Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 08 January, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (second from left) observes a baggage inspector at work at Taipei's Songshan Airport on Wednesday.

Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung says that this year’s Lunar New Year travel rush will bring with it a heightened risk of African swine fever reaching Taiwan. That’s because the disease has spread widely in the past year, hitting eleven countries in Asia.

The disease does not affect humans but is fatal to pigs. So far, Taiwan has succeeded in keeping the disease out, ramping up inspections and airports and handing out fines on those caught bringing meat products in. But there are still fears that the disease could hit Taiwan, with devastating consequences for its sizable pork industry.    [FULL  STORY]

Look forward to beef cubes, Taiwanese oyster omelette, fried chicken cutlet, and oden.

Mothership
Date: January 8, 2020
By: Melanie Lim

Over 30 food vendors from night market will be in Singapore

As one of the most popular night markets in Taipei with over 40 years of history, Ningxia Night Market welcomed approximately 1.8 million visitors in 2018 alone.

More than 30 food vendors from the popular food street will be brought to Singapore as part of the Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival.

This is a sample size of the actual night market in Taipei, which features over 130 different types of Taiwanese food.

Flaming beef cubes, Taiwanese oyster omelette, fried chicken cutlet and more

Food items that will be at the night market in Singapore include Flaming Beef Cubes, Taiwanese Oyster Omelette, Egg-bombed Scallion Pancake, Fried Chicken Cutlet, and Tian Bu La (Taiwanese Oden).    [FULL  STORY]

DPP legislative candidate tells international reporters Taiwanese reject 'one country, two systems' and can develop without China

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Enoch Wu (吳怡農) said that Taiwanese oppose the "one country, two systems" framework and the country can develop successfully without Communist China, at a press conference on Tuesday (Jan. 7).

Wu, 39, who is a candidate for Taipei City's No. 3 constituency (Zhongshan District and North Songshan District) held an international press conference, in English, on Tuesday. During the interview, Wu said the consensus of Taiwanese is to oppose the "one country, two systems" framework and he called on the public to make the right choice and help uphold the vision of a safe home.

Wu, who graduated from Yale University and had previously worked for Goldman Sachs, set aside an hour to field questions from reporters from a number of international media outlets, including ZDF, The Daily Telegraph, dpa, and Korea Daily News. During the press conference, Wu took questions on subjects such as the situation in Hong Kong, future trends in Taiwan, and his next event, speaking in fluent English.

When asked about the situation on the ground in Taiwan, Wu said the consensus among Taiwanese is that "we don't want one country, two systems." He added that most Taiwanese are concerned about the economy and worry they will have no choice but to rely on China.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/08/2020
By: Sabine Cheng and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Jan. 8 (CNA) One of the winning entries in a recent design contest organized by Taiwan's National Palace Museum is notable not only for its ability to appeal aesthetically to museum-goers, but also make their stomachs growl.

Wang Pei-en (王蓓恩) and Liu Chia-hsin (劉家欣) took home a top prize in the museum's 8th "National Treasure Merchandise Design Competition," for a grass jelly pudding modeled on — or rather, moulded into — a mountain peak depicted in a famous Chinese landscape painting.

The piece was one of 869 submissions to last year's contest, in which artists used the museum's Open Data image database to design pieces based on the theme "folk customs."

Taking their inspiration from "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains," a 1350 painting by Huang Gongwang (黃公望), Wang and Liu moulded the Jello-like Taiwanese dessert into a black mountain scene set in relief, which, when juxtaposed against the traditional cream topping, appears to tower above low-hanging white clouds.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 07 January, 2020
By: Natalie Tso

The city of Tainan is taking children out of the classroom to learn about local culture. Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan and is home to many historic temples, buildings, and other sites.
[FULL  STORY]

Under President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan has turned away from China and embraced the rest of the world. But the country has found out the hard way that diplomacy can carry moral cost.

Radio Taiwan International
Date: January 07, 2020
By Nick Aspinwall

On May 20, 2016, as Tsai Ing-wen addressed the world for the first time as Taiwan’s president, she outlined an international policy vision clearly intended to drive the country away from its reliance on China and toward the rest of the world. Taiwan, she said in her inauguration speech, was ready to pursue its New Southbound Policy – her signature plan for engagement with South and Southeast Asian states – and share its expertise and democratic values with an international community that, by and large, only recognizes Beijing.

“Taiwan will be an indispensable partner for the international community,” Tsai said.

Tsai, who is seeking a second term as president in Saturday’s elections, knew this would always be a hard sell. Only 22 countries had diplomatic relations with Taipei at the time; today, that number has dwindled to 15. Beijing has campaigned to poach Taipei’s allies and to pressure international organizations and corporations to exclude Taiwan, from the World Health Assembly to Marriott and American Airlines. The United Nations, which does not recognize Taiwan, has stopped allowing Republic of China passport holders into its New York headquarters.

The Chinese government is no fan of Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which does not recognize the so-called “1992 consensus” — considered by Beijing to be indispensable for cross-strait exchanges but by Tsai to be a gateway to “one country, two systems.” To Beijing, Tsai’s refusal to acknowledge the “consensus” is a tacit rejection of the idea of “one China,” and it has responded by limiting Taiwan’s international space and severing the official cross-strait communications that had thrived under Tsai’s predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou.    [FULL  STORY]

Formula opposed by both pro-independence and pro-China candidates

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/07
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The “one country, two systems” formula touted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) will never prevail in Taiwan, whoever wins the presidential election on Saturday (Jan. 11), according to a report by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK).

The idea of China ruling Taiwan under the “one country, two systems” framework has been rejected by both of the two main contenders in the election, incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Kuomintang (KMT) party, said Li Da-jung (李大中), associate professor at Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies.

As mainstream public opinion widely opposes the scheme, whoever is elected as the leader of Taiwan for the next four years is not likely to put the option on the table, the report quoted Li as saying.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/07/2020
By: Liang Pei-chi and Evelyn Kao\

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) The 2020 Taipei Lantern Festival scheduled for Feb. 8-16 will take place at two venues in eastern and western areas of the city for the first time, deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said Tuesday.

This year, the festival titled "Together We Glow," will be staged in Ximending, Wanhua District, one of the city's oldest commercial areas in western Taipei, and Nanxing Park, Nangang District in the east.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 08, 2020
By: Staff Writer, with CNA

The air force yesterday said it would send two flight data recorders retrieved from the wreckage of a

military helicopter to the US for analysis to help determine why the aircraft crashed.

The UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter carrying military personnel to Dongaoling Base (東澳嶺) in Yilan County went down in the mountains of New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來) on Thursday with 13 people on board. Eight died in the crash, including Chief of the General Staff General Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴).

The data recorders need to be sent to Sikorsky Aircraft, the helicopter’s US-based manufacturer, for a comprehensive analysis, the air force said.

An air force official on Sunday said that the military was not planning to send the data recorders to the US unless it encountered difficulties in retrieving the data.    [FULL  STORY]