Meetings on the island between American and Taiwanese officials would compound tensions brought on by the passage of two US bills, observers say

South China Morning Post 
Date: 20 February, 2018
By: Lawrence Chung

The annual US-Taiwan defence industry conference has long been a platform for Taiwan and the United States to discuss arms sales and has been held in the US for the last decade-and-a-half to avoid provoking Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island.

But a Taiwanese military source confirmed to the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that Taipei and Washington agreed last year that from 2018, they would take turns to host the event and the conference would now take place twice a year.

Is Washington preparing to play the Taiwan card with Beijing again?

The move is set to provoke Beijing and aggravate tensions in Sino-US ties brought on by US President Donald Trump’s decision in December to sign the National Defence Authorisation Act strengthening military ties with Taipei.    [FULL  STORY]

An official also urges the public to continue traveling to Hualien to help revive business in the city

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/20
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A delegation from the Legislative Yuan visited Hualien in eastern

Taiwan on Monday and said the government had allocated a budget of NT$21 million for reconstruction and repair of private buildings damaged by the earthquake that wrecked havoc in the city on February 6.

The magnitude-6.0 quake took place near midnight and claimed 17 lives, including eight foreigners. In addition, 285 people were injured, by the quake, and 493 people were temporarily or permanently displaced.

Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶), convener of a committee set up by the central government for the relief and recovery of the Hualien earthquake, said after visits to collapsed or damaged buildings and bridges that the government had approved a budget of NT$21 million for aiding in rebuilding or repairing private properties damaged during the earthquake.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/20
By: Liu Te-chang and Elizabeth Hsu

Bangkok, Feb. 20 (CNA) Thai police participated in the arrest of 11 suspects for cross-

border telecommunication fraud, including five Taiwan nationals, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday in a joint operation with Malaysian police, a senior Thai tourist police officer said.

In addition to the four men and one women from Taiwan, the remaining six suspects were all Thai citizens, said Surachet Hakpan, deputy chief of the Tourist Police Bureau.

The bureau organized a special investigation team after receiving a series of reports of telecom fraud offenses with Thai victims claiming they were swindled out of their bank savings, Surachet said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/19
By: Hsiao Po-wen and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Feb. 19 (CNA) Acclaimed journalism professor Cheng Jim-ming (鄭貞銘) passed away Monday in Taipei at the age of 82, media personality Jeffrey Ko (葛樹人) said.

Cheng died at Central Clinic and Hospital in Taipei at 4:56 p.m. Monday. He was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 with kidney failure, according to Ko.

The famous journalism professor was born in 1936. Known to many as the “Godfather of Taiwan journalism,” Cheng spent most of the past five decades teaching generations of students.

A graduate of National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Journalism, Cheng became the first department chair of Chinese Culture University’s Department of Journalism a year after it was founded in 1963 at the age of 28.    [FULL  STORY]

Questions were posed to a reticent  Asst. Secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/16
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Senator Marco Rubio on Thursday, Feb. 15 spoke to

representatives from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at a meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

During the exchange with the U.S. State Dept.’s representative Susan Thornton, Rubio questioned her very seriously on the issue of the Taiwanese flag being removed from State Department web pages.

The sudden disappearance of the Taiwanese Flag from State Dept. web pages around Jan. 24 raised several questions on the justification for the removal, and led many to wonder who ordered the change.

Susan Thornton, as acting assistant secretary of the bureau, should have been knowledgeable about any changes to the website under her management. When questioned by Rubio on the issue, she responded that a new contractor had become responsible for the site, and that the changes were made under the new contractor’s discretion.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-02-18

The weather across Taiwan is gradually getting warmer as the northeasterly weather

system blanketing the island weakens.

The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Sunday that temperatures in western Taiwan could reach as high as 29 degrees Celsius, whereas in eastern Taiwan, the temperatures could climb to 26 degrees. However, forecasters are urging the public to be aware that temperatures could drop into the mid-teens in the early mornings and late evenings.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that air quality is normal across western Taiwan and its outlying islands. However, the EPA has issued an orange air quality alert for central and southern regions of Taiwan, due to a lack of wind to disperse the pollution. The orange alert means the air is dangerous for sensitive groups, including the elderly and people with asthma.    [SOURCE]

Thais welcome the Year of the Dog

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The official Lunar New Year holiday may only last one day in

Thailand, but that doesn’t mean it goes by unseen in the Southeast Asian country with its large ethnic Chinese population.

Shopping malls and supermarkets will set aside special areas where they sell anything that’s red, especially red T-shirts and paper lanterns. Even major European fashion chains get in on the act.

At the malls, little girls and young women in red “qipao” or cheongsams walk by, while 24-hour convenience stores sell pink-colored breads and sweets.

The preponderance of red T-shirts comes somewhat as a surprise as only a few years ago, wearing such an item symbolized support for the political movement of deposed ex-Premier Thaksin Shinawatra and of his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, both of whom now live in exile while the country is run by a military-led government.    [FULL  STORY]