LOST AND FOUND: An Amis woman has found her brother, who was abandoned in the Canary Islands by their father in the 1980s, and now they are attempting to reunite

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 22, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Nearly four decades after being stranded by his father in the Canary Islands, a man from the Amis

Aboriginal community in Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里) could be coming home.

Chen Chiung-ming (陳炯明) has a chance to reunite with his family, thanks to the efforts of his sister, Chen Hsiu-lan (陳秀蘭), who promised their late father that she would find him. Now, she must navigate the bureaucratic obstacles that keep them apart.

Financial hardship drove Chen Chiung-ming, at age 17, to work for their father on a long-haul commercial fishing vessel, Chen Hsiu-lan said in an interview on Dec. 12.

In their months at sea, the two came into almost constant conflict. Finally, in 1981, the father ordered his son locked up in the ship’s refrigerator. He was eventually freed and helped ashore by his friends when the ship docked in the Canary Islands.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 20 December, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

Taiwan’s highest peak, Yushan, received its first snow of the year on Friday morning. The Central Weather Bureau says that the temperature on Yushan dipped close to zero degrees Celsius in the early hours.

Around 11:25 am, humidity levels were high enough that snow began to fall. By noon a combination of sleet and snow fell on the mountain.    [FU7LL  STORY]

South China Morning Post
Date: December 21, 2019
By: Minnie Chan

• China's newest aircraft carrier is likely to team up with its other flat top to block foreign forces from coming to Taiwan's aid in the event of a conflict, experts say.
• The Shandong, which was commissioned on Tuesday, could work with sister ship Liaoning to cut off Taiwan or head to the South China Sea to give Beijing an advantage there.

China's new aircraft carrier is likely to team up with its sister ship to form a dual-carrier battle group to cut off foreign military access to Taiwan during a war, according to a military magazine and defence specialists.

Instead of fighting alone, the Shandong, which was commissioned on Tuesday, would work with the Liaoning, a refitted Soviet Kuznetsov-class vessel, to create a more powerful combination to block US or Japanese vessels from reaching the island if they went to the aid independence-leaning forces on Taiwan, the Beijing-based Naval and Merchant Ships monthly magazine reported on Tuesday.

"[Another major] task of the [battle group’s aircraft] is to stop US long-range bombers from taking off from a naval base in Guam. This would be to prevent American aircraft targeting the PLA's landing transport formations and Chinese submarines," it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Former US deputy national security adviser visiting Taiwan this week to meet DPP and KMT politicians

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/20
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The United States should make China pay the price for suppressing Taiwan, said Stephen Yates, a former deputy national security adviser to former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, at a press conference in Taipei on Thursday (Dec. 19).

With Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections some 21 days away, Yates, now a commentator on FOX News, is visiting Taiwan to gain insight into the elections. He will meet politicians from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), opposition Kuomintang (KMT), and Freddy Lim (林昶佐), the metal-rocker-turned politician who co-founded the New Power Party, according to CNA.

At the press event, when asked about China bullying Taiwan, Yates suggested that if China blocks the island country from participating in World Health Organization meetings or events, the U.S. and her allies should send their health ministers to Taiwan to exchange health information. The U.S. can ensure that Taiwan's absence from the meeting will not become a loophole in the global health security network against communicable diseases, he said.

Yates continued by saying that from his point of view, Beijing would complain, but the U.S. should ignore it, as the visit is in line with the Taiwan Travel Act. Likewise, if China strips Taiwan of her diplomatic allies, the U.S. Secretary of State should come to Taiwan as a deterrence against China's diplomatic aggression.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/20
By: Flor Wang and Tsai Ming-chih

Taipei, Dec. 20 (CNA) Nearly 2,000 geese raised on a farm in Chiayi County were culled Friday after being confirmed to have contracted the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 subtype virus, the county's Animal Disease Center said.

According to the center, 1,862 geese which the farm had kept for breeding were killed after being determined by the Animal Research Institute under the Council of Agriculture to have been infected with the bird flu virus.

The farm was also disinfected to ward off a spread of the virus, the center added.

On Tuesday, it sent workers to inspect the farm and took samples for virus testing by the institute after the farm's owner, surnamed Hung (洪), reported irregularities among the geese earlier that day.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 21, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Police in Taoyuan on Thursday evening arrested four people in connection with an alleged illegal

remittance ring.

The suspects, who face charges of breaching the Banking Act (銀行法), had allegedly conducted NT$7 billion (US$231.7 million at the current exchange rate) in transactions over the past six years, transferring money to other countries for migrant workers, prosecutors said yesterday.

With his son, 33, and two other men, surnamed Chen (陳), 51, and Chiu (邱), 39, the alleged leader, surnamed Lee (李), 54, operated the underground banks through stores that sell food, clothing and grocery items to migrant workers, prosecutors said.

Taoyuan’s Jhongli Police Precinct raided three stores on Thursday, seizing NT$300,000, along with receipts for wiring money to overseas destinations, a ledger book and other documents, police said.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 19 December, 2019
By: Paula Chao

NDC Minister Chen Mei-ling Wednesday unveiled “Startup Island TAIWAN” logo to promote innovation.

The National Development Council (NDC) has unveiled a logo for Taiwanese companies to use. The logo features the words “Startup Island TAIWAN”, and it is aimed at promoting Taiwan’s innovative industries on the global stage.

The logo was unveiled Wednesday after a year-long development process    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2019/12/19
By: Milo Hsieh

Taiwan’s presidential candidates attended their first televised policy presentation on December 18. This is the first time all three candidates — incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomintang (KMT), and James Soong of the People’s First Party (PFP) — appeared jointly in public to discuss their campaign platforms.

Although each candidate had a total of 30-minute screen time to present their proposals, no one delivered a cohesive policy outline. Instead, all candidates used their time to bash each other.

Tsai Attacks Han over Beijing Ties

Tsai has usually avoided criticizing her political rivals, but she blasted Han over several controversies during the presentation. She attacked Han’s racist and sexist rhetorics, purchase of an expensive mansion during a period of unemployment, and alleged profiting from illegal mining operations on public land.

Han has frequently branded himself a “commoner citizen,” but Tsai challenged his self-characterization by questioning his extravagant purchases.    [FULL  STORY]

Storytelling, magic shows, and fair to take place Dec. 21-22

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/19
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — New Taipei City's Christmasland has been named among the 50 best Christmas Markets in the world by an international travel site, making it the only one in Taiwan and one of only four in Asia to make the list.

Big 7 Travel recently released its official list of the top 50 places in the world to spend Christmas in 2019, and the New Taipei City's Christmasland was named 46th for its dazzling LED light show that creates "a fairytale-like experience out of the country's tallest Christmas trees."

Christkindlmarkt in Leavenworth, Washington, was named the best Christmas market by Big 7 Travel, followed by Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market in the U.K., Zagreb Advent in Croatia, Christmas Village Belevedere Palace in Austria, Stellenbosch Slow Market in South Africa, Santurantikuy Market in Peru, Christkindlmarket Chicago in the U.S., the U.K.'s Manchester Christmas Market, Germany's Aachener Weihnachtsmarkt, and Canada's Toronto Christmas Market.

Gardens by the Bay's Christmas Wonderland in Singapore (No. 11), Japan's Roppongi Hills Christmas Market (No. 27), and Malaysia's Christmas Quarter Market (No. 35) were the only Asian Christmas events on the list.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/19
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) A crisis between the United States and China over Taiwan has been listed as one contingency that could affect U.S. interests in 2020, according to a survey released by an American think tank Wednesday, although it said such a conflict was not very likely.

In the annual Preventive Priorities Survey released by the New York-based the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action (CPA), American foreign policy experts assessed the likelihood and impact of 30 potential conflicts that could emerge or escalate next year.

The CPA then categorized the scenarios in three tiers — high, moderate, and low — in order of priority for U.S. leaders.

One of the 30 contingencies identified was "a crisis between the United States and China over Taiwan, as a result of China's intensifying political and economic pressure surrounding Taiwan's elections in 2020."    [FULL  STORY]