Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/07/29
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, July 29 (CNA) Renowned Taiwanese actor Ma Ju-feng died on Sunday at the age

of 63, according a statement released by the actor’s management company.

Officials at Chu Shang Show Chwan Hospital in Nantou told reporters that Ma was rushed to the hospital’s emergency room at about 9:30 a.m. but showed no vital signs on arrival.

Doctors failed to revive Ma and pronounced him dead, according to the hospital.

According to local media reports, Ma took a recent vacation in the central county of Nantou and was found on the bathroom floor unresponsive and with no pulse by friends in the bed and breakfast where he stayed.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/29
By: Chiang Chin-yeh and Elizabeth Hsu

Washington, July 28 (CNA) Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is making unification a

more important component of his “China Dream,” despite Taipei’s pledge of peace in the Taiwan Strait and desire to preserve the status quo in cross-strait relations, according to a U.S.-based scholar in foreign and defense policy.

“Tensions are rising between Beijing and Taipei,” wrote Michael Mazza, a research fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), in his article, titled “Is a Storm Brewing in the Taiwan Strait?” published by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations Friday.

Mazza linked Beijing’s increasing pressure on Taiwan with Xi’s vision for the future of China, or his so-called “China Dream,” of which Xi has made unification an important component.

Xi “began talking about the ‘great renewal of the Chinese nation’ — which, for him, requires formal unification with Taiwan — during a speech he gave in 2012 as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Mazza.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times 
Date: Jul 30, 2018

Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung, who was sworn into office on July 16, expounded his views on combating crime and addressing the influence of criminal organizations in an interview with ‘Liberty Times’ (sister newspaper of the ‘Taipei Times’) staff reporters Chen Yu-fu and Lee Hsin-fang    [FULL  INTERVIEW]

Hartford Courant
Date: July 28, 2018
By: John Pomfret

The State Department’s recently reported request for Marines to return to Taiwan for the

first time since 1979 to defend the de facto U.S. embassy there is not an isolated event. Instead, it underscores what appears to be newfound willingness within the U.S. government and Congress to challenge China and pay more attention to Taiwan’s defense.

For several decades, Washington followed a policy that shied away from irritating China when it came to Taiwan. As the island of 23 million evolved into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies, with a boisterously free press, successive American administrations were careful not to provoke Beijing even as they tried to shelter Taiwan diplomatically and provide for the territory’s defense.

An influential report written in 2008 by a retired U.S. naval commander was embraced by officials from the Obama administration because it argued that the United States no longer needed to sell Taiwan big-ticket items, such as fighter jets, or support its submarine program, which would anger Beijing. Instead, the author, William Murray, contended that Taiwan could forgo an air force and a big navy and focus instead on making itself a “porcupine” by adding smaller weapons systems and mobile infantry units that could defend Taiwan’s beaches from an all-out Chinese assault. The logic, in the words of Thomas Hammes, a former Marine Corps colonel now at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, was that “a grizzly bear can eat a porcupine anytime it wants to, but it just isn’t worth the pain.”
[FULL  STORY]

LiveKindly 
Date: Jul 28, 2018
By: Nadia Murray-Ragg

Taiwan has become the second location in Asia to offer Beyond Meat’s “bleeding” vegan Beyond Burger. The dish will be stocked at TGI Fridays across Taiwan.

The Beyond Burger is a vegan patty that is said to cook, look, and taste like a traditional beef patty. The item made its Asia debut in Hong Kong last year, which proved successful. Following the launch, sales of the burger quadrupled in one year.

Now, the Beyond Burger will be available in all Taiwanese TGI Fridays. The casual dining chain will serve the patty as a “Mushroom Beyond Meat Burger,” seasoned and pan-fried, with salad greens and truffle mayonnaise. It is not clear whether the sauce is vegan, however, diners opting to eat entirely plant-based could request for the mayonnaise to be removed.    [FULL  STORY]

As China tries to get the Taiwan flag banned from the Gay Games in Paris, why Taiwan is Asia’s most LGBT-friendly destination and the gay Games should acknowledge this.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/07/29
By: David Spencer, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) bullyboy tactics have been having a good week. Not only have US Airlines caved into CCP demands over the use of the name Taiwan, but the East Asian Olympic Committee (EAOC) has gone so far as to remove Taichung as host of the 2019 East Asian Youth Games (EAYG) under pressure from Beijing. But perhaps the most surprising move has been the CCP’s targeting of the 2018 Gay Games in Paris.

There is a 25-strong team of athletes from Taiwan slated to attend this event for LGBT sports stars and the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) had agreed that they would compete under the name Taiwan and the Taiwanese flag. But it seems they are now going back on this agreement after being put under pressure from the CCP, despite that fact that the Communist regime there has a long track record of stoking homophobia and undermining gay rights across the country.

In contrast, there are a whole host of reasons why Taiwan is widely seen as the most LGBT-friendly destination in Asia. Quite why the FGG would choose to side with the CCP over a free Taiwan is unclear. But just to jog their memories, here is a quick rundown of 7 reasons why Taiwan is the most LGBT-friendly country in the region. If you think we have missed anything out, please share them with us on our Facebook or Twitter pages:    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/28
By: Huang Huei-min and Ko Lin 

Taipei, July 28 (CNA) Liu Chao-hui (劉兆輝), a survivor of the TransAsia Airways crash in Taipei three years ago, who currently practices medicine in Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen County, said recently that he plans to build a hospital named “Angel Lisa” in Belize to provide free medical care to local residents.

Liu made the decision after visiting the Central American nation in June, as part of a charity medical mission initiated by his oldest daughter Liu Jui-chi (劉瑞琪) and son-in-law Tao Te-chi (陶德志), he said.

Liu said the future hospital will be named after his youngest daughter Lisa (劉佳琪) who died from cancer at the age of 18 and always wanted to be a doctor as a young child.

“Belize was love at first sight,” he said, recalling the moment he arrived in the country with his daughter and the medical team made up of medical volunteers from Taiwan and the United States.    [FULL  STORY]