Taiwan's Chien Hsiang loitering drone was designed to destroy enemy radar and UAVs

by Scott N. Romaniuk and Tobias Burgers

Sydney, Australia (SPX)

Nov 22, 2022

Taiwan's domestically produced drone technology, developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), which develops military technology, was displayed to the public shortly after the conclusion of China's annual air show at Zhuhai, as debates intensify over the likelihood of a Chinese invasion of its tiny island nation sibling, exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine.

The Taiwanese-made anti-radiation UAV has a maximum flight time of five hours and can strike targets up to 621 miles (1,000 km) distant, according to Taiwan's Aeronautical Systems Research Division. It can monitor and attack foreign enemy units emitting radar signals, whether in flight or not, as well as electromagnetic waves if they are part of their internal mechanisms or offensive systems. Though they cannot fly as far as their American counterparts, they were developed with a specific purpose in mind: destroy Chinese radar and UAVs. Their range allows them to support strikes along China's southeastern coast, where megacities are located.

A single mobile delivery vehicle can launch up to 12 Chien Hsiangs at the same time. Taiwan, as its technological ambitions suggest, is likely to try to deploy as many of these UAVs as possible. Further R&D is projected to result in the construction of an offensive-purpose drone, as well as a decoy system to safeguard crucial defense systems.

Taiwan's 'suicide drone' made its debut at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in 2017. It can be used in combination with other drones acting as decoys or loitering to successively target enemy units. The Chien Hsiang is comparable to Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket or the Me-163 rocket-propelled bomber- interceptor known as the 'Komet.'

Although its functions appear to be specialized, the unit is essentially a multi-system and multi-purpose machine. If Taiwan and China were at war (presumably because China invades or prompts preemptive action, such as a missile strike), Taiwan's focus would be on defensive measures, and its defensive instruments would reflect a cognitive relationship with the island's geopolitical profile.

Loitering

The drone's innovation lies in its ability to continue functioning while hanging in the air without a connection. When operational again, the unit can resume attacking its prey. The missile zeroes in on its target and then heads straight for it at a rate of 600 kilometers per hour (372 miles per hour).

Theoretically, the drones may create a barrier if hundreds or thousands of individuals congregate in preparation of an invasion or invasion support force. Its limited range and purpose complement the Taiwan Strait's tiny scale surroundings. These loitering weapons function as both an attacking and defensive deterrent. Hundreds of imagined drones crashing onto China's coastal megacities will undoubtedly result in catastrophic casualties and could therefore serve as a significant deterrence.

More drones?

States' defense strategies and doctrines will be increasingly influenced by unmanned combat systems. The majority of nations will also eventually seek to acquire drones, including armed drones, for a variety of reasons. Enhanced digital weapons systems and capabilities may help to preserve a balance of force and power between states and within regions such as the Middle East and, similarly, the Indo-Pacific, where discrepancies in nuclear weapons complicate the security environment and interstate relations.

Considering the putative promise that the future of human warfare will involve a growing number of unmanned conflicts and battles, the ongoing transitions in the strength of digital weapons could contribute to the maintenance of a stable peace. On the other side, Taiwan's continued development and manufacture of unmanned systems has the potential to create a security conundrum, ultimately bringing both China and Taiwan and presumably other countries, including the United States, closer to war.

Therefore, Taiwan's acquisition of more loitering munitions could be a double-edged sword that contributes to Taiwan's unease if China perceives a slight shift in the power distribution or balance of power between the two countries. This begs the question of whether Taiwan should risk aggravating existing security issues by placing additional orders. Taiwan will likely continue to increase its manufacturing of units as the need to prepare for a hypothetical invasion by China grows.

US technological ambitions and achievements in military weapons development in particular fuel the techno race and efforts to establish techno dominance in the military domain. Taiwan also benefits from the art of reengineering foreign military technology with aid, in the same way that China replicates American drone technology. The parallels between the Chinese MD-22, Teng Yun, and the American MQ-9 Reaper are readily apparent. It also draws inspiration from the futuristic designs of World War II Japanese and Nazi wonder weapons.

The Russian war in Ukraine has produced a testing ground for new drones in new environments. There are indications that the lessons learned in Ukraine have already influenced new drone orders, research and development, and trade agreements. Iran has supplied Russia with weaponry and UAVs, which Russia has utilized with catastrophic and terrifying results on the battlefield.

Ukraine has deployed similarly lethal armed drones against both soldiers and civilians. The Bayraktar TB2 is affordable, simple to make and acquire, and straightforward to run. Its laser-guided bombs would be destructive in the context of near urban combat operations and civilian environments where modern life and conflict are attempting to cohabit.

Small and lightweight laser-guided bombs and missiles impacting in downtown Taipei would yield serious military, economic, and political repercussions. Hundreds or thousands of such 'kamikaze drones,' similar to Imperial Japan's Yokosuka MXY- 7 Ohka (Cherry Blossom or 'Baka Bomb') or a more advanced version of Hitler's V1 rocket with room for a pilot, might successfully interdict or decimate an invading Chinese force.

Taiwan's loitering UAVs can be used for tactical and strategic preemptive strikes against China's crucial ground-based early warning radar and air-defense systems. While it is designed with the defensive imperative in mind, its applications expand beyond defensive purposes and demands.

This might be concerning to China if Taiwan adopts a defense strategy that incorporates the assemblage of hundreds of loitering weapons in the skies that can be deployed as attack aircraft suspended in flight. The notion is consistent with that of an aircraft carrier, where aircraft wait on the flight deck or in bays below. A considerable number of loitering munitions would function as a continuous, dense, and quick-response defense screen.

Through this description, the conceptual applications of the 'Rising Sword' become an airborne, suspended, and 'unsinkable' aircraft carrier in the skies. Taiwan can take advantage of their tiny and easily deployable size by moving them across the strategic waterway and stationing them on assets such as the Kinmen and Matsu islands, Kinmen County, and Lienchiang County.

The location of these islands directly opposite China's massive cities, Xiamen and Fuzhou, from the perspective of China's national security, endangers its entire southeastern as well as eastern flank, threatening unrestricted movement from the East China Sea to either the South China Sea or the Philippine Sea and wider Pacific Ocean, or even restricting the movement of Chinese maritime assets between the Yellow and East China seas.

China is unlikely to recognize Taiwan's capability to militarily invade mainland China, it will need to adapt and integrate this threat to its ground-based early warning radar units, air-defense systems, and densely populated coastal areas.

Dr. Scott N. Romaniuk is a visiting fellow at the International Centre for Policing and Security, University of South Wales, U.K., and a non-resident expert at the Taiwan Center for Security Studies...

Source: Space War.

Link: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Taiwans_Chien_Hsiang_loitering_drone_was_designed_to_destroy_enemy_radar_and_UAVs_999.html.

Prague, Taipei deepen ties as controversial Czech visit ends

September 04, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The mayors of Prague and Taipei announced new areas of cooperation for the two sister cities, including orchestra tours, on Friday as a Czech delegation concluded a weeklong visit to Taiwan that was bitterly criticized by China.

Taipei also donated 100,800 face masks and will share its experiences in controlling the coronavirus, Mayor Ko Wen-je said. The head of the 80-plus member delegation, Czech Senate leader Milos Vystrcil, is the highest-ranking Czech official to visit the democratically ruled island since 1989, according to Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

Since the delegation's arrival on Sunday, it has met with Taiwanese counterparts to develop cooperation in a range of areas including trade, cybersecurity and the coronavirus pandemic. Vystrcil also met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

Wu said Taiwan is looking into starting direct flights between Taipei and Prague using its flagship airline, China Airlines. Vystrcil has faced strong anger from China, which issued multiple warnings over the week about the visit, as well as criticism from the pro-China Czech president.

China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and objects to any official contacts between other countries and the island. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned on Monday that China will “definitely make them pay a heavy price” for the visit, which Beijing sees as support for Taiwanese independence.

Throughout the visit, Vystrcil and others have emphasized the shared democratic values of Taiwan and the Czech Republic. Relations have soured between part of the Czech government and China in the past year.

Prague canceled a sister cities agreement with Beijing last year after the Chinese side insisted on adding a clause to the deal stating that Prague supports the “one-China principle,” which says Taiwan is part of China.

In reaction to Prague’s decision to sign a new sister cities' agreement with Taipei, China canceled the tours of several Prague classical music ensembles and orchestras. Part of the dispute is over trade.

“There were a lot of promises of China investment roughly around the year 2013, 2014. However, all those promises turned out to not be fulfilled,” Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib said Friday.

Czech Senate president meets Taiwan leader; Beijing protests

September 03, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Czech Senate president met with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen and other top government officials Thursday during a rare trip by a foreign dignitary to the self-ruled democratic island that rival China called an “open provocation.”

Tsai presented a medal for Jaroslav Kubera, the late predecessor of Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil. Kubera died in January before making the trip, and Vystrcil said China’s pressure, including a warning from the Chinese Embassy against congratulating Tsai on her reelection, contributed to his decision to travel to the island.

Tsai called Kubera a “great friend" and gave a nod to Vystrcil's speech Tuesday, saying his words “I'm a Taiwanese” had touched many hearts. “Our actions are telling friends in Europe and all over the world, whether Taiwanese or Czechs, we will not succumb to oppression, will bravely speak up, actively participate in international affairs, and contribute our capabilities,” she said.

Beijing is furious about the Czech delegation’s visit, with the foreign ministry summoning the Czech Republic’s ambassador to lodge stern representations and saying the trip amounted to “flagrant support of Taiwan independence.” China claims Taiwan as its own territory and strongly objects to any official contact between other countries and the self-governing island.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that Vystrcil's visit is an “open provocation.” “China must tell the Czech Senate leader: You've crossed the line!” Wang said. Vystrcil and Taiwan's foreign minister also refuted China's warnings.

“I do not feel I have crossed any red line whatsoever,” Vystrcil said in response to reporters' questions on Thursday. “We did not do anything that would be an infringement of the One China policy.” He added, “every country has the right to interpret the One China principle in their own way."

“We are here to stay and Taiwan is not going anywhere," Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said. ”Taiwan is trying to maintain the status quo and the status quo is that Taiwan does not belong to China. Taiwan is governed by its own people."

Vystrcil and Wu announced further cooperation in business, scientific research and democratic exchange. Vystrcil announced the formation of a working group from the Czech side dedicated to cooperation on the economy and cybersecurity.

Tensions between the Czech Republic and China have simmered since a dispute between their capitals last year. They ended a sister-cities agreement because Beijing had wanted Prague to agree to the “One China” principle, which says Taiwan is part of China.

In his address Tuesday, Vystrcil directly referenced former President John F. Kennedy’s famed 1963 anti-communist speech in then-divided Berlin, and emphasized democratic freedoms embraced since the Czech Republic threw off communist rule at the end of the Cold War and Taiwan emerged from martial law at the end of the 1980s.

“In 1963, the American president JFK, in his famous speech ‘I’m a Berliner,’ clearly opposed communism and political oppression and supported the people of West Berlin,” Vystrcil said. “He said ‘Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.’”

“Please let me use the same manner to express my support to the people of Taiwan: ‘I’m a Taiwanese,’” he said, speaking the last phrase in Mandarin Chinese.

Defying China's wrath, Czech senator delivers Taiwan speech

September 01, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Defying anger from China, the president of the Czech Republic’s Senate addressed Taiwan’s legislature on Tuesday, offering a strong rebuke of authoritarian politics and Beijing’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy.

Milos Vystrcil concluded a speech that underscored shared democratic values by proclaiming in Mandarin that “I am Taiwanese,” a throwback to former U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s famed 1963 anti-communist speech in a then-divided Berlin in which he declared he was a Berliner.

Beijing is furious about the Czech delegation’s visit, with the foreign ministry summoning the Czech Republic’s ambassador to lodge stern representations on Monday and saying the visit amounted to “flagrant support of Taiwan independence.”

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and strongly objects to any official contact between other countries and the self-governing island. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying condemned Vystrcil's visit, saying, "he is openly supporting the separatist forces and separatist activities in Taiwan that seriously violate China’s sovereignty and China’s internal affairs.”

She echoed a warning from Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who said in Europe on Monday that “the Chinese government and people will not sit by and let this go unchecked, and will definitely make them pay a heavy price for their short-sighted behavior and political opportunism.”

Following meetings in Berlin with Wang, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, said he had been in touch with his Czech colleague about the Senate president’s visit.

“Europeans operate in foreign and security policy very closely with one another and we treat our international partners with respect, and we expect that from them as well,” Maas said. “Threats are not a part of that.”

Wang defended China’s response, saying that the Czech delegation was “mixing in China’s internal affairs.” “China must react adequately,” he said through a translator. “There is only one China in the world and Taiwan is a part of China.”

In his address, Vystrcil directly referenced Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, and emphasized democratic freedoms embraced since the Czech Republic threw off communist rule at the end of the Cold War and Taiwan emerged from martial law at the end of the 1980s.

“In 1963, the American president JFK, in his famous speech ‘I’m a Berliner,’ clearly opposed communism and political oppression and supported the people of West Berlin,” Vystrcil said. “He said ‘Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.'"

“Please let me use the same manner to express my support to the people of Taiwan: I’m a Taiwanese,” he said, speaking the last phrase in Mandarin Chinese. Vystrcil's visit follows a spat last year between Beijing and Prague, the Czech Republic's capital. The two cities ended a sister-cities agreement because Beijing had wanted Prague to agree to the “one-China” principle, which is China’s stance that Taiwan is a part of its territory.

The visit is also in direct opposition to Czech President Milos Zeman, who has taken strongly pro-China views. Vystrcil is to meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen later in the week. Amid China's campaign of diplomatic isolation and military threats, Taiwan has been blocked from participating in major international forums and now has just 15 formal allies. Despite the lack of official ties, the U.S. remains Taiwan's closest partner and source of weaponry to counter China's threat to bring the island under its control by military means.

Following his speech, Vystrcil told reporters that his visit was consistent with Prague's interpretation of the “one-China policy" and wasn't intended as an affront to Beijing. “And something I wish to emphasize is that we are in no way opposing mutual benefits and equal relations with the People’s Republic of China as much as we want to have mutual benefits and equal relations with Taiwan,” Vystrcil said.

Taiwanese parliamentary Speaker Yu Shyi-kun said the Czech delegation's visit was an affirmation of Taiwan's continued presence on the world stage as well as a repudiation of authoritarianism. “On one hand, (Vystrcil's) visit is proof of the existence of Taiwan. Proof to the world that Taiwan exists," Yu said.

“At the same time, the visit makes me feel that, no matter whether it be the governments and peoples of the Czech Republic or Taiwan, we all have one thing in common, we both fight against an authoritarian regime and mutually create a future.”

In Prague, Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek told Czech public television Tuesday the government informed China that no change had been made in national policy regarding its relationship with Taiwan. Petricek however, did take note of China's comments on Vystrcil's visit.

“I believe that the trip of Mr. Vystrcil will not harm our relations with China. We want to continue to work on our strategic dialogue but we cannot agree and have to protest at a moment when we can hear such strong statements,” Petricek said.

Associated Press journalists Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.

Defying China, Czech delegation arrives in Taiwan

August 30, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The president of the Czech Senate arrived in Taiwan on Sunday on a visit that has drawn sharp criticism from China. Milos Vystrcil was accompanied by Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib and more than 80 representatives from government, business and academia, lending Taiwan a boost in its efforts to resist the diplomatic isolation imposed by Beijing.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu greeted the delegation at Taiwan's main Taoyuan International Airport after their arrival on a flight chartered from Taiwanese flag carrier China Airlines. China last week denounced Vystrcil’s visit as “undermining the political foundation of China-Czech relations” and said participants were acting out of “their own interests.”

“China condemns this despicable act and urges the Czech side to abide by the one-China principle and handle Taiwan-related issues in a prudent and appropriate manner,” foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters on Thursday.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and its increasing diplomatic pressure has reduced the number of the self-governing island’s formal allies to just 15, most of them small countries in the Pacific, Central America and the Caribbean.

Taiwan’s robust democracy and strong defense of civil liberties mark a stark contrast to China’s one-party authoritarian political system, making it a draw for some European politicians who recall Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

Vystrcil’s six-day visit follows complaints from the Czech side that China was introducing unwanted political elements into their relations, part and parcel of China's more aggressive foreign policy under Communist Party leader Xi Jinping that is centered on asserting the country's territorial claims and shielding the regime from criticism.

Prague and Beijing severed sister city relations after China refused to remove language from the agreement dictating that the city’s government endorse the “one-China principle” that defines Taiwan as part of China.

Shanghai then also ended its sister city relationship with Prague, and China reportedly threatened to cut all such ties to cities that maintained their relations with Prague. During his visit, Vystrcil is due to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who is detested by Beijing for her assertions of the island’s independence.

Vystrcil’s predecessor, Jaroslav Kubera, had planned to travel to Taiwan, angering pro-China Czech President Milos Zeman. Kubera died in January before making the trip and Vystrcil said China’s pressure, including a warning from the Chinese Embassy against congratulating Tsai on her reelection, contributed to his decision to travel to the island.

Taiwan’s high-tech companies are also major investors in the Czech Republic, somewhat reducing China’s economic leverage over the country.

Former president who brought direct elections to Taiwan dies

July 31, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, who brought direct elections and other democratic changes to the self-governed island despite missile launches and other fierce saber-rattling by China, has died. He was 97.

Taipei Veterans General Hospital said Lee died Thursday evening after suffering from infections, cardiac problems and organ failure since being hospitalized in February. Lee strove to create a separate, non-Chinese identity for Taiwan, angering not only China, which considers the island part of its territory, but also members of his Nationalist Party who hoped to return victorious to the mainland.

Lee later openly endorsed formal independence for the island but illness in his later years prompted him to largely withdraw from public life. “President Lee’s contribution to Taiwan’s democratic journey was irreplaceable and his death is a great loss for the country," current President Tsai Ing-wen said in a statement.

Tsai's predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou of the Nationalists, who earlier served in Lee's Cabinet, said Lee's contribution to Taiwan's democratization “deserves recognition from the people." “Although former President Lee’s political philosophy has undergone tremendous changes after his resignation, former President Ma is still grateful for his dedication to the country and believes that history will have a fair and objective evaluation," a statement from Ma's office said.

Physically imposing and charismatic, Lee spanned Taiwan’s modern history and was native to the island, unlike many who arrived with Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, at the end of the Chinese civil war. At times gruff, at times personable, he left little doubt he was the man in charge in almost any setting.

“A leader must be tough and strong enough so he can put an end to disputes and chaotic situations,” he wrote in his autobiography. He was born in a farming community near Taipei on Jan 15, 1923, near the midpoint of Japan’s half-century colonial rule. The son of a Japanese police aide, he volunteered in the Imperial Japanese Army and returned to Taiwan as a newly commissioned second lieutenant to help man an anti-aircraft battery.

He earned degrees in Japan and Taiwan, as well as at Iowa State University and Cornell University in New York. He worked for the U.S.-sponsored Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, which sought to encourage land reform and modernize Taiwanese agriculture. He was a member of overwhelmingly Buddhist Taiwan's Christian minority.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, noting Lee's close ties with Japan, praised him for his contributions to bolster friendship between Japan and Taiwan. “Many Japanese people have developed special attachment to President Lee as a leader who had established freedom, democracy and universal values in Taiwan and cornerstone of Japan-Taiwan relation,(asterisk) Abe said Friday.

In 1971, Lee joined the governing Nationalist Party. As a descendant of the people who migrated to the island from China in the 17th and 18th centuries, he was part of the party’s effort to broaden its base beyond the 1949 arrivals from the mainland. He was Taipei mayor, Taiwan province governor and vice president before succeeding to the presidency in 1988.

In his early years as president, Lee met significant resistance from Nationalist hard-liners who favored the party’s tradition of mainlander domination and resented Lee’s native status. He beat back the resistance, largely by giving his detractors important political positions.

In 1990, Lee signaled his support for student demands for direct elections of Taiwan’s president and vice president and the end of reserving legislative seats to represent districts on the Chinese mainland. The following year he oversaw the dismantling of emergency laws put into effect by Chiang Kai-shek’s government, effectively reversing the Nationalists’ long-standing goal of returning to the mainland and removing the Communists from power.

Communist China saw the democratic steps as a direct threat to its claim to Taiwan, and its anger was exacerbated when Lee visited the United States in 1995. To Beijing, Lee’s visit to Cornell signaled the United States was willing to accord special recognition to the ruler of a “renegade” Chinese province.

The U.S. made sure Lee did not meet with high-ranking American officials, including then-President Bill Clinton, but its attempts to dampen Chinese anger were unsuccessful. China soon began a series of threatening military maneuvers off the coast of mainland Fujian province that included the firing of missiles just off Taiwan’s coast. More missiles were fired immediately before the March 1996 presidential elections, and the U.S. response was to send aircraft carrier battle groups to Taiwan’s east coast in a show of support. Taiwanese were uncowed and the elections went ahead, with Lee victorious.

In a celebrated interview in late 1996, Lee declared that relations between Taiwan and China had the character of relations between two separate states. This was heresy, not only in the eyes of Beijing, but also for many Nationalists, who continued to see Taiwan as part of China, and looked forward to eventual union between the sides, though not necessarily under Communist control.

In 2000, Taiwan elected Chen Shui-bian of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party as president, ending a half-century of Nationalist monopoly. His election was virtually guaranteed by a split in the Nationalist Party, which had two representatives in the race. The retiring Lee had supported one of them but was still blamed for the split, and the party moved to expel him.

In 2001, supporters of Lee formed a new pro-independence party. The Taiwan Solidarity Union also wanted to break the cultural and political connection between the island and the mainland. Lee himself backed away from wanting a formal declaration of independence for Taiwan, insisting it already was, given the island was not Chinese Communist-controlled.

In 2012, he backed independence-minded candidate Tsai of the DPP, who lost to Ma, an avatar of closer ties between China and Taiwan. Tsai ran again and was elected in 2016, upping tensions again with China. Lee was ailing by that time and played little role in the election. Tsai won re-election this year by a healthy margin over her Nationalist challenger.

Lee is survived by his wife of seven decades, Tseng Wen-hui, and their two daughters. A son died in 1982 from cancer. There was no immediate announcement about funeral arrangements.

Taiwan President Tsai calls for stability in China relations

May 20, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called for stability in relations with China in her inaugural address Wednesday but said she would not accept Beijing’s political terms that would “downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait status quo.”

Reelected by a landslide late last year, Tsai said relations with Beijing had reached a “historical turning point” and that “peace, parity, democracy, and dialogue” should form the basis for contacts between the sides as a means to prevent intensifying antagonisms and differences.

Tsai said Taiwan would also work to increase its participation in international society, even as Beijing seeks to shut it out and poach allies away from the self-governing island democracy it claims as its own territory.

“We will not accept the Beijing authorities’ use of ‘one country, two systems' to downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait status quo," Tsai told an audience at the baroque Taipei Guest House in the center of the capital.

Tsai represents the ruling Democratic Progressive Party which advocates Taiwan’s formal independence, something Beijing says it will use force to prevent. Her election to a second, four-year term came after the repression of pro-democracy protests in the nearby Chinese semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong solidified public opinion in Taiwan against moves toward accepting rule by Beijing.

The sides split amid civil war in 1949 and Beijing has cut off ties with Tsai’s government over her refusal to accept its demand that she recognize the island as a part of China to be unified with eventually under the “one country, two systems" policy enacted in Hong Kong.

Beijing's diplomats have prevented Taiwan from joining international gatherings such as the World Health Organization and reduced its number of diplomatic allies to a handful, while its military has boosted patrols and exercises aimed at intimidating the island's population.

In her speech, Tsai emphasized the need to boost national security, including against non-traditional threats such as cyber and “cognitive" warfare, defined partly by the use of disinformation on social media.

Tsai, 63, is a former law professor and unique in being the only modern woman leader in Asia to rise to the top without being part of a political dynasty. Attending Wednesday's speech were diplomats from Taiwan’s remaining 15 formal diplomatic allies and representatives of the U.S. and other major nations that maintain strong but informal ties with Taiwan. The U.S. is the island’s main source of military support against China’s military threats and a key advocate for its participation in international gatherings.

Prior to her address, congratulatory remarks from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were read out praising Tsai’s “courage and vision in leading Taiwan’s vibrant democracy is an inspiration to the region and the world.”

“The United States has long considered Taiwan a force for good in the world and a reliable partner,” Pompeo said in the statement. “We have a shared vision for the region — one that includes rule of law, transparency, prosperity, and security for all.”

The U.S. support comes amid rising frictions between Washington and Beijing over trade, technology and allegations of Beijing’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic that began last year. At the same time, Washington has increased military sales to the island of 23.6 million and Congress has passed legislation promoting closer political and economic ties.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Beijing expressed its “strong indignation and condemnation," over Pompeo's remarks, adding that the U.S. must “stop official exchange with Taiwan or improving real relations with Taiwan."

“China will take necessary measures against the above-mentioned wrong actions of the U.S. side, and the resulting consequences shall be borne by the U.S. side," Zhao said. Despite Beijing’s attempts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and vastly reduce numbers of Chinese tourists visiting the island, Tsai has overseen steady growth in Taiwan’s high-tech economy and enacted social reforms, including making the island the only democracy in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage.

Reforms, including reductions in civil service pensions had sparked a backlash and Tsai had appeared vulnerable to a challenge from the pro-China Nationalist Party candidate. However, her support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong in the face of an often-violent police response helped lift her poll figures.

Many see China’s autocratic Communist Party as eroding Hong Kong’s civil liberties and Taiwanese voters have strongly rejected any moves toward political accommodation with Beijing. Poll results released by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center last week found that 66% of island residents view themselves as Taiwanese, 28% as both Taiwanese and Chinese and 4% as just Chinese. The telephone poll of 1,562 people, conducted last fall, has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

Among respondents under 30, fully 83% said they don’t consider themselves Chinese. Another 2.3% of Taiwan’s people are members of indigenous groups who are not ethnically Chinese. A former Japanese colony, Taiwan was handed to China in 1945 but split again from the mainland when Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland in 1949. The rival Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan, 160 kilometers (100 miles) across the Taiwan Strait from China’s east coast.

Taiwan defense officials meet after crash kills top officer

January 03, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen convened a meeting of top defense officials and urged them Friday to be on a lookout for military developments concerning China following a helicopter crash that killed the island's top military officer and other prominent personnel.

In a tweet, Tsai said the morning conference focused on ensuring military morale, security in and around the Taiwan Strait and the importance of “complete equipment inspections." The meeting followed the grounding for inspection of Taiwan's 52 UH-60M Black Hawk choppers belonging to the air force, the army and the National Airborne Service Corps., the agency responsible for search and rescue operations.

Thursday morning's crash in forested mountains outside the capital Taipei killed eight people, including chief of the general staff Gen. Shen Yi-ming. A former pilot and air force chief, Shen had since July been largely responsible for overseeing the self-governing island's defense against China.

“The best way for us to honor the memory of the fallen is to ensure Taiwan's security and maintain military morale,” Tsai wrote. In a video handout from the Presidential Office, Tsai is shown asking officials including the defense minister to “please be vigilant and pay close attention to military developments around the Taiwan Strait."

“We need to respond quickly to any military deployments to ensure security across the strait,” Tsai said. Others killed in the crash included both pilots, the deputy head of the Political Warfare Bureau and the deputy chief of the General Staff for Intelligence, while two lieutenant generals and a major general were among the five survivors.

Tsai and her two rivals in the Jan. 11 presidential election suspended their campaigns to observe a period of mourning. The crash, which is under investigation, is not expected to affect the holding of the election, which Tsai is highly favored to win, but will require an urgent reshuffling of top military staff. Questions have also been raised as to why so many high-ranking officers were aboard a single flight.

China threatens to use military force if necessary to annex what it considers part of its territory. A vacuum within Taiwan's military leadership could embolden it to step up its military intimidation.

Shen's death comes as Taiwan's military is undergoing a substantial upgrade with the arrival of the most advanced version of the U.S. F-16V fighter jets, along with tanks, missiles and improved military software.

Local media reported that rescuers were able to swiftly arrive at the scene because Chen Ying-chu, a correspondent with the Military News Agency who was on board and survived, sent a series of messages to a chat group reporting the crash and giving the chopper's location.

Copter crash kills Taiwan's top military officer, 7 others

January 02, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's top military official was among eight people killed in an air force helicopter crash in mountainous terrain outside Taipei on Thursday, the defense ministry said. Five others survived.

As chief of the general staff, Gen. Shen Yi-ming was responsible for overseeing the self-governing island's defense against China, which threatens to use military force if necessary to annex what it considers part of its territory.

The helicopter was flying from Taipei to the nearby city of Yilan for a New Year's activity when it crashed. The victims included other senior military officials and the two pilots. The UH-60M Blackhawk with 13 people on board dropped from the radar screen 10 minutes after takeoff from Songshan air force base around 7:50 a.m., Taiwan's defense ministry said. It went down in the mountainous, heavily forested Wulai area southeast of the capital.

Shen, 63, had taken over as chief of the general staff in July after serving as commander of Taiwan’s air force, which is undergoing a substantial upgrade with the arrival of the most advanced version of the U.S. F-16V fighter.

Alexander Huang, a strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan who had known Shen for a decade, said he had stood out as a pilot and an officer. “He was very calm and very stable and unlike other army guys he was always smiling, so he got a specific leadership style that also made him a popular leader in the entire military,” Huang said.

It will likely be months before the cause of the crash is known, but the pilots appeared to have been highly experienced. “Of course, reasonable people would think in the direction of mechanical failure or maintenance problem, but without proof you can’t say anything," Huang said.

A special government committee will look into the cause of the crash, a defense ministry statement said. Taiwan's military has operated Blackhawk helicopters for decades and completed a sale for another 60 UH-Ms from the U.S. for $3.1 billion in 2010. The one that crashed was a model dedicated to search and rescue and had been delivered in 2018, according to the ministry.

The loss of Shen and other high-ranking officials will require a rapid reshuffle of positions, but should have minimal effect on Taiwan's Jan. 11 elections for president and lawmakers, said Andrew Yang, a former deputy defense minister who said Shen was highly respected throughout his career.

“I don’t think the crash will have a strong impact over the elections but certainly it will affect the armed forces because so many senior officers passed away as a result of this crash," he said. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party said in a statement on social media that all its public campaign events from now through Saturday would be canceled.

"The loss of pillars of our country make us feel endless sorrow," the statement read. The party has been strongly critical of China's attempts to increase economic, military and diplomatic pressure. Incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen appears on track to win a second term over her more pro-China opponent, Han Kuo-yu of the main opposition Nationalists.

Taiwan's Tsai defends Anti-Infiltration Law aimed at China

January 01, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China has been relentless in its attempts to influence and infiltrate Taiwan's politics and society but the island's new ban on political interference should have no effect on normal exchanges between the sides, Taiwan's president said in her New Year's address.

The Anti-Subversion Law that obtained a third and final approval in Taiwan's legislature Wednesday aims to prevent illegal campaign contributions, staging of political events, the spread of misinformation and other acts by foreigners that could affect Taiwan's elections or the work of government. It was denounced by the opposition and by China's Cabinet as overly broad and an attack of exchanges between the sides, but President Tsai Ing-wen defended it as having no effect on normal interactions.

The law's passage “won't have any effect on freedom or violate human rights and won't influence normal commercial exchanges. It will simply provide greater guarantees from Taiwan's freedom and democracy," Tsai said.

Given China's similar actions in other countries, Taiwan's failure to prevent interference could give the impression it is untroubled by Beijing's actions, Tsai said. “Under Chinese pressure and with the constant Chinese infiltration and interference, we really needed this law to make Taiwan a safer place and to prevent social divisions arising from infiltration and interference,” she said.

Tsai cited the continuing protests in Hong Kong as proof its governing framework, which Beijing proposes for Taiwan, is untenable. “China's goal is very clear and that is to compel Taiwan to make concessions on the question of sovereignty under duress,” Tsai said. “Yet in Hong Kong, where ‘one country, two systems' is in effect, the situation has just gotten worse and worse. Democracy and authoritarianism ... cannot co-exist in the same country."

Tsai said Taiwan would emphasize in the coming year that China's policies cause instability in the Taiwan Strait, and that Taiwan would not exchange sovereignty for short-term economic gains. China has repeatedly offered benefits to Taiwanese who choose to work and study on the mainland and hundreds of thousands are believed to have taken advantage of the lower costs and greater opportunities in the Chinese market.

That poses the prospect of a “brain drain" of talented Taiwanese to the advantage of China's economy while furthering Beijing's goal of breaking down resistance to the possibility of future political unification between the sides. Recent surveys show around 80 percent of Taiwanese reject the idea of political union with China, with most backing the island's current status of de facto independence.

Tsai is favored to win a second term during elections for president and the legislature on Jan. 11. China cut contacts with Tsai's government shortly after her 2016 election and her potential reelection raises the possibility Beijing will intensify its campaign of economic, military and diplomatic pressure over her refusal to agree to Beijing's claim that Taiwan is a piece of Chinese territory that must be reclaimed. China threatens to use force to annex the island if peaceful means fail.

In Beijing, the head of the Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office, Liu Jieyi, warned of “serious damage” to Taiwanese interests if the island's government did not fall in line with China's demands. “The bright prospect for the peaceful development of cross-strait relations needs the joint efforts by compatriots on both sides across the Strait and needs Taiwan compatriots to correctly grasp (the situation)," Liu said in a statement issued by his office.

While Liu restated China's contention that unification between the sides is inevitable, he did not reiterate Beijing's threat to bring that about by force. In his new year's eve address, president and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping also avoided repeating his previous references to the military option, possibly in hopes of not further alienating voters from the China-friendly opposition parties.

Taiwan braces for pro-China fake news deluge as elections loom

By Amber Wang
Taipei (AFP)
June 27, 2019

With a presidential election looming Taiwan is bracing for a deluge of fake news and disinformation -- much of it emanating from China and aimed at making sure Beijing's preferred party wins the day, analysts say.

Torrential rain did little to put off tens of thousands of people rallying in Taipei last Sunday against what they have dubbed the "red media".

The term is used to describe both legitimate news outlets and more opaque online sources that flood the democratic island with either pro-China coverage or outright disinformation.

"I don't want to see 'red forces' invading Taiwan to control the media and manipulate what people think, to fool the public," Alan Chang, a 30-year-old businessman attending the rally, told AFP.

Taiwan goes to the polls in January and the contest is set to be dominated by relations with China.

The island has been a self-ruled de facto nation in charge of its own affairs and borders for the last 70 years.

But Beijing maintains Taiwan is part of its territory and has never given up its threat to retake it, by force if necessary.

It has stopped communication with the government of President Tsai Ing-wen, who is seeking a second term, because she refuses to acknowledge the island is part of "one China", while ramping up military drills and poaching Taiwan's dwindling diplomatic allies.

Tsai's main challenger is the Kuomintang which favors much warmer ties with the Chinese mainland and is the party Beijing wants to see back in power.

- Fake rescue -

"The stakes for the 2020 elections are high, as they will determine Taiwan's future direction," J Michael Cole, a Taipei-based expert at the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Programme, told AFP, adding fake news was already at "alarming levels".

"So (Beijing) will intensify its influence operations -- including fake news -- to increase the odds that someone other than Tsai is elected," he added.

One particularly egregious example that sparked criticism of the government was a widely shared, but patently false, report that China rescued Taiwanese tourists stranded in a Japanese airport during a typhoon.

Last week Tsai's office also asked police to investigate false claims on social media that her government had given US$32 million to finance huge anti-government rallies in Hong Kong.

Hu Yuan-hui, head of the Fact Checking Centre in Taipei, said the viral nature of disinformation is aided by many Taiwanese people using Chinese social media and messaging services.

"They (fake reports) tend to highlight the contrast between Taiwan and China to try to portray a chaotic Taiwan versus a strong China," he told AFP.

Last November, Tsai's party was hammered in local elections, largely due to a backlash over domestic reforms and a divisive push for gay marriage equality.

But analysts said there was also a surge in fake news items ahead of those polls.

- Media literacy -

A study by Wang Tai-li, a journalism professor at National Taiwan University, found 54 percent of people surveyed were unable to distinguish the fabricated report about Chinese evacuating people during the typhoon, which went viral ahead of the November vote.

"Disinformation campaigns were proven effective last year and they will be replicated in larger scale during the upcoming presidential election," Wang predicted.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the false typhoon evacuation story originated on the Chinese mainland and was picked up by Taiwan's social and traditional media, in a "carefully coordinated and extremely effective disinformation campaign".

"Beijing has been targeting Taiwan with disinformation campaigns for decades... However, it is only recently that social networks have enabled these activities to have a viral impact," RSF said.

US officials have also said Taiwan is "on the frontlines" of China's disinformation campaigns.

"There is no question, at least in our minds, that China will try to meddle, they've done it in every previous election," Randall Schriver, US assistant defense secretary for Asian and Pacific security affairs, said last week.

Source: Sino Daily.
Link: http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/Taiwan_braces_for_pro-China_fake_news_deluge_as_elections_loom_999.html.

Taiwan's military trains for a Chinese invasion on the beach

May 30, 2019

FANGSHAN, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese tanks and soldiers have fired at simulated Chinese forces in an anti-invasion drill on the island's coast. The live-fire drill on Thursday at a beach in southern Taiwan is part of an ongoing annual exercise designed to showcase the military's capabilities and resolve to repel an attack from across the Taiwan Strait.

China claims the self-governing island as its territory. Taiwan split from China amid a civil war in 1949. The simulated response to a Chinese landing included assault helicopters, fighter jets and missiles launched at targets in the sea.

The Defense Ministry said the joint army-navy-air force operation tested the island's combat readiness in the face of the Chinese military threat.

President Tsai says Taiwanese want to maintain self-rule

January 01, 2019

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese treasure their autonomy from China, the leader of the self-governing island said Tuesday, warning city and county officials to be open about and exercise caution in any dialogue with the Chinese.

President Tsai Ing-wen's remarks come after major gains by a Beijing-friendly opposition party in local elections in late November. "The election results absolutely don't mean Taiwan's basic public opinion wants us to give up our self-rule," she said in an 11-minute New Year's address at the presidential office. "And they absolutely don't mean that the Taiwanese people want us to give ground on our autonomy."

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists lost to Mao Zedong's Communists. The Nationalists rebased their government to Taiwan, but China insists that the two sides must eventually unite, by force if necessary.

The Nationalist Party, which in recent years has favored closer ties with Beijing, won 15 of 22 major seats in the local elections, reversing an advantage held by Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai takes a more guarded view toward relations with China.

"What's really needed between the two sides is a practical understanding of the differences between values, beliefs and lifestyles," she said. China resents Tsai for declining to recognize its condition for dialogue: that each side sees itself as part of one China. Beijing has sent military aircraft near the island, squeezed Taiwan's foreign diplomacy and scaled back Taiwan-bound group tourism.

A New Year's statement from the Chinese official in charge of Taiwan affairs accused Tsai's party of obstruction and deliberate provocation. "The broad masses of Taiwan compatriots are strongly dissatisfied with the hostility caused by the DPP authorities across the Taiwan Strait," Liu Jieyi, the director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, said, referring to Tsai's party by its acronym.

"To achieve the complete reunification of the motherland and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the common aspiration of all Chinese people," he said in a message published in an official magazine.

Experts say that China will likely offer economic incentives to Taiwanese cities and counties where officials take pro-Beijing views. Tsai warned officials against any reliance on "vague political preconditions" or "forced submission of secret passwords," a reference to giving away secrets.

"We don't oppose normal cross-strait exchanges, and even more we don't oppose city-to-city exchanges," she said. "However, exchanges across the strait need to be healthy and they need to be normal." Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to give a speech Wednesday aimed at Taiwan on the 40th anniversary of the "Message to Compatriots in Taiwan," a pro-unification statement from China that called for steps to end the isolation between the two rivals.

Tsai would probably condemn any local official talking privately with Xi, said Shane Lee, political scientist at Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan. "She thinks that's not only immoral but even illegal, because foreign affairs are the power of the central government, not the local government," Lee said.

Lo Chih-cheng, who heads the international department of the Democratic Progressive Party, said Tsai cannot do more with China, because Beijing would credit any progress to the Nationalists. She will do nothing radical to provoke China, but some voters are looking for more action, he said in an early December interview. "People enjoy the status quo, but it's not enough to win the elections," Lo said.

Tsai also announced that her government was introducing a three-year plan to attract Taiwanese investors home from China, where some face import tariffs raised by Washington in the U.S.-China trade dispute.

She said that Taiwan wants China to share data on an outbreak of African swine fever. Taiwanese officials are on alert against any infection on their island, which lies 160 kilometers (100 miles) across the Taiwan Strait.

Associated Press researcher Henry Hou in Beijing contributed to this story.

Taiwan ruling party suffers major defeat in local elections

November 25, 2018

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's ruling party was handed a major defeat in local elections Saturday that were seen as a referendum on the administration of the island's independence-leaning president amid growing economic and political pressure from China.

Soon after the results came in, President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the Democratic Progressive Party. She will remain as president and her resignation will have no direct effect on the business of government, although the results bode ill for her re-election chances in two years.

Rival China said the results reflected a desire of Taiwanese for better relations with the mainland. Ma Xiaoguang, the spokesman for Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office, said his government will continue to treat Taiwan as part of China and "resolutely oppose separatist elements advocating 'Taiwan independence' and their activities," according to the official Xinhua news agency.

In another victory for China, voters rejected a proposal to change the name of its Olympic team to Taiwan from the current Chinese Taipei. They also approved a referendum opposing same-sex marriage in a setback to LGBT couples, though ballot initiatives in Taiwan are non-binding.

The DPP lost the mayoral election to the Nationalist party in the southern port city of Kaohsiung, where it had held power for 20 years. The Nationalists also defeated the DPP in the central city of Taichung, home to much of Taiwan's light industry, while Ko Wen-je, the independent mayor of Taipei, the capital, narrowly won a second term. The Nationalist candidate in Taipei has asked for a recount.

At a brief news conference at DPP headquarters late Saturday, Tsai announced she was stepping down as DPP chair and said she had refused Premier William Lai's resignation, saying she wanted him to continue her reform agenda.

"Today, democracy taught us a lesson," Tsai said. "We must study and accept the higher expectations of the people." The elections for mayors and thousands of local posts were seen as a key test for Tsai's 2-year-old administration, which has been under relentless attack from Beijing over her refusal to endorse its claim that Taiwan is a part of China.

Tsai and the DPP won a landslide victory in 2016, but China swiftly responded by cutting all links with her government. Beijing has been ratcheting up pressure on the island it claims as its own territory by poaching its diplomatic partners and barring its representatives from international gatherings, while staging threatening military exercises and limiting the numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.

The Nationalists, known also as the KMT, had campaigned on their pro-business image and more accommodating line toward Beijing. Since her election, Tsai has walked a fine line on relations with China, maintaining Taiwan's de facto independent status that the vast majority of Taiwanese support, while avoiding calls from the more radical elements of her party for moves to declare formal separation from the mainland.

Taiwanese officials had warned that Beijing was seeking to sway voters through the spread of disinformation online similar to how Russia was accused of interfering in U.S. elections. Although domestic concerns were in the foreground, China played a major factor in voter sentiment, analysts said.

"I think part of the reason for the vote on Saturday was concern about relations between Taiwan and mainland China," said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. "Their relations have slid backward."

Saturday's results also throw Tsai's political future into question. While the DPP still controls the national legislature, local politicians are crucial in mobilizing support among grass-roots supporters.

"I'm afraid it will be a big challenge for her in 2020," said Gratiana Jung, senior political researcher with the Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute think tank in Taipei. Economic growth, employment and pension reforms were among key issues in the elections, which drew high turnout from the island's 19 million voters. Government employees who feel slighted by pension cuts that took effect in July probably mobilized against Tsai's party, Jung said.

Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Den-yih told reporters Saturday that his party would keep trying to avoid diplomatic friction with China and ensure smooth two-way trade. "We hope the two sides will soon go back to a peaceful and stable trend in relations," he said.

Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists rebased their government to Taiwan in 1949 amid the civil war with Mao Zedong's Communists. They ruled under martial law until the late 1980s, when the native Taiwanese population began to take political office, mostly through the DPP.

The vote against changing the name used in international sporting events to Taiwan was seen as a test of support for independence. It was symbolic in nature, as the International Olympic Committee had ruled out a name change, which would be opposed by China.

Though referendums are only advisory, the vote in favor of restricting marriage to male-female couples will likely put lawmakers in a difficult position. They face both a court order to make same-sex marriage legal by 2019 and elections in 2020.

Olympic referendum: Shall it be 'Taiwan' or 'Chinese Taipei'

November 22, 2018

Athletes from Taiwan compete at the Olympics under the name of a make-believe country: Chinese Taipei. They march behind an imaginary national flag and, if they win a gold medal, hear an "alternate national anthem" being played.

Imagine if France or Australia had to use an assumed name at the Olympics, or the United States and Japan were banned from flying their flags. A referendum to challenge this will be held in Taiwan on Saturday. It asks if the self-governing island should compete in international sports events — including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — as "Taiwan" instead of "Chinese Taipei."

"We are the sole IOC member banned from using our own country's name," said Chi Cheng, a bronze medalist in the 1968 Olympics. "We are the only member who cannot sing our national anthem and fly our national flag. We are the only one. This shows how seriously China is suppressing us."

No matter what voters want, nothing is likely to change. China's authoritarian government has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province since the two separated in the 1949 civil war. The International Olympic Committee backs China, which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics after spending $40 billion on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

In a statement to the Associated Press, the IOC said it will not alter a 1981 agreement that Taiwan must compete as Chinese Taipei. Its executive board repeated that stance in meetings on May 2-3. "The agreement remains unchanged and fully applicable," the IOC said.

That puts the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee in a bind. If the referendum passes, it could be required by Taiwanese law to go ahead with the name change pending approval from the legislature. But in a statement to AP, it said "we are bound by the Olympic Charter, the agreement we signed with the IOC in 1981, and also by the IOC executive board decision."

Taiwan's athletes are caught in the middle. Dozens protested Wednesday, fearing they could lose their chance to participate in the Olympics. Even if Taiwan was booted out, the IOC has frequently let athletes compete under an independent Olympic flag.

Jacqueline Yi-ting Shen, the secretary general of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, declined to comment for this article. But she spoke about Taiwan's predicament in an interview with the AP at the Asian Games in August.

"This gives us a chance to compete and make our strength known internationally, so we accept the pity that we have to compete under the name of Chinese Taipei," Shen said. She added: "I'm sure that many people (in Taiwan) feel dismayed. But quite a lot understand that it is the reality in the international sporting realm. If we use our own name, we will lose the chance for our athletes. They will lose the playground, or the showcase they have. The right of our athletes to compete is our utmost concern. And I think most Taiwanese understand that."

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, told a news conference this month that Taiwan was using the name issue to "politicize" sports. He said the referendum would damage Taiwan's interests but gave no details of measures Beijing might take.

Earlier, China warned that Taiwan would "swallow its own bitter fruit" over the referendum issue. Taiwan's ruling party, the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party led by President Tsai Ing-wen, has remained largely silent on the name change.

"There are international constraints on her (Tsai)," Dachi Liao, who teaches political science at National Sun Yat-sen University, told the AP. "She cannot speak out loudly on this; maybe doing something subtly, but never speaking out."

Liao said the referendum is a proxy vote on independence, and China fears it could echo in the ethnic-minority regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. "People who support changing the name, many of these supporters are pro-independence," Liao said. "The pro-independence people are feeling upset, so they try to find an opportunity to promote this kind of issue even though they know it may not pass."

China has thwarted Taiwan's every move to assert its independence, even in the sporting sphere. Earlier this year, Taiwan lost the right to hold the East Asian Youth Games, under reported pressure from China.

Taiwan held the Summer University Games last year with about 7,500 athletes. China skipped the opening ceremony, but competed in the events. Athletes from Argentina unfurled Taiwan's real flag at the closing ceremony, waving an independence symbol that Taiwan athletes are forbidden from displaying.

The Argentines were reprimanded for breaking Olympic rules, but warmly applauded inside the stadium. China has warned international airlines and hotels not to use the word "Taiwan" on maps or other material.

The referendum needs one-quarter of Taiwan's 19 million voters to be approved. Liao, the political scientist, doubts it will reach that threshold. If it does, the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee is likely to ask its membership what to do.

It risks IOC censure if it moves ahead. The IOC is reported to have warned it at least three times not to proceed. If it backs down, it's thwarting the democratic will of Taiwan voters. "It's insulting to us because everyone knows we are Taiwan," George Chang, the former mayor of Tainan and a referendum organizer, told AP. "Chinese Taipei is not an area or a country. What is Chinese Taipei? Nobody knows. So let Taiwan be Taiwan."

Taiwan participated in the 1972 games as the Republic of China. It boycotted the next several after its United Nations seat was handed to China, returning in 1984 after submitting to the name change and China's rising clout.

Despite the roadblocks, the island of 24 million remains a regional power and placed seventh in the recent Asian Games, fielding a delegation of 550 and boasting stars like badminton's No. 1-ranked woman Tai Tzu-ying.

Alexander C. Huang, who teaches political science at Tamkang University in Taiwan, said the island only faces more isolation if it challenges China. "Taiwan does not have much leverage or support our noble cause, to get our name right or to get our flag flying," he said. "Maybe in the future ... the atmosphere would lead us to that eventual goal. But not now."

Associated Press video journalist Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, and writer Chris Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.

El Salvador, Taiwan break ties as China isolates island foe

August 21, 2018

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan broke off diplomatic ties with El Salvador on Tuesday as the Central American country defected to rival Beijing in the latest blow to the self-ruled island China has been trying to isolate on the global stage.

The break in ties means Taiwan is recognized as a sovereign nation by only 17 mainly small, developing countries. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that his government had established ties with El Salvador.

"History will prove that establishing diplomatic relations with China is in full accordance with the fundamental and long-term interests of the country and the people of El Salvador," Wang said. Taiwan split from mainland China amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing, which considers Taiwan its territory, campaigns relentlessly to isolate the island globally. It cut off relations with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's government shortly after she took office in 2016 and has been steadily ratcheting up both diplomatic and economic pressure.

Earlier this year, the West African nation of Burkina Faso and the Dominican Republic broke ties with Taiwan and resumed or established diplomatic relations with China. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Tuesday condemned what he called China's campaign of luring away Taiwan's allies with promises of vast financial aid and investment.

Taiwan is willing to consider cooperating with its allies in education, farming or even infrastructure initiatives, Wu said, but refuses to compete with China in buying diplomatic support. Wu said that El Salvador had repeatedly sought large amounts of funding from Taiwan for a port project that a Taiwanese team of engineers dispatched by the government thought wasn't economically feasible.

"We think this is an inappropriate development plan that risks causing both countries to fall into great debt," Wu said, noting that some developing countries were increasingly concerned about the risks of unsustainable debt linked to Chinese investments.

Wu said El Salvador's ruling party was also expecting Taiwan to provide funds to help it win in elections, but Taiwan refused. "It is irresponsible to engage in financial aid diplomacy or compete with China in cash, or even in providing illegal political money," Wu said. "My government is unwilling to and cannot do so."

Some analysts say Chinese President Xi Jinping, one of the most powerful Chinese leaders in decades, seems determined to bring Taiwan under Beijing's control during his time in office, which would place him in the history books alongside Mao Zedong.

The island's 23 million residents are strongly in favor of maintaining their de facto independent status, but Xi has previously warned a Taiwanese envoy that the issue of unification cannot be put off indefinitely.

Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren said on national television that China and El Salvador would discuss ways to cooperate in trade, investment and infrastructure development. "It will give great benefits to the country and provide extraordinary opportunities on a personal level to each one of you," he said.

The move comes just a day after China's foreign ministry said it had complained to the U.S. over Taiwanese President Tsai's visits this month to Los Angeles and Houston while in transit to diplomatic allies Paraguay and Belize.

The administration of President Donald Trump has been boosting relations with Taiwan amid a brewing trade war with Beijing. Tsai urged the island's people to unite despite the pressure the government was facing diplomatically.

"Taiwan will not yield because of pressure," Tsai said in a televised address. "We will be stronger and more united, and this will strengthen Taiwan's determination to go out."

Marcos Aleman in San Salvador, El Salvador, contributed to this report.

Taiwan's Tsai travels in face of China diplomatic onslaught

August 11, 2018

BEIJING (AP) — When Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen departs Sunday for Latin America, she'll be traveling to a region she's already visited three times in two years. She doesn't have many other options.

As Tsai crosses the halfway mark of her first four-year term, an eight-day swing through Paraguay and Belize is a reflection of how Taiwan's diplomatic isolation has worsened in the midst of a suffocating Chinese pressure campaign. Just 18 countries — mostly clustered in Latin America, the South Pacific and Caribbean — still maintain formal ties with the self-ruling island, down from 22 when Tsai entered office in 2016.

Along with luring away Taiwan's allies, China, which considers the island its territory, has frozen contacts with Taipei and sought to constrict its contact with international organizations. It's also bringing increasing economic pressure and most recently has browbeat international airlines and businesses into referring to Taiwan as part of China, a move condemned by Taipei and its ally, the United States.

Still, maintaining even a reduced pool of diplomatic allies is important to maintaining Taiwan's image of itself as a sovereign democracy, and affords its leadership with the occasion to assert their presence abroad. Tsai will also be transiting in Los Angeles and Houston, providing opportunities to meet with overseas Taiwanese civic leaders and American officials.

Although Tsai leads Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, which favors declaring formal independence from China, she has pursued a moderate China policy since taking office. But that hasn't appeased Beijing, which has demanded that Tsai explicitly acknowledge an informal 1992 agreement that recognizes Taiwan as a part of China.

As a result, Beijing has "gradually rolled out punitive measures across the entire spectrum of activity and interactions," said Jonathan Sullivan, director of China Programs at the University of Nottingham. "Going after allies is high profile and rich in symbolism."

Faced with Beijing's diplomatic onslaught, Tsai has prioritized cementing its ties with remaining allies and backers like the United States and Japan, with which it maintains close relations in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.

At the same time, she's facing a dip in her domestic poll numbers, possibly, Sullivan said, due to a combination of Chinese pressure in the international arena and disappointment in her reform agenda at home.

On her trip this week, Tsai will attend the inauguration of Paraguayan President-elect Mario Abdo Benitez and address the National Assembly in Belize. China has traditionally moved carefully in Latin America, which it sees as falling under the U.S. sphere of influence, but has scored wins by flipping Panama and the Dominican Republic in the last 14 months at Taiwan's expense, said Zhu Songling, a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Beijing Union University.

The Dominican Republic ditched Taiwan in May after it refused to match a multi-billion-dollar aid package offered by China. Flavio Dario Espinal, an adviser to the Dominican presidential office, told reporters in May that "socioeconomics reality now force us to change course" and embrace China, its $2 billion-a-year trading partner.

"The Chinese government has long respected the strategic thinking of the U.S. and we have shown restraint in the Americas," Zhu said. "But these countries feel it's in their national interest to flip to China, whose economic clout and attractiveness is on a whole different level compared to Taiwan's."

Tsai is increasingly coming under fire from her political base for her moderate approach to China, which has not ameliorated Chinese pressure. "Tsai has been criticized in Taiwan for being over-cautious," Sullivan said. "It is a tricky line to steer, but it is becoming increasingly evident that Beijing has decided not to work with the DPP administration and is doing everything it can to undermine it in the short and longer term."

Workers try to shore up tilted buildings after Taiwan quake

February 08, 2018

HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — Workers placed steel beams to stabilize a dangerously tilted building while rescuers on the other side try to pull survivors from their residences Thursday morning, more than a day after a deadly quake shook Taiwan's east coast.

The Yunmen Tsuiti building was one of several damaged by late Tuesday's magnitude-6.4 quake. At least four midsized buildings in worst-hit Hualien county leaned at sharp angles, their lowest floors crushed into mangled heaps of concrete, glass, iron and other debris. Firefighters climbed ladders hoisted against windows to reach residents inside apartments.

The National Fire Agency reported Thursday that death toll had risen to 10 people. More than 260 people were injured and 58 were unaccounted for. At least three of the dead were tourists from the mainland, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Japan's Foreign Ministry said nine Japanese were among the injured. Six mainland Chinese were also injured, the Chinese Communist Party-run People's Daily reported. President Tsai Ing-wen reassured the public every effort would be made to rescue survivors. On her Facebook page, Tsai said she "ordered search and rescue workers not to give up on any opportunity to save people, while keeping their own safety in mind."

At the Yunmen Tsuiti building, clothes and other personal items were visible on the balconies as the rescue work continued. The shifting of the buildings was likely caused by soil liquefaction, when the ground loses its solidity under stress such as the shaking of an earthquake.

The quake also buckled roads and disrupted electricity and water supplies to thousands of households. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said his country was dispatching a rescue team to help in the search effort.

Taiwan has frequent earthquakes due to its position along the "Ring of Fire," the seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur. A quake two years ago collapsed an apartment complex in southern Taiwan, killing 115 people. Five people involved in the construction of the complex were found guilty of negligence and given prison sentences.

A magnitude-7.6 quake in central Taiwan killed more than 2,300 people in 1999.

Panama switches diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China

June 13, 2017

BEIJING (AP) — Panama switched diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China on Tuesday, dealing a major success to Beijing in its drive to isolate the self-governing island it claims as its own territory.

Taiwan warned that the move would further alienate the island of 23 million from the 1.37 billion Chinese living across the Taiwan Strait. In Panama, President Juan Carlos Varela announced the change, which entails breaking off formal relations with Taiwan, saying in a televised address that it represents the "correct path for our country."

A joint statement released on Monday evening in Panama said Panama and China were recognizing each other and establishing ambassadorial-level relations the same day. "The Government of the Republic of Panama recognizes that there is but one China in the world, that the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory," the statement read.

In Taiwan, officials including President Tsai Ing-wen denounced the move as a betrayal and vowed to maintain the island's sovereignty and international presence. "Oppression and threats are not going to help in cross-strait relations. It will on the contrary increase the discrepancy between the people" of Taiwan and China, Tsai said at a news conference.

"We will not compromise and yield under threat," the president said. Panama had been among the largest economies to have maintained diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The island now has just 20 formal diplomatic partners, 11 of which are in Latin America and the Caribbean. The island is also excluded from the United Nations and many other multinational bodies at China's insistence.

At the Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Panamanian Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo signed a joint communique establishing diplomatic relations, followed by a champagne toast.

Wang said he was sure relations between the two countries would have a "bright future." Saint Malo said she hoped the new relationship would lead to trade, investment and tourism opportunities, in particular "exporting more goods from Panama to China."

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949 and Beijing has vowed to take control of the island by force if necessary. While the sides had maintained an undeclared diplomatic truce for much of the past decade, relations have deteriorated under Tsai, who took over Taiwan's presidency more than a year ago but has declined to endorse China's view that Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single Chinese nation.

The past year has seen China ratcheting up the diplomatic pressure on Taiwan, barring its representatives from attending the World Health Organization's annual conference and other international gatherings.

Beijing cut off contacts with Taiwanese government bodies a year ago, and in recent months has also sailed an aircraft carrier strike force aground the island in a display of its growing military power.

Panama may be the first of several Taiwanese diplomatic allies to switch to China as Beijing steps up pressure on Tsai to recognize its "one China" principle, said Tang Yonghong, director of the Taiwan Economic Research Center at Xiamen University in southeastern China.

"Many Latin American countries want to have stronger ties with China for their national interests," Tang said. Although China refused to form such ties during the previous administration of China-friendly Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, it no longer has any such qualms, Tang said.

"Now this trend could continue for a while," Tang said. Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that in breaking ties, President Varela had ignored the friendship between their countries and the efforts that Taiwan had made to help Panama's overall development. Panama had "submitted to the Beijing authorities for economic benefits" and "lied" to the government of Taiwan, the statement said.

Taiwan will immediately cut ties, cease all bilateral cooperation projects and pull its diplomatic staff and technical advisers out of the country, the ministry said, adding that it will not "engage in competition for money diplomacy with the Beijing authorities."

"We express our strong protest and condemnation over the Beijing authorities luring Panama into breaking ties with us, oppressing our diplomatic space to maneuver and harming the feelings of the Taiwanese people," the statement said.

Beijing and Taipei have long competed with each other to win diplomatic recognition, at times enticing small or poor countries to switch with the promise of millions of dollars for public works projects.

Varela had suggested the possibility of switching diplomatic recognition during his presidential campaign in 2014, for historic, economic and strategic reasons. "Both nations are betting on a more interconnected world," Varela said in a possible allusion to Chinese economic involvement in the Panama Canal. He mentioned that it was a massive Chinese vessel that was the first to pass through the canal's expanded locks when they opened in June 2016.

China is the second-biggest client of the Panama Canal and the leading provider of merchandise to a free-commerce zone in the Panamanian city of Colon, on the country's Caribbean coast. The loss of Panama is intended to show Tsai that continued defiance of Beijing will harm Taiwan's overall interests, said Zhang Baohui, director of Center for Asian Pacific Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

"Panama was one of the more significant countries that still maintained diplomatic relations with Taiwan," Zhang said. "By taking away Panama, it once again teaches Tsai's government the lesson that if she doesn't accept the 'one China' principle ... there will be consequences.

Zamorano reported from Panama City. Associated Press journalists Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, and Gerry Shih in Beijing contributed to this report.

China resumes ties with Sao Tome in triumph over Taiwan

December 26, 2016

BEIJING (AP) — China and Sao Tome and Principe officially resumed diplomatic relations Monday in a triumph for Beijing over rival Taiwan after the African island nation abruptly broke away from the self-ruled island last week.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterpart from Sao Tome, Urbino Botelho, signed books at a ceremony in front of their flags at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Wang said the re-establishment of relations would bring benefits to both countries and they would hold exchanges in tourism, the media and other areas.

The move is a victory for Beijing, which considers the self-governing island of Taiwan a part of China's territory and has been outraged by suggestions by President-elect Donald Trump that he could rethink U.S. policy that acknowledges this. Beijing and Taipei have competed for allies for much of the nearly seven decades since the end of China's civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled across the Taiwan Strait.

Most of the world does not formally recognize Taiwan as a condition of maintaining relations with China. Sao Tome and Taiwan broke ties last week, leaving 21 countries and governments, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, that have official ties with Taiwan. Taiwanese Foreign Minister David Lee last week accused Sao Tome of demanding "an astronomical amount of financial help," though he did not say how much.

Sao Tome and Principe is an island nation off the coast of west-central Africa with a population of almost 200,000. The impoverished former Portuguese colony relies heavily on foreign aid. Beijing suspended its relationship with Sao Tome in 1997 after the island nation established diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

In re-establishing relations with Beijing, Botelho said Monday, "We want to redeem our mistakes in the past." He said he hoped that more Chinese businesses would invest in his country and more Chinese tourists would visit.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed its "strong disappointment and regret that Sao Tome has been confused by the diplomatic money campaign of mainland China and ignored the years of our great contributions to the health and wellbeing of the people of Sao Tome."

As its economic, military and political clout has grown, China has become more successful in pulling away governments in a bid to diplomatically isolate Taiwan, though some countries, including the United States, maintain strong unofficial ties with Taipei.

Relations have worsened between Beijing and Taipei since independence-leaning Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was elected in January. In March, China established formal diplomatic ties with the small African nation of Gambia, which had severed relations with Taiwan in 2013. That was seen as a move toward abandoning the unspoken diplomatic truce between the sides that lasted eight years under Tsai's China-friendly predecessor.

Beijing suspended contact with the main Taiwan liaison body in June, blaming Tsai's refusal to endorse the concept of a single Chinese nation. While just a few countries and governments still have official ties with Taiwan, Beijing is eager to play up its latest addition after Trump suggested he might not adhere to the policy that recognizes only one China unless the U.S. gains trade or other benefits, analysts say.

Wang Dong, a professor of international relations at Peking University, said Monday's re-establishment of diplomatic ties was a warning to Taiwan that Beijing has "a lot of counter-measures" up its sleeve should they pursue independence, as well as a warning to the United States.

"The U.S. won't gain anything if they play with the one-China policy," he said. "It is also a warning to those in the U.S. who tolerate and support the Taiwanese independence forces."

Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.