‘UNITED FRONT’ WORK: Beijing is using Internet celebrities to circumvent regulations and attack certain targets on social media, 1MAC Advisory Committee members said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 27, 2020
By: Chung Li-hua / Staff reporters

China’s “united front” efforts targeting Taiwan are ubiquitous, and include the employment of Internet celebrities to carry out infiltration campaigns on social media, members of the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) Advisory Committee said yesterday.

The council released the minutes of a committee meeting on China’s “legal war” against Taiwan and possible response measures.

The “legal war” aims to unilaterally define jurisdiction over Taiwan to legitimize annexing the nation based on Beijing’s so-called “democratic negotiations,” while preparing to negate Taiwanese legislation, the minutes said.

Committee members and academics who attended the meeting were not named in the minutes.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/26/2020
By:Chen Yun-yu and Ko Lin

Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) Taiwan's representative office in France reported two new cases of COVID-19 among its employees, bringing the total t6o four following individual cases in April and August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Saturday.

The two staff members developed mild fevers and coughs last week and were ordered by the office to work remotely at home and carefully monitor their health as a precaution, MOFA said.

Both were subsequently tested at a local hospital and separately confirmed as having the disease on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26, the ministry said, adding that the two are now in home isolation and receiving treatment.

Meanwhile, the entire office has been disinfected to prevent any further spread of the disease.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/26/20020
By: Tyson Lu, Yang Ming-chu and Emerson Lim

Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) A Chinese spy ship, which had remained in waters off Taiwan's east coast for more than a week, sailed away from the area Saturday morning after Taiwan's Navy sent a ship to monitor its activity.

According to military sources, the intelligence vessel belonging to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) had been spotted in waters 38-75 nautical miles off the coast of Hualien County since Sept. 18.

Its appearance coincided with live-fire missile tests conducted by Taiwan along its southeastern coast on Thursday.

On Thursday evening, Taiwan's Navy dispatched a Ching Chiang-class patrol ship, which has counter-intelligence capabilities, to monitor the Chinese ship when it attempted to sail closer to Hualien, sources said.    [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: September 26, 2020
By: Ben Blanchard

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (Reuters) – Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visited a low-key but critical maintenance base for fighter jet engines on Saturday, offering encouragement as the Chinese-claimed island’s armed forces strain in the face of repeated Chinese air force incursions.

This month alone, China’s drills have included its jets crossing the mid-line of the sensitive Taiwan Strait and exercising near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the South China Sea.

Beijing regards Taiwan as a wayward province and has never renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control.

Taiwan’s air force has repeatedly scrambled to intercept Chinese jets. Though they have not flown over mainland Taiwan itself, the flights have ramped up pressure, both financial and physical, on Taiwan’s air force to ensure its aircraft are ready to go at any moment.

Visiting the Gangshan air base in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung, Tsai received a detailed account of how the maintenance crew is making sure Taiwan’s F-16 and other fighters are operating at peak performance.    [FULL  STORY]

Newsmax
Date: 26 September 2020
By: Tauren Dyson

The risk of war is rising between China and the United States a week after 18 Chinese warplanes

flew across the midline of the Taiwan Strait while a U.S. high-level envoy was present, according to Admiral James Stavridis writing for Nikkei Asian Review.

In addition, a video has emerged showing Chinese long-range bombers performing a dry run on a runway designed similarly to the one at the U.S. Anderson Air Force Base on Guam.

"Discard any illusions and prepare to fight," a spokesman for China's Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army said last weekend.

The U.S. government is contemplating whether to provide Taiwan with a new suite of seven advanced defensive systems. It would include anti-ship missiles, additional advanced ground-based air defense systems and the MQ-9B Reaper drone.    [FULL  STORY]

Author denies any political connotations

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An ad showing Formosan black bears toiling away as coolies for pandas has angered a member of the Taipei City Council because she sees it as a symbol of Taiwanese being subjugated by Chinese, reports said Saturday (Sept. 26).

The ad, in an underground passageway near Taipei Rail Station, is a parody of one of the National Palace Museum’s most famous paintings, the Qing dynasty remake of “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” (清明上河圖), in which the humans have been replaced by various types of bears.

However, looking closely at the numerous crowd scenes, one can see Formosan black bears with their telltale white throats carrying heavy loads on bamboo poles and rowing a ship while the pandas enjoy the journey.

Taipei City Councilor Chen Yi-chun (陳怡君) said on her Facebook page that this type of creativity was not funny at all, but disrespectful, while also giving viewers an uncomfortable feeling.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/26/2020
By: William Yen

Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) Late Taiwanese opera actress Chen Li-ju (陳麗如) and veteran actor Lin Cheng-hsiung (林正雄) were honored with special contribution awards Saturday at the 55th Golden Bell Awards, Taiwan's equivalent of the Emmy Awards.

The prestigious award ceremony, which recognizes excellence in Taiwanese television, was held at the National Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei and attended by stars, celebrities and influential people in the country's television industry.

Chen was posthumously honored with the special contribution award for lifelong contributions to Taiwanese opera that brought joy to audiences and inspired new generations of younger actors, according to Taiwan director and awards jury member Liang Hsiu-shen (梁修身).

Chen's adopted son Chen Ming-liang (陳明良) accepted the award on her behalf.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 24 September, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Almost every day this week, military planes from China have crossed into Taiwan’s air space. That has some skittish residents of Taiwan worried that war is around the corner. 

In today’s Taiwan Insider, Natalie Tso asks military expert Alexander Huang what’s behind the rise in tensions and how we’ll know if warfare is imminent. We’ll also offer an explainer on the cross-strait median line, which China no longer recognizes.     [FULL  STORY]

Hotels already at 90% capacity, likely to be at full within days

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/24
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

.TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Hotel bookings in Taiwan’s southeastern county of Taitung for the Mid-Autumn Festival have reached 90-percent of capacity and are expected to be full within days.

Tourists who arrange to visit Taitung at the last minute during the holiday will have to keep their fingers crossed that they will find a place to stay.

Bookings for accommodations in the area were halfway sold-out months ago, according to Taitung Tourism Association head Pan Kuei-lan (潘貴蘭). She added that locals from the hospitality industry had told her they were nearly at capacity and expected to be full shortly, CNA reported.

Taitung Commercial Hotel Union Chairperson Lee Shu-cha (李數奼) said that accommodation in Taitung City, Green Island, and Orchid Island is nearly sold-out and the same is true for ferry services between Taitung and Green Island for the first three days of October. She added that latecomers can only call and test their luck to see if there are cancellations.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/24/2020
By: Huang Huei-min and Ko Lin

Kinmen, Sept. 24 (CNA) Kinmen Magistrate Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) on Wednesday said the county will distribute unclaimed county stimulus vouchers among local students and disadvantaged families, with each entitled to receive NT$1,000 (US$34.10).

Taiwan's outlying county in mid-July began rolling out 1.12 million "1+1 Stimulus Vouchers," each with a face value of NT$500.

Under the program, Kinmen residents are allowed to purchase NT$4,000 in vouchers for NT$2,000 as part of the local government's efforts to help revive domestic consumption amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vouchers, targeting those registered in the county before June 23, were offered in two phases, the first being July 17-19, and the second July 29-31, and are valid only until Dec. 31, according to the Kinmen County government.    [FULL  STORY]