Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/10
By: Huang Li-yun and William Yen

Taipei, Sept. 10 (CNA) The entrance to the building which housed Japan’s de facto embassy in Taipei, the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association (JTEA), was splashed with wet paint on Monday evening by members linked to a pro-Chinese unification political party, according to the Taipei City Police Department (TCPD).

TCPD’s Songshan Precinct said a report was made at approximately 5:30 p.m. of four Unionist Party supporters, one female and three male, splashing wet paint all over the building’s entrance, foyer and glass panels.

The four involved have since been held in custody by the police for investigation into offenses related to their actions.

According to a video that surfaced online, the incident was said to be in protest against a Japanese national caught on camera appearing to kick Taiwan’s first comfort women statue in Tainan earlier this month.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/09/09
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, Sept. 9 (CNA) An American man has been found guilty of sexually harassing four

women in Taipei early this year and sentenced to a total of five months imprisonment, after which he will be deported, according to court documents released Sunday.

Joseph Aron, 36, who entered Taiwan on a tourist visa on Jan. 2, was accused of sexually touching two women at different locations in Taipei on Jan. 4. He was later charged with violation of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act after the victims reported the assaults to the police.

Aron was found guilty of the first two attacks at Taiwan Shilin District Court on Sept. 3 and sentenced to two months in jail on each of the two charges, with the penalties combined to a three-month term of imprisonment, which can be commuted to a fine of NT$90,000 (US$2,920), the verdict said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/09
By: Chen Wei-ting and William Yen

Taipei, Sept. 9 (CNA) A magnitude 4.4 earthquake jolted eastern Taiwan at 9:16 p.m. Sunday, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The epicenter of the earthquake was 5.2 kilometers south of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 43.2 km, the CWB website said.

The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was measured 3 on Taiwan’s 7-tiered intensity scale in Tongmen, Taroko and Xibao in Hualien County, as well as Taichung in central Taiwan.

Nantou and Yilan recorded an intensity of 2, while the intensity in areas of Taitung, Changhua, Chiayi, Taoyuan and Yunlin measured 1.    [SOURCE]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 10, 2018
By: Liu Wan-chun and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

A museum dedicated to independence activist Ong Iok-tek (王育德) yesterday opened at

his former residence in Tainan, where he lived with his elder brother Ong Iok-lim (王育霖).

Born in 1924, Ong Iok-tek was a spiritual leader and forerunner of the Taiwanese independence movement in Japan. He was also an expert on the Hoklo language (commonly known as Taiwanese).

Ong Iok-lim, who was born in 1919, was the first Taiwanese prosecutor in the Japanese Empire.

After World War II, he returned to Taiwan and served as a prosecutor in Hsinchu City, but resigned after investigating then-Hsinchu mayor Kuo Shao-tsung (郭紹宗) for corruption.    [FULL  STORY]

He gives away 600 to 700 free bowls of food a month to the needy, having seized his second chance after serving jail term for manslaughter

South China Morning Post 
Date: 08 September, 2018
By: Agence France-Presse

For most of his life Yen Wei-shun was on the wrong side of the law, but the former Taiwan gangster says he is making up for lost time by churning out noodles for the needy.

His family has run a noodle stall, tucked away in a bustling traditional market in New Taipei City, for decades.

Now Yen, 40, is working alongside his mother to make free bowls of noodles for customers who cannot afford a meal.

Yen’s venture has caught the attention of local media and a video of his life, made by a Shanghai-based online outlet, has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.

His gangster life started young: at 15 he was convicted of manslaughter after fatally wounding a man in a group fight and jailed for 4½ years, he says.

But after his release, Yen continued his involvement and found himself in court again eight years ago on illegal gun possession charges.    [FULL  STORY]

Would Xi dare? 

The National Interest
Date: September 8, 2018
By: Ian Easton

(This first appeared last December.)
It is clearly in the American interest to develop a nuanced understanding of the threat China poses to Taiwan, and to cultivate a strategy that takes this into account. Indeed, it is often the case that only by thinking tragically can tragedy be avoided. It is also true that in the absence of understanding many will buy into Chinese propaganda.

A Chinese diplomat in Washington recently threatened that China would invade Taiwan if the U.S. Navy sent a ship to visit the democratic island, something that Congress has called upon the Pentagon to do in 2018. Is this just empty rhetoric? Or does it reflect Beijing’s actual intentions? It’s actually a bit of both.

According to leaked Chinese military documents ( analyzed here ), Taiwan stands to lose more from the rise of China as a twenty-first-century superpower than any other country in the world. Indeed, China’s emergence as the world’s second largest political, economic and military power threatens the interests of many nations, but only Taiwan has its life at stake. Only Taiwan is held at risk of seeing its trade lines severed, its cities bombed and its shores invaded. Only Taiwan faces the possibility of having its president assassinated and its democracy destroyed. China’s authoritarian government challenges many countries in many ways, but it only has war plans for the invasion and occupation of Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei and New Taipei declare 13 districts at risk

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/08
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – At least one motorcyclist was reported injured in Taipei City as torrential rain overwhelmed the streets and caused flooding across the capital Saturday evening.

The government texted messages to residents’ smartphones to warn them of the coming onslaught, but even then many were caught outside.

In Ximending, one of Taipei’s most popular destinations for locals and tourists alike on weekends, water suddenly shot several floors high, throwing a motorcyclist off his vehicle, the Central News Agency reported.

On the other side of town, close to the fashionable Xinyi shopping district, Keelung Road had “turned into the Keelung River,” a resident noted online. Traffic on Zhongxiao East Road section 4, known for its concentration of department stores and boutiques, was stuck    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/08
By: Charles Kang and Ko Lin

New Delhi, Sept. 8 (CNA) Taiwanese satellites and space components have been among

the many star attractions on show at the 6th Bengaluru Space Expo in India, with several experts expressing an interest in working with Taiwan, a top official said Saturday.

Taiwan successfully demonstrated its strength in space technology development at the show, said Henry H. H. Chen (陳和賢), director of the Science and Technology Division under the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India.

Items such as Taiwan’s self-developed miniature satellites, known as CubeSat, were highly praised, while a number of Indian academics and industrial experts have already begun exploring opportunities to cooperate with Taiwan, Chen said.

This year, Taiwan’s participation at the Indian fair was led by the National Space Organization (NSPO), a national space agency involved in the development of space technologies and related research.    [FULL  STORY]