Page Three

On A Stopover In Ever-Tested Taiwan

Forbes
Date: Jul 25, 2018 
By: Tim Ferguson, Forbes Staff

These are trying times for Taiwan. Intimidation by Beijing is virtually

Embattled Tsai can’t just let sleeping dogs lie when it comes to Beijing and its constant hazing. But her economy retains strengths. SAM YEH/AFP/Getty ImagesSAM YEH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

nonstop, and its target, President Tsai Ing-wen, must scramble just to keep her government’s international footing. Economic and other pressures mounted as the Democratic Progressive assumed office in 2016, adding to popular unease over incomes even as such measures as the TAIEX stocks chart have pointed up.

Yet a visit to Taiwan is a pleasure, even when appointments in urban Taipei leave no time to enjoy most of the island’s beauty. I always notice the relative absence of armed men in uniform and of obvious mass surveillance. (Today’s National Security Bureau is not your father’s.) Also refreshing are the bookshops with no seeming bent for idolatry or prohibitions on speech. A clean and green mindset prevails, and the human scale–aside from the Taipei 101 tower–is relaxing.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan to hold international indigenous music festival

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/07/25
By:  Central News Agency

An international indigenous music festival will be held Aug. 3-4 by the

Chen Jian-nian will perform at this year’s Taiwan PASIWALI Festival. (By Central News Agency)

Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) in Taitung, southeastern Taiwan, with indigenous music groups from seven countries participating, according to a statement released Wednesday by the CIP.

Speaking at a press conference in Taipei, CIP Minister Icyang Parod said the festival will allow the music groups from different indigenous cultures to have the chance to perform together and appreciate each other’s lifestyles.

Chief secretary of the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA), Chu Lai-shun (朱來順), who also attended the press conference, said the TRA will add extra train services during the festival.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan urged to overhaul immigration policy to fight human trafficking

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/25
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, July 25 (CNA) Taiwan can revolutionize its work force and

Patrick Taran (right)

simultaneously address both its demographic and economic challenges by revising its immigration policy, Patrick Taran, president of the Global Migration Policy Association, said in Taipei Wednesday.

“The economy of Taiwan clearly needs workers,” Taran said. “Its native workers are disappearing, but foreign workers continue to be constrained from arriving. They are needed for the labor demand in this country.”

Speaking at an international workshop on strategies for combating human trafficking, Taran outlined what he saw as the root causes of human trafficking and smuggling and made recommendations for dealing with those challenges.    [FULL  STORY]

FEATURE: Taiwan has a lot to offer on China: experts

WEALTH OF EXPERTISE: One professor said that China’s ‘united front’ tactics have been accelerated, and Taiwan knows how they work better than any other nation

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 26, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA

China experts on Tuesday drew attention to Beijing’s efforts to undermine liberal democracies and highlighted Taiwan’s role in finding strategies to mitigate them.

The “united front” tactics and interference engaged in by China are simply part of the routine day-to-day operations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said Peter Mattis, a research fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in the US.

“They are not special activities. They are not covert actions. They are not something done outside of the normal policy channels,” Mattis said at the Ketagalan Forum: 2018 Asia-Pacific Security Dialogue. “These are in fact things that are operated within the CCP’s policy guidances and normal activities of the party.”

What it has been doing to undermine democracy and intervene in foreign states “is simply the party’s way of interacting with the world,” Mattis said, citing former party chairman Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) description of “united front” work as mobilizing the CCP’s “friends to strike at [the party’s] enemies.”
[FULL  STORY]

Foreign minister speaks for Taiwan on CNN

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-07-24

The foreign minister, Joseph Wu, gave a detailed account of Taiwan’s status and positions in an extended interview with US cable network CNN on Monday.

In a 30-minute interview, Wu spoke about Taiwan’s diplomatic status, the threat the country faces from China, and relations with the United States.

On cross-strait relations, Wu stated that Taiwan is a democratic society with an elected government and legislature that exists separately from China. He said President Tsai Ing-wen has consistently stressed a policy of maintaining the status quo in relations between the two sides.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan fishing boats to stop employing North Koreans

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-07-24

The foreign ministry says that Taiwanese fishing boats will stop employing crew members from North Korea.

The ministry’s statement comes a day after the US government released a report listing Taiwan as one of several dozen countries where North Koreans were employed last year in violation of UN sanctions.

There are at present three North Korean crew members working on Taiwan’s fleet of fishing boats. That’s down from 278 previously hired to work on Taiwanese vessels.     [FULL  STORY]

Delta, United and American face showdown with China over Taiwan

CNN
Date: July 24, 2018
By: Daniel Shane

Big US airlines could soon hit political turbulence in China.

Major carriers including United (UAL), American (AAL) and Delta (DAL) are among those that were given a Wednesday deadline by Beijing to change how their global websites refer to Taiwan.

The showdown has been looming for months. The Chinese government wrote to more than 40 international airlines earlier this year demanding they remove from their websites any information that suggests Taiwan is not part of China.

Many airlines, such as Australia’s Qantas (QABSY), Air Canada (ACDVF) and Air India, have already changed their websites. Others, including the big American airlines, have not.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949 following the Communist victory on the mainland after a civil war, although a shared cultural and linguistic heritage mostly endures.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan considers unemployment benefits for foreigners with APRC

Government is working on a package of social benefits linked to employment insurance

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/07/24
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Foreigners holding an Alien Permanent Resident

Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor is considering new measures to benefit foreign residents. (By Central News Agency)

Certificate (APRC) might be considered for unemployment payments and other social benefits, the Liberty Times reported Tuesday.

Government departments including the Ministry of Labor and the National Development Council were discussing proposals to apply employment insurance to the foreign residents under the government’s current economic migrant policies.

If the proposals were approved, it would mean the APRC holders might benefit from a range of social welfare policies, including unemployment and children’s pay and professional training subsidies, according to the Liberty Times.

Employees who have to leave their job outside of their own volition should be able to apply for unemployment benefits if they had been covered by employment insurance by their employer, the Ministry of Labor reportedly said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan High Speed Rail records 500 millionth passenger

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/24
By: Wang Shu-fen and Frances Huang

Taipei, July 24 (CNA) Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) on Monday reached the

CNA file photo

milestone of carrying its 500 millionth passenger, 11 years after the service was launched.

The passenger, who was traveling from Hsinchu to Taichung on a round trip ticket, has won a prize of unlimited travel on the high speed rail for one year, the operator Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) said Tuesday.

THSRC said it is also giving prizes such as vacation packages to the travelers who bought the two tickets before and after the 500 millionth passenger.

The 500 millionth passenger who won the top prize has not yet been identified, but the THSRC said that the passenger bought two tickets for a round-trip between Hsinchu and Taichung with the ticket numbered 0510202040053 winning the top prize and the other ticket numbered 0510202040052 winning a vacation package.    [FULL  STORY]

Consensus reached on US defense bill with support for Taiwan’s self-defense

Taipei Times
Date: July 25, 2018 
By:Staff writer, with CNA, WASHINGTON

The US Senate and House of Representatives on Monday reached a consensus on an annual defense authorization bill that would include a provision expressing support for the strengthening of Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, but have yet to release the final version of the bill.

Based on summaries of the reconciliation process issued by the Senate and House armed services committees, the two bodies proposed different wording to declare support for Taiwan in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019.

The Senate Committee on Armed Services’ version said that in terms of Taiwan, the Senate “directs a comprehensive assessment on strengthening Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, and expresses the sense of Congress on the importance of a strong US defense relationship with Taiwan.”

The House Committee on Armed Services’ version said it supports “improving Taiwan’s defense capabilities and force readiness” and the expansion of “joint training, foreign military sales, the use of security cooperation authorities, and senior level military-to-military engagements.”    [FULL  STORY]