Radio Taiwan International
Date: 02 September, 2020
By: Katherine Wei

Huwei, Yunlin County, holds a magnificent banquet for the ghosts for the Ghost Month each year.[/caption] While Keelung hosts one of Taiwan’s longest and most famous Ghost Month events each year, many other places in Taiwan might lay claim to the title of the most extravagant. For instance, there’s Huwei, a town in Yunlin County that always strives to throw the biggest Ghost Month banquet possible.

Volunteers carry boxes and boxes of food, drinks, and dried goods to a roped-off street in the town of Huwei. These are all offerings to the ghosts who come wandering out from the underworld for one month late each summer.

The seven districts of Huwei come together every year to throw a banquet that is truly out of this world, with 5,000 tables piled high with a feast for their ghostly visitors.    [FULL  STORY]

Visit of Czech lawmaker to island follows hot on the heels of American health secretary and can only worsen already tense cross-strait relations

South China Morning Post
Date: 3 Sep, 2020

SCMP Editorial

Anything that is seen to shore up international support for Taiwan is anathema to Beijing. The angry reaction to the visit to the island by a Czech delegation led by senate president Milos Vystrcil is only to be expected.

Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule by force if necessary and has warned other countries against official exchanges that appear to lend support to Taiwanese sovereignty. In terms of perception under the one-China principle, Vystrcil’s address to Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, the first by a foreign politician in 45 years, crossed that line.

The timing too is provocative, coming on the heels of a visit by United States health secretary Alex Azar, the most senior American official visitor since Washington switched diplomatic recognition of China from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. Ahead of US presidential elections this was a politically reckless strategy, with Sino-US relations at their worst level amid rising rhetoric and military provocation and a heightened risk of confrontation.

The American visit emboldened the Czech delegation. Given Beijing’s reaction, it could exacerbate dangerous tensions if more countries or their senior officials were to follow crossing the line to establish some sort of official contact with Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Officers forged documents to obtain NT$30 million in bonuses

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/02
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A major general and three associates were indicted Wednesday (Sept. 2) for forging a fire extinguishing project for armored vehicles, allowing them to pocket NT$30 million (US$1.02 million) in bonuses.

Major General Chu Chien-chun (朱建群) managed the military’s 202nd Arsenal in 2015 when he was entrusted with running the development of an automatic fire extinguishing system for the Clouded Leopard armored vehicle, CNA reported.

When he realized the project would not reach the threshold necessary to trigger bonuses, he ordered three other officers to forge documents presenting unfinished systems as completed, according to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office.

A whistleblower reportedly told the authorities about the scheme, with an investigation showing that Chu had been the mastermind behind the forgery.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/02/2020
By: Yu Hsiang, Su Ssu-yun, Sabine Cheng and Kay Liu

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil said during a meeting with Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Wednesday that his current visit to Taiwan is aimed at connecting the two countries.

Taiwan and the Czech Republic share the values of freedom and democracy, he said, expressing hope that the two countries can further expand their cooperation in the fields of economy, technology and innovation in a way that creates mutual benefits for both sides, Vystrčil said.

Meanwhile, Su for his part noted the Czech Senate's approval of a double taxation agreement signed by the two sides that will come into effect from 2021.

Su said he believes the agreement will encourage more Taiwanese businesses to invest in the central European country, where Taiwan companies have invested over US$1 billion.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 03, 2020
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

US support for Taiwan’s self-defense remains firm, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen said yesterday at the unveiling of a memorial to honor the 126 US service members who have lost their lives defending Taiwan since 1949.

The ceremony at the institute commemorated US Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Medendorp and US Lieutenant Colonel Frank Lynn, who died defending Taiwan in 1954 in Kinmen.

Medals and framed certificates were conferred to them in 2016 by then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

The AIT displays the medals and the certificates in the lobby of its Taipei facility.  
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 01 September, 2020
By: Natalie Tso

Taiwan World Vision has started a campaign to find sponsors for 1000 disadvantaged girls. It hopes their campaign will help change the lives of girls in need in the run up to International Day of the Girl on October 11. 

The charity shared about two cases of young girls in need. One is a 17-year old girl from Nepal named Akhi while another is a Taiwanese girl from Nantou they call Xiao Chia. 

Akhi’s father is physically challenged and is unable to work. The family relies on the low income of her mother which wasn’t enough.    [FULL  STORY]

Bloomberg
Date: September 1, 2020
By: Patrick Donahue

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s top diplomat warned Chinese counterpart Wang Yi against making “threats” toward European allies, as Wang reinforced his accusation that a Czech lawmaker’s visit to Taiwan had crossed a line.

The sharp exchange after talks in Berlin undermined what had been billed as a charm offensive from China, after Wang, the Chinese foreign minister, said that the Czech Senate president would pay a “heavy price” for his Taiwan visit. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he’d spoken by phone with his Czech counterpart.    [FULL  STORY]

Sex offender allegedly threatened to shock teen with collar, hid her inside secret room

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/01
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Since the rescue of a teenage girl surnamed Liu (劉) from her captor on Tuesday (Sept. 1), details have begun to emerge from her ordeal, including her being threatened with an "electric shock collar" and forced to hide inside a secret compartment.

After her disappearance for 66 hours, police were finally able to locate a missing 14-year-old middle school student and her alleged abductor, a 31-year-old man surnamed Lo (羅) who was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting two middle school girls in 2018. At 8:50 on Tuesday morning Police found Lo inside an apartment rented by his mother on Zhongxing Road in Hsinchu County's Zhudong Township.

Police thoroughly searched the apartment three times before discovering a hidden trap door in the ceiling above a bunk bed, revealing the missing student cowering inside a hidden compartment on the 4th floor of the apartment. Both were brought back to a nearby police station for questioning.

Liu confirmed to police that she initially thought she was meeting Lo in Hsinchu for a job interview. However, she said that she soon discovered that he "seemed weird," and he later took her to a secret room where he confiscated her phone, reported ETtoday.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/01/2020
By: Chang Hsiung-feng and Chiang Yi-ching

 

Taipei, Sept. 1 (CNA) A tropical storm that formed Tuesday in waters southeast of Iwo Jima, an outlying island south of Japan, is unlikely to have a major effect on Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said that day.

Tropical Storm Haishen formed at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, and is expected to head west-northwest toward Japan, the CWB said.    [SOURCE]

DUTY: Legislative bodies must defend democratic principles, Milos Vystrcil said, adding that Prague would not follow the orders of non-democratic nations, referring to China

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 02, 2020
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil yesterday said that he is “Taiwanese,” as Taiwan and the Czech Republic share the common goal of defending democratic values.

Speaking at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, Vystrcil began his speech by comparing the differences between the Czech and Taiwanese parliaments, with the former bicameral and the latter unicameral.

Although this would inevitably raise the question of which system works better, he said he believes there is not a single system that would be the best or would suit all nations, as countries in a free and democratic world have different criteria for functional democracy.

However, all legislative bodies in functional democratic systems uphold human life as the highest value, he added.    [FULL  STORY]