New rules for criminals could also apply to political activists: Joshua Wong

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Changes in Hong Kong legislation to facilitate the extradition of criminals could lead to the arrest of Taiwanese visitors to the former British colony for political reasons, democracy activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) said Friday.

He said that Taiwanese visitors might turn into the next Lee Ming-che (李明哲), the Taiwanese human rights activist jailed and sentenced to five years in prison by China for supposedly subversive activities.

According to Wong, the Hong Kong authorities are using the “suitcase murder,” in which a Hong Kong citizen allegedly murdered his girlfriend during a visit to Taiwan but fled the island before his crime was discovered, to introduce extradition legislation which might affect political freedoms.

In the past, China could only arrest Taiwanese citizens on its own soil, but the proposal from the Hong Kong Security Bureau might allow it to seek the detention and extradition from Hong Kong of any Taiwanese national staying or even passing through the city, Wong said on his Facebook page, according to the Liberty Times.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/15
By: Elaine Hou and Flor Wang 

Taipei, Feb. 15 (CNA) Taiwan will donate US$500,000 to Venezuela to help the South American country that has plunged into political and humanitarian chaos restore democracy, stability and prosperity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Friday.

Stanley Kao (高碩泰), Taiwan’s representative to the United States, announced the donation on behalf of the government at the “Global Conference on the Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela” sponsored by the Organization of American States in Washington Thursday, according to MOFA spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章).

Taiwan hopes to advance its cooperation with like-minded countries to provide humanitarian assistance to Venezuela and will encourage Taiwan-based non-governmental groups operating in Latin America to offer greater aid to that country, Kao said at the conference.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) posted on the MOFA website a tweet by Jesus M. Yanez M., a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela, in which Yanez thanked Taiwan for its donation.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 16, 2019
By: Ou Su-mei and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taichung’s Houfeng Bikeway has gained an unlikely ambassador — a pet raccoon named

Mantou (饅頭).

Su Tzu-hung (蘇子宏), who runs a bicycle rental shop, is often seen with Mantou at the bikeway, drawing throngs of cyclists who line up to take pictures with the raccoon.

Mantou follows him everywhere, Su said, adding that he has outfitted his bicycle with a large basket that Mantou likes to ride in.

When he is at the shop, Mantou helps him greet customers, Su said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: February 14, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier

A man rode at speeds of 100 kilometers an hour on National Freeway 3, in the fast lane on the wrong side of the road, for a distance of about 60 kilometers, evading several Highway Police intercept points before finally coming to a stop near Taichung City, yesterday, February 13.

The 43-year-old man named Huang entered the freeway from the Zhushan Interchange in Nantou County shortly before 6:00pm, driving against oncoming traffic at high speed, and heading north in the south-bound lanes.

Huang made his way across three lanes of traffic until he reached the fast lane, maneuvering his motorcycle between the central traffic barrier and vehicles traveling at high speed in the opposite direction.

Highway police set up intercept points, but were unable to stop the rider as he sped through. Video footage [see below] shows a female Highway Police officer jumping out of the way of the speeding scooter to avoid being run over after the rider ignored the officer’s shouts to stop while waving a fluorescent orange baton.    [FULL  STORY]

Author of threats accessed Facebook through VPN: CIB

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/14
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An Internet user who posted online threats of violence against President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) possibly lives in China, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Thursday.

On Lunar New Year’s Day, February 5, a person calling himself “Chaoyang Shao” left a message on the president’s Facebook page in Chinese, writing “Hope for the New Year: beheading Tsai Ing-wen, unification of China,” the Central News Agency reported.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/14
By: Ko Lin

Taipei, Feb. 14 (CNA) A Taiwanese-American has been selected for a tour of duty at a United States government agency, as part of a program that recruits innovators to help tackle technology challenges within the government.

Under the Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) initiative, Patrick Lin (林博智) will be working at the U.S. Department of Transportation on its Intelligent Transportation Portfolio program, according to the managing agency.

“Most recently, Patrick led the autonomous driving team for Ford Motor Company in Asia where he pioneered innovative thinking for transportation ecosystems and smart cities (Beijing 2.0),” according to an online post by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which heads the PIF program.

Lin, one of the 17 technologists and entrepreneurs selected to participate in this year’s PIF program, is described on the GSA blogsite as an entrepreneur, strategist, and innovative problem solver.    [FULL  STORY]

SURGING COSTS: Plans to add hundreds more to special municipality forces would strain local budgets because of expenses for salaries and training, the mayors said

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 15, 2019
By: Lee Hsin-fang and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

A central government plan to expand special municipalities’ police forces has

encountered opposition from mayors across party lines, who said it would place additional pressure on municipal finances.

The central government plans to expand the police forces of Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and New Taipei City by 700, 500, 400 and 939 respectively, a source said.

The number of new officers allocated to Taoyuan Police Department would weigh heavily on city finances, in terms of salary and training, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), told a Cabinet meeting yesterday.

“The city hopes that the Executive Yuan would offer subsidies,” Cheng said.
[FULL  STORY]

The National Interest
Date: February 13, 2019  
By: Hugh White

Paul Dibb, in his recent Strategist post , writes that America’s strategic position in Asia would be fatally undermined if it didn’t go to war with China if China attacked Taiwan, and that Australia’s alliance with America would be fatally undermined if we didn’t then go to war with China too. The conclusion he draws is that, in the event of an unprovoked Chinese attack on Taiwan, America should go to war with China, and so should Australia.

I think Dibb’s premises are correct, but his conclusion is wrong. Failing to come to Taiwan’s aid would seriously weaken and perhaps destroy America’s position in Asia, and our alliance with America would be seriously weakened if not destroyed if we failed to support the US. But it doesn’t follow that either America or Australia should therefore go to war with China to defend Taiwan.

That depends on who would win the war. Such a war, like any war, would be a calculus of uncertainties, but at the very least one could say that a swift, cheap and decisive US victory over China would be very unlikely. America’s military power is very great, but China’s military power, and especially its capacity to deny its air and sea approaches to US forces, has grown sharply, and is now formidable.

China also has big advantages of location and resolve: Taiwan is closer to China than to America, and it matters more to the Chinese. And any hopes that US nuclear forces would swing the balance back America’s way run up against China’s capacity to retaliate in kind, and the risk of a nuclear exchange targeting US cities would at least have to be considered by US leaders in deciding to go to war.    [FULL  STORY]

Security Bureau urges legal amendment in Legislative Council of Hong Kong citing the Poon Hiu-wing murder case

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/13
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) –The case of the young man who killed his girlfriend, and disposed of her body in a suitcase in Taiwan, before fleeing back to his home in Hong Kong, has prompted the Hong Kong Security Bureau to propose an amendment to extradition law in Hong Kong, that would allow for arrangements with Taiwan.

In a letter to the Legislative Council on Security, the bureau has recommended an amendment to the extradition law, specifically citing a miscarriage of justice in the case of the murder of Poon Hiu-wing (潘曉穎) by Chan Tung-kai (陳同佳), which happened in Taipei in February of last year.

The Security Bureau is proposing a new approach to extradition whereby ad-hoc arrangements can be made between the Hong Kong government and foreign nations, as well as other regions of China. Scrapping a clause in Hong Kong’s existing law on extraditions would reportedly allow for extraditions on a case by case basis.

Currently the extradition law of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) expressly forbids the Hong Kong government from making exclusive agreements with “the government of any other part of the People’s Republic of China,” which from the perspective of the SAR, includes Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/13
By: Yin Jun-jie and Evelyn Kao

New York, Feb. 12 (CNA) As China is seeking to pressure Taiwan’s government toward unification, the United States should provide stronger support for Taiwan by expressing its concern about China’s increased diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Taiwan, a group of 17 U.S. specialists on China affairs said in a report released Tuesday.

In the report by the Task Force on U.S.-China Policy, the authors, however, suggested that to avoid exacerbating cross- Taiwan Strait tension or triggering an attack on Taiwan by China, Washington should not alter its “one China policy,” which was established by the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué and reinforced in subsequent U.S.-China communiques.

While not challenging the claim that there is one China and that Taiwan is part of China , the policy does not take a position in favor of unification, and seeks to maintain stability in the strait by insisting on a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue, the task force wrote.

“Clarity and continuity in U.S. policy will be particularly important during Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election campaign, which could increase cross-strait tension,” the task force wrote.    [FULL  STORY]