Category Archives: Taiwan

Encrypted apps and false names: new Taiwan book club takes no chances

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Amid Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong, publisher says joining clubs to discuss free speech and democracy has again become an act of resistance

In the early 1950s in Taiwan, 19-year-old Tsai Kun-lin was arrested and jailed after joining a book club. The young man spent more than a decade on Green Island, building the prison that held him as a political enemy of the authoritarian rulers who would hold Taiwan under martial law until 1987.

Decades later, a 90-year-old Tsai is living in Taiwan’s thriving democracy, but says a book club has once again become an act of resistance.

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Fists and pig guts fly in Taiwan’s parliament debate on US pork imports – video

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Legislators from Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party threw pig guts and exchanged punches with other lawmakers in parliament on Friday as they tried to stop the premier, Su Tseng-chang, from taking questions, in a bitter dispute over easing US pork imports. 

President Tsai Ing-wen announced in August that the government would, from 1 January, allow imports of US pork containing ractopamine, an additive that enhances leanness but is banned in the EU and China, as well as US beef more than 30 months old

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Taiwan politicians throw pig guts at each other in row over US meat imports

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Opposition party’s ‘disgusting’ offal protest prompts scuffle in Taipei legislative yuan

Parliamentarians in Taiwan have thrown pig guts at each other before coming to blows over plans to allow US meat imports.

Members of the opposition Chinese nationalist party (KMT) brought the offal to the legislative yuan on Friday in the latest of daily protests during parliamentary sittings.

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Trump’s US investment ban aims to cement tough-on-China legacy

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Move is latest chapter in deteriorating relationship with Beijing and improvement under Joe Biden is unlikely

Donald Trump has banned US investment in a further 89 Chinese companies, and reportedly sent a navy admiral to Taiwan, as he seeks to secure a tough-on-China foreign policy legacy.

Multiple media outlets have reported plans by the Trump administration for a series of confrontations with China before Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, and the moves were largely expected. Foreign policy and political analysts believe Trump wants to leave a legacy of being tough on China, while simultaneously conducting a “scorched earth” policy on his way out of the White House.

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US and Taiwan sign five-year agreement on health, tech and security

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Countries emphasise potential for cooperation and future partnerships, which Beijing opposes

Taiwan and the United States have held their first high-level meetings under a new economic dialogue, inking a five-year agreement and pledging future cooperation on health, tech, and security.

The talks, held amid a contentious US presidential transition period and high regional tensions with China, did not advance Taiwan’s hopes for a trade deal with US, despite the two countries growing closer under Donald Trump and his pushback on Beijing.

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US poll chaos is a boon for the enemies of democracy the whole world over

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While Democrats and Republicans squabble in Washington, injustice and violence reigns from Palestine to Mozambique

Believe it or not, the world did not stop turning on its axis because of the US election and ensuing, self-indulgent disputes in the land of the free-for-all. In the age of Donald Trump, narcissism spreads like the plague.

But the longer the wrangling in Washington continues, the greater the collateral damage to America’s global reputation – and to less fortunate states and peoples who rely on the US and the western allies to fly the flag for democracy and freedom.

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Taiwan marks 200 days without domestic Covid-19 infection

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Authorities thank public for helping to reach milestone, as cases surge in many countries

Taiwan has reached 200 days without any domestically transmitted cases of Covid-19, underlining its success in keeping the virus under control as cases surge in other parts of the world.

The country’s Center for Disease Control last reported a domestic case on 12 April. CDC officials thanked the public for playing a role in reaching the milestone, while urging people to continue to wear masks and wash their hands often.

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China sanctions major US defence companies after arms sales to Taiwan

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Lockheed Martin, Boeing Defense, Space & Security and Raytheon named along with US officials who played a role in weapons sales

China will sanction several major defence companies in retaliation for multibillion dollar US arms sales to Taiwan, the foreign ministry has announced.

Lockheed Martin, Boeing Defense, Space & Security and Raytheon were named as targets of the sanctions, as well as “the US individuals and entities who played an egregious role”, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing on Monday, but did not provide further details.

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Fighting tyranny with milk tea: the young rebels joining forces in Asia

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Activists in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand have formed a novel international alliance to defy authoritarian rule

The language, the demands and the backdrop were different, but the protests across central Bangkok last week would have looked familiar to anyone who followed the mass demonstrations that roiled Hong Kong for a year from June 2019.

Crowds of young protesters, dressed in black and wearing hard hats, poured through the streets to locations announced at the last minute on social media. As the police closed in and the protesters prepared for confrontation, hand gestures and human chains ensured supplies including protective masks and water reached the front lines.

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Taiwan official in hospital after alleged ‘violent attack’ by Chinese diplomats in Fiji

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Alleged incident, which comes amid soaring tensions between Beijing and Taipei occurred at a reception in Suva to mark Taiwan’s national day

A fight between Chinese diplomats and a Taiwanese delegate in Fiji left the Taiwanese official in hospital with a head injury, and has again highlighted tensions between Beijing and Taipei in their struggle for influence across the Pacific.

The incident took place at a Taipei Trade Office reception at Suva’s Grand Pacific Hotel on 8 October, to mark Taiwan’s national day. Two officials from the Chinese embassy in Suva allegedly arrived uninvited and tried to photograph and film those in attendance, including at least two ministers from Fiji’s government, diplomats from other countries, international and local NGOs, and members of Fiji’s ethnic Chinese community, sources at the event told the Guardian.

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Taiwanese man held in China ‘confesses’ on TV to filming troops on Hong Kong border

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Lee Meng-chu is accused of filming Chinese troops gathering at the border with Hong Kong during protests in 2019

A Taiwanese man detained in China and accused of endangering national security appeared on Chinese television on Sunday evening, “confessing” to illegally filming military exercises in a city bordering Hong Kong during protests there last year.

Human rights organisations accuse China of regularly forcing detainees to deliver public confessions broadcast on television, in a country where the opaque judicial system remains subject to the ruling Communist party.

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Taiwan’s president calls for less tension with China in annual address

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Tsai Ing-wen says she hopes ‘this is the beginning of genuine change’ after Xi Jinping’s UN speech saying Beijing would never seek hegemony

Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, says she has hopes for less tensions with China and in the region if Beijing will listen to Taipei’s concerns, alter its approach and restart dialogue with the self-ruled island democracy.

Speaking at Taiwan’s national day celebrations on Saturday, Tsai took note of recent remarks by Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in a video message to the UN general assembly that China would never seek hegemony, expansion or to establish a sphere of influence.

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After Hong Kong: China sets sights on solving ‘the Taiwan problem’

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An invasion may not be imminent but experts say armed forces could have capacity to mount one by the end of the decade

Soon after China imposed the new national security law that effectively ended Hong Kong’s limited autonomy, a hawkish legal academic in Beijing spelt out a warning to Taiwan.

The law was not just about ending a year of protests in Hong Kong, Tian Feilong said in an interview with DW News, it was also sending a message to Taipei – and to Washington, which has recently approved new arms sales and high-level visits by US officials to self-rule Taiwan.

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Taiwan calls for global coalition against China’s aggression as US official flies in

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Taipei speaks of ‘real possibility’ of war as US undersecretary for economic affairs pays visit that Beijing regards as provocative

Taiwan’s foreign minister has called for the international community to help defend his country against an intensifying military threat from China, fearing “a real possibility” of war.

The comments from the minister, Joseph Wu, come before the expected arrival on Thursday in Taiwan of the US undersecretary for economic affairs, Keith Krach, with a delegation for a two-day visit.

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Pro-democracy boycott of Disney’s Mulan builds online via #milkteaalliance

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Liu Yifei, who stars as Chinese heroine, has voiced support for Hong Kong police during suppression of protests

Calls to boycott Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan have been reignited ahead of its release on Friday, with Thai pro-democracy activists joining those vowing to shun the film.

Controversy over Mulan erupted last year, when its star, Liu Yifei, voiced support for police in Hong Kong, who have been accused of using excessive force against protesters.

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Child lifted metres into the air by giant kite at Taiwan festival – video

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Footage shows a girl, 3, in Taiwan being lifted high into the air after becoming entangled in the strings of a kite. The unidentified girl was taking part in a kite festival on Sunday in the seaside town of Nanliao when she was hoisted several metres into the air by the giant, long-tailed orange kite. News reports said the girl was frightened but suffered no physical injuries in the incident. 


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Child, 3, catches in kite strings and is lifted high into air in Taiwan

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Girl became entangled in tail of giant kite at festival and was rescued unharmed

A three-year-old girl in Taiwan has been caught up in the strings of a kite and lifted high into the air in front of horrified onlookers, before being rescued unharmed.

The unidentified girl was taking part in a kite festival on Sunday in the seaside town of Nanliao, near Hsinchu City, when she became entangled in a giant, long-tailed orange kite and was hoisted off the ground by several metres.

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China unveils ‘Sky Thunder’ weapons system amid growing tensions with Taiwan

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The 500kg missile system was revealed days after the highest-level US visit to Taiwan in four decades

A new Chinese weapons system has been unveiled on state media amid growing tensions with Taiwan and the US.

Chinese state TV ran reports over the weekend about the Tianlei 500, which translates as Sky Thunder, a 500kg precision-guided munitions dispenser and air-to surface missile. The Tianlei can carry six types of submunitions and attack different targets, a senior engineer said in the report.

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Island nations have the edge in keeping Covid away – or most do

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Nations from New Zealand to Cuba closed borders promptly with strict quarantine rules, but the UK won’t admit its ‘serious mistake’

Island nations have an advantage when it comes to stopping travellers importing disease, be it Covid or other infections.

Seas are usually harder to cross than land, and beaches are easier to police. There are no cross-border towns, and fewer ways to sneak over frontiers.

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‘The next Hong Kong’: Taiwan’s foreign minister sounds warning over China

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Joseph Wu tells visiting US health secretary Taiwan lives under constant threat of its freedoms being quashed by Beijing

China is trying to turn Taiwan into another Hong Kong, the island’s foreign minister warned on Tuesday as he met with a senior US official making a historic diplomatic trip.

A crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong has gathered pace since China imposed a sweeping security law on the financial hub in June, with opposition politicians disqualified and activists arrested.

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