Straits Times
Date: Nov 26, 2019

TAIPEI (BLOOMBERG) – China's ban on individual travel to Taiwan has led to a sharp drop in Chinese visitors in the past two months.

The number of mainlanders travelling to Taiwan plunged by 52.5 per cent year-on-year in October, according to data from its Tourism Bureau.

This followed a big dip in September.

October's monthly drop was the biggest since Taiwan relaxed rules in 2008 to let Chinese tourists visit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.    [FULL  STORY]

Heino Klinck’s visit to the island is in apparent response to concerns that Beijing is pressuring Taipei in the run-up to January’s elections

South China Morning Post
Date: 26 Nov, 2019
By: Lawrence Chung  

The United States has sent a senior Pentagon official to Taiwan amid concerns that Beijing trying to influence the island’s presidential election in January 

.Deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia Heino Klinck reportedly visited Taiwan last week in an apparent response to US concern about various efforts  – including military attempts – by Beijing to intimidate the island ahead of the January 11 poll.

Klinck is the first senior American defence official to visit the island since Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979.

His trip is considered a major elevation in the unofficial but robust US-Taiwan relations, and is expected to infuriate Beijing, which has repeatedly warned Washington against high-level exchanges with Taipei.    [FULL  STORY]

The north Taiwan port city industrial park expected to become naval engineering cluster for advanced techniques and talent

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/25
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The chairman of Taiwan's largest state-owned shipbuilding company CSBC Corp., Cheng Wen-long (鄭文隆), confirmed on Monday (Nov. 25) that an industrial park for the country's indigenous submarines will be located in Keelung, northern Taiwan.

The port city and company have identified an area of 6.4 acres to develop self-built submarines. Furthermore, the city government is looking for suitable land to expand the park in the future, according to media reports.

The industrial park is expected to become a naval engineering cluster that concentrates advanced techniques and talent, with five factories slated to break ground in March 2020. The goal will be to build at least eight indigenous submarines.

In May, a submarine shipyard began construction in the country's southern port city of Kaohsiung.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/25
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Nov. 25 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Sunday it will provide assistance to Paraguay in the aftermath of an accident in which a military helicopter crashed near a factory, triggering a huge fire in the area earlier in the week.

The syringe factory and nearby homes in Pedro Juan Caballero City went up in flames when the UH-1H utility helicopter plunged to the ground on Nov. 21, but no one was seriously injured, according to Paraguay news reports.

As part of the efforts to determine the cause of the crash, an investigation team in Paraguay has requested technical documents for the UH-1H, which was donated by Taiwan to its only diplomatic ally in South America, according to the MND.

"We are deeply concerned about the accident." the MND said in a statement on Sunday. "In light of our friendship, we will provide logistics and other support, depending on Paraguay's needs."
[FULL  STORY]

Stuck for 19 hours, at least.

Mothership
Date: November 24, 2019
By: Belmont Lay

A Scoot flight that was scheduled to take off from Taipei to Singapore will be delayed for at least 19 hours.

The A-320 plane was grounded for inspections after the nose landing gear was damaged by a towing vehicle.

The flight was scheduled to depart Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Nov. 24, 2019 at 12.30am.

Mothership was alerted to the delay at about 2am by one of the 149 passengers affected.
[FULL  STORY]

Global Risk Insights
Date: November 24, 2019
By: Alexander Viehmeier , 

A few weeks ago, the Twitter account of the Chinese state-run newspaper ‘People’s Daily’ published a video showing Chinese students creating the shape of China in a choreography. The inclusion of the so-called nine-dash line and a few islands to the northeast of Taiwan raises questions about Beijing’s maritime ambitions again. 

Currently, China claims vast territories of South East Asia, spanning virtually the entire South China Sea. Beijing symbolises these claims with a nine-dash line. Despite the ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, rendering the Chinese claims null and void, China continues to advertise the claimed areas as their rightful land.  The video of Chinese students creating the shape of the national territory, including regions claimed within the nine-dash-line, reiterates this intention.  

The video elicited strong reactions about the scope of the nine-dash line and the unspecified islands northeast of Taiwan that are included. These patches of lands could be the Japanese Okinawa Islands. However, they could also symbolise the highly contested Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.
[FULL  STORY]

Fidel Ramos met former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou and said he hopes Taiwan's democracy will continue

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/24
By: Karen Liao , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Fidel Valdez Ramos, who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992-1998, met with former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Saturday (Nov. 23), and told him Taiwan is the Philippines’ partner, according to CNA.

“We hope to ensure the democracy of Taiwan can continue,” Ramos said.
Ramos was the Philippines army chief of staff when Ma first met him back in 1987.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/24
By: Lee Shien-feng and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Nov. 24 (CNA) Hualien City in eastern Taiwan and Morioka, the capital of Iwate Prefecture in

northern Japan, signed an agreement Sunday on establishing friendship relations.

Hualien Mayor Wei Chia-hsien (魏嘉賢) signed the agreement with Morioka Mayor Hiroaki Tanifuji in Taiwan.

The agreement marks another achievement for Hualien in expanding its city diplomacy after it established sister city relations with the Japanese town of Takachiho in October, Wei added.

Hualien and Morioka began exchanges in 2000, Wei said.    [FULL  STORY]