ABC News
Date: December 29, 2020
By: Andrew Greene

A senior Taiwanese politician has called for greater security and economic cooperation with Australia as his nation tries to counter China's increasingly assertive military.

Key points:

• Mr Wang said Taiwan and Australia needed a stronger bilateral relationship
• He suggested Taiwan be allowed to join security networks such as Quad

Liberal senator Jim Molan fears a military confrontation with China could soon eventuate
Wang Ting-yu, the co-chair of Taiwan's Foreign Affairs and National Defence Committee, is pushing for closer ties with other democratic states to enhance regional security.

"We need to cooperate with democratic countries," the member of Taiwan's governing Democratic Progressive Party told the ABC.

"If we can have more close cooperation that means benefits mutually for economy, security and capability."    [FULL  STORY]

Previous record was set by 2019

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Despite the onslaught of a cold front predicted for its final days, 2020 marked the hottest year since the keeping of records began, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Tuesday (Dec. 29).

The average temperature for 2020 until Dec. 27 reached 24.62 degrees, breaking the record of 24.55 degrees set just the previous year, Radio Taiwan International (RTI) reported.

The hottest temperature of the year, 40.2 degrees, was recorded by the Dawu weather station in Taitung County on July 25, equaling a previous record. The same month, measuring stations in Taipei, Chiayi, and on Taiwan’s tallest peak, Yushan, also set records.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/29/2020
By: Flor Wang and Hung Hsueh-kung

Kaohsiung, Dec. 29 (CNA) Kaohsiung prosecutors are seeking an 11-year jail term, based on the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act, for a man charged with abducting a 14-year-old girl from Kaohsiung earlier this year.

Prosecutors asked the Kaohsiung District Court to hand down the sentence on the grounds that the 31-year-old suspect, identified as Lo (羅), showed no remorse for his severe offenses and that he posed a risk of recidivism.

The prosecutors also recommended heavy punishments for Lo's wife and two of his male friends surnamed Lu (盧) and Wang (王), all three of whom were charged with forgery, tampering with evidence and helping cover up Lo's crimes. They were also accused of trying to mislead police investigating the case.

Before Lo allegedly abducted the girl, he was found guilty in July of two sexual offenses by the Taipei District Court in separate cases dating back to 2018, for which he was sentenced to 10 years in jail.    [FULL  STORY]

BAFFLING CASE: Case No. 790 tested negative for IgM and positive for IgG, indicating that a second positive was probably from his August infection, not a new one

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 30, 2020
By:  Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

he Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced two imported cases of COVID-19 in arrivals from the Philippines and the US.

Each provided a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result before boarding a flight to Taiwan and neither showed COVID-19 symptoms, the center said.

Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesperson, said that one of the cases is a Filipino in his 30s who arrived for work on Dec. 14.

The man stayed at a centralized quarantine facility after arrival and tested positive in a mandatory test before his quarantine ended on Sunday, Chuang said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 28 December, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

Taiwan recorded eight additional cases of COVID-19 on Monday, all of them imported. These new cases bring the total number of COVID-19 cases Taiwan has recorded so far to 793.
[FULL  STORY]

Malay Mail
Date: 29 Dec 2020
By: Kenny Mah

TAIPEI, Dec 29 — Can a single dish invoke the very spirit of a nation, the flavours of its terrain, be it land or sea? Can a single egg?

Perhaps if that egg is laid by a Silkie hen, a breed of chickens renowned for their fluffy white plumage and black skin. If soup made from Silkie meat is prized for its curative properties, what more its eggs, orbs of nourishment and healing?

When a Silkie egg is marinated in fragrant pu’er tea and then boiled at a precise 62 degrees Celsius, it becomes a revelation.

Its adornments are no less exquisite: Creamy congee. Luxurious taro purée. A coral tuile made from buckwheat, its lacy expanse decorated with specks of Taiwanese smoked ham.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/29
By:  Central News Agency

Taichung Prison authorities on Monday said they have not received an application from former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who said he will host a radio show next year amid speculation that doing so would violate his medical parole.

Chen was released from the prison on medical parole on Jan. 6, 2015, because of his deteriorating health while serving a 20-year sentence for money laundering and bribery convictions.

Among the conditions of his parole is the requirement that he apply for approval from the Taichung Prison to undertake any public activity other than seeking medical attention, and hosting a radio show would seem to fall under that category.

Chen, who was president from 2000 to 2008, announced earlier Monday that he will be hosting a one-hour-show for the Kaohsiung-based Smile Radio (微微笑廣播網) every Sunday starting Jan. 3.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/28/2020
By: Matt Yu and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Dec. 28 (CNA) A Chinese military Y-8 RECCE tactical reconnaissance aircraft entered the southwestern part of Taiwan's southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Monday, where it stayed until Taiwanese fighter jets scrambled in response, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND).

The ministry said on its website that the Y-8 flew over the Bashi Channel and across much of the southwestern part of the ADIZ.

An ADIZ is an airspace over land or water in which the identification, location, and control of aircraft is performed in the interest of national security.

In response to the incursion, the Air Force scrambled planes to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issued radio warnings and mobilized air defense assets until it left the ADIZ, the ministry said.
[FULL  STORY]

CGTN
Date: 27-Dec-2020.
By:. Hong Yaobin

The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway in east China's Fujian Province went into operation Saturday morning after seven years of construction, allowing visitors from the Chinese mainland and China's Taiwan to travel more conveniently across the Taiwan Straits.

The 88-kilometer railway, designed to support high-speed trains running at a speed of up to 200 km per hour, connects the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the largest island in the province, which is the nearest place in the Chinese mainland to Taiwan Island, only 68 nautical miles (about 126 km) away from Hsinchu City.

Noting that they have been taking the "Strait" ship to travel between Pingtan and Taiwan, Yang Binghao, who is from Taiwan and runs a cultural and creative center in Pingtan, said that with the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, "Taiwan compatriots can now transfer via railway after arriving in Pingtan by sea, and then we can easily travel to Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of the mainland."    [FULL  STORY]