Epoch Times
Date: February 17,
By: Joshua Philipp, Epoch Times

The Chinese regime may be changing its policy on nuclear weapons, from

one based on “survivability” to one that has its missiles ready to launch at any moment.

Recent discussions in the Chinese military “suggest pressure is building to change China’s nuclear posture,” says a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

It may be moving, the report says, “toward a policy of launch-on-warning and hair-trigger alert.”

As the report notes, the United States “keeps hundreds of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert.” But if China were to change its policy, it would make the threat of nuclear war more present.

“Such a change would dramatically increase the risk of a nuclear exchange or accident—a dangerous shift that the United States could help avert,” it states.

There has been a chain of incidents leading to the alleged shift. [FULL STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-05
By: Central News Agency

London, Feb. 4 (CNA) The British government on Thursday reiterated its official position of not recognizing Taiwan as a country and said the issue of Taiwan’s status should be resolved through dialogue based on the wishes of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Responding to a petition that demands official recognition of Taiwan as a country, the British government began by saying: “The longstanding position of Her Majesty’s Government is that we do not recognize Taiwan as a state.”

“The 1972 Joint Communique between the United Kingdom and China set out that: ‘The UK acknowledges the Chinese position that Taiwan is a province of the People’s Republic of China and recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China,'” according to the response prepared by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the government department responsible for foreign affairs.     [FULL  STORY]

RIGHT ATTITUDE:Simon Chang said that his position on the trade agreement is apolitical, but he does not think he will still be in office by the time it is inked

Taipei Times
Jan 30, 2016
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Vice Premier Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday said that president-elect

Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) attitude would determine whether the negotiation for a cross-strait trade in goods agreement could continue, calling on Tsai to “recognize” the results so far achieved by the negotiation team.

In a radio interview, Chang said his Chinese counterpart has an “ambivalent” attitude regarding the agreement, as “they do not know whether the negotiation and the outcome achieved so far will count when the next administration takes office, since there have been calls to scrap the cross-strait service trade agreement and restart negotiations.”

Chang said the current administration has little power over the fate of the deal and it depends on messages from Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party in the next few months and Beijing’s reactions to them to keep the negotiations on track.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/21
By: Feng Chao, Elaine Hou and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Jan. 21 (CNA) A state-run television network in China reported

Wednesday that a live-fire drill had been conducted recently by the Chinese military off China’s southeast coast, the first report of a military exercise following Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections last week.

The China Central Television (CCTV) report came after Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), chairwoman of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won a landslide victory in Taiwan’s presidential election and her party also gained a legislative majority, winning 68 seats in the 113-member Legislature.

In the report, CCTV said the 31st Group Army, a military formation of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) based in the southeastern city of Xiamen, had conducted a large-scale live-fire landing drill off Southeast China.     [FULL  STORY]

Big News Network
Date: 20th January, 2016
By: UPI

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China dismissed two aides in charge of cross-strait relations in the wake of a landslide election in Taiwan – as controversy grew over a Taiwanese member of a South Korean pop group forced to issue a public apology for displaying a Taiwanese flag on Korean television.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party stated on its website Tuesday two officials from separate Taiwan affairs bureaus were under investigation for “severe violation of discipline,” South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

Beijing did not go into the specifics of their alleged violations, but the charges could be related to bribery or corruption. One of the suspects, identified as Dai, was the deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office in the Chinese province of Fujian. Hong Kong press reported Dai worked with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Chinese leader’s term in Fujian Province.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/21
By: Sophia Yeh and Kay Liu

Taipei, Jan. 20 (CNA) The Facebook page of President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was flooded with over 20,000 messages likely from Chinese Internet users, who voiced their opposition against Taiwan’s independence, in three hours Wednesday.

Since Wednesday afternoon, several netizens posted the Communist Party of China’s socialist values of eight honors and eight shames, which start with “it is an honor to love the motherland, a shame to endanger it,” in simplified Chinese used in the mainland on Tsai’s Facebook page.

There are also messages ridiculing or criticizing the pursuit of Taiwan’s independence that is part of the platform of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tens of DPP heavyweight proposed a freeze in the platform’s clause about Taiwan’s independence in 2014.     [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: 19/01
By: Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie

BEIJING (Reuters) – A deputy head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office is

being investigated for suspected “serious discipline violations”, the ruling Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog said on Tuesday, using the normal euphemism for corruption.

The brief statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection gave no other details of the probe into Gong Qinggai.

Taiwan is a highly sensitive issue for Beijing.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan, which voted in a new president and parliament on Saturday, a wayward province, to be brought under Beijing’s control by force if needed. Defeated Nationalist forces fled there in 1949 at the end of a civil war.     [FULL  STORY]