TAIPEI, April 18 -- A magnitude 6.1 earthquake rocked eastern Taiwan at 1.01pm on Thursday, sending panicked residents rushing onto the streets and shaking buildings 115km (71 milles) away in the island’s capital, Taipei. The quake’s epicentre was just over 10km northwest of the city of Hualien, at a depth of 18.8km, the island’s Central Weather Bureau said, adding that a 4.1 quake was reported 17 minutes later. At least 17 people were injured. A Malaysian man and a Taiwanese woman were injured by falling rocks at Taroko National Park in Hualien county, with both being airlifted to a hospital in the city. Ten people in Taipei and five in New Taipei City also suffered injuries. Train services on Taipei’s subway were suspended as were the airport subway to Taoyuan International Airport and most other metro and train systems in various parts of Taiwan, especially those around eastern and northern Taiwan, for safety inspections, the island’s cabinet said. Taiwan Power Company said operations were normal at the island’s first and second nuclear power plants in northern Taiwan and asked the public to stay calm.
0 Comments
TAIPEI, April 1 -- Beijing’s decision on Sunday to break a tacit agreement by sending two PLA fighter jets across a largely observed line dividing the Taiwan Strait has been seen by Taiwanese analysts as intentional and a response to US naval “freedom of navigation” exercises in the strait. It also demonstrated that Beijing had discounted Taiwan’s reaction over the intrusion and that China felt any provocative action by the US in the Taiwan Strait and US deployments in the Indo-Pacific region must be stopped, they said. “Judging from the fact that the PLA warplanes have also intruded into the air defence identification zones of both Japan and South Korea [in the past year], Sunday’s incursion was more [about] countering the US’ deployments in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Doong Sy-chi, director of international relations at Taiwan Thinktank, on Monday. “It also means that the Chinese communists no longer care about the reaction of Taiwan as they used to do out of the concerns that it [incursions] would increase Taiwanese resentment against Beijing and boost the pro-independence camp’s chances in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election,” he said. Taiwan scrambled interceptors on Sunday morning and broadcast warnings after two People’s Liberation Army J-11 fighter jets crossed the “median line” over the waters that separate the island from the mainland. Despite those warnings, the jets continued their incursion for about 10 minutes – unusual compared to earlier intrusions where PLA aircraft would quickly return to the mainland China side of the median, Taiwan’s military officials said. The Taiwanese foreign ministry, presidential office and Mainland Affairs Council issued statements condemning the move, calling it reckless and provocative, and which not only was an act of changing the cross-strait status quo, but also caused resentment among Taiwan and its allies abroad. TAIPEI, February 11 -- With a head of grey hair and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, the casually dressed Chen Fu-men looks like a grandfather next door. But in intelligence circles on the two rival sides of the Taiwan Strait, he is a well-known figure. Chen’s involvement in the killing of a Taiwanese-American author 35 years ago shocked the United States, which angrily demanded that the self-ruled island hand over Chen and two others to the American justice system. The assassination also became one of the triggers for democratisation on the self-ruled island, which had been under authoritarian rule by Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo since 1949. The author, Henry Liu, 51, a Taiwanese journalist who moved to the United States in 1967 and later became an American citizen, had published an unflattering biography of Chiang Ching-kuo and was an outspoken critic of Taiwan’s ruling party. Powerful officials in Taipei also believed that he was spying for the mainland. In 1984, vice-admiral Wang Hsi-ling, the head of the island’s Military Intelligence Bureau, ordered his deputy Hu Yi-min and his top aide Chen to kill Liu, according to Chen. Chen asked the leader of Taiwan’s notorious Bamboo Union gang, Chen Chi-li, to eliminate the journalist. In October, he and two other gangsters gunned down Liu in the garage of his northern California home. The murder rocked the US, and its relations with Taiwan dropped to their lowest point after a furious State Department accused Taipei of sending killers to assassinate an American citizen. The FBI was involved in the search for suspects, and through a tapped phone traced a conversation between Wang and Chen Chi-li. Taiwanese authorities later arrested the gang leader and his aide. Threatening to cut off arms sales to Taiwan, Washington demanded that Chiang Ching-kuo’s government extradite the suspects to face trial in the US. The Chiang government finally allowed the FBI to question the three intelligence officials in Taiwan. TAIPEI, February 10 -- Taiwan’s largest airline China Airlines and its pilot union returned to the negotiating table on Saturday in a closed-door coordination meeting. The meeting is over an ongoing strike that so far has forced the cancellation of 34 flights, including at least 12 to or from Hong Kong. The carrier cancelled four Saturday flights between Hong Kong and Kaohsiung and three between Taipei and Hong Kong, after scrapping five flights to and from Hong Kong the previous day. More than 12 flights have been delayed in the past two days, according to the airline. The China Airlines branch of the Taoyuan Union of Pilots is protesting the airline’s failure to improve pilots’ working conditions and launched industrial action at 6am on Friday after talks broke down on Thursday, saying the strike would continue indefinitely until China Airlines agreed to meet its demands. Taiwan’s transport ministry stepped in, asking China Airlines and the union to hold a new round of talks on Saturday afternoon under the supervision of the Taoyuan Labour Affairs Department. Earlier on Saturday, transport minister Lin Chia-lung said airline management should have reviewed the reasons behind the breakdown in talks, in light of last year’s successful negotiations between EVA Air, another major Taiwan carrier, and its pilots. “Senior officials of China Airlines should have listened to the voices of their employees and put aside their emotion to properly handle the labour dispute,” Lin said, adding that the union should also take note of the rights of travellers and resume negotiations with the employer to jump-start reform of China Airlines’ aviation safety and systems. The union voted to strike in August and obtained approval from the labour authorities following disputes dating back to December 2017 between pilots and the two airlines over working conditions. The EVA pilots agreed not to strike after a consensus was reached with airline, coordinated by the labour authorities, but no agreement was reached between China Airlines and its pilots, prompting Friday’s action. BEIJING, February 5 -- China has sent a sobering Lunar New Year message to Taiwan, with a video showing military jets flying over the self-ruling island. The images were used by Beijing in the film - titled My Fighting Eagles Fly Around Formosa – a name for Taiwan. It was published on social media by China’s air force, accompanied by a message saying it was to celebrate Tuesday’s Lunar New Year, reports the South China Morning Post. Taiwan split with the mainland in 1949, but China claims it as part of its territory and has threatened to invade if necessary to reunite Taiwan with the mainland. The propaganda film was released on Weibo – China’s equivalent of Twitter – and shows the official badge of the air force against images of Taiwan’s skyscrapers. Accompanying footage of H-6 bombers and J-20 stealth fighters, the film sends a message about reunification and brotherhood. The lyrics of the song played in the film call for “Brothers and sisters” from Taiwan to “return [and] reunite”. In a speech last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing had no intention of dropping its threat to use military force to bring the island under its control. China’s military has also ramped up military exercises in the air and naval drills in the seas off Taiwan. But the residents of the self-governing island, with its vibrant and well-established democracy, have resisted China’s demands despite rising political, economic and military threats from Beijing. And Taiwan responded on Monday to the provocative film by releasing a 90-second video – titled Freedom Is Not Free – on Facebook. It included images of the island’s military including ground based missile launchers and air and naval forces. Maritime Rescue Center opened on South China Sea islet as Beijing seeks to reinforce claims30/1/2019 TOKYO, January 30 -- China opened a maritime rescue center on one of its man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday, state-run media reported, as Beijing seeks to reinforce its claims in the strategic waterway. China’s Ministry of Transport opened the rescue center on Fiery Cross Reef, which is also claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines, “to better protect navigation and transport safety in the South China Sea,”. It quoted the ministry as saying the center “will offer better support to maritime rescue operations in the southern part of the South China Sea” near the Spratly chain. Beijing has built up a series of military outposts in the South China Sea, which includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. As part of what some experts say is a concerted bid to cement de facto control of the South China Sea, three of Beijing’s man-made islets in the Spratlys — Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs — all boast military-grade airfields. Recent reports have also said the islets, including Fiery Cross, have emplacements for missiles, extensive storage facilities and a range of installations that can track satellites, foreign military activity and communications. In a bid to offset concerns over the militarization of these islets, China has consistently said the facilities there are for defensive purposes and that the islands themselves are civilian and will provide navigational services to ships in the vicinity. But some observers have expressed concern that the moves could help boost Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the islets. These moves have seen China build ecological conservation and restoration facilities and marine observation centers on Fiery Cross, Subi and Meiji Reefs. Xinhua has said that the facilities were “providing public services, including marine forecasts and disaster alarms, to the international society and passing vessels.” In late July, China announced that it would permanently station a search-and-rescue ship at Subi Reef, the largest of China’s seven man-made outposts in the Spratlys and home to a lighthouse and extensive docking facilities. In October, another rescue ship was sent to the region to replace the vessel. TAIPEH, January 17 -- Taiwan will not bow to Chinese pressure, a presidential spokesperson has said, as the self-ruled island held live-fire military drills aimed at showing its ability to defend itself from Beijing's threats. The developments on Thursday came as China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, has been pressing companies around the world to change the way they refer to the island amid renewed threats to use force to gain control over it. "As for China's related out-of-control actions, we need to remind the international community to face this squarely and to unite efforts to reduce and contain these actions," Alex Huang, the spokesperson for President Tsai Ing-wen, told reporters in Taipei, according to Reuters news agency. Chinese nationalists fled to Taiwan at the end of the civil war in 1949 when the Communists took control of mainland China, but as the island has transformed into one of the region's most vibrant democracies it has become increasingly assertive of its own identity. Live-fire drills Beijing has stepped up pressure on Taiwan since independence-leaning Tsai won presidential elections in 2016. On January 2, Chinese President Xi Jinping said no one could change the fact that Taiwan was "part of China", adding that Beijing would not give up the use of military force as an option to ensure the island's "reunification" with the mainland. On Thursday, Taiwan held live-fire military drills, the first since Xi's comments some two weeks ago. Artillery and assault helicopters fired at targets off the west coast city of Taichung, while Mirage fighter jets took off amid rainy conditions from the air base at Hsinchu to the north. The exercises also followed a new Pentagon report laying out US concerns about China's growing military might, underscoring Washington's worries about a possible attack against Taiwan. "Could Beijing really do it?" Maybe they can. Key point analysis: China’s formal sea lift capability has now reached four divisions consisting of 40,000 troops or 800 tanks depending on the configuration of mission requirements, Fisher said. Chinese naval investments in amphibious assault ships include seven 70,000-ton Type 071 Landing Platform Docks and six 20-40,000-ton Type 071 Landing Helicopter Docks. China’s preparation for invading the self-ruled island of 23 million people was the focus of a unique think tank conference appropriately held on Halloween.
Sponsored by the Washington-based Project 2049 Institute, “ The Nightmare Scenario : The PLA Invasion Threat and Taiwan’s Response,” served-up macabre entrées of pre- and post-invasion settings from the early warning signs of a D-Day Minus 45-30 to a post-apocalyptic enslaved populace. Richard Armitage, Project 2049’s Board Chairman, and former US Deputy Secretary of State, said Taiwan military planners now have to look at the China threat from a 360 degree perspective, not just looking west across the Taiwan Strait. China might not have amphibious craft, but they have roll-on/roll-off, so no longer is an amphibious invasion assault on Taiwan unthinkable, he said. “It is thinkable if you think about the specific situation of a quick lightning strike on the Taipei Port [Bali District] to establish a beachhead,” Armitage said. “What we are talking about is uncomfortable, unpleasant, and is a nightmare scenario, but we got to think this way and we have to come up with responses.” Retired Adm. Richard Chen, of the Taiwan Navy, said that Taiwan was “facing tremendous pressure from the other side.” Chen, former Vice Minister of Defense, said the military would have D-Day Minus 45-30 days warning before the Chinese hit the island. That is, if Taiwan’s early warning system worked without problems. The system has to be resilient enough to incorporate every single element of the sensors, shooters, and track every inboard missile, plane, and ship. “It has to generate a coherent picture shared with all three services that will reduce miscalculation.” Such a miscalculation would mean that Taiwan failed to defeat them in the littoral waters, and if so, the real “nightmare scenario is that we are forced to annihilate the Chinese on the beachhead,” Chen said. Retired USMC Gen. Wallace “Chip” Gregson said, “Geography and the 110 miles that separate the island of Taiwan is one factor” that works in Taipei’s favor, but the “numerical odds facing Taiwan are daunting.” Still, Taiwan’s emerging advantage is the ability to defeat cruise and ballistic missiles in a very cost-effective manner, where our ‘bullets’ cost much less than the target it hits,” Gregson said. A reference to Taiwan’s fielding of new PAC-3 Patriot anti-ballistic missile defense systems and the island’s analogous Tien Kung (Brave Wind) systems. BEIJING, January 1 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Taiwan’s unification with mainland China is “inevitable,” issuing a stern warning against any separatist or independence attempts on the self-governing island in a firmly-worded speech Wednesday. “China must and will be united,” said Xi in reference to unification with Taiwan, AFP reports. “We make no promise to give up the use of force and reserve the option of all necessary means,” Xi added, not ruling out the use of military action against separatist efforts in Taiwan. While Beijing still sees Taiwan as part of China’s sovereign territory despite the island’s breakaway from the mainland at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state with its own democratic political system. Taiwan has never formally declared independence from mainland China, but relations have come under pressure since the election of Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) does not accept the 1992 Consensus — a diplomatic agreement made between Taiwan and China acknowledging the existence of “one China.” On Tuesday, Tsai declared that Beijing “must respect the insistence of 23 million people for freedom and democracy” and “must use peaceful and equal terms to handle our differences,” AFP reports. Merely a day later, Xi described his vision for unification via a “one country, two systems” approach to “safeguard the interests and well-being of Taiwanese compatriots.” Over the past year, Beijing has ramped up efforts to isolate Taiwan, through pressuring international companies and airlines to list the territory as part of mainland China. Taiwan also has very few diplomatic allies with a series of defections to China taking place in 2018, and it is not granted membership or access to international organizations such as the United Nations or the World Health Organization. In mid-term elections last year, the DPP suffered losses causing Tsai to resign as party leader, while the pro-China opposition rival Kuomintang made gains. Last week, the capital city of Taipei was beset by protesters demonstrating against high taxes, echoing France’s gilet jaunes, or “yellow jackets” movement. TAIPEI, November 25 -- After more than three decades together, Mr Wang Tien-ming and Mr Ho Hsiang finally decided to tie the knot when Taiwan's top court ruled last year that same-sex marriage must be legalised.
But those wedding plans are now on hold after conservative groups won a referendum battle over equal marriage which couples fear could water down their newly won rights. The original landmark court decision in May 2017 made Taiwan the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage - it ruled the change must be implemented within two years and sparked a wave of optimism in the LGBT community. But almost 18 months have already passed as the government drags its feet in the face of conservative opposition. A referendum on whether marriage should only be recognised as between a man and a woman in Taiwan's Civil Code won more than seven million votes on Saturday, as did another calling for same-sex unions to be regulated under a separate law. Gay rights activists had proposed that the Civil Code should give same-sex couples equal marriage rights, but only garnered three million votes. Mr Ho said that after the original court ruling, he believed he and Mr Wang would be granted rights given to heterosexual married partners, including recognition as next of kin. This made the couple think they could at last buy a house together, Mr Wang told AFP, assured that if one of them died the other would inherit. Mr Wang, 57, is also the main carer for Mr Ho, 75, who suffers from Parkinson's disease. He describes their relationship as "love at first sight". "I want to get married because I want to say to the world that I don't want to be deprived of what is my basic right," Mr Wang said. Although the government has made clear the referendum results would not impact the court's original decision to legalise gay marriage, which should automatically be implemented next May, pro-gay marriage campaigners worry that their newly won rights will be weakened. The court did not specify how it wanted gay marriage to be brought in, leaving room for conservative groups to call for separate regulations. As Saturday's conservative referendums passed the threshold of 25 per cent of eligible voters, the government must by law take steps to reflect the result. Mr Ho said he would not accept anything less than the amendment of the existing marriage law as laid out in the Civil Code to put gay couples on an equal footing with heterosexual couples.\ "Having a special marriage law (for gay couples) means we are like second class citizens," he told AFP, adding that having a two-tier system would dent Taiwan's reputation as a trailblazer for equal marriage rights on the international stage. "The Taiwanese value equality and freedom. If the gay community is been treated like second class citizens, where's the equality? This is our soft power," he said. Taiwan's government has not yet responded to the referendum result and what impact it will have. Ms Kuo Huai-wen and her partner of 13 years had also been hoping to marry on the first day that the court's decision was implemented - a day that is yet to come. Ms Kuo, 40, said she was saddened and disappointed over the referendum result, but still felt encouraged that three million people had backed the pro-gay marriage vote. Ms Kuo is pregnant with the couple's second child and said they would be forced to accept a union under a separate law for the sake of their children, even though they do not agree with it and want equal marriage rights. "We have to be practical as we have kids and we can't afford to have all or nothing," said Ms Kuo. "We will register even if it's under a separate law, not because we are satisfied with that but because we need immediate protections." TAIPEI, November 23 -- A Taiwanese Facebook group yesterday (Nov. 21) posted a diagram outlining how it alleges China is using both private and official channels to try to manipulate the results of Taiwan's elections, which will be held on Nov. 24.
On Nov. 21, the Taiwanese Facebook group @letsupupup (鄉民挺起來) posted a diagram titled "How China interferes in Taiwan's elections." The diagram was outlined by Wang Li (王立), the graph was created by @letsupupup, and it was translated by Paul Huang (Twitter account @PaulHuangReport). The diagram details how the group believes China is using both official and private channels to back pro-China candidates and its secretly-selected candidates (Manchurian candidates), politicians, and officials. When asked by Taiwan News to state their political affiliation, @letsupupup said: "The villagers stand up to advocate for Taiwan and China, each side is a separate country. Taiwan has a constitution and builds a nation with self-determination." Official Channels According to the diagram, Chinese State Owned Companies (SOEs) and Academia/Cultural Industry share inside information and directives to trolls in forums, internet celebrities, media pundits, and other influencers. In terms of funding and directives, they allegedly engage in money laundering through crowdfunding, third party payments, overseas funding. It claims the funding is then directed toward pro-unification groups and gangs to disrupt the democratic process and engage in criminal activity. The chart lists election betting, buying out local gangs, and controlling local religious groups as examples of ways to instigate generational conflict, create pro-China sentiment, and buy votes. Social Media The chart depicts social media as central cog in the Chinese election manipulation machine. It lists social media pundits, celebrities, forums, cyber-stars, and Facebook pages as all working together to provide fake opinion polls, manipulate public opinion, and misdirect public attention. These are all shown as being fed directly by the SOE's and Academia/Cultural Industry or via troll farms. Chinese-directed social media outlets are show being fed video and viral propaganda material by internet media advertisements. They will then add this content their arsenal to influence traditional media and manipulate the public discourse. Private Channels In the first stage of the private channels, pro-China Taiwanese businesses provide funding, other businesses are threatened to serve as money laundering front, and Taiwanese media is coerced to collaborate. The funds harvested from these operations are then depicted as going to money laundering placement hubs where the funds are distributed to fake political parties and pro-China politicians, and then on to internet media advertisements. Funds are also allegedly directed towards click farms/troll farms, and social media. The fake political parties and pro-China politicians then are depicted as either making political donations or other miscellaneous funds to pro-China candidates, further laundering the money through "grassroots campaigns," or laundering the money through crowdfunding, though the makers of the chart mark this as the only part that has "no solid evidence." |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference through your donation. We appreciate your support.
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesCategories
All
Archives
April 2024
|