Reddit users desperately post support for Taiwan independence for fear of impending censorship byTencent

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/10
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Screen capture from Reddit.

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After news broke that Tencent has made a massive US$150 million investment in the social media site Reddit, many of its users have been hastily posting support for Taiwan’s independence and images of the Tiananmen Square massacre out of fear that the company’s new Chinese masters will demand such content be censored.

On Wednesday (Feb. 6), it was reported that Chinese conglomerate Tencent, which is worth US$427 billion, has invested US$150 million as it leads a Series D fundraising round for the social media website Reddit. Fears quickly spread among various Reddit communities, or subreddits, that content found objectionable by to the Chinese Communist Party could soon be censored, as has been often been the case when Chinese firms took over Western media outlets such as Forbes.

In an attempt to exercise “free speech” one last time before the feared “takeover” by the Chinese behemoth, and perhaps to test its patience, many Redditors (users of the platform) have begun to upload posts in support of Taiwan independence and photos of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, among other content likely to be censored in China.

The two companies seem like strange bedfellows, as many subreddits, such as r/Taiwan and r/China often contain content which is critical of the Chinese government, and the site has been blocked by China’s Great Firewall since last year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/10
By: Lin Yu-li and William Yen

Lin I-ju (林誼如, second left)

Berlin, Feb. 9 (CNA) The Taiwanese short film “Dian Jiao Jian” (Tiptoe) has been nominated for a Crystal Bear award in the Generation Kplus competition at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), being held Feb. 7-17, according to the event’s website.

The award presentation of the competition, which is designed for young audiences and awarded by a children’s jury of 11 children aged between 11 and 14, is scheduled to take place Feb. 16.

Dian Jiao Jian focuses the cinematic lens on a 10-year-old girl, Jiajia, and her 7-year-old brother in the absence of their mother, according to the Berlinale website.

The 17-minute film centers on how Jiajia bravely shoulders the responsibilities of an older sister by walking her brother to school and taking care of household chores through the day-to-day emptiness left by their mother’s absence.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese BuzzFeed reporter says only those from countries that celebrate Lunar New Year can participate, unless invited

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/09
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Lunar New Year 2011 in London. (By Wikimedia Commons)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Right in the midst of the Lunar New Year Holiday, a BuzzFeed reporter with ties to Taiwan was a real buzzkill when she posted a Tweet saying only those from countries which observe the festival, or have been invited from such countries can participate.

On Wednesday (Feb. 6), the second day of the Lunar New Year, BuzzFeed reporter Kassandra Cho, who claims to hail from Taiwan and New Zealand, indicated in a tweet that foreigners who do not originate from an Asian country that celebrates the festival should not participate, unless specifically invited by citizens of those countries to do so. The reaction on social media was swift, with many people from countries that observe the festival rushing to welcome all comers, while others criticized her as being hypocritical after lauding the Taiwanese celebration of the Celtic holiday Halloween.

At 11:49 a.m. on Wednesday, Cho posted the following message on Twitter:
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/09
By: Wei Ling-yun and Chung Yu-chen

CNA file photo

Taipei, Feb. 9 (CNA) The 2019 Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) will be held Feb. 12-17 at the Taipei World Trade Center, featuring the theme of “Time for Reading.”

Germany, the guest of honor this year, hopes to draw attention by showcasing more than 400 publications and a wide-ranging cultural program, as well as socio-political and book trade themes.

According to the organizer, the Taipei Book Fair Foundation (TBFF), the German stand draws on elements of the Bauhaus, marking the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus in 2019, a legendary German design school operational from 1919 to 1933.

Visitors will have the chance to slip into costumes from Oskar Schlemmer’s “Triadisches Ballett” for selfies, said TBFF.    [FULL  STORY]

Forbes
Date: Feb 8, 2019
By: Russell FlanneryForbes Staff

The fall in U.S. stocks on Thursday underscored worries among investors that progress on resolving Sino-U.S. trade disputes won’t be sufficient to avoid the new round of tariffs on Chinese goods threatened by the Trump administration if talks fail. Larry Kudlow, chief economic advisor to President Trump, reportedly said yesterday the two sides are “miles” apart ahead of a March 1 deadline.

Taiwan, a close trading partner of both the U.S. and mainland, has a big stake in the outcome. Business confidence in a recent survey of members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei fell by 10 percentage points from a year earlier, Amcham President William Foreman explained in an interview in Taipei on Thursday. Foreman also discussed the fallout of the U.S. Justice Department charges in November that Taiwan’s semiconductor maker United Microelectronics Corp. conspired with mainland China’s state-owned Fujian Jianhua Integrated Circuits to steal technology from American memory-chip maker Micron (see link here). Amcham represents more than 500 companies in Taiwan. Interview excerpts follow.

Q. What’s the impact of rising trade tension between the U.S. and the mainland on Taiwan?

A. First of all, it’s affecting confidence in Taiwan’s one-year business outlook. We saw a 10 percentage point drop compared to last year in how confident business leaders are one year out (see full survey here). The clear factors there were the uncertainties from the trade war and pressure from China, and just generally, U.S. trade policy.
[FULL  STORY]

Island aims at 500,000 visitors from the Philippines for 2019

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/08
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan at the Travel Tour Expo in Manila (By Central News Agency)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwan booths drew crowds Friday at the largest travel fair in the Philippines, the Travel Tour Expo in Manila.

The event, at the SMX Convention Center Manila in Pasay, hosts 400 stands, including those representing Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Guam and Hong Kong, the Central News Agency reported.

The Taiwan area at the show is dominated by a model of Taipei 101 which changes colors and by the orange phrase “Taiwan, the Heart of Asia.”

Themes hoping to attract travelers to Taiwan were visits to small villages, Hakka textiles, tastings of red bean ice cream, and Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences from the country’s high-tech industry.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/08
By: Fan Cheng-hsiang and Joseph Yeh

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) / CNA file photo

Taipei, Feb. 8 (CNA) A group of U.S. senators on Thursday issued a joint letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling on her to invite Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

The letter was signed by U.S. Senators Cory Gardner, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, and Ted Cruz.

In response, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) expressed gratitude but stressed that there are no current plans for President Tsai to visit Washington.

In the letter, the senators said the invitation, once realized, would be “consistent with U.S. law, enhance U.S. leadership in the Indo-Pacific region, and justly reward a true friend and ally of the United States and the American people.”    [FULL  STORY]