The China Post
Date: December 6, 2016
By: Yuan-Ming Chiao

The government, opposition and labor representatives are set to clash both inside and outside the

legislature Tuesday ahead of a vote on amendments to the Labor Standards Act.

President Tsai Ing-wen reiterated her support for the speedy passage of the bill during a policy coordination meeting held with top government officials late Monday afternoon.

Tsai also acknowledged the “toil and hardship” of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘). Ker has spearheaded the bill’s contentious movement through the legislative process and has also been the focus of much the labor movement’s ire.

He was knocked to the floor by angry protesters last Friday while attempting to pass a police cordon and enter the legislative building.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 5, 2016
By: Kuan-lin Liu ,The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A 12-year-old boy killed his uncle and injured his father after accidentally firing a

hunting rifle late on Saturday.

The sixth grader, surnamed Pan (潘), was reportedly handling the rifle at home with his 20-year-old uncle, surnamed Feng (酆), when the weapon discharged and hit the uncle in the right pectoral.

The bullet shot through Feng and fired into a separate room of the house, hitting Pan’s father in the back.

Both Pan’s father and Feng were rushed to the hospital. Feng died from blood loss after the doctors’ attempts to stabilize him failed.

Pan’s father sustained an injury to the left side of his back, but reports indicated that the bullet had been retrieved and the father was not in a critical condition.

According to Feng’s 53-year-old father, who was also present at the scene of the accident, he and Feng had gathered at Pan’s house before going hunting in the mountainous Nanzhuang Township in Miaoli County.    [FULL  STORY]

President-elect Donald Trump’s call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ying-wen breaks with tradition going back to 1979

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/04
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Since the Nationalist forces lead by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan after being defeated by the

Communists under Mao Zedong in 1949, two separate governments have been in control of either side of the Taiwan Strait. China considers Taiwan a renegade province within “one China,” and insists that the two eventually unify, by force if necessary. President-elect Donald Trump broke with long-standing U.S.-China diplomatic protocol dating back to 1979, by directly speaking with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, drawing an irritated response from China.

A timeline of China-Taiwan relations:

___

January 1979: The U.S. under President Jimmy Carter formally switches diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

___

January 1979: The People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee of the PRC issued the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan which proposed three measures for the realization of peaceful reunification.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/04
By Chiu Po-sheng and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) Lacking the assistance provided by a long-term care system, nearly one

quarter of working people in Taiwan have at one time had to take leave or quit their job in order to take care of a sick family member, a recent survey indicates.

The survey, jointly conducted by the 104 job bank and Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers in August and September, found that 94 percent of working people who responded to the survey had taken time off work to care for a family member confined to bed as a result of a disability or chronic ailment.

Twenty-four percent of respondents said they had taken unpaid leave or quit their jobs to care for a sick family member, according to the survey.

The poll also found that the average time span of such care was 5.6 years.    [FULL  STORY]

SURPRISE!A source said that Trump’s open acknowledgment of the call on Twitter caught Tsai’s staff unprepared, as the Presidential Office had kept it under wraps

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 05, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

The Presidential Office yesterday urged the public to refrain from speculation following reports that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) plans to meet with US president-elect Donald Trump when traveling to Central America on a state visit next month.

“Regarding media reports today [yesterday] that the president plans to meet with president-elect Trump and his team during a state visit next month, they are all just wild speculation,” the office said in a statement.

Details of any overseas state visit by Tsai or Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) would be made public after they are confirmed and finalized, it added.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 5, 2016
By: The China Post

By Alan Fong–For the second installment of The China Post special report on the impact of Donald

Trump’s presidential election on Taiwan, we had been preparing to analyze his picks for key national security officials and his recent moderation of his isolationist rhetoric from the campaign trail.

These plans went out the window Saturday with the announcement of a 10-minute telephone call between Trump and President Tsai Ing-wen, the first between a U.S. president or president-elect with a Taiwanese head of state since the two nations severed diplomatic ties in 1979. It would be absurd to read the tea leaves after the Donald himself has delivered a shocking break with diplomatic practice.

Our sudden change of content is a befitting example of the uncertainty in cross-strait relations expected under a Trump presidency. It is difficult to overstate the significance of the call, which has made headlines around world.

But in addition to the fact of the call, the manner in which he announced the dialogue is also significant.    [FULL  STORY]

So what does this portend for U.S.-Taiwan-China relations under the Trump administration?

The News Lens
Date: 2016/12/04
By: Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文)

The news that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump took a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen

(蔡英文) – breaking over 40 years of precedent of no direct contact – exploded across the internet here in Taiwan and around the world with seemingly everyone having something to say about it. The international news media went into a tizzy speculating on China’s reaction, frequently repeating the standard Chinese propaganda line on Taiwan in the process (an excellent analysis here). Many on the American left are already hand-wringing at this 10-minute conversation, calling it “risky” and “provocative.” in spite of praising Obama for breaking previous diplomatic precedent in Cuba. Some supporters of Taiwan, however, are ecstatic, calling the call a “major breakthrough” in U.S.-Taiwan relations, but others openly questioned Trump’s abilities: “More likely is that he doesn’t fully understand cross-Strait relations, and is completely, bumblingly, unaware of what he’s just done.” So what does this portend for U.S.-Taiwan-China relations under the Trump administration?

Starting with Trump, anyone who thinks they understand what he is up to is delusional, other than he’s up to his old tricks. The only thing for certain is that Trump is following his standard practice of doing what people don’t expect him to. He did this masterfully during the election campaign, repeatedly breaking convention and launching asymmetrical attacks to destabilize and confuse his opponents. He’s continued to do it since. Trump, unlike what some think, is a very crafty opponent.    [FULL  STORY]

Beijing tells Washington to stand by “One China Principle”

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/03
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Following the telephone conversation between President Tsai Ing-wen and United States President-elect Donald Trump, China said Saturday it had contacted the relevant authorities and asked the U.S. to stand by its “One China” policy in order not to interfere with relations between Washington and Beijing.

The 10-minute phone conversation between Tsai and Trump Friday night Taiwan time was unprecedented since Washington switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the country had already expressed its “solemn representations” with the relevant side in the U.S., though he did not specify who that was. Usually, it would mean the State Department, but since Trump is not taking office until next month, it was not known whether China had contacted his staff.

Geng also reiterated China’s familiar stance that there was only one China, and that Taiwan was an inalienable part of it. The internationally community recognized that the People’s Republic of China was the only legal representative of China, he added.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: December 4, 2016
By: The China Post and AP

In a break with decades-long diplomatic tradition, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke directly

with President Tsai Ing-wen, a move that drew an irritated response from China and looked set to cast uncertainty over U.S. policy toward Asia.

It is unprecedented for a U.S. president or president-elect to speak directly with a Taiwanese leader.

In first comments apparently meant to downplay the significance of the call, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the call was “just a small trick by Taiwan” that he believed would not change U.S. policy toward China.

“The ‘one-China’ policy is the cornerstone of the healthy development of China-U.S. relations and we hope this political foundation will not be interfered with or damaged,” Wang was quoted as saying.    [FULL  STORY]