Communist-ruled China has stepped up military activity around the democratically-run island, which it claims as its own.Al Jazeera
Date: Aug 21, 2020

China should not underestimate Taiwan's determination to defend itself, and military threats will only cause Taiwan's people to be even more resolute, the island's defence ministry said in a new video responding to repeated Chinese threats.

China has stepped up military activity around the island, where the losing nationalists set up their government at the end of the civil war in 1949, sending fighter jets and warships on exercises close to Taiwan. Communist-ruled China claims the island as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to assert its control.

Taiwan's defence ministry, in a statement late on Thursday to accompany a video showing Taiwanese forces taking part in drills, said it was "expressing its stern attitude about recent Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army military pressure acts".

Taiwan will not provoke, but it will also not show weakness, it added.    [FULL  STORY]

PLA soldiers were asked what they would write if war started the next day: Taiwan TV report

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/21
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was asking its soldiers in the province of Fujian, opposite Taiwan, to write a goodbye letter to their spouse, giving rise to mutterings that war was near, cable station TVBS reported Friday (Aug. 21).

According to the report, soldiers were asked what they would write if war broke out the next day. They said they had chosen to wear the uniform, so they could still follow orders.

They asked the “organization” not to worry, the “motherland” not to worry, the people not to worry, because they would “return in glory,” according to a PLA movie.

Despite the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Chinese fighter jets and warships have frequently approached Taiwan, with the warplanes crossing into the island nation’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), before being warned off by Taiwanese jets.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/21/2020
By: Hsiao Po-wen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Aug. 21 (CNA) The High Court came under public pressure Friday after overturning the guilty verdict of a man accused of killing and decapitating his mother, but said it did so because the defendant did not know what he was doing at the time.

The shocking case occurred on Oct. 17, 2018, when a 34-year-old man with the surname Liang hacked his 66-year-old mother to death with a machete in their home in Taoyuan. The mother was later found to have a total of 37 knife wounds on her head, arms, chest and abdomen.

The killing ended with the man, who has a history of drug abuse, chopping off the head of his mother and throwing it to the ground from the 12th floor of the building, according to prosecutors and police.

Liang was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Taoyuan District Court in September 2019 even though he was found to have an acute mental disorder from being poisoned by amphetamines that reduced his cognitive abilities.    [FULL  STORY]

FLAG OF CONVENIENCE: The Fisheries Agency said it has limited oversight over ships registered in a foreign country, but critics say they should do more to protect workers

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 22, 2020
By: Staff Writer, with CNA

The Fisheries Agency yesterday said it had previously referred a Taiwan-owned distant-sea fishing vessel, the Da Wang (大旺), to prosecutors for investigation, after the US this week halted imports from the ship based on credible reports of abusive conditions and the use of forced labor.

The statement came after the US Customs and Border Patrol on Tuesday issued an order banning shipments from the Vanuatu-flagged, Taiwan-owned vessel in all US ports, based on information that indicated that there was “the use of forced labor, including physical violence, debt bondage, withholding of wages, and abusive living and working conditions” on the ship.

The order followed reports by Greenpeace East Asia on abuses in Taiwan’s distant-water fleet, the second-largest in the world after China’s, the Associated Press reported.

Greenpeace interviewed several Indonesian fishers who said they had been forced to work up to 22 hours per day, had their wages withheld and were subject to beatings and threats while working aboard the Da Wang, the article said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 20 August, 2020
By: Paula Chao

[How many ghosts can you spot in today’s show?][/caption] People are on edge now in Taiwan as they believe ghosts are roaming around. Learn about Taiwan’s most elaborate ghost festival and the many taboos that people in Taiwan observe during Ghost Month. 

U.S. and Taiwan agreed to a 62 billion USD arms deal that is worrying the Chinese Communist Party.

Panam Post
Date:  Aug 20, 2020
By: Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón

The Daily Caller published a story on the new agreement between the U.S. and Taiwan for the island nation to buy 90 F-16 fighters. According to the report, the contract states that Lockheed Martin, an American company specializing in space and military industries, will manufacture the fleets for ten years – the stipulated time of the agreement.

This agreement has a clear context and a couple of meta messages: one from the United States in support of Taipei, another from both countries towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the latter has previously expressed concern about the negotiations of this American-Taiwanese agreement.

AFP revealed the information that the buyer is Taiwan. The Pentagon had already announced the sale of the 90 F-16 fleets, but the buyer had not been officially announced. According to the news agency, a source close to the purchase of the fleet leaked that Taiwan was the buyer.

The Asia Times also echoed the AFP revelation, adding a key piece of information: Taiwan had not purchased a fleet of the aircraft since 1992. The agreement is historic for many reasons, including the time it took to acquire these types of ships, as well as the delicate context of international relations between the Beijing-Washington-Taiwan triangle.   [FULL  STORY]

Testing of arrivals from Philippines to be evaluated after one month: CECC

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Contrary to media reports, there are no plans to introduce general Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) testing for passengers arriving from 12 high-risk countries, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Thursday (Aug. 20).

At present, arrivals from the Philippines are subject to the tests, as most of the recent imported cases in Taiwan have been Taiwanese nationals returning from work in the neighboring country.

Media reports suggested that 12 other countries or areas deemed to be high risk for coronavirus infections could join the list in September, with all arrivals being subject to compulsory PCR testing.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/20/2020
By: Hou Wen-ting,
Wang Shu-fen and Joseph Yeh

Former Taipei Deputy Mayor Lin Chin-rong (left), former Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Shih Che (center), and head of Ministry of Economic Affairs' Department of Industrial Technology, Lo Ta-sheng (right)

Kaohsiung, Aug. 20 (CNA) Kaohsiung mayor-elect Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) has chosen his three future deputies, namely, former Taipei Deputy Mayor Lin Chin-rong (林欽榮), former Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Shih Che (史哲), and head of Ministry of Economic Affairs' (MOEA) Department of Industrial Technology, Lo Ta-sheng (羅達生), according to his aide Thursday.

The confirmation came a day before the Central Election Commission (CEC) is scheduled to officially announce on Friday Chen's victory in the Aug. 15 Kaohsiung mayoral by-election.
[FULL  STORY]

DIFFERENCE IN APPROACH: Chen Shih-chung said that the Changhua Public Health Bureau should have first consulted with the CECC before testing asymptomatic cases

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 21, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with CNA

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday lauded Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) for his leadership of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) in containing COVID-19, while the testing of an asymptomatic arrival from the US by the Changhua County Public Health Bureau has sparked debate and a Department of Civil Service Ethics investigation.

Taiwan’s achievements in containing the COVID-19 pandemic so far shows that a democracy can tackle the challenge without concealing cases, Tsai wrote on Facebook.

As the global pandemic remains severe, the nation needs the CECC to continue making professional and timely decisions, she said, adding that Taiwan needs solidarity and mutual support.

The center on Monday reported an imported case of COVID-19 — the nation’s 485th case — a Taiwanese teen who lives in the US and arrived on Aug. 5 for a family visit.   [FULL  STORY]

China's recent aggressive moves on India, Hong Kong and South China Sea does not mean an invasion of Taiwan is next

Asia Times
Date: August 19, 2020
By: Denny Roy

Caught up in a wave of international dismay over the Chinese government’s recent actions, many observers are predicting that China will soon attempt a military takeover of Taiwan.  

They give a variety of reasons for the prediction: because Taiwan is the logical next target after Hong Kong; because Taiwan is increasingly uninterested in being ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government in Beijing; because Beijing’s effectual renunciation of the “one country, two systems” arrangement for Hong Kong indicates an increasing assertiveness and willingness to take risks; and because a Taiwan invasion would fit with China’s recent pattern of reckless foreign policies. 

There is no question the Beijing government wants badly to make Taiwan a province of the PRC.  Beijing considers Taiwan the last and most consequential of the Chinese territories wrested away by foreigners during the “Century of Humiliation.”  

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said his “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” is not possible without Taiwan’s political unification with the mainland. But these are long-standing sentiments. The question is why Beijing would insist it must happen now.    [FULL  STORY]