Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/27
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Oct. 27 (CNA) The government will continue to empower immigrants and their children through financial assistance and relaxation of immigration policies, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said in a forum Sunday.

More than 300 immigrants, mostly from Southeast Asian countries who married Taiwanese citizens, attended the "New Immigrant Forum" at the National Immigration Agency (NIA). The event was aimed at disseminating government empowerment measures for immigrants.

Hsu said there are an estimated 550,000 immigrants currently living in Taiwan.

Hsu welcomed the immigrants, saying that new residents have enriched Taiwan's national strength with their contributions to society. He also encouraged immigrants to speak in their native languages with their children to enhance their competitiveness in the future.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 28, 2019
By: Cheng Hui-wen and Dennis Xie  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

While many people adore furry four-legged creatures, not everyone is able to raise one in their home.

Fortunately, there are other ways to show love to stray animals in Taiwan.

“You Adopt, I Raise” (您領我養) is a program introduced in 2005 by Huang Ching-jung (黃慶榮), a former secretary-general of the Animal Protection Association. It has since helped thousands of strays.

As a veterinarian who has long promoted animal protection, Huang said that one day he had the idea that “if there are people who can raise animals for those who wish to but are unable, then a win-win situation could be created.”

Under the program, adopters make small donations on a regular basis to people who raise the dogs for them.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan is known for hosting the largest gay pride parades in East Asia, but this year's spectacle is special. It is the first pride since same-sex marriage was legalized in Taiwan on May 24.

Deutsche Welle
Date: 26.10.2019

Some 200,000 people flooded the streets of Taiwan's capital, Taipei, on Saturday, for the first pride parade since the self-ruled island began formally allowing same-sex marriage.

Taiwan has long hosted the largest pride marches in East Asia but the 2019 parade is particularly significant as it is the first since a law legalizing same-sex marriage was passed on May 24.

More than 2,150 same-sex couples have now married in Taiwan, government data shows.

Organizers said more than 200,000 people marched through the streets of Taipei, with many waving rainbow flags and signs reading "Good Neighbors," "Love" and "Diversity," to show support for gender and sexual diversity.

The parade was due to end in the evening outside the Presidential Office.    [FULL  STORY]

Strategic News Internatinal
Date: October 26, 2019
By: Surya Gangadharan

NEW DELHI: If the Nationalists were ruling China today, would the border issues with India and so

many countries in the South China Sea have been handled differently?

“Territorial issues are very difficult to resolve,” admits Taiwan’s Ambassador to India Chung Kwang Tien (official designation is Representative since India sees Taiwan as part of China). But he also believes Taiwan would have managed the issue differently. “Our way is to shelve it and do other things but China is using muscle to resolve its territorial issues,” he said during an interaction organised by the Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents in New Delhi recently.

Ironically, the “Eleven Dot Line” on the South China Sea, declared by the Nationalist government ruling Taiwan in 1947, closely matches the 9-Dash Line of the Communist government that overthrew the Nationalists in 1949. The Taiwanese claim at that time apparently raised no eyebrows in the region partly because colonial powers still ruled in south-east Asia and also partly because the Nationalist government did not seek to militarily assert those claims.

When the communists under Mao Dzedong seized power in 1949, they appeared content with the Eleven Dot Line for many years until the 1950s, when two dots were removed. This was to assuage the communist comrades in Vietnam about their sovereignty over the Gulf of Tonkin. The dots also became dashes. But China began to flex muscle in the 1970s when its forces expelled the South Vietnamese from the Paracel Islands. In the 1980s and 1990s, China seized seven of the 200 reefs in the Spratly chain of islands and in 2012, they occupied Scarborough Shoal which belongs to the Philippines.    [FULL  STORY]

US vice president reiterates support for Taiwan in major China policy speech

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/25
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Retaining a harsh tone against Beijing in a speech on China policy similar

to the one he made a year ago, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday (Oct. 24) expressed concern over the Chinese government’s pressure on Taiwan, adding that the U.S. stands by the island nation in defense of freedom and democracy.

In a major policy speech at the Washington-based Wilson Center, Pence said the U.S. does not seek to contain China’s development and desires instead to build a constructive relationship with Chinese leaders. Nevertheless, he unreservedly touched on issues known to sting Beijing, expressing support for Hong Kong’s anti-government protests and Taiwan’s defiance of China.

The vice president blasted China for poaching Taiwan’s allies through “checkbook diplomacy,” which he says threatens Taiwanese democracy. He went on to encourage the international community to engage with the island nation, as “it protects peace on Taiwan and throughout the region.”

“Under this administration, we’ve authorized additional military sales and recognized Taiwan’s place as one of the world’s great trading economies and beacons of Chinese culture and democracy,” said Pence. “We’ve stood by Taiwan in defense of her hard-won freedoms,” he added.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/26
By: Chen Chi-ching and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Oct. 26 (CNA) The Penghu District Court ordered the detention of 28 Chinese nationals Friday,

following their arrest for illegal sea sand dredging in Taiwanese waters, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA).

According to a press release, the dredging was discovered Thursday during a joint patrol by the CGA and the Penghu County government, in shallow coastal waters known as the Taiwan Bank.

During the operation, the authorities detained a dredging ship and a transporter, along with 28 Chinese crew members, including the vessels' captains, surnamed Lu (陸) and Kang (康), the CGA said.

The Penghu District Court ordered the 28 held incommunicado on suspicion of violating Taiwan's Sand and Gravel Excavation Act, and Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone, the largest such detention in the county's history.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 25 October, 2019
By: Jake Chen

Lienchiang County is made up of 36 outlying islands. It is both the smallest and least populous of Taiwan’s counties. But despite its small size, the county has been voted one of the world’s 21 smartest communities by the Intelligent Community Forum.

This the first time that Lienchiang County has made the list. In the past, it’s been Taiwan’s big cities, places like Taipei and Kaohsiung, that have been chosen.    [FULL  STORY]

Meet The Black Dragon.

The National Interest
Date: October 25, 2019
By: Robert Beckhusen

The 240-millimeter M1 howitzer, or “Black Dragon,” was the heaviest piece of field artillery the U.S. Army deployed in World War II. The huge guns smashed the Axis Powers’ concrete fortifications in Europe to rubble, and blasted Chinese mountain bunkers during the Korean War.

“There was little call for the type to be employed whenever the fighting was fluid as it took too long to emplace the weapons or get them out of action, but when they were used the heavy 163.3 kg (360-lb) high explosive shells were devastating weapons,” Chris Bishop wrote in the exhaustive Complete Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II.

The Army retired them in the 1950s. And that would have been the end of the story, were it not for Taiwan burying them deep inside forts on the Kinmen and Matsu islands a short hop from the Chinese mainland. From Kinmen, the Black Dragon’s 14-mile range can reach Xiamen, a city of five million people along China’s southeast coast.

The message — intimidation. Deterrence. Don’t invade.    [FULL  STORY]