China openly threatens Taiwan with invasion. The world assumes it will never follow through. Yet as Beijing flexes its muscles from Hong Kong to the Himalayas and from the South China Sea to Xinjiang, is that dangerous complacency?

Deutsche Welle (DW)
Date: 12.10.2020
By: Hamilton Mourao on Conflict Zone

"The threat is very real,” says Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu in this new, two-part analysis from DW Chief International Editor Richard Walker. The film explores the history of the threat facing Taiwan, and examines three scenarios of how the future could play out – ranging from chipping away at Taiwan’s stability via low-level military and hybrid measures, right up to a full-scale invasion. Leading strategy, military and intelligence experts from Taiwan, China, the United States and Germany provide analyses and predictions, while Foreign Minister Joseph Wu urgently appeals to the democratic world to come to Taiwan’s aid.    [FULL  STORY]

Scooter included to give sense of scale, CH-47 Chinook carrying Taiwan flag seen in background

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/10/12
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — To celebrate Taiwan's National Day (Oct. 10), a Taiwanese artist drew this intricate illustration of an M1A2T Abrams tank.

Thomas Chen (陳安平), 25, who is a Taiwanese citizen although he was born and raised in the Philippines, told Taiwan News that he created the piece in response to the Inktober 2020 art challenge. Chen, who works as a freelance illustrator, said that since the theme that particular day was "hope," he "figured it was fitting."

Chen (Instagram @thomchen.art) says he used photos of the tank online for reference and included a food delivery driver on a Gogoro electric scooter next to it to give a sense of the immense size of the tank by comparing it with "something everyone can instantly recognize." As a late addition, Chen included a CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter carrying a Taiwanese flag, as that was part of the celebration in Taipei that day.

The illustrator said his inspiration was Taiwanese artist Mr_Dom (陳博詳), with whom he says he shares the common interest of drawing military art. Chen said that he had created the work simply with pen and paper.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/12/2020
By: Chen Wei-ting and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) The government will not offer additional doses of government-funded influenza vaccines if supplies of free vaccines for vulnerable groups run out, the Centers for Disease Control said Monday.

This year's government-funded flu vaccine program started Oct. 5, and as of Oct. 11, 1.976 million doses of the vaccine had been administered, up about 15 percent more than the 1.708 million doses given during the same period of last year.

About 6 million free vaccines are available under this year's program to citizens and legal residents of Taiwan for high-risk groups, and another 1.15 million vaccines are available for a fee.

The government urged people to get their vaccines before stocks run out because it is hard to replace inventory.    [FULL  STORY]

WORRIES PERSIST: A mother at a legislative committee meeting said she was concerned about how parents can ensure the safety of pork purchased at food stalls

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 13, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Ministry of Health and Welfare would neither encourage nor ban feeding toddlers US pork containing ractopamine, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.

Chen was speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee on the potential health effects of consuming US pork containing the “leanness-enhancing” additive, before a ban on the imports ends on Jan. 1 next year.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), who is one of the committee’s conveners, said that the ministry on Sept. 5 announced the maximum residue limits (MRL) for ractopamine of 0.04 parts per million (ppm) for pork liver and kidneys, and 0.01ppm for pork fat and all other edible parts.

“If the ministry’s claim that ractopamine intake within the MRL is ‘guaranteed safe’ is true, then why are local hog farmers banned from using the substance?” Chiang said.   [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 12, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

Changing the name of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is not on its agenda, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday, after comments by KMT legislative caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) prompted discussion of the topic.

In response to media queries, Chiang said a name change is not the focus of the party’s reform efforts at this stage and that the party should instead be concerned with matters pertaining to people’s daily lives.

Chiang’s remarks followed a Facebook post Lin made on Saturday in which he asked whether the word Zhongguo (中國) should be removed from the full name of the KMT.

While the word refers to the Republic of China, it is “easily confused with the People’s Republic of China,” Lin wrote.    [FULL  STORY]

Daily Mail
Date: 11 October 2020
By: AFP

A Taiwanese man detained in China and accused of "endangering national security" appeared on Chinese television Sunday evening, admitting to illegally filming military exercises in a city bordering Hong Kong during protests there last year.

Relatives of Lee Meng-chu had said he went missing after crossing from Hong Kong into Shenzhen on August 19, 2019.

Hong Kong was then in the throes of months-long mass demonstrations against a law allowing extradition to China, the territory's government and the central government in Beijing.

At the time, thousands of Chinese military police had gathered in a stadium in Shenzhen for exercises with armoured vehicles.    [FULL  STORY]

Bloomberg News
Date: October 11, 2020
By: Chris Horton, Bloomberg News

Members of National Defense Honor Guard march during National Day celebrations in Taipei, Taiwan, on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen called for dialogue with Beijing while vowing to defend the island in the fac6e of Chinese intimidation. , Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — The more China tells the world that Taiwan isn’t a country, the more Beijing’s adversaries are starting to treat it like one.

Ahead of Taiwan’s National Day on Saturday, Beijing’s embassy in New Delhi was reported to have issued a letter telling India’s media not to refer to it as a country or to Tsai Ing-wen as its president. Indians responded by helping the hashtag #TaiwanNationalDay go viral while banners with the Taiwanese flag were hung outside the Chinese embassy.

“Hats off to friends from around the world this year, #India in particular, for celebrating #TaiwanNationalDay,” Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu wrote in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Instead of marking Taiwan’s independence, a red line that Beijing has warned could trigger an invasion, the day commemorates a 1911 uprising in the central Chinese city of Wuhan against China’s last imperial dynasty. That led to the creation of the Republic of China, which leader Chiang Kai-shek then brought to Taiwan seven decades ago when he fled Beijing as the Communist Party took power.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan flags now seen as symbol of separatism that violates national security law

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/10/11
By: Chris Chang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The flag of Taiwan is now a sensitive symbol in Hong Kong, as the "one China principle" has become the top doctrine for the special administrative region since the arrival of Beijing's national security law.

Saturday (Oct. 10) marks Taiwan's National Day, or Double Ten Day, on which pro-Taiwan citizens in Hong Kong traditionally display the flag of Taiwan and celebrate at Sun Yat-sen Commemorative Garden, one of the few places in Hong Kong where Taiwan's flag has traditionally been flown year-round.

This year, after the national security law went into effect in July, Hong Kong authorities have resolved to prevent the flag of Taiwan from appearing in the semi-autonomous region. Hong Kong's Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau (CMAB) is said to be leading the removal action and has tasked the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department with monitoring the flag's presence, the AppleDaily reported.

According to the internal order, the action is supposed to remain low-key. Officials can immediately remove the flags when the situation allows — meaning when no press, assemblies, or crowds are nearby. If the flags are found on a busy street, the officials should call the police to intervene.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/11/2020
By: Chen Wei-ting and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Oct. 11 (CNA) Nearly 2 million doses of influenza vaccine purchased by the government to provide free shots to vulnerable people have been administered so far, six days after the annual vaccination program was launched Monday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Sunday.

According to CDC numbers, between Monday and Saturday, 1.92 million doses of flu vaccine have been used, a significant increase from the 1.52 million doses used during the same period of last year.

The CDC numbers show that the age bracket in which people have taken the greatest advantage of the flu shots so far are those aged over 65, where 870,000 doses were used during the six-day period.

People in the 50-64 age bracket, meanwhile, have taken 505,000 doses, a hike compared with the 320,000 doses used during the same period of 2019, according to the CDC.
[FULL  STORY]

Beijing’s bellicose stance towards Taiwan has increased dramatically under Xi, who has described the island’s unification with the mainland as “inevitable”.

Hindustan Times
Date: Oct 10, 2020
Agence France-Presse | Posted by Kanishka Sarkar

Taiwan’s leader on Saturday appealed to her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to deescalate military tensions and live up to his promise to “never seek hegemony” after months of Beijing ramping up fighter jet incursions.

In a speech on Taiwan’s national day, President Tsai Ing-wen said the international community was becoming concerned about the “expanding hegemony” of China.

Beijing views democratic, self-ruling Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it back into fold.

But Tsai referenced a recent speech by Xi to the United Nations that she said gave the Taiwanese some hope.    [FULL  STORY]