Focus Taiwan
Date: 07/30/2020
By Yu Hsiang, Chen Chun-hua, Kuo Chien-shen,
Evelyn Kao and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, July 30 (CNA) Political leaders across party lines on Thursday expressed their condolences on the passing of Taiwan's first popularly elected president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).

Lee died aged 97 from septic shock and multiple organ failure at Taipei Veterans General Hospital at 7:24 p.m. Thursday, after being hospitalized for nearly six months.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said later on her Facebook page that as the head of state, she expressed her heartfelt condolences and sympathy on behalf of all the people in the nation and has also directed the Presidential Office and relevant government agencies to help with funeral arrangements.

The former president, as the pioneer in his time, had twice pursued overseas studies and contributed what he learned to his home country, Tsai said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘HERO OF THE ERA’: President Tsai Ing-wen expressed deep sadness at Lee’s passing, and told the government to assist his family with all their needs

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 31, 2020
By: Lin Hui-chin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) passed away at 7:24pm yesterday at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. He was 97 years old.

The hospital stated the cause of death as septic shock and multiple organ failure.

Lee had been hospitalized there since February, when he choked on a mouthful of milk at home. He was later diagnosed with pulmonary infiltrates and aspiration pneumonia.

The hospital said that Lee had been treated with antibiotics, but that his health had not improved, as his advanced age and diabetes had inhibited his immune system and led to recurring infections.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 30 July, 2020
By: Paula Chao

The foreign ministry says it welcomes the introduction of the Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act in the US House of Representatives. The bill was introduced by US Congressman Ted Yoho on Wednesday.

In a press release, Yoho said that the act is a response to China’s aggressive military actions towards Taiwan, as well as rising tensions in Hong Kong, the South China Sea, and along the Sino-Indian border. If passed, the act will authorize the US government to help defend Taiwan in the event of an armed attack.    [FULL  STORY]

The leader wants to continue on the path of Mao and Deng by bringing more territory under Beijing’s control.

Bloomberg
Date: July 30, 2020
By: Iain Marlow and Cindy Wang

Ever since Mao Zedong triumphed in 1949, prompting his Nationalist enemies to flee to Taiwan, Communist Party leaders have bolstered their legitimacy to rule by taming rebellious corners of China’s vast periphery.

The quest to capture lost territory prompted Mao’s army to subdue Tibet, where cadres co-opted Buddhist monasteries and eventually built a railway that ensured well-supplied garrisons of troops across the Himalayan plateau. He also reclaimed Xinjiang in the far west, a Muslim desert region the size of Iran where Silk Road traders once crossed paths with Uighurs—who have now been reduced to about 30% of the population of their own homeland after millions of China’s dominant Han ethnicity moved in. After Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping further helped restore China’s glory following the so-called century of humiliation when he negotiated the return of two cities lost to colonial powers. The U.K. handed over Hong Kong in 1997, and Portugal followed two years later with Macao.

Xi Jinping has consolidated control in all of these places since taking power in 2012 and bolstered Beijing’s hold on disputed reefs in the South China Sea. Most notably, he set up a vast police state in Xinjiang that sent Muslims en masse to reeducation camps, and just in July he imposed a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong aimed at stamping out dissent in a city that many in the West once hoped would spur China to embrace democracy.
[FULL  STORY]

Growing chorus in Congress backs bilateral trade deal between US, Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/30
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Both a House bill and a senator on Wednesday (July 29) called for a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Taiwan.

On Wednesday, Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL) introduced a bill primarily aimed at authorizing the U.S. to use military force in the event that China attacks Taiwan, but it also advocated a bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and Taiwan. That same day, Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) wrote a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer urging him to begin negotiations on a U.S.-Taiwan trade pact.

Section 202 of the bill introduced by Yoho, the Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act, states that the U.S. trade representative should enter into negotiations with counterparts from Taiwan on setting up a bilateral trade agreement between the two countries. The bill stipulates that negotiations should begin within 180 days of the passage of the legislation.

During an online interview with the US-Taiwan Business Council that same day, Gardner revealed that he had sent a letter to Lighthizer in which he exhorted the trade representative to "immediately initiate meaningful negotiations between the United States and Taiwan on a comprehensive Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA)." Gardner pointed out that US$95.4 billion of trade was exchanged between the two countries in 2018, that the TAIPEI Act calls for a free trade agreement between the nations, and that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had endorsed a U.S.-Taiwan BTA before the American Chamber of Commerce in 2019.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 07/30/2020
By: Wang Chao-yu and Ko Lin

Taipei, July 30 (CNA) The 13 unexploded bombs found in waters off the northeast coast of New Taipei last week were remotely detonated underwater by Taiwan's military Thursday.

An estimated 1,300 kilograms of explosives were used in the detonation, which took place about 600 meters from the shore in Gongliao District and involved a squad of navy divers tasked with setting charges on the unexploded ordnance.

An initial sighting was confirmed last Tuesday not far from a local elementary school in Mao'ao Bay after a recreational diver reported spotting suspicious objects a day earlier.

The bombs were found at a depth of 10-13 meters near what appeared to be an airplane propeller, according to authorities.    [FULL  STORY]

DIGITAL PLAN: The NPP said the Ministry of Culture must explain the controversy surrounding the platform and what it plans to do with the budget allocated for it

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 30, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao and Lee Hsin-fang / Staff reporters, with CNA

The Ministry of Culture yesterday scrapped the Public Television Service’s (PTS, 公視) “international video platform” after it sparked controversy following reports that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) tried to use the platform as a mouthpiece and interfere with its personnel plans.

The ministry in a statement thanked the PTS board — which on Monday voted 11-4 to pass a pilot project to develop an “international communication digital plan” — for its support.

However, the ministry said that to prevent the controversy from spreading, it has terminated the international video platform commission following a careful and comprehensive assessment.

The direction of the ministry’s policy in promoting the project would not change, it said, adding that it would continue to seek advice from various circles and find the best way to execute the project.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 28 July, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

The health ministry says that it will conduct strict reviews on overseas patients who seek medical treatment in Taiwan. The ministry was responding to concerns of the Central Epidemic Command Center’s recent announcement that Taiwan will open its borders to individuals seeking medical aid starting August 1. 

Legislator Chiang Wan-an of the opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) on Tuesday voiced concern calling for the move to be postponed. Chiang’s concern revolves around a Thai migrant worker who tested positive for COVID-19 upon his return to Thailand on Monday.
[FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: July 28, 2020

FILE PHOTO: A woman wearing a face mask holds a child as she walks at an empty terminal hall of Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Taiwan July 17, 2020. REUTES/Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan on Tuesday was investigating its first possible local coronavirus infection in more than a month, a Thai man who tested positive last week, as the island also faces a rise in cases brought from overseas.

Taiwan’s early response was effective in keeping the pandemic at bay, with just 467 infections and seven deaths. Most of the cases have been imported and have recovered.

Until the Thai man’s positive test, the island had not seen a local case of coronavirus infection since June 24.    [FULL  STORY]

Recent sightings of Chinese vessels near Dongsha Islands prompts Coast Guard crackdown

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/28
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Coast Guard caught a Chinese fishing boat trespassing into its waters to fish on Friday (July 24) and arrested all of its crew members, who were taken back to Kaohsiung Harbor on Monday for further investigation.

In light of Chinese fishing boats having recently been spotted trespassing in the waters around the Dongsha Islands, the Coast Guard has now begun a crackdown as of Friday, according to their press release.    [FULL  STORY]