The Straits Times
Date: Apr 23, 2018
By: Lee Seok Hwai, Assistant Foreign Editor

An outbreak of measles in Japan and Taiwan has put thousands of people in quarantine

and forced tourists to put off visits to southern Japan, media reports said.

More than 3,500 people in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung have been quarantined and are being monitored by the island’s health authorities after coming into contact with infected crew of budget carrier Tigerair Taiwan, Taiwanese media reported.

Another 980 are being monitored following the discovery of an infection cluster at a major hospital in Taoyuan, just outside Taipei.    [FULL  STORY]

EXPERTS say that provocative activity — including patrols and live fire drills — by China’s huge air force are part of a big, bold plan.

news.com.au
Date: APRIL 20, 2018
By: Rohan Smith

CHINA is being watched very, very carefully as its enormous military conducts aggressive

drills in the contested South China Sea.

Australia is on edge, so too the United States. Earlier this week, China was accused of landing military aircraft on artificial islands it promised not to land on and “jamming” communications and radar systems from passing US aircraft carriers.

Today, we heard how the People’s Liberation Army challenged Australian warshipspassing through the region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s men reportedly had “robust” communications with HMAS Anzac and HMAS Success during the Australian vessels’ goodwill visit to Ho Chi Minh City.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-04-20

Taiwan and Indonesia should engage in direct communication and work together to fight

drug-related crimes. That was the word from foreign ministry spokesperson Andrew Lee on Friday.

Lee was speaking Friday about Indonesia’s recent seizure of a Taiwanese fishing boat. The incident took place on Sunday and was the latest in a series of seizures by Indonesian authorities carrying out drug sweeps. In recent months, Indonesia has caught two Taiwanese boats each carrying over one ton of illegal drugs.

Andrew Lee said that Taiwan is willing to work with Indonesia to tackle drug crime.    [FULL  STORY]

Strange case of abandoned mannequins in Hsinchu solved by tracking barcodes

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/20
By: Renée Salmonsen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Hsinchu Police Bureau announced Friday that the person

responsible for dumping over a dozen mannequin parts along Dong An-li Road in Hsinchu County is in police custody and will be punished for his crime.

Earlier this April a pile of mannequin parts was discovered along Dong An-li Road in the Kuanhsi Township of Hsinchu County. The pile included adult and child mannequin parts and gave passersby an eerie fright, especially at night, reported BCC News.

Police were able to hunt down the culprit by tracing the origin of the barcodes discovered on some of the mannequins, functioning like DNA for these plastic people, explained the Head of the Dong An Police Station, Liu Si-wei (劉思偉).     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/20
By: Yeh Su-ping and Kuan-lin Liu 

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Taiwan views its diplomatic allies in Africa as the starting point for a step-by-step approach to engaging with and investing in the continent, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Friday as she addressed how the country would respond to China’s recent attempts to expand its influence in Africa.

While speaking with reporters on her last day in Swaziland, Tsai explained Taiwan’s unique way of managing its relationship with Africa, which heavily emphasizes cooperation with its two diplomatic allies on the continent, Swaziland and Burkina Faso.

These cooperative initiatives range from trade and investment to skills exchanges, professional training and education, all of which will help Taiwan’s diplomatic allies build an industrial foundation while allowing Taipei to increase its influence on the continent, she noted.    [FULL  STORY]

Beijing considers Taiwan nothing more than a rogue province that needs to be brought to heel

CBC/Radio-Canada 
Date: Apr 19, 2018
By: Saša Petricic, CBC News

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier and its accompanying fleet conducts a drill in an area of the South China Sea.(Reuters)Beijing’s threat was vague but ominous — a warning from the Maritime Authority to stay out of a parcel of ocean in the Taiwan Strait.

“Live-fire drills to check Taiwan independence,” declared the Global Times, a tabloid that often reflects China’s most hawkish leadership voices.

Chinese commentators predicted a show of force involving the aircraft carrier Liaoning to “punish” the island’s leaders who are “obstinately promoting ‘Taiwan independence’.”

Indeed, this week’s manoeuvring was as much a propaganda exercise as a military one, firing off the kind of verbal shots the leadership here does more and more.
[FULL  STORY]

The Chinese Air Force conducts long flight training exercises as the live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait continue

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/19
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As the Chinese Navy is in the midst of five days of live-fire

naval drills near Quanzhou in the Taiwan Strait, the Chines Air Force is conducting training exercises as well.

On the morning of April 18, the PLA air force reportedly dispatched  two bomber aircraft to carry out long range flight training through the Miyako Strait and into the western Pacific.

According to website HK01, the Japanese Ministry of Defense released a report on April 18 stating that two Chinese Xian H-6 bombers had crossed the Miyako Strait to enter the western Pacific, then turned southwest for long haul flight training.

The Japanese Self Defense Force photographed the planes as they crossed into the Pacific.    [FULL  STORY]