Radio Taiwan International
Date: 18 July, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Former NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called on the new EU leadership to defend Taiwan.

Rasmussen recently published an article titled “Hong Kong showed China is a threat to democracy. Now Europe must defend Taiwan.” The article was published in the Guardian.

Rasmussen said “Beijing is bullying another democratic neighbor. The EU must stop ignoring authoritarianism for the sake of stability and cash.”

The former Danish prime minister urged the new EU leadership to “make a stand for democratic self-determination. It should start by meeting Taiwan’s leaders, and moving forward with an investment partnership; and it should no longer be silent when China takes an aggressive posture.” Rasmussen called Taiwan “one clear example of a Chinese liberal democratic project that has thrived in recent years.”    [FULL  STORY]

Hong Kong mass protests take shine off 'one country, two systems' offer

Nikkei Asian Review
Date: July 18, 2019
By: Katsuji Nakazawa, Nikkei senior staff writer

TOKYO — After spending many years as an official in China's Fujian Province, across the waters from Taiwan, President Xi Jinping has strong personal feelings about the self-ruled island.

It is, therefore, alarming that President Tsai Ing-wen rejected outright Xi's views toward the future of Taiwan, doing so while stopping over in New York last week.

"Hong Kong's experience under 'one country, two systems' has shown the world, once and for all, that authoritarianism and democracy cannot coexist," the 62-year-old Taiwanese leader declared during a speech at Columbia University on Friday.

Tsai was transiting, on her way to visit Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Central America and the Caribbean.    [FULL  STORY]

Products from Huawei, ZTE, and Hikvision to be banned from all government agencies in Taiwan from late July

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/18
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – On Thursday (July 18), Executive Yuan Spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka

announced that Taiwan’s government will be introducing a blacklist of Chinese telecom products at the end of July prohibiting public agencies from purchasing or using designated Chinese ICT products.

The news of the blacklist follows after the introduction new guidelines in April, which govern use of ICT products among government agencies in Taiwan. The measures call for heightened oversight and security over telecom equipment to protect national security.

According to media reports, the new blacklist being drafted will prohibit the use of Huawei, ZTE, and Hikvision products across all government agencies and organizations. Huawei has already been under heavy scrutiny by Taiwanese authorities for years because of the corporation’s close ties to China’s military.

An official ban on government agencies' use of Huawei 4G products has been in effect since late 2014. However officials began to redouble their efforts to root out potentially dangerous ICT equipment from December 2018 following reports that Huawei was a “Trojan horse” being used for a global espionage campaign by China.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/18

St. Lucia, July 18 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Thursday addressed the Parliament of Saint Lucia on the second day of her state visit to the Caribbean country.

The following is the full text of the her speech:

Good morning!

First, I would like to thank Prime Minister Chastanet for inviting me to Saint Lucia. It is an honor to share this special moment with you all, and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of your country's independence.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 19, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Former Taipei City police department commissioner Huang Sheng-yung (黃昇勇) was acquitted

yesterday over his role in a bloody crackdown to disperse protesters during the 2014 Sunflower movement, but lawmakers and victims vowed they would appeal, and said the decision condoned “state violence.”

The Taipei District Court, cleared Huang of attempted homicide and actions causing bodily harm, among other offenses, on the grounds that he was performing his professional duty and upholding the law.

The judges based their decision on Article 21, Item 1 of the Criminal Code, which states that “conduct performed in accordance with the law or order is not punishable.”

Huang instructed the riot police to remove the demonstrators who took part in the occupation of the Executive Yuan compound from the evening of March 23, 2014, to the early hours of the next morning, which he was reportedly ordered to do by then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and then-National Police Agency (NPA) director-general Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞).    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 17 July, 2019
By: Jake Chen

Coast guard using drones to monitor Taiwan’s seas. (CNA Photo)[/caption] The coast guard is using drones to monitor the seas around Taiwan and react to maritime incidents. In recent months, the drones have helped the coast guard in rescue missions and in deterring illegal activities. 

On June 19, coast guard personnel flying a drone spotted a fishing boat sinking off eastern Taiwan. The coast guard quickly dispatched a team to the scene and rescued all on board the sinking vessel.     [FULL  STORY]

Quartz
Date: July 17, 2019
By Mary Hui

It all started with a murder, ensnaring Taiwan and Hong Kong in a case of bizarre legal acrobatics as the Hong Kong government sought to leverage the crime as the impetus for an extradition bill that would allow the city to send criminal suspects to China to face charges.

That extradition bill is now “dead”, in the words of the city’s top official, killed off by an unprecedented uprising of popular anger that has drawn millions onto the streets of Hong Kong in the last six weeks. But in another twist that neither China nor Hong Kong would likely have foreseen, the weeks protests is also fueling resistance to the Beijing government, both in Taiwan and Hong Kong, as a groundswell of anti-China, pro-democracy energy in both places feeds off of each other.

A survey conducted by the Hong Kong-based Public Opinion Research Institute this month found that 44% of Hong Kongers support Taiwan independence—a historic high, and the first time the number is tied with the percentage of people opposed to it. It marks a dramatic turnaround from even just 14 years ago, when less than 10% of Hong Kongers supported Taiwan independence. For Hong Kongers, Beijing’s encroachment on the city’s freedoms is at the core of their distrust of the Chinese Communist Party. At a protest in June, some even carried signs warning Taiwanese people not to vote the China-friendly Kuomintang party, currently the main opposition, into power in presidential elections set to take place in January.    [FULL  STORY]

Yilan County counted almost 300 illegal establishments: Tourism Bureau

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/17
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Investigations by local authorities during the first half of 2019 turned up a total of 1,215 illegal hotels, some of them in the most popular travel destinations, the Tourism Bureau said Wednesday (July 17).

The statistics were based on research by local governments and on the number and amount of fines imposed on violators, the Central News Agency reported.

The investigations turned up a total of 3,390 legal hotels and 582 illegal ones, with 8,895 legal bed and breakfasts and 833 illegal ones.

The three regions with the highest number of illegal establishments were Yilan County on the northeast coast with 292 illegal hotels and B&Bs, Pingtung County, the home of beach resort Kenting, with 252, and mountainous centrally located Nantou County with 213.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiqwan
Date: 2019/07/17
By: Wen Kuei-hsiang and Joseph Yeh

Castries, July 17 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has arrived in St. Lucia, the last stop on her tour of Taiwan's four Caribbean allies on a 12-day overseas trip that has also taken her to the United States.

Tsai was received by St. Lucian Prime Minister Allen Chastanet at Hewanorra International Airport near the capital Castries after arriving there at around 10 a.m. Wednesday local time.

During her two-night stay in the country, Tsai is scheduled to address the parliament, and oversee a groundbreaking ceremony for a renovation project of the St. Jude Hospital being partially funded by Taiwan.

The hospital is the main health care provider in southern St. Lucia.    [FULL  STORY]

PROTECTED SPECIES: Many cases of illegal treatment of wildlife were reported by members of the public, showing that conservation awareness has improved

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 18, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Officials seized 20 illegal animal snares and three ivory products in Taipei and Kaohsiung in a two-week

nationwide sweep, the Forestry Bureau said yesterday, adding that the sale of all ivory products would be banned from January next year.

A task force comprised of officials from the bureau, local governments and the National Police Agency from July 1 to Sunday inspected 447 stores selling animals, wild foods, hardware and agricultural equipment.

Officials looked for illegally hunted or traded animals after the bureau on Jan. 9 revised its list of protected land species, bureau Conservation Division Director Hsia Jung-sheng (夏榮生) said.

Officials also cracked down on the unlawful use of snares, she said.    [FULL  STORY]