The Standard
Date: 23 Aug 2020

A Chinese boat captain, who is suspected of ordering the killing of at least four unarmed men at sea some six years ago, was detained by Taiwanese authorities on Saturday soon after he entered Kaohsiung port on a fishing boat.

The 43-year-old suspect was arrested when the Seychelles-flagged Indian Star docked in the southern port city at 8:50 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard Administration's investigation unit in Fengshan District said, CNA reports

According to Taiwan media reports, the suspect is a Chinese citizen, Wang Fengyu, but while local authorities confirmed his nationality, they did not release his name.

The man is suspected of involvement in the deaths of at least four unarmed men, who were shot as they were drifting in the water, clinging to some debris. It was not clear why the victims were in the water.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/23
By:  Central News Agency

Brent Christensen, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), on Sunday attended for the first time an annual ceremony that commemorates a battle in which Taiwan fended off an attempted invasion by China 62 years ago.

The memorial for the soldiers who were killed during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958 was held at Taiwushan Cemetery in the offshore Kinmen County, which was the frontline of Taiwan's battle against the Chinese communist forces in that era.

Christensen, the U.S.' top envoy to Taiwan, was the only foreign dignitary who attended the ceremony, at which President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) laid a wreath and bowed in homage to the soldiers who died in a battle known as the Artillery Bombardment of Kinmen.

On Aug. 23, 1958, nine years after the Republic of Taiwan (R.O.C.) government relocated from mainland China to Taiwan during a civil war, Chinese communist forces launched an attack on the R.O.C. military in Kinmen, which lies less than 10 kilometers off the southeast coast of China.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/23/2020
By: Chang Hsiung-feng and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, Aug. 23 (CNA) The density of microplastics in Taiwan's waters is highest in summer, possibly because of the equipment used for oyster farming, an environmental group said recently, after a 10-month study.

The study, conducted by the Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation, built on its work in 2018, when it gave its first analysis of microplastic pollution in the waters around Taiwan.

The foundation found microplastics — pieces of plastic less than 5 millimeters in length — at all of its selected test sites around Taiwan that year, with the highest density of pollution in the water samples collected on the country's northeastern and southwestern coasts.

In its latest study, which was conducted June 2019 to March 2020, the foundation focused on those two areas and analyzed ocean samples collected throughout the year.   [FULL  STORY]

‘LONG, PROUD HISTORY’: Brent Christensen also paid tribute to two US soldiers who died on Kinmen while defending it with Republic of China soldiers

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 24, 2020
By: Lu Yi-hsuan and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

An American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director for the first time yesterday joined a Taiwanese president to commemorate the 823 Artillery Bombardment of 1958.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) laid a wreath and bowed her head in respect at a memorial park in Kinmen County to mark the 62nd anniversary of the beginning of the bombardment, also known as the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.

AIT Director Brent Christensen also offered his respects, standing behind Tsai.

Like Tsai, Christensen did not make public comments.    [FULL  STORY]

The Los Angelese Times
Date: Aug. 22, 2020
By : Ralph Jennings

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan —  Yeh Shu-chi and her two children once camped in the mountains of central Taiwan. Their drive up a dirt road to the campground was so harrowing, Yeh recalls, that she hasn’t tried it again.

Moreover, what if the raging river near their campsite swallowed her 7-year-old son or 12-year-old daughter? “High water is a matter of safety and there’s no way around it,” the 42-year-old housekeeper said.

Yet when the trio found themselves with time on their hands earlier this year as Taiwan delayed the start of the school semester to combat the spread of the coronavirus, their thoughts turned back to camping. And one Wednesday night, they camped again — in an auditorium-sized room with tents spaced out in deference to social distancing standards.

In recent years, camping in the great indoors has become increasingly popular in Taiwan. And with the coronavirus transmission rate one of the world’s lowest — fewer than 500 confirmed cases and seven deaths all year on an island of nearly 24 million citizens — the idea of avoiding dirt and water in many cases trumps the concept of avoiding congregating indoors.
[FULL  STORY]

This long-standing claim needs a closer look.

The National Interest
Date: August 21, 2020
By: Sebastien Roblin

Key Point: Taiwan's air force relies on bases that could possibly be hit by a surprise attack. Could Taiwan find a way to counter this threat?

After dithering for weeks, on August 15 the Trump administration informed Congress it would authorize the sale of sixty-six newly-manufactured F-16V fighters to Taiwan for $8 billion—a move which is certain to infuriate Beijing, which considers Taiwan a renegade province.

This first appeared in 2019 and is being reposted due to reader interest.

Though the deal is not technically finalized, Taipei will jump at the rare opportunity to purchase new jet fighters to reinforce its aging fleet of combat aircraft. Theoretically, its air force may be called upon to face off against nearly four or five times their number of Chinese combat aircraft, should Beijing resort to using military force against the island.

But for Taiwan’s out-numbered fighters to have any impact at all, they must first make it off the ground—and that could become impossible due the 1,300 ballistic missiles and hundreds of air-, sea-, and ground-launched cruise missiles the People’s Liberation Army can array against the island.    [FULL  STORY]

Lawmaker also wonders why words like 'CAT' and 'PUP' are offensive

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Gay rights groups are calling on the government to reconsider the presence of the word “GAY” on a list of 24 supposedly sensitive or obscene terms banned from the license plates of cars and scooters, reports said Saturday (Aug. 22).

In Dec. 2012, due to the growth in the number of motor vehicles, the government decided to add an extra letter to the two letters already present on registration plates. However, at the same time, it also drew up a list of 24 combinations of three letters which could not be used due to their allegedly controversial nature.

In addition to the combination “GAY,” the Ministry of Transportation’s Directorate General of Highways (DGH) also still found offense with “SEX” and “BRA,” CNA reported.

Gay rights groups said the government should end its ban and allow citizens to make a free choice as each term meant something different to different people. For some terms, it was not clear why the authorities should want to ban them, while other words were gender-related and might see their eventual negative connotation reinforced by their presence on the list, activists said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/22/2020
By: Yu Hsiang, Wen Kui-hsiang and Emerson Lim

Taipei, Aug. 22 (CNA) Former President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) on Saturday accused the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration of pushing Taiwan to the brink of war with China, drawing the ire of Tsai and her officials, who said that peace cannot be achieved by being weak on sovereignty issues.

"A person entrusted by the people to lead the country should never have such unrealistic fantasies," Tsai wrote on her Facebook page. "He or she should never think that bowing and scraping on the issue of sovereignty, or staying mum on democratic values, would bring so-called peace to the people."

Tsai posted the comment in response to a presentation by former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at a security forum earlier in the day, in which he said the "erroneous national policy" of the current administration in Taiwan was pushing the country to the brink of a war.

Ma of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) said the Taiwan administration was siding with the United States against China and was unwilling to recognize the "1992 Consensus," policies that had led to increased tensions across the strait.    [FULL  STORY]

POLICY EXPLAINED: The head of the CECC said that mass testing would have produced 12,475 false-positives, overwhelming the healthcare system, causing community spread

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 23, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Mass testing for COVID-19 on all travelers arriving in Taiwan could overwhelm the nation’s healthcare system, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday as it reported a new confirmed case, a Taiwanese who had returned from Mexico.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that in the past few days the public has been widely debating the Changhua County Public Health Bureau’s testing policy, so he used a simulated scenario to explain why mass testing is not the best policy at this moment.

The bureau was found to have asked many people who had returned from other countries and were still under 14-day home quarantine to be tested for COVID-19, despite having no symptoms, which does not align with the CECC’s policy of only arranging for people in quarantine to be tested if they show symptoms.

The bureau’s actions were revealed when the CECC on Monday reported that a Taiwanese teenager living in the US had tested positive on his 10th day of quarantine after returning for a family visit, even though he had no symptoms.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 21 August, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

The defense ministry says that China should not underestimate Taiwan’s resolve when it comes to defending its territory. That statement came Thursday night amid heightened tensions in the region. In recent months, China has stepped up air drills around Taiwan, infringing on Taiwanese airspace at times. 

China also conducted military exercises in the South China Sea on August 18. 
[FULL  STORY]