Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Tsai Ing-wen’s comments on China relations in her inauguration speech were like an incomplete answer to an exam question, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Friday.

After her swearing-in Friday morning, Tsai gave an official 30-minute address which also included references to her China policies. She did not mention “One China” and the controversial “1992 Consensus,” but did acknowledge the 1992 Hong Kong talks as a historical fact which had led to positive developments.

Tsai took a vague stance on the basic question of the nature of cross-straits relations, said the TAO, the Chinese government department in charge of Taiwan policies and relations. It published a statement about four hours after Tsai delivered her speech.

She did not clearly acknowledge the “1992 Consensus” and did not identify with its basic significance, the TAO said, adding Tsai had also failed to propose a concrete way of safeguarding the peaceful stable development of cross-straits relations.     [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: May 8, 2016
Reporting by J.R. Wu; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

The incoming Taiwanese government on Sunday accused China of “political interference”

after a senior Chinese official cast doubt over the island keeping its observer status at the World Health Organisation if bilateral relations deteriorated further.

China and self-ruled Taiwan underwent a rapprochement under the outgoing government which was run by China-friendly Nationalists, but ties have begun to strain with their successors, the independence-leaning Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Tsai and the DPP won landslide presidential and parliamentary elections in January, in part on rising anti-China sentiment on the island. She has said she will maintain the status quo with China, but has never conceded to a key bilateral agreement, the “one China” principle.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/23
By: Page Tsai and Lilian Wu

Taipei, April 23 (CNA) The Ministry of Justice said Saturday that the Criminal

Investigation Bureau (CIB) has received reports from China beginning in January on 10 Taiwanese suspects implicated in a telecom fraud ring said to be based in Uganda.

China’s CCTV reported Saturday that the Guizhou Public Security Department busted a super telecom fraud ring that allegedly attempted to defraud a public agency in Guizhou of as much as 117 million yuan (US$18 million).

The crime ring’s telecommunications base was in Uganda, and 10 of the 62 people involved were Taiwanese, said the state-run Chinese TV station, calling some of the Taiwanese the “masterminds” of the operation.

There appeared to be confusion on Saturday after CCTV issued the report, with some government agencies, including the Ministry of Justice, scrambling to ask China for details of what transpired.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/21
By: Lawrence Chiu and S.C. Chang

Beijing, April 21 (CNA) Officials of Taiwan and China have agreed to jointly

investigate telecom fraud rings run by Taiwanese in Kenya and Malaysia that have allegedly targeted Chinese citizens, the head of a Taiwanese official delegation said Thursday.

Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪), director general of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs under Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice, said the Chinese government also agreed to allow family members of the 45 Taiwanese suspects now detained in Beijing to visit them.

Chen had earlier in the day conducted talks with the Taiwanese suspects deported from Kenya to China earlier this month, using video link equipment in a large conference room, which was open to news cameramen from Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.     [FULL  STORY]

TAIWANESE IDENTITY:Having an independently elected government should be enough and declaring independence would be a dead-end, President Ma said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 22, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that the controversial deportation of

several Taiwanese nationals from Kenya to China earlier this month has no bearing on sovereignty, but is a problem stemming from division of labor.

In an interview with the Singaporean newspaper the Straits Time at his office in Taipei on Tuesday, Ma said his administration was not happy with Beijing’s opaque handling of the case and its failure to consult with Taipei prior to the deportation from Kenya to China of 45 Taiwanese accused of telecom fraud on April 8 and April 12.

“However, technically, this incident is not a matter of sovereignty, but rather a matter of division of labor,” Ma said, adding that, in his opinion, Taiwan and China share concurrent jurisdiction over the case.

Ma said that under the 2009 Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議), when facing cases such as the Kenyan incident, both Taipei and Beijing are required to negotiate with each other first before deciding which side should take over the case or if both sides should deal with it jointly.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/19
By: Leaf Chiang, Tai Ya-chen and Lilian Wu

Taipei, April 19 (CNA) Taiwan has lodged strong protests against China,

Belgium and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) after a Taiwanese delegation was forced to leave a meeting in Brussels on Monday due to Chinese bullying.

Though Taiwan is not a member of the OECD, it was invited as a dialogue partner to attend a high-level symposium on excess capacity and structural adjustment in the steel sector co-sponsored by Belgium and the OECD.

However, at the meeting, which was limited to the participation of government officials, the Chinese delegation demanded that Taiwan’s delegation leave because it was not of a high enough level.

Taiwan’s delegation resisted but had to comply after Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters caved in to Chinese pressure and asked Taiwan’s delegation to leave.     [FULL  STORY]

BBC News
Date: 17 April 2016

Taiwan says it has no evidence the alleged suspects did anything wrong

China has criticised Taiwan for releasing 20 people suspected of being involved in a telephone fraud case linked to mainland China.

They were part of a group of Taiwanese nationals arrested in Malaysia and deported to Taiwan.

China said it wanted to prosecute them, but Taiwanese officials said there was insufficient evidence.

Taiwan has protested after Kenya deported to China 45 Taiwanese nationals accused of the same crime.

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Media captionChina-Taiwan relations in 60 seconds
What’s behind the China-Taiwan divide?     [FULL  STORY]