Strats Times
Date: Sep 24, 2015

TAIPEI • A new electronic entry card for Taiwanese visitors to China has sparked protests and a political backlash despite Beijing touting the move as a way to make travel easier.

China introduced the card on Monday after announcing it in June, but Taiwan said it was not told of the roll-out.

The island’s Mainland Affairs Council – its top China policy decision-making body – said in a statement there had not been “proper communication” in advance of the launch and the way China is doing it “has hurt the feelings of Taiwan people”.

Taiwan’s Premier Mao Chi-kuo said he was “extremely dissatisfied” adding that he had been given no prior notice of the move.

Around 20 members of the anti- China Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) threw eggs and let off firecrackers outside Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou’s residence on Tuesday night in protest.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 23, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker’s suggestion to call off a top-level cross-strait

meeting scheduled for next month to demonstrate Taiwan’s unhappiness with China’s high-handed introduction of a new travel pass for Taiwanese would be considered, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday, although he stressed that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) has responded positively to Taipei’s complaints.

KMT Legislator Lu Hsiu-yen (盧秀燕) said China’s unilateral move to replace its paper “Taiwan compatriot travel document” (台胞證) with a smart-card pass was a slap in the face to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the premier and Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言).

If Taiwan’s government simply delivered an oral protest, it “would be looked down on by both its people and the Chinese government,” Lu said, as she told Cabinet ministers the meeting scheduled for next month between Hsia and TAO Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) should be scrapped.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-21
By: Tang Shao-cheng

A consensus on cross-strait issues between the leaders of China and the United States is

far from certain during Xi Jinping’s state visit to the US from Sept. 22, but recent moves by Beijing have signaled possible changes to the development of ties across the Taiwan Strait.

A public security unit in Guangdong province recently sent a document directly to the Yencheng police precinct in Taiwan’s southern municipality of Kaohsiung, instructing the latter to offer support on certain cases. A Chinese travel authority also made a direct request to Taiwanese travel agencies to tell them to stop showing videos or chat shows on tour buses that touch on ideology, religious activities or anti-communist propaganda. Beijing also announced its decision to scrap Taiwan Compatriot permits and the issuing of travel ID cards to Taiwanese residents without conducting any prior negotiations with Taipei. More recently, Beijing declined to make concessions at the fifth meeting between banking supervisory commissions of both sides and during the negotiations on the fifth freedom right for Taiwan as a transit stop for mainland travelers.

The above actions indicate that Beijing will no longer use the Straits Exchange Foundation and its mainland counterpart organization, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, as a negotiating platform for certain affairs and will instead allow individual units under the central government to reach out directly. This suggests that Beijing no longer attaches great importance to Taiwan’s elected government.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/14
By Wang Shu-fen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Sept. 14 (CNA) Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau turned down a demand Monday from a

Chinese travel agency to ban videos with anti-communist content on tour buses transporting Chinese tourists visiting the island.

Any videos can be shown on tour buses as long as they have legal copyright and their content does not violate “good morals,” the bureau said. It does not matter if the videos involve anti-communist content or not, it added.

The issue came to the fore after a Chinese tour group visiting Taiwan in August was shown a British-produced documentary video about the late Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong while on a tour bus.

It is customary in Taiwan for tour bus drivers to show movies or other films to tourists during the journey.     [FULL  STORY]

‘OFFICIAL’:The head of the city’s police instructed units not to comply with orders from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, after a letter breached a cross-strait deal

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 13, 2015
By: Huang Chien-hua, Huang liang-chieh and Jason Pan  /  Staff reporters

Kaohsiung police were incensed by a recent “official document” sent by police in China’s

Guandong Province ordering Taiwanese police to follow up on a criminal case.

Officers at Kaohsiung’s Yancheng District (鹽埕) Police Station were perplexed after receiving the document by mail earlier this week, which originated from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s Boluo County Shuishang District Police Precinct.

After opening the letter, the Kaohsiung police said, they were offended by the audacity of a Chinese police precinct ordering them to contact the family of a Taiwanese man surnamed Huang (黃), who was under arrest at a detention center in Boluo County and was a suspect in a criminal investigation.

Accompanying the letter was a “Notice of Detention for Investigation,” which presented information on Huang’s arrest and the background of his case.

An officer at the police station was quoted as saying: “What is going on here? Is Taiwan part of China now? They are ordering us to follow up on an investigation.”     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-12
By: Chen Chun-shuo and Staff Reporter

China is holding a live-fire military exercise in waters off the southeastern province of

Fujian from Friday to Sunday.

Since 1996, Beijing has often taken action to warn against Taiwan independence before or after major elections or when there are growing calls for independence.

The fact that China is holding two military exercises within just a month and a half shows that the main purpose of China’s military drills over the past 20 years has been to warn against independence for the self-governed island, according to an analysis piece in Want Daily on Friday.

The first Chinese military exercises that aimed at delivering a message to Taiwan were held in 1995 and 1996, when China fired more than 10 Dong-Feng 15 ballistic missiles in waters off Fujian and deployed numerous aircraft and military ships, triggering the Taiwan Strait Crisis.      [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-10
By: Staff Reporter and CNA

The People’s Liberation Army will conduct live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait between Sept.

11-13, according to a report from the PLA Daily, the mouthpiece of the PLA’s General Political Department.

The report, published Thursday morning, offered exact coordinates for where the exercise will take place, warning that vessels and planes will be prohibited from entering the area as artillery fire could reach heights of 8,000 meters.

The purpose or aim of the exercise, to be held between 3pm and 5pm on each of the three days, was not made public, nor were the participating warships or the nature of the drills.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said Thursday that it is aware of the drills, with ministry spokesperson Major General Luo Shou-he noting that the exercise will involve regular artillery fire in an area about 14 nautical miles off Weitou in southeastern China’s Fujian province.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-07
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Han Kuang 31 military exercise began in the wee hours Monday morning

as President Ma Ying-jeou presided over its opening at an army base in Hsinchu.

The annual war games will be carried out through Friday in multiple locations around Taiwan, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

This year’s exercises, the 31st edition since 1984, include 69 drills spanning aircraft and vessel deployment, joint combat operations, personnel training and war gaming.

Vast lineups of next-generation weapon systems are being deployed. These include the Cloud Leopard armored vehicle, homegrown stealth missile corvette Tuo Jiang and supply vessel Pan Shi, and P-3C Orion antisubmarine aircraft.     [FULL  STORY]