The Trump White House is encouraging high-level visits to Taiwan, but many on the island are worried this will make them a pawn in the great power game with China.

BuzzFeed News
Date: March 25, 2018
By: Megha Rajagopalan, BuzzFeed News Reporter

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Ties between the US and Taiwan, the self-governed island that China

sees as part of its territory, are getting warmer. But many Taiwanese politicians and scholars are worried that it could become a pawn in the great power game between an increasingly erratic Trump administration and China.

While the strengthening of US support for Taiwan has been welcomed by President Tsai Ing-wen, others are urging caution, including members of Tsai’s own party.

On March 16, President Donald Trump signed a bill that encourages high-level official visits between the US and Taiwan — a prospect that sounds routine, but would be a major development in relations. Only a handful of US cabinet-level officials have visited Taiwan over the last 50 years.    [FULL  STORY]

The woman was left with first and second degree burns on her face and neck

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/24
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A woman in southern Taiwan suffered first and second degree burns across her face and neck after a man splashed a bowl of boiling hot pot soup on her face, because her hair had brushed his hand, which he considered to be very unhygienic.

The incident took place on March 20 in Chiayi County when 57-year old Huang went for dinner with a female companion, who sat opposite to him. The victim, identified as 33-year old Chen, sat next to Huang.

According to reports by Apple Daily, Chen had turned around to check on her order when her long hair brushed Huang by accident. After which Huang got very angry and yelled at Chen for being unhygienic.

Chen and Huang argued about his behavior and Chen told Huang it was unnecessary for him to yell at her so loudly, after which Huang took a bowl of soup and splashed it on Chen’s face.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/24
By: Chen Yen-chun and Ko Lin

Taipei, March 24 (CNA) A majority of Taipei residents have expressed their satisfaction

with the traffic conditions in the city in a recent poll.

The 2018 Public Poll, conducted by the city government’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, found that 69.2 percent of respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with Taipei’s traffic conditions, while 23.4 percent were dissatisfied.

In terms of how respondents got around the city, more than two-thirds (67.8 percent) said they commonly used the mass rapid transit system, 54.9 percent said city buses, 24.5 percent said scooters, and 21.7 percent said their own cars, the survey found.

Asked about the quality of Taipei bus services, 82.4 percent of respondents said they were either satisfied or very satisfied.    [FULL  STORY]

ORDER: Ko said he only asked how long the tents had been up while scolding police, and that their removal was ordered before Tsay announced his candidacy

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 25, 2018
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday defended his decision to remove the Alliance

of Referendum for Taiwan’s tents outside the Legislative Yuan, saying it was in accordance with the law.

The tents that were erected by the alliance on Taipei’s Jinan Road in 2008 to promote Taiwanese independence were on Friday removed by the Taipei Construction Management Office and police.

In the resultant clash, reticent pro-independence group members were lifted up by police and taken away from the tents that stood for 3,436 days.

Alliance convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) on Friday said that Ko perhaps felt pressure after Tsay announced his bid for the mayorship, so he decided to tear down his campaign headquarters.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-03-23

The government is looking to work with the United States to make it easier for citizens to

travel to the US. That’s the word from the foreign ministry on Friday.

Media reports say Taiwan’s flagship airline, China Airlines, will be implementing US border preclearance. This will allow Taiwanese travelers flying to the United States to clear customs before boarding their flight. If implemented, this will make Taiwan the third country in Asia to join the US Global Entry program.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Andrew Lee said Friday that the US Department of Homeland Security has not opened application for the preclearance program. However, Lee said, Taiwan’s government has held an interdepartmental meeting to discuss application for the program as well as its potential benefits.

Lee said the government is keeping contact with the United States and getting ready to make it more convenient for Taiwanese citizens to travel to the United States.
[FULL  STORY]

China’s president is trying to play the referee over the Taiwan Travel Act, but is he holding the right cards?

The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/23
By: Stellina Chen

U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act (TTA) into law on March 16, 2018 – a carefully-worded agreement that opens the door for bilateral meetings between high-level officials from Taiwan and the US.

China’s President Xi Jinping responded with a speech to the National People’s Congress on March 20, saying, “All acts and schemes to split China are doomed to failure and will be condemned by the people and punished by history.”

Xi’s attempt to call foul didn’t stop the play, however.

On the evening of the 21st, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and U.S. diplomat Alex Wong spokeat an event hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce. Wong, the deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, insisted that the meeting was unrelated to the TTA’s passage.
[FULL  STORY]

 

She will be allowed to see him at a Hunan prison on March 26

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/23
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The wife of jailed Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che

(李明哲) has received the necessary travel documents from China to travel there on March 26 and visit him, reports said Friday.

Lee, a former staff member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, was detained when he crossed into China in March last year, supposedly for involvement in subversive activities, and sentenced to five years in prison at a widely criticized trial in November.

His wife, Lee Ching-yu (李淨瑜), will fly to Changsha, the capital of the province of Hunan, on March 26 and be allowed to visit him at the Chishan Prison the following day before returning to Taiwan on March 28, the Central News Agency reported.

Last year, she was allowed to attend his trial, though most of her other attempts to visit him failed as China refused to give her the necessary travel documents, leading her to be turned away at the airport.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/23
By: Kuan-lin Liu, Yeh Su-ping, Chung Jung-feng and Fan Cheng-hsiang

Taipei, March 23 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) laid out four strategies Friday that

she said Taiwanese businesses should adopt in order to protect their interests in the face of an escalating trade war between the United States and China.

Speaking to a delegation from the Asia Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce, Tsai addressed a U.S. announcement a day earlier that it will impose tariffs on US$60 billion-worth of Chinese imports, China’s proposed retaliatory tariffs on US$3 billion-worth of U.S. goods, and what Taiwan can do to protect itself from this market shakeup.

First, Tsai said, Taiwan needs to strengthen its development and production capabilities.

This means providing the techniques and added value to creating products considered to be “made in Taiwan,” she said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘MONEY TALK’: Legislator Lai Shyh-bao urged the premier to use the Taiwan Travel Act to make clear Taiwan’s stance on the tariffs, which could cut national GDP by 0.8 percent

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 24, 2018
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan will try to negotiate with the US to be exempted from punitive tariffs imposed by

Washington to curb its trade deficit with China, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.

During a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) asked the premier why Taiwan was not on a list of nations exempted from the US’ 25 percent steel and 10 percent aluminum tariffs, which took effect yesterday.

The US seems to be showing more goodwill toward Taiwan, with US President Donald Trump signing the Taiwan Travel Act, which allows high-level visits between officials on both sides, but when it comes to “money talk,” Taiwan has not been spared from the US’ punishment, Lai Shyh-bao said.

Lai Shyh-bao said Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) is inept because he said that Taiwan is unlikely to be exempted from the tariffs before leaving for Washington to negotiate mitigating the effects the tariffs would have on Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]