Taiwan News
Date: 2015-12-29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwan-China hotline promised at the summit

meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will go into operation by December 31, the Mainland Affairs Council said Tuesday.

MAC Minister Andrew Hsia gave a positive response to reporters questioning him about the timing at a lunch Tuesday.

The telephone line will link Hsia with his Chinese counterpart, Taiwan Affairs Office chief Zhang Zhijun, and will be used for emergencies, the MAC said.

Tests had been going on for some time, and the final preparations were about to be completed, allowing the line to come into use before the year’s end, by the end of Thursday, Hsia told reporters.     [FULL  STORY]

Bloomberg News
Date: December 20, 2015
By: Tim Culpan and David Tweed

Chinese hackers have attacked Taiwanese targets including local news

organizations and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party in a bid to get information about policies and speeches ahead of presidential and legislative elections next month.

An attack on the unnamed media outlets came in the form of phishing e-mails with the subject line “DPP’s Contact Information Update,” according to research by security company FireEye Inc., which identified a Chinese state-backed group called APT16 as carrying out attacks. Hackers also infiltrated e-mails of party staff, changing security protocols and writing messages spoofing the account holders in what may have been an attempt to deliver malicious code, according to one of the victims.

Taiwan goes to the polls Jan. 16 and opinion surveys show the DPP is likely to win a legislative majority, with its leader Tsai Ing-wen securing the presidency after eight years of nationalist Kuomintang rule. China, which considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces, is wary of the DPP’s views on Taiwan independence and advocacy of more caution in its relationship with the mainland.     [FULL  STORY]

Will China retaliate? And if so, against whom?

Motly Fool
Date: Dec 20, 2015
By: Rich Smith

The headline practically says it all. On Wednesday, the United States

announced plans to sell $1.7 billion worth of hi-tech weaponry to Taiwan. In response, China fired off an immediate diplomatic protest, and demanded that the U.S. retract the arms sale.

According to official Chinese policy, Taiwan is still part of China proper, and so “China resolutely opposes the sale of weapons to Taiwan by the U.S.,” said Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang in a diplomatic meeting. But what is it exactly that China is upset about?

Taiwan’s shopping list
Here’s a quick rundown of the weapons systems on Taiwan’s shopping list, as notified to Congress in a series of eight announcements by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the Pentagon arm responsible for coordinating foreign weapons contracts:     [FULL  STORY]

Breitbart News
By: John J. Xenakis

There is one and only one country in the entire world that agrees with and

supports all of China’s legal claims in the South China Sea. That country is Taiwan, though China says that Taiwan is not a country, but only a rogue province of China that will return to Chinese control as soon as possible.

For the last few years, Taiwan has been governed by the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT) party, which favors the “one China” principle and unification with mainland China, and which has fully supported all of China’s claims in the South China Sea.

But Taiwan is about to hold new elections on January 16, and the KMT party is expected to lose to the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Of Taiwan’s two major political parties, China has always been very friendly with KMT, and very hostile with DPP. China has frequently threatened military action if Taiwan’s leaders take any political steps towards independence from China, and those threats have almost always been directed at the DPP.     [FULL  STORY]

Bloomberg View
Date:  Dec 15, 2015
By: Cass R. Sunstein

These days, Americans don’t think a lot about Taiwan. That’s a shame.

A thriving democracy in a region with too few of them, Taiwan also faces unique challenges, not least because of its ambiguous legal status and the possibility that it will eventually be absorbed into China — perhaps by force. Elections next month, which a pro-independence party is expected to win, could mark a turning point. Americans have plenty of reason to pay attention.

I spent a few days last week in Taiwan, giving a series of lectures and also meeting with both the current president, Ma Ying-jeou, and Tsai Ing-wen, who is highly likely to succeed him. I found a country that is one of the world’s bright spots. It could easily be taken as a model for others, but its complex relationship with China could ultimately threaten regional stability.

To appreciate the current situation, it’s necessary to understand some history. China’s warring factions were unified in 1928 by Chiang Kai-shek, who ruled what he called the Republic of China for nearly twenty years. But in 1949, the Communists, led by Mao Zedong, routed Chiang and his supporters, who fled to Taiwan, declaring it to be the true Republic of China (ROC, as it is often called today). Mao insisted Taiwan was part of China and had no legitimate claim to independence.     [FULL  STORY]

COMMON GROUND:The presidential rivals agreed that allowing Chinese investment in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry would damage national interests and competitiveness

Taipei Times
Date:  Dec 16, 2015
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The presidential candidates of the two major political parties yesterday joined the chorus of

protest from academics opposed to Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd’s (SPIL, 矽品精密) planned sale of stock to Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd (清華紫光), saying the Chinese investment could pose a serious threat to Taiwanese industries.

On the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei for the release of a Hakka-themed campaign video, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said given that Tsinghua Unigroup is a state-owned company, it could be subject to Chinese government influence.

“Letting such a company’s money enter Taiwan would allow it not only to gain control of the Taiwanese firms whose shares it purchases, but to obtain a significant position in the upstream and downstream sectors of the nation’s [semiconductor] industry,” Tsai said.

“It could pose a dire threat to Taiwan’s industries,” she said.     [FULL  STORY]