Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-07-24

Foreign minister Joseph Wu says Taiwan is vulnerable to being taken by force

by Beijing without US support. Wu was speaking on Sunday US local time in an interview with CNN.

The US Department of State on Monday encouraged Taiwan to increase its defense budget to a level that would meet its current security challenges.

A state department spokesperson said the US remains committed to its one China policy, the three US-China joint communiques, and to the Taiwan Relations Act. The spokesperson added that these have helped ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the region for decades. The same have helped the US maintain strong unofficial ties with Taiwan while pursuing constructive relations with China, the spokesperson said.

In addition, the spokesperson said that the Trump administration is determined to fully implement the provisions stated in the Taiwan Relations Act. That is, to provide weapons of a defensive nature for Taiwan to maintain sufficient self-defense capability.    [SOURCE]

Michal Thim says President Xi’s softer tone on Taiwan during his meeting with a senior Taiwanese politician does not indicate a change in Beijing’s stance

South China Morning Post
Date: 25 July, 2018
By: Michal Thim 

Confidence in the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and eventual peaceful “reunification” was the main message from a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinpingand Lien Chan, Taiwan’s former vice-president and an honorary chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT). This may seem like conciliatory approach for media and analysts accustomed to the remarkably harsher rhetoric coming from Beijing in recent years, and especially since the 2016 election victory of the Democratic Progressive Party, a major – but by far not the only – political force rejecting Taiwan’s unification with China.

However, what Xi said during the meeting is hardly a new approach. Beijing’s rhetoric towards Taiwan has always been a mixed bag of carrots and sticks. A more recent example is a package of incentives to attract Taiwanese youth to seek a career in China, which, again, was not a new offer but merely repackaged initiative from previous years.

Trying to attract young Taiwanese came at a time of increased belligerent rhetoric that, among others, manifested in regular air, naval and amphibious assault exercises in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan. Just as the meeting between Lien and Xi concluded, another military exercise commenced in the coastal area of Zhejiang province.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/07/24
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–The Foreign and Disabled Labor Office (FDLO) of Taipei City Government is now offering on site trainings to help caretakers provide better care, according to a FDLO news release on July 20.

The agency said that families who employ foreign caretakers are welcome to apply for the program.

The program will be carried out by professional teams consisting of home care nurses, care instructors, and bilingual interpreters. After making an assessment of the needs of the subject of care, a team will visit the workplace of the foreign caretaker to give one-on-one instruction sessions.

The FDLO said that lessons will include patient care skills such as oral hygiene and cleaning; turning and back tapping; shifting patient’s lying positions, and simple mobility exercise.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/24
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, July 24 (CNA) Taiwan should embrace “creative thinking” about what

the United States’ “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” strategy should be in six months if it wants to prevent statehood becoming a condition of entry, a visiting United States China expert said Tuesday in Taipei.

“If this is not done in the next six months, it’s too late, in my humble opinion,” Michael Pillsbury, a senior fellow and director for Chinese Strategy at the Hudson Institute in the U.S. told the Ketagalan Forum: 2018 Asia Pacific Security Dialogue.

Interviewed by reporters afterwards, Pillsbury, a consultant to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, said that timeframe was given because Trump will deliver his second State of the Union address in January 2019.

The “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” strategy, as stated in the administration’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, seeks to expand Indo-Pacific alliances and partnerships to create a free and open Indo-Pacific region that provides prosperity and security for all.    [FULL  STORY]

AGGRESSIVE CHINA: Taiwan is part of a network of countries favored by a regional US security strategy based on rules, not coercion, former US defense secretary Ash Carter said

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 25, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday pledged to defend Taiwan and the

world’s shared democratic values amid Beijing’s continued attempts to employ its sharp power to influence its neighbors.

Tsai made the remarks in her opening address to the Ketagalan Forum: 2018 Asia Pacific Security Dialogue, which was held in Taipei by the Prospect Foundation at the behest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and attended by a special guest from Washington, former US secretary of defense Ash Carter.

The forum focused on four areas: the situation on the Korean Peninsula, China’s sharp power and its challenges to the democratic world, the geo-economic environment of the Indo-Pacific region and the integration of Taipei’s New Southbound Policy with Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-07-23

President Tsai Ing-wen is facing questions about the nation’s use of the death

penalty. That’s following several recent high-profile murders, which have brought capital punishment back into the spotlight. Although capital punishment is legal in Taiwan, it has not been used since 2010.

President Tsai spoke on Monday about the government’s position.

“Our current laws do not prohibit the use of the death penalty. As to how executions should be carried out and under what circumstances, that is up to the justice ministry to review. Justice Minister [Tsai Ching-hsiang] said he will take steps and make a decision after taking all factors into consideration,” said Tsai.
[FULL  STORY]

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/07/23
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

President Tsai touts Taitung tourism, indigenous culture

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) says she will work to improve support for Taitung.

The president visited the eastern city yesterday, saying she wanted to help promote the eastern county’s tourism and get a firsthand look at whether the needs of its sizeable indigenous population were being met.

Tsai says she plans to not only promote the county’s tourist attractions, but also to meet with farmers to talk about the marketing of their agricultural produce.

She says she plans to visit indigenous communities in an effort to see what progress had been made in the efforts to preserve their culture and tradition, to improve education and industrial development, and to provide long-term care services to their residents.    [FULL  STORY]

The students will visit three indigenous Taiwanese tribes in August with the Hawaiki Project, a program aimed at developing a network for cultural exchange among Polynesian tribes in Southeast Asia

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/07/23
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) –In New Zealand, some young Maori students are planning a trip to Taiwan this August to learn more about their own cultural heritage and to build cultural bridges between the two countries.

Ten young Maori students from Ngāti Manu will be visiting Taiwan for a 12 day trip for cultural exchanges with indigenous groups on the island. The trip is being promoted as a chance for the young students to visit their “ancestral land” and possibly catch a glimpse something familiar in the cultures of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.

The trip to Taiwan this summer is part of the larger Hawaiki Project, a proposed program aiming to educate young indigenous people about the ancient connections to other Polynesian peoples living along the ancient Hawaiki migration route, which stretches from Taiwan east into the central Pacific, and southward all the way to New Zealand.

The project director Marareia Hamilton is quoted as saying that many people believe that Maori and indigenous Taiwanese groups are cousins, and that “it all began” in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/07/23
By: Phoenix Hsu, Lu Hsin-hui and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, July 23 (CNA) New Education Minister Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) said

Monday that he has met with Chen Wei-jao (陳維昭), the convener of the National Taiwan University presidential selection committee, to discuss the dispute over NTU’s new choice of president.

In a radio interview, Yeh said he met with Chen for an hour and the two talked about the selection process and proposed ways to settle the issue.

He would not say, however, if one of the options is for the Ministry of Education (MOE) to finally approve the appointment of Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) as the school’s president and withdrawing a decision by Yeh’s predecessor to order the school to restart the selection process.

Kuan was chosen by NTU’s selection committee on Jan. 5 and scheduled to take office on Feb. 1, but the MOE decided on April 27 not to confirm his appointment, instead asking the university to restart the process to select a new president.
[FULL  STORY]