Tag: Taiwan

This incident with a British man is pretty good analogy for what would happen to Taiwan and other Southeast Asian nations if they try and take on China on the simmering territorial disputes in the region, expect to get bullied and beaten into submission by overwhelming numbers:

A group of Chinese men assaulted a British man who had the word “Taiwan” tattooed on his forehead for refusing to say “Taiwan is part of China.”

Paul Farrell, who has lived in Taiwan for 14 years, lost two teeth, received a fat lip and ended up with bruises all over his body after 10 Chinese men beat him during his holiday in the southern Cambodian city of Sihanoukville, the Taiwan News reported Sunday.

According to the report, he became embroiled in an argument with them after they tried to pick a fight over the tattoo at a bar.

One of them suddenly shouted “Taiwan-China!” In response, Farrell said, “Taiwan-Taiwan!” And then they “went insane, grabbed poles and started attacking me,” he said.

He said at least 10 Chinese men savagely assaulted him, forcing him to say “Taiwan is part of China,” as hundreds of bystanders watched the attack.

Fearing for his life, Farrell eventually said: “OK, you think Taiwan is China, I’ll say Taiwan is China. I just want to leave.”  [Korea Times]

Unsurprisingly this is not the first time that Farrell has made headlines.

This is a pretty bold sexual assault to drug multiple women in the back of a taxi and then sexually assault them.  I am willing to bet this is probably not the first time this taxi cab driver has done this:

Two South Korean women said they were sexually attacked by a taxi driver while traveling to a night market in Taipei, according to local reports and the Korean foreign ministry on Sunday.

According to the reports, three Korean women hired a taxi around 6 p.m. on Thursday to visit the popular Shilin Night Market. The taxi driver, identified only by his surname Chan, was said to have given them a soft drink while heading to the market. Two of them, sitting at the back, passed out after drinking it while the one who was sitting in the passenger seat didn’t drink it.

Upon arriving at the market, the sober woman tried to wake them up, to no avail, and went to check out the market alone, thinking the two fell asleep due to tiredness. She went back to the taxi around an hour later to find out they were still sleeping. The three then returned to the hotel.

The next day, the two reported to the local police that they were sexually assaulted by the taxi driver.

On Saturday night, the police summoned Chan for investigation. They soon detained him as the suspect partially admitted to the assault in his testimony. He is reported to have said he only meant to touch them.

Meanwhile, a blood test revealed that the victims had sleeping-inducing drugs in their blood.

“The Taiwanese police detained the suspect for investigation and are likely to charge him,” an official from the foreign ministry told Yonhap News Agency, adding that the women have returned to Korea.  [Yonhap]

Foreign Minister: China appreciates Nigeria’s stance on the One-China principle and welcomes its moving Taiwan’s office from Abuja pic.twitter.com/Rk75Z92y5h

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) January 12, 2017

You can read the whole article at the link, but I would speculate that China has been playing the “North Korea card” for years considering they have done little to nothing to stop North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs:

– China could exercise a veto against any new U.N. sanctions on North Korea, ignore existing sanctions and even accept the communist neighbor as a nuclear state if the incoming administration of Donald Trump plays the “Taiwan card,” a U.S. expert said.

Trump sparked China’s anger by accepting a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen earlier this month in breach of the decades-long diplomatic tradition that the U.S. has kept under its “One China” policy since severing ties with Taiwan and normalizing relations with Beijing.

China considers Taiwan a renegade province that must be unified with the mainland and rails against any support for Taiwan’s independence or the notion that the island is not part of the country. Despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. has maintained friendly relations with Taiwan.

On Sunday, Trump went a step further, saying he doesn’t understand “why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.” The remark suggests Trump could use the Taiwan card in dealings with Beijing.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is the latest on the Trump phone call with the President of Taiwan that the media was initially trying to frame as him bungling US foreign policy:

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call with Taiwan’s president shows the incoming administration believes China should work hard on North Korea as much as it cares about the cross-strait issue, a transition team official was quoted as saying Tuesday.

The official made the remark during a meeting with a group of South Korean lawmakers, pointing out that China has been unwilling to use its influence over Pyongyang even though Beijing provides most of the North’s energy and food supplies, according to the participating lawmakers.

They declined to identify the official.

On Friday, Trump spoke by phone with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, breaking the decadeslong diplomatic tradition that the U.S. has kept under its “One China” policy since severing ties with Taiwan and normalizing relations with Beijing.

China considers Taiwan a renegade province that must be unified with the mainland and rails against any support for Taiwan’s independence or the notion that the island is not part of the country. Despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. has maintained friendly relations with Taiwan.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Trump's call with Taiwan's president broke decades of diplomatic protocol. Why isn't Beijing more angry? https://t.co/Kc68V19EVP

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) December 3, 2016

https://twitter.com/ckaaloa/status/757593310815019008

A couple of questions to think about is would the Chinese go to war to stop Taiwan from moving towards formal independence and if so should the US go all in to defeat a Chinese attack?:

China’s President Xi Jinping has pledged to contain any moves by Taiwan toward formal independence in his first public remarks on the issue since the self-governing island democracy elected a president and legislature from the independence-leaning party in January.

Speaking to delegates to the annual meeting of China’s ceremonial parliament, Xi said China won’t budge in its insistence that Taiwan recognize it is part of China, regardless of political changes on the island of 23 million.

“We will resolutely contain Taiwan independence secessionist activities in any form,” Xi was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency at their meeting Saturday. “We will safeguard the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and never allow the historical tragedy of national secession to happen again.”

The landslide election of Tsai Ing-wen as president, along with a legislative majority for her Democratic Progressive Party, has thrown a question mark over the future of relations between the sides.

Tsai, who won’t be inaugurated until May, takes over from China-friendly Nationalist Party President Ma Ying-jeou, who oversaw the signing of a series of agreements during his eight years in power establishing closer economic ties between the sides.  [Washington Post]

You can read more at the link.

Tzuyu, shown in the photo, of K-pop girl group TWICE will temporarily suspend appearances in China after she became mired in a controversy for waving the Taiwanese national flag in an online broadcast in South Korea, according to her agency in Seoul on Jan. 14, 2016. She waved the flag while appearing in a popular TV show “My Little Television” in November last year, the portion of which was not aired on the terrestrial channel but was seen belatedly by online viewers in China. Her agency, JYP Entertainment, said it does not promote political agendas and expressed regret over the controversy. Tzuyu is a Taiwanese native in the multinational, nine-member girl group. (Photo provided by JYP Entertainment) (Yonhap)

We assessed improvements in #China's ability to challenge U.S. air ops by attacking air bases: http://t.co/9IgspN2Bx9 pic.twitter.com/ky3fkoJVkO

— RAND (@RANDCorporation) September 19, 2015