visa fees, that arise because of overseas jobs for migrant workers, should be agreed upon by the employer and worker, not the government in the worker's country of origin.

Furthermore, in an indication of its displeasure with the unilateral move by Indonesia, the WDA noted that Taiwanese employers can employ migrant labor from other countries.
[FUILL  STORY]

CARRY LABEL: The agency said that Carry Hi-tech imported about 3.37 million non-medical masks and mixed them with those for the government’s rationing system

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 04, 2020
By: Wu Liang-yi and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA

A New Taipei City pharmacist reported that a shipment of masks from a local supplier contained more than 3 million that were made in China, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.

The pharmacist in Sanchong District (三重), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that one package was labeled with simplified Chinese characters that read: “Made in Anhui Province,” the FDA said.

The shipment was from Carry Hi-tech Co (加利科技) in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), it said.

The FDA said that it collaborated with the New Taipei City Field Office of the Investigation Bureau and the New Taipei City Department of Health to conduct a search of the factory, where investigators found non-medical masks labeled as made in China and import documents.
[FULL  STORY]