The Telegraph
Date: 6 JULY 2019
By:  Nicola Smith, asia correspondent

Alow-key stopover by a national leader in New York would normally barely stir a headline, but plans by Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese President, to transit in the US this week have already provoked a “stern” rebuke from China.

Beijing claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, denying its right to form formal relations with other states. But Ms Tsai is likely to shrug off Chinese objections with her stopover diplomacy that is likely to boost her image internationally and play well at home in a crucial election year.

The short visit en route to diplomatic allies in the Caribbean caps a bumper couple of months for Ms Tsai whose poll numbers have jumped over her outspoken support of Hong Kong protesters fighting against a controversial extradition bill and Beijing’s steady erosion of their freedoms.

Nowhere has been gripped by the events unfolding in Hong Kong more than the nearby democracy of Taiwan, where many of its 23.5 million citizens see an unnerving forecast of their own future if China follows through on its threats to annex the island, by force if necessary.
[FULL  STORY]

Huang Hua calls on Taiwanese to wake up and establish own country

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/06
By: Ko Lai, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

• Taipei mayor meets Liu Jieyi at end of three-day visit to Shanghai
• Officials agree Taiwan, mainland are part of ‘one big family’

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former National Policy Adviser Huang Hua’s (黃華) hunger strike in favor of Taiwan independence entered its 49th day Saturday (July 6).

Huang, 80, originally only consumed 1,000 cc of fruit juice, 1,000 cc of milk, and water, but since June 2, he has only drunk water. He started his “Gandhi-style” action on May 19 in the main hall of the Taipei Railway Station.

The activist’s main aim is to give a new impetus to the movement for Taiwan self-determination and for the formation of a Republic of Taiwan. In a book titled “No Other Choice,” Huang wrote how the people of Taiwan had “no other choice” but to endure being citizens of the Qing empire, then the Japanese and the Republic of China. Huang now claims the time has come for the people of Taiwan to rise up against a similar fate and establish their own country.

He has been using a non-violent sustainable method to awaken the Taiwanese and move toward reaching his aim of an independent Taiwan. Huang also hopes that all the small pro-Taiwan political parties and social movements can band together and form a new party that can replace the Kuomintang as the main alternative to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/06
By: Jiang Ming-yan and Ko Lin

Manila, July 6 (CNA) Chatime, a Taiwanese bubble tea franchise, made a splash in the Philippines this week when it opened its 100th store in Davao, the most populous city in the country outside Metro Manila.

The brand produces a slew of tea beverages, including its signature pearl milk tea. The brand also offers a variety of drinks such as juices, smoothies and coffee.

The franchise, founded in Taiwan in 2005, now has more than 2,500 outlets in 38 countries worldwide, including the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Henry Yao-hui Wang (王耀輝), chairman of La Kaffa International Co. that owns Chatime, said earlier this week that the Philippines is the third overseas market after Indonesia and Australia to have 100 Chatime stores in the country.    [FULL  STORY]

PARENT-CHILD CONNECTIONS: An expert said parents should discuss it with their children before connecting on social media and keep conversations off the Internet

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 07, 2019
By: Wu Liang-yi and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The potential problems that use of social media can cause among adolescents should not be ignored, a Taipei-based psychiatrist warned after a British report said that Instagram has the most negative “net impact on young people’s health and well-being.”

Released on May 19, 2017, the report was conducted by UK-based charity the Royal Society for Public Health and the Young Health Movement. From February to May that year, researchers surveyed 1,479 people aged 14 to 24 from across the UK.

Participants were asked the extent to which five social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube — made “health-related factors,” such as emotional support, anxiety, depression, loneliness, sleep and self-expression, “better or worse.”

According to the report, titled #StatusOfMind, YouTube was the “most positive,” followed by Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 05 July, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

Hira the aye-aye is at Taipei Zoo, on loan from Japan![/caption] An endangered lemur is at the Taipei Zoo, on loan from Japan. Less than 60 of these elusive primates are currently in captivity. Now, visitors to Taipei Zoo will have a chance to see one for themselves.

Taipei Zoo’s newest house guest is furry and has a pair of big round eyes. Her name is Hira, and she’s an aye-aye, a species of lemur native to Madagascar. Hira is on loan from Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, and she arrived in Taiwan on July 1.

Aye-ayes are the world’s largest nocturnal primate, and their diets consist mostly of insects. Their name means “song” in Malagasy. Zoo official Hsieh Hsin-I says that Malagasy people believe these animals resemble demons and that their appearance is an omen.

Once thought to be extinct, aye-ayes are listed as an endangered species. Aye-ayes are poached, resulting in a dwindling population. There are only 57 aye-ayes in captivity.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: July 05, 2019

Members of Poland’s Puppet Clinic Theatre showcase the group’s distinctive giant puppets at an event promoting the 2019 YICFFF July 4 in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County. (LTN)

The Yilan International Children’s Folklore and Folkgame Festival is set to commence July 6 at Dongshan River Water Park in northeastern Taiwan, offering visitors an eclectic mix of art performances, water activities and workshops.
 
Organized by Yilan County Government, the event runs through Aug. 18 and features 25 troupes from 18 countries and territories.
 
Among those spotlighting local traditional performing arts are Lan-Yang Taiwanese Opera Company and acrobat group New Image Theatre. Overseas participants include Italy’s Corona Events and Poland’s Puppet Clinic Theatre, organizers of the Carnival of Venice grand opening in 2017 and 2018, respectively.    [FULL  STORY]

Presidential Office rejects reports about speech for correspondents on Capitol Hill

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/05
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – During her stopover in the United States next week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will not visit Washington, D.C. and will not hold a speech on Capitol Hill, the Presidential Office said Friday (July 5), responding to Taiwanese media reports.

Website CM Media claimed earlier that during her July 11-22 trip to visit three Caribbean allies, Tsai would use her stopover in the U.S. to pay an unprecedented visit to Washington, D.C., where she would enter the Capitol and address the Foreign Correspondents Club to defend Taiwan and attack China.

The Presidential Office immediately denied the report, adding Tsai’s itinerary was still being arranged. Earlier reports said she would transit via New York City and Denver, Colorado.

Guesswork and mistaken reports were not helpful to Taiwan’s diplomacy, the Liberty Times quoted a presidential spokesman as saying. Visits were based on mutual trust and any progress on the itinerary would be announced at the appropriate time, the spokesman continued. He also lambasted the media for failing to check facts before going ahead with the publication about the alleged Tsai visit to Washington.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/05
By: Stacy Hsu

Taipei, July 5 (CNA) Several Uyghur representatives on Friday called attention to the plight of Uyghur Muslims living in the supposedly autonomous region of Xinjiang in China as they marked the 10th anniversary of major ethnic riots in the region.

"Today, nearly 3 million Uyghurs are detained in China's concentration camps. The prelude to this is what we called the 'July 5th Urumqi Massacre,' which resulted in the disappearance of many Uyghur people," Japan Uyghur Association Chairman Ilham Mahmut said at press conference in Taipei.

Ilham may have been referring to an estimate made by Randall Schriver, the head of Asia policy at the United States Department of Defense, in early May.

He said Chinese Muslims were being imprisoned in "concentration camps," and justified the term "given what we understand to be the magnitude of the detention, at least a million but likely closer to 3 million citizens out of a population of 10 million."    [FULL  STORY]

RESPONSE TO DEATH: The National Policy Agency said that officers will wear bulletproof vests and patrol in pairs during peak travel times and from 8pm to 10pm

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 06, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

Police officers deployed at train stations and on trains have been equipped with pepper spray and

bulletproof vests, and are working in teams after one of their colleagues was killed by a train passenger on Wednesday.

The measures were put in place after 24-year-old railway police officer Lee Cheng-han (李承翰) was stabbed on a northbound train at Chiayi Station at 8:42pm on Wednesday while responding to a quarrel between a passenger and a conductor.

The alleged attacker, surnamed Cheng (鄭), was found to be riding without a ticket. Following the incident, he was subdued by other passengers.

Lee died in a hospital at 8:37am on Thursday.    [FULL  STORY]