Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/08
By: Chen Chia-lun and Lilian Wu

Taipei, June 8 (CNA) Over 90 percent of people in Taiwan support the new government’s policy of maintaining the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, according to an opinion poll published by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Wednesday.

The public opinion survey on President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inaugural speech and cross-strait issues showed 92.8 percent support for her government’s stance of safeguarding the existing peace and stability between Taiwan and China.

The survey also found that 74.4 percent of the Taiwan public agrees with Tsai’s position that cross-strait affairs should be managed on the basis of the Republic of China Constitution, the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, and other laws.

Meanwhile, 74.6 percent of people in Taiwan support President Tsai’s statement that she respects the historical fact of a 1992 meeting between Taiwan and China during which they reached a common understanding, according to the poll.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-07
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Katharine Chang said on Tuesday that so far she has had no interaction with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun.

At the Legislature, KMT legislator Lin Te-fu asked her whether the new government, which has been in office for half a month, has had any interaction with China.

Chang said that so far she has had no interaction with Zhang Zhijun, adding that however, continuing communication is needed for maintaining cross-strait relations and that the government will continue its effort to make it happen.

Meanwhile, Premier Lin Chuan agrees that the two sides across the strait should show goodwill for each other and that there are many ways of interaction to approach this issue. He said that the government will try its best to create more goodwill for the two sides.     [FULL  STORY]

Special Broadcasting Service
Date: June 5, 2016
Source: AAP

On the anniversary of China’s bloody crackdown on student-led protests in and around Beijing’s

Tiananmen Square, Taiwan’s new president has told China that democracy is nothing to fear.

Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post on Saturday on the 27th anniversary that Taiwan could serve as an example to China.

Tsai said in the run-up to Taiwan’s elections earlier this year that she had seen people from China, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, mixing with crowds in Taiwan.

“These many friends, after experiencing things for themselves can see that in fact there’s nothing scary about democracy. Democracy is a good and fine thing,” wrote Tsai, who took office last month.

China sent in tanks to break up the demonstrations on June 4, 1989.

Beijing has never released a death toll but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.     [FULL  STORY]

Why you need to know: The Tiananmen Square Massacre anniversary is a reminder that defending freedom and human rights against tyranny is a common responsibility—and in our best interest.

The News Lens
Date: June 4, 2016
By: J. Michael Cole

Once again this year, the Hong Kong Federation of Students has announced it will not participate

in the June 4 candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, the annual event organized by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China to commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in which hundreds, perhaps thousands, of unarmed protesters were brutally murdered by the Chinese military in 1989.

A deepening pro-localization sentiment combined with rising Beijing-skepticism among Hong Kong’s youth appear to be the main reasons behind the federation’s decision to not involve itself in the vigil, which every year has attracted tens of thousands of residents in Hong Kong. For the young people who fall in that category and who do not see a common future with China, the human rights situation in China proper may be worrying, but ultimately it is not their problem, and certainly not their responsibility to fix. For some of them, the June 4 commemorations are “meaningless.”

A similar phenomenon has long existed in Taiwan, where the consolidation of a distinct Taiwanese consciousness has contributed to an erosion of support for the cause of human rights in China. Linguistic and cultural affinities not withstanding, for most people in Taiwan, China is a foreign country, and while Beijing’s track record on human rights may be deplorable (and in some respects it is getting worse), it is none of their business. The dwindling numbers of participants at the annual June 4 vigil at Liberty Square in Taipei, with a few hundred people gathering in recent years, may well be the result of such developments in Taiwanese identity.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/05
By: Wang Cheng-chung and S.C. Chang

Taipei, June 5 (CNA) Taipei and Beijing, deadlocked over the “1992 consensus,” are testing each

other’s bottom lines in regard to the political foundation of their bilateral relations, the National Security Bureau (NSB) has said, suggesting that Taipei keep communicating with its rival and try to build a bridge of mutual trust.

The NSB made its assessment and suggestions in a written report to the Legislature, prior to NSB head John K. Young’s (楊國強) appearance at a legislative committee meeting Monday. Young, along with the ministers of national defense, foreign affairs and mainland affairs, will jointly attend the meeting, which is aimed at discussing the East Asia situation and Taiwan’s steps to deal with it.

Summing up China’s response to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) May 20 inauguration speech, Young’s agency said that China thinks Tsai has taken “one step closer” to its version of the “1992 consensus,” but is not satisfied with her attempts to evade the “core meaning” of its definition of “one China” — that Taiwan and China belong to “one China.”

That consensus was reached by officials from Taipei and Beijing during meetings in Hong Kong in 1992, when the two sides agreed that there is only “one China,” with each side free to interpret what that means. Taipei defines “one China” as “the Republic of China” — Asia’s first democracy, established in 1912.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/04
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, June 4 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) urged China to treasure those among its people who seek democracy, saying that it can earn more respect from around the world by allowing its people to enjoy more political rights, on the 27th anniversary of the June 4th, 1989 bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing.

In a similar move, former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who stepped down two weeks ago, also called for China to hear diverse voices from the people and treat dissidents well, which he said will help Beijing win respect from the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and the international community.

In a carefully-worded post on her personal Facebook page Saturday, Tsai said that she did not mean to criticize China’s political system “but rather I am willing, with heartfelt sincerity, to share Taiwan’s experience in democratization.”

This was Tsai’s first comment on the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 as president of Taiwan, after she took office on May 20.     [FULL  STORY]

CONNECTED:While Taiwan and Hong Kong are not responsible for China’s democratization, it would serve as a guarantee for their democracies, one activist said

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 05, 2016
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Several hundred activists last night gathered in Taipei’s Liberty Square for an event

commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in Beijing, condemning continued human rights abuses by the Chinese government.

Organized by the Student Workshop for Promoting China’s Democracy, the New School for Democracy, the Friends of Liu Xiabo (劉曉波) and the National Taiwan University Student Council, and with the support of a handful of local human rights groups, the event’s site was symbolic, as it was the location of important student demonstrations during Taiwan’s democratization, including an overnight rally on June 3, 1989, in support of the protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Lights were dimmed and several moments of silence were observed for the massacre victims, with last night’s event marked by songs interspersed with speeches by several prominent overseas activists, along with Taiwanese human rights figures, who at one point took to the stage holding photographs of political prisoners.     [FULL  STORY]

What Tsai Ing-wen should be reading this weekend.

The National Interest
Date: May 28, 2016
By: J. Michael Cole

After eight years of relative calm in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan turned a page in its history on May 20, when Tsai Ing-wen of the Taiwan-centric Democratic Progressive Party was sworn in as president. While it may be premature to argue that the cross-Strait relationship has now entered a new, and possibly more conflict-prone, era under Tsai, we must nevertheless keep in mind that the military option to impose unification was never obviated by Beijing, and that as its power grows that option may look increasingly inevitable. Therefore, as the Tsai administration performs the onerous act of balancing between stability in the Taiwan Strait and meeting the expectations of its China-wary citizens, it must continue to prepare against the eventuality that China could resort to force of arms to break the status quo.

Although not exhaustive, the following discussion looks at a number of areas that will be key to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against external aggression in the coming years. This article, moreover, takes it for granted that Taiwan has experienced and internalized a doctrinal transformation whereby victory in the military sense no longer implies the defeat, if not annihilation, of its opponent, but rather focuses primarily on countering limiting scenarios while strengthening its deterrent capability against more escalatory measures by its opponent. In other words, Taiwan realizes it could not possibly challenge the People’s Liberation Army symmetrically and expect to emerge victorious; instead, the main aim of its national defense strategy is—or should be—to ensure that Beijing does not resort to force in the first place.     [FULL  STORY]