Taiwan Reviews

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★Taiwan reviews, an introduction to Taiwan by international & local organizations:

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★ Taiwan soft power

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★ News ― Daily Mail (UK) 4-1-2019: Taiwan blasts China for "reckless and provocative" incursion by 2 fighter jets across a largely respected line dividing the 2 sides in the Taiwan Straits. Japan Times, 4-1-2019: China's move also comes less than a week after the U.S. sent ships through the strait ( mission was unusual) — the third time in as many months...those sailings have likely been interpreted by China as implicit support for self-ruled Taiwan. Reuters 2-25-2019: US Navy ships ... riling China. ABC.net Australia: Chinese fighter jets cross Taiwan Strait after Tsai urges Pacific pushback against Beijing.
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★ No.1 on US Google by keyword "review Taiwan" , 1-26-2019, 1-23-2019

★ pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword
"review Taiwan" on US Google, 3-8-2019, 1-1-2019

Brief -

political status among Taiwan, China, USA

● CNN 6-17-2019: mass protests (in Hong Kong) emboldened anti-China elements in Taiwan.

● New York Times 4-1-2019: Taiwan protests China jets crossing center of Taiwan Strait, a provocation that seeks to alter the status quo ... an intentional act. Japan Times, 4-1-2019: China's move also comes less than a week after the U.S. sent ships through the strait ( mission was unusual) — the third time in as many months...those sailings have likely been interpreted by China as implicit support for self-ruled Taiwan. Reuters 2-25-2019: US Navy ships ... riling China.

● Annual Report to US Congress ( Military and Security Developments Involving the PRC ), 8-17-2018: Much of Beijing’s defense budget is focused on developing the capability to unify Taiwan by force...

● USA Today 5-18-2018: Xi JinPing has signaled that China will seek to reclaim its historical properties by 2049. Freebeacon 5-17-2018 : 2020—the deadline that [Chinese supreme leader] Xi Jinping has given the [People's Liberation Army] to be ready to invade Taiwan.

● The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence “Open Hearing on China’s Worldwide Military Expansion.”, 5-17-2018 :

deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Asia, showing strong support for Taiwan, and exposing human rights abuses in China as immediate steps that could curb Beijing...

● Washington Post, 1-5-2018 : Xi commanded China’s military to become “battle ready.” ...... Taiwan will turn “grave” because Taiwan’s government refuses to acknowledge that the island is part of China. .Taiwan needs to increase its defense spending considerably...“the outcome of the game [between China and Taiwan] is undecided".

● New York Times at 11-4-2017, the Pentagon report, May 2017: China’s military modernization has “eroded or negated many of Taiwan’s historical advantages (geography and the US support) ” in deterring a potential attack.

● Le Monde diplomatic of France, Mai 2016, depicted Taiwan as a trembling sweating rat (click for details), turning its back on an approaching huge cat (China), lifting high the banner "$O$" .

● FreeBeacon at 10-19-2017 : "China’s Xi Jinping Slams the Door on Taiwanese Appeals for Independence.". Washington Post at 10-18-2017: "Mr. Xi’s biggest applause line was a vow to 'never allow anyone. . . to separate any part of Chinese territory from China.' That would include...Taiwan."(19th CPC national Congress). Spiegel Germany, 1-9-2017, Global Times of China: "There is no room for negotiations" .

● New York times, 5-18-2017: Taiwan's leaders have gutted the military and continued to base defense planning on the assumption that the United States would always come to the rescue. Policies ... have left the military understaffed and in a state of low morale...

China Slams the Door on Taiwanese Appeals for Independence.

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☉ below each visual parody, cartoon on The dark side of Tw. are related or relevant reports or comments

Trump takes Taiwan as leverage , one-China policy as bargaining chips

Salmon is poking the bear ? Taiwan suffers in danger !

★ Washington Post, 8-20-2018: Taiwan's precarious role in the China-US spat !
(Trump adm.'s Taiwan policy is unpredictable, situation is undeniably risky for Taiwan);

★ Bloomberg news 10-19-2018: Taipei mayor says
Taiwan is "just a product on a shelf" for Trump
　

★ Bloomberg news 3-14-2018: In the future, Taiwan will suffer even more, as it

gets caught in the middle between a stronger China and a inward-looking US...

◆ New York Times at 4-18-2018: Mr. Trump questioned why the US should be bound by the One China policy
if Beijing will not budge on trade ... The U.S. and Taiwan are seen as heading in a direction that is getting
perilously close to Chinese red lines...... (Taiwan president Tsai stated) " Many people say we are pawns of other people ......"

◆ VOAnews, 3-23-2018 : John Bolton (Trump's new National Security Adviser) has long argued that Washington

can play a "Taiwan card" to compel Beijing's attention for its potentially destabilizing actions in East Asia
and the South China Sea.

◆ <Foreign Policy> 12-14-2016 named Taiwan President Tsai as
one of leading thinkers of 2016 for "Poking the bear" .

But, Taiwan is a card, or most likely, a leverage, a bargaining chip
between the US and China, not a card player in the game

◆ In Mar. 2018, Trump signed <Taiwan Travel Act>, which paves way for high-level, official exchanges with Taiwan.

The bill identifies indirectly (?) Taiwan as a country ― "visits to a country by United States cabinet members ...".

Deutsche Welle 3-17-2018: China has reacted angrily to the bill.
Bloomberg news 3-14-2018: Trump's "Taiwan card" (to annoy China when needed) is China's real worry.

◆ Taiwan Defense Secretary: can resist Chinese army for about 1+ week (CTV 12-18-2016)

◆ Global times, Mar. 2018: Chinese army can defeat Taiwan within 100 hours before the US and Japan reacting

children & women trafficking

US state government - 2019 Trafficking in persons report, Jun. 2019: in the last five years, human traffickers subject foreign
men and women to forced labor and sex trafficking in Taiwan, and traffickers subject local men and women to forced labor and local women
and children to sex trafficking. ... take advantage of Taiwan and foreign women’s and children’s drug addictions to subject them to sex
trafficking. Taiwan traffickers increasingly use the internet, smartphone apps, livestreaming, and other such online technologies to conduct recruitment activities, often targeting child victims, and to mask their identities from law enforcement.

Traffickers lure women from China and Southeast Asian countries to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages and deceptive employment
offers for purposes of sex trafficking. Many trafficking victims are migrant workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam,
and to a lesser extent, individuals from China, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka.

Traffickers reportedly take advantage of Taiwan’s “New Southbound Policy” visa-simplification program to lure Southeast
Asian students and tourists to Taiwan and subject them to forced labor and sex trafficking.

Taiwan, a porn country

Taiwan declared crackdown on prostitution, only to turn into a country with world No.1 percentage of
sex-related business consumers of all the adults. (Apple Daily 12-25-'14 )

†

Taiwan, A pirate boat ?

Taiwan illegal fishing

● US state government - 2019 Trafficking in persons report, Jun. 2019

Although Taiwan met the minimum standards, separation of purview between the Ministry of Labor (MOL) and the Fisheries Agency (FA), coupled with
insufficient inspection protocols, continued to impede efforts to address forced labor on Taiwan-flagged and -owned fishing vessels in the highly
vulnerable Distant Water Fleet (DWF). Documented and undocumented Chinese, Indonesian, Filipino, and Vietnamese fishermen working on
Taiwan-flagged and -owned fishing vessels experience non- or under-payment of wages, long working hours, physical abuse, lack of food or
medical care, denial of sleep, and poor living conditions while indebted to complex, multinational brokerage networks. Migrant fishermen
have reported senior crewmembers employ such coercive tactics as threats of physical violence, beatings, withholding of food and water,
and pay deductions to retain their labor.

exclusive info.

● Green Peace, 5-2-2019: It remains our view that Taiwanese fisheries still have many serious problems,
both environmental and social, and that the need for reform is clear and urgent.

● <The Diplomat> (4-14-2016) : Taiwan's illegal fishing is 'out of control' -

EU warned in 2015 Taiwan with a yellow card for illegal fishing till 6 '19.

GreenPeace criticized Taiwan gov. for knowing this issue but does little.

● Washington Post 2-22-2018: Taiwan is No.2 fishing nation

as measured by Global fishing Watch's Automatic Identification Sys., 2016.

(wait & see how TW nw law works)

● Lowy Institute & <the interpreter>, 5-2-2019:
◆ Taiwan currently operates under an EU “yellow card,” or warning, for illegal, unreported and
unregulated (IUU) fishing;

◆ Taiwan has so far refused to adopt the Work in Fishing Convention;
◆ Taiwanese authorities declined to prosecute the ship (Fuh Sheng ) for shark finning, although
the ship’s proprietor had earlier admitted to the Financial Times the vessel had caught and finned sharks;
◆ The Taiwan-flagged Wen Peng...allegedly killed one Filipino and one Indonesian. Six other foreign crew
members were reportedly forced to jump into the sea and were never found.

● US State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices (2018): Taiwan flagged the practices of
recruitment and brokerage agencies, which facilitate the hiring of fishermen and other migrant workers, as leaving workers “vulnerable to debt bondage. Foreign workers are often charged excessive fees and subjected to poor working
conditions. Fishermen on the high seas are left with no way of seeking help by using multilingual hotline
for migrant workers to report mistreatment. (brief)

◆ <Reporters Sans Frontieres> (RSF, France) , 4-18-2019: Taiwan’s journalists are suffering from a very

polarized media environment dominated by sensationalism and the pursuit of profit. Although President

Tsai Ing-wen has said she wants to continue developing press freedom in Taiwan, few concrete measures

have been taken to improve journalists’ editorial independence and encourage media to raise the quality of

the public debate. Beijing is exploiting this weakness by putting pressure on Taiwanese media owners, who

often have business interests on the mainland.

◆ pic. right: The China Times 3-29-2019 headline news: Defend 100% freedom of speech, democracy on the surface, anti-democracy to the bone is not allowed. The media have freedom to choose sides, but no any side should limit the freedom, Taiwan government should not choose Orwellian administration. (www.chinatimes.com/opinion/?chdtv)

◆ pic. left: Apple Daily 3-29-2019 editorial opinion: Freedom of speech is the bottom line which should never be lost, the government should not create chilling effect by fishing in trouble water. (https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/daily/20190329/38294369/)

1. reviews on Taiwan's soft power

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pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1
by keyword "review Taiwan"
on US Google, 5-13-2018, 1-12-2018, 9-27-2017, 12-2-2017 　

ps: This site was ranked No.1 on US Bing and search.yahoo.com

at 5-17-2018

pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword "review Taiwan" on US Google, 5-13-2018, 9-19-2017

★★ "understand Taiwan in one minute" ! ★ TAIWAN in all aspects ...... Top rankings on internet !!

★

	international & local reviews on Taiwan
soft power	● According to UK based Monocle's Soft Power Survey 2010 ~ 2019, Taiwan has not been included in this global ranking list, Taiwan's soft power is behind Asian's countries Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, China, India, UAE, all of them reached "world top 20" at least once. ● Taiwan also failed to be listed in 2018's Soft Power 30 Study by USC Center on Public Diplomacy in July 2018 and 2017's Soft Power 30 Study, compiled by PR company Portand Communication and University of Southern California. Asian countries, Japan(No.5), S. Korea(20), Singapore(21), China(27) are top 30.
privacy	● The Liberty Times, head-page, The China Times, head-page, 12-8-2018: Taiwan P.M. (賴清德): "Secret Police event" (「東廠事件」) has seriously damaged public trust on the government. 　 ● EU General Data Protection Regulation - GDPR was given to effect at 5-25-2018, Taiwan is far behind, even is going in an opposite way / Apple Daily 蘋果日報, 5-28-2018, National Taiwan University Law School professor 林鈺雄 ● The United Daily News (聯合報) editorial opinion (9-19-2018) : "secret police"(「東廠們」) have been active around us ... 　 ● Apple Daily, 11-25-2018, KMT's "Secret Police" sayings seriously damaged the image of ruling party (New York Times, 11-23-2018: Taiwan's ruling party was handed a major defeat in local elections). ★ ● <Apple Daily (蘋果日報)> 11-7-2018 editorial opinion: by whatever name ( "secret police" or "national security bureau") it is called, what "it" did secretly were always more than what it admitted. ( 安全部門無論當時名稱是東廠、警總、或國安部門,「"他們"暗中做的永遠超過公開承認的」)
freedom of expression	● <United Daily (聯合報)> 11-2-2018, headline news : Taiwan's National Security Bureau confirmed their investigations of Facebook communities and others on the net, for monitoring, controlling and collecting "controversial information" including those "influence national security", "slander president", "disrupt social stability", "distort policy" and "disturb national mechanism", "fight governmental prestige", "influence public mind and morale"; UDN critiques pointed out it's a political propaganda to block red China's influences, but "Big Brother is watching you" almost for sure lead to "Chilling Effect". Taiwan's Intel. sys. suspectedly tried to affect free expression of some important websites not related to communist China. ● <United Daily (聯合報)> 11-3-2018, KMT legislator : all internet platform service providers in Taiwan were requested to hand in all users' personal information/data (intel denied). Taiwan's intelligence "National Security Bureau" has been doing overall monitors on all Taiwanese.
travel & tourism	● Apple Daily, opinion, 2-12-2018: lacking of monument elements, mature cultural creativity, and inexpensive tour-site hotels ... shallow, careless, low-end quality led to an extremely low return visitor rate to Taiwan. ● Apple Daily, Headline news 1-15-2018: Taiwan tourism collapsed like a snow-slide, the number of tourists to Kenting National Park(墾丁貓鼻頭) dropped 59%, to Taroko National Gorge (太魯閣) dropped 43%, etc, because of the number of Chinese tourists declined a lot and local people don't like those sites - Apple Daily opinion 1-17-2018: expensive hotels, crowded traffic, getting ripped-off by greedy shops' ... ● People's Daily, the major official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, ( Opinion/editorial 8-4-2016): <Chinese tourists do not dare to visit Taiwan in the future without safety assurance> / Taiwan tour disasters are sort of man-made disasters , Taiwan tourism's major problems include loopholes in law and regulation 、careless mistakes in administration or not-good-enough system of organization, other malpractices are traveling load-bearing capacity 、road-traffic safety 、aviation safety 、road maintenance 、safety standard for tour bus 、Modified Automobiles/Fix-up tour bus、Low-end tour groups … tragic accidents happening again and again open Pandora's box, too many tourist victims reveal Taiwan tourism's problems, Taiwan authority tried to do something (亡羊補牢) each time a tragic accident occurred, but it seemed late and same kind of tragedies never cease. (《人民日報》8-4-2016 社論: 很多意外事故都存在著人禍的影子，或是法規漏洞、管理疏失、或是體制不足。旅遊承載能力、道路安全、飛行安全、道路養護、遊覽車安全標準、改裝車、低價團…一起起事故猶如打開了潘朵拉的盒子... ) ● Taiwan got low score and is ranking world No.87 in the index of "Attractiveness of Natural Assets" (parks, beaches, mountains, wildlife, etc) , based on <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> 2017.
aesthetic country	● Forbes (3-5-2017) "3 Things Chinese Tourists Are Surprised To Find When They Travel Abroad To Taiwan" : "It’s not very modern !", " the wealth wasn’t invested in architecture. So the cities are full of decayed apartment blocks.... the housing isn’t as good.”. ●The Liberty Times and the China Times (3-10-2017) / local scholars : without overall urban renewal planning, Taiwan will never get rid of the bad name "ugly cities". ●Taipei City mayor Dr. Ko pointed out during a trip to Japan that Taipei is short of aesthetic elements or sense of beauty (欠缺城市美學/美感). / The China Times 1-26-2016.
human rights	● USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices, 3-3-2017: Principal human rights problems are official corruption, exploitation of foreign workers, domestic violence; Other concerns are some media self-censorship with regard to China, vote buying; violations of legal working hours, lacking of barrier-free spaces and accessible transportation systems for persons with disabilities, particularly outside Taipei; a rise in child abuse and gender-biased sex selection. (report in 4-20-2018 is about the same) 　 ● Apple Daily, headline, 12-9-2017: ◆ At end of 2017, a review found all conclusive advises by international review panel to against Taiwan's torture have not put into practice at all. ◆ In 2013, an international review panel ( human rights experts and scholars) visited Taiwan and concluded : (1) "The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment" should be added to Taiwan Criminal Law, and should be put into force AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. (2) The best method to root out torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in Taiwan is that any person or officials who commits torture, those sort of crimes, should NOT have free liability of what they did. 　 ● State violence and white terror (product of state violence) return in Taiwan (United Daily, opinion, 12-21-2017, 12-27-2017). Taiwan's Facebook "Green terror" suppressed free expression...... (Wikipedia 2017, The China Times, public opinion, 11-18-2017) ● Taiwan administration's policy led to air pollution, toxic pollution in the land and sea ... (The China Times, 1-7-2018 台灣海陸空污染毒害，山海變色 http://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20180107000465-260114。Daily Mail (UK) 7-14-2017 : Shocking underwater video from Taiwan shows ocean floor littered with plastic (bottles) garbage)
food & dining	● The China Times, 10-20-2018 opinion (editorial) https://opinion.chinatimes.com/20181019003889-262101 : Taiwan's food safety failed again and again, Dioxin, Fipronil poison-eggs in last year, Nicarbazin illegal drug residue event in this year. Europe was very cautious about Fipronil event, in contrast, Taiwan did nothing about it. Even worse, Taiwan officials hide Nicarbazin issue from Taiwanese people to baby related business ― indulge business to retrieve problematic eggs and then resell them as promotion goods.. Why do high-ranking officials always fudge Taiwanese people's only, and humblest request ？? (brief) ● The China Times (中國時報), 2-28-2019, opinion (editorial) questions Taiwan officials are trying very hard to hide the epidemic state of Marek's virus in chicken eggs ... ● UDN, 2-17-2019: Gov. did not declared poison eggs until almost sold out...　 ● Food safety is one of biggest challenges to Taiwan / The China Times. 8-6-2016, an interview to Taiwan president Tsai I. W. ● Chang Gung Mem. Hospital professor Yin M.D. (殷宗海, Doctor, Univ. of London ): Minimize the times of dining out to protect your health ! ref to book <食品不安全的年代如何自保>, 2016. ○ ● MicroPlastics were found in 44% tap water samples, medical circle believes it's a very serious environmental pollution, since something bad, e.g., Dioxin, Bisphenol A (BPA), PAHs, heavy metal elements, may be brought into food chain, and then are/were accumulated in human body...... we better use purified water by RO machine for safety. Furthermore, mussels, oysters, clams (扇貝與蛤) were also found some microplastics...... brief - headlines of Apple Daily, United Daily, 9-26-2018. ○ ● The China Times, 5-21-2018 : Taiwan food safety became nothing but a slogan for the government's relaxation of pesticide residue standards in these 2 years. TVBS, 9-12-2017 : Scholar (中興univ. professor 曾德賜) expressed the amount ( per hectare ) of application of pesticide in Taiwan was ranked world No.1, according to India's study. ● Taiwan is not included in EIU's Global Food Security Index of 2017, China ranks No. 45 among 113 nations. ● 5 star hotel scandals - A book (江守山M.D.'s "食在安心" (10-2014)) said many 5 star hotel restaurants don't wash vegetables ... some 5 star hotels made sashimi raw fish slices by using fresh-water fishes, this may increase the probability to get cancer (for details 台灣餐廳 or 台灣美食Taiwan Night Markets ) ; Epoch Times (大紀元, 3-14-2017):Okura Prestige Tpe (大倉久和, a 5 star hotel) sold expired frozen shrimps, molded taro (vegetable 芋) etc; SETN news ( 三立新聞 5-16-2016): Some 5 star hotels in northern Taiwan sold black-hearted expired seafoods ; LTN (5-17-2016): 5 star hotels Ambassador and Howard (國賓、福華) clarified this news; Apple Daily (蘋果日報 6-7-2016): Sheraton (喜來登) 's white shrimps contained bleaching agent (漂白劑)，4 times higher than the legal standard，Ranina (Spanner crabs 旭蟹) contained heavy medal Cadmium poisoning (重金屬镉) 14% higher than the standard...; Apple Daily (蘋果日報 7-2-'13): Taiwan's tourist hotels' food ingredients expired 2 years, only 3 out of 21 hotels passed the security check and sanitary examination etc conducting by Taiwan Administration, e.g., Shangri-La's (tnn) did not separate their cutting tools for cooked foods and raw foods; FTV news, 5-18-2017: 13 ingredients / materials expired in a 5 star hotel in Taiwan; CTI TV news (5-17-2017, 19:33): What can we eat in Taiwan? people are uneasy for food here... ● According to The World's Best Restaurants (2017) , Taiwan is not included in the list, Thailand got No.7, Singapore No.14, Japan 18th, HK 24th, Shanghai 41th. In sub-total, 5 Japanese , 4 Chinese, 3 Singapore, 2 Thailand, 1 Korean, 1 India restaurant(s) entered top 100. ○
democracy	● <UDN> editorial,12-6-2018: Taiwan's democracy exists in name only ... ● Taiwan government damages university autonomy - rejecting the president selected by NTU committee. Apple Daily 4-29-2018 head page, United Daily news 4-29-2018 : Taipei mayor Ko : a dummy made this policy to seriously harm university autonomy, former president Ma: ridiculous ! is Taiwan a civilized and legal society ? president Tsai : respect the educational gov. decision. Hong Kong City University president: The gov. damaged university autonomy, is lower than the warlord 100 yrs ago, and is not qualified to have international recognition. Taiwan University : express regrets and strong objections. ● There's neither democracy on campus (colleges) nor university autonomy, / Apple Daily, opinion, 5-1-2018 ● <Foreign Policy> 2015: Taiwan politics belongs to corporations (not the people) and is controlled by the political parties. ● The United Daily - Opinion, 3-7-2017 : Now it seems hard to keep Taiwan's democracy just skin-deep... the people's "livelihood" was sacrificed for politics ...
Social security	● More than 10 Korean media, e.g., Yonhap News Agency (韓聯社), Donga Ilbo (東亞日報), and largest web portal Naver, reported in Jan. 16, 2017 in large scale or great length to lash out Taiwan's bad social security. ●《 BBC》UK, 3-29-2016 "The whole society's safety net has loopholes " . ●《 The China Times》(6-9-2016 Opinion-editorial) : Taiwanese police do duty without dignity/honor.
judiciary	● The Liberty Times, head-page, The China Times, head-page, 12-8-2018: Taiwan P.M. (賴清德): Taiwan has not made significant progress on judicial reform, which is roiling with public discontent ● Apple Daily (12-7-2018) editorial : Taiwan's corruption is off the charts by collusions between government officials and business owners, furthermore, Taiwan's underworld going wild to assist government officials, business and some elected representatives (e.g., legislators) in corruption has been ahead of most corrupt countries, e.g., China, Indonesia, Brazil, Philippines, Vietnam, the stinky rotten food-chain crossing pan-Blue (Nationalist, KMT) and pan-Green (DPP) resurges after Taiwan's elections... ●Taiwan's Minister of Judiciary and secretary of Justice Ministry issued progress report of judicial reform ― Public trust in judges is always low, the protection mechanism of lawsuit right is still not good enough (UDN 2-13-2018). ● United Daily 2-27-2018: Taipei mayor Ko said that Taiwan's jail and prison are good only for those have no connections at all. ("監獄是關沒有辦法的人") ● Apple Daily, opinion, 3-14-2018 : Survey <2017台灣社會信任調查> shows that Taiwan judicial official's / law enforcement officer's public trust is the second last. 　 ● National Chung Cheng university's survey (head-page of the Liberty Times, 2-23-2016) found: more than 84% Taiwanese people don't believe judges, nearly 80% Taiwanese don't believe the impartiality of Taiwan's prosecutors, and public trust on Taiwan judiciary system keeps falling down in the past 8 years. ● USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices, March 3, 2017, 4-20-2018: the justice ministry was insufficiently independent and conducted politically motivated investigations of politicians. ●Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen declared that no such injustice (The rich get off scot-free, the poor get the death sentence ) should be repeated, and blasted (5-20-2016) Taiwan justice earning no Taiwanese people trust. ● The United Daily, 3-6-2017 : Taiwan's judiciary still work as hatchet man for KMT. (陳師孟)
transportation	● BBC UK, The SUN (2-13-2017): "Bus Crash Horror !" - Taiwan's "safety standards need to be improved". A few days later another fatal bus accident occurred. ● Apple Daily, Opinion-Editorial (2-15-2017): Such a high casualty rate (bus crash) most likely ranks No.1 among all civilized states in the world, public opinions and official blames are useless at all, because they saw right through the government, called government's bluff ... ● The United Daily (2-15-2017, front-page): So many self-criticisms in the past never stop next disaster ! ● Fatal train accidents ref. to <New York Times>: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/world/asia/taiwan-train-crash.html ● 2018 : Taiwan Train Accident in biggest curve in Taiwan Kills at Least 18 and Injures about 187 Others ( ps: CTV (中視新聞) 19:45pm, 10-22-2018, Prosecutor: over-speed might be the cause of accident, other suspicious points under investigation include "Automatic Train Protection (ATP)" being turned off, abnormal track, etc; ps2: CTV 20:30pm, 10-22-2018 : speed 140km, should be 80km or 65 km) ● 2011: at least six people were killed and more than 50 others injured after a tree collapsed into the path of a tourist train also serving Ali Mountain. ● 2003: last crash of a similar scale taking place in 2003, when a train serving the mountain tourist destination of Ali Mountain derailed, killing 17 people and injuring 156 others. ● 1981: a collision in Miaoli County, in the island’s northwest, killed 31 people ● Taiwan's aviation safety - MSN, Reuters, EuroNews, Mirro(UK), NewsWeek, CNN, etc (2-4-2015) :"Taiwan has had a poor aviation safety record in recent years" .
housing	● <CTS HD>, 5-23-2016 1:25pm, "華視新聞雜誌": 17 million Taiwanese people ( totally 23 million population) live in "potential danger" (潛在危險) houses, according to <遠見> study, Taiwanese people gave a "failure" score (53.5) on "living safety". ●《The Liberty Times》Taiwan, 2-24-2017 : Keep eating nothing and drinking nothing for 33+ years to buy a new house in Taipei ! Taipei's Ratio of House Price to Income is 33.3 times, New Taipei city is 20.25. ● Lloyd's City Risk Index 2015-2025 analyses the potential impact on the economic output (GDP risk) of world's major cities, Taipei was ranked world No.1 - within the next 10 years, ● Amnesty International (The London-based organization), 2-25-2015: The organization concerns Taiwan’s inhabitation (housing and land) rights issues.
creativity	● poor and weak - even some government's logos are similar to western's, Taiwan very seldom won award in Cannes Ad. festival France. ●The China Times, headline news at 12-24-2017: The total value of Taiwan's cultural & creative production was far behind of that of Korea, Korea's value in publication is about 6 times larger than Taiwan's, Film industry 6 times, TV 3.5 times, Advertising 3 times, Pop-music 6 times bigger than Taiwan's, Taiwan lacks of updated related laws and policy ― no focus, no direction, no institute, original creativity is not encouraged, the industry field is divided, without integrated marketing...... ● The output value of Taiwan's cultural & creative production in '12 - '13 declined 9.28%, in contrast, Taiwan's neighbor countries increased, China 14.27%, Malaysia, Philippines 8+%, Korea 0.65% ... Taiwan's cultural & creative industry even failed to create a "bubble", the reason is lacking of original creativity. / The China Times, 8-15-2017 ● It's a big shame again that Taiwan government used the photo of Washington Dulles int'l airport (old Taiwan airport is a cheap-copy, very similar to Dulles) on Taiwan's new passport.
character/personality	● The Liberty Times, 1-4-2016/ Taipei City mayor Dr. Ko: Taiwanese have been patient sufferance of so many politically bullies and toying (and killings), hence lost confidence and passion, Taiwan only has obedient, docile citizens who surrendered to their "lord", those some of Taiwanese revolted, resisted or rebelled were all killed by their rulers, the rest of Taiwanese are docile citizens, their children or descendants are even more docile. ● The China Times, 3-24-2018, public opinion: Li Ao (李敖) in 1999 wrote that Taiwan already became a shadow, very realistic ( profit oriented, snobbish ), short-sight society (淺碟, 現實, 短視). ● Forbes (3-5-2017) : Taiwanese "People are ominously courteous".
happiness	● <United Daily news 聯合報>, head page, 12-10-2016: The word of 2016 selected is "苦" ("hardship", "pain").
medical service	● Taiwan only ranks world 45th position in Lancet's Healthcare Access and Quality Index released in 2017 (based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015), some chronic disease items got very low or failure scores, e.g., Leukemia score 49, Kidney disease 50, Gallbladder & biliary 57, Hypertensive Heart Disease 60, diabetes mellitus 58, etc. http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(17)30818-8.pdf ● Taiwan is dishonest and 'cruel' ― trying to hide, block, delay public-health news, e.g., poisoned eggs, PCV virus vaccine, and Bird-flu more than one time (1-2-2018 UDN udn.com/news/story/7266/2908720, 2012 BBC news : www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese_news/2012/03/120304_taiwan_birdflu_investigate) , not to mention big issues. ● Apple Daily, 12-30-2017: Amending Taiwan's medical service law is criticized as "Decriminalization", patients in Taiwan will be difficult to put to the proof in their legal cases. ● <Transparency International> ( July 9, 2013) study : "Have you or anyone in your household paid a bribe to one of these 8 services in the last 12 months?" Taiwanese people think the institution needed to be paid bribery most is judiciary system, second is Taiwan's medical and health services, the number of Taiwanese paying a bribe is higher than global average. ( Apple Daily 7-10-2013,http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20130710/35139300/ ) ● The United Daily News (聯合新聞) 1-3-2017 <Where's Taiwan's medical ethics ? Leaking patients' medical records is a normal social protocol in Taiwan> : In Taiwan, journalists are not used to respect patients' privacy... our hospitals' members do not know very clearly the principle of protecting patients' privacy...(黃達夫) ●Taiwan's medical & health performance is so successful (e.g. life expectancy, infant mortality and maternal mortality, are better than U.S., although we spent only one-quarter of USD (PPP) in health expenditure.) that former leader of health government, Dr. Ye Ching-chuan, was invited to testify at an US senate committee hearing on this issue
shopping/commodity-price	● In Swiss UBS's "most expensive cities" report, Taipei's commodity price was ranked No. 26, worse than the rank (No.42) in last time. (9-18-2015) ● UK's Economist Intelligence Unit - Liveability Country Level Index (2015), evaluates "Cost of Living" of Taipei as "72" (scores 1~131, "1" means the cheapest, e.g., Mexico City is "73"). ● According to 2015 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, Taiwan's "hotel price index" ranks world No. 82, "Purchasing power parity" ranks world No. 64, "price competitiveness" ranks No. 38. ● Forbes (3-5-2017): Things are cheap ! Taiwan’s a good bargain, explaining the glut of self-guided tourists from China who voluntarily go shopping in Taipei. Some tourists also wonder if the prices reflect weakness in Taiwan’s overall economy. ● The China Times, 9-14-2015, shows the average price of 5 star hotels for Taiwanese tourists is NT dollars10494, price of 4 star hotels is NT5591
women	● <The United Daily 聯合報>, 3-16-2018 (prime news edition) Taiwan president Tsai I. W. : Taiwan still have a not short way to reach gender equality (台灣離性別平等還有一段路要走) <The United Daily 聯合報>, 3-16-2018 (林志潔, professor and member of national judicial reform committee) The judge made mistakes again and again, Taiwan's gender equality - A long long way to go ! ●The US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices , released at 3-3-2017, 4-20-2018: Rape and Domestic Violence ( spousal rape, and domestic violence). Many victims did not report the crime for fear of social stigmatization, and various nongovernmental organization (NGO) and academic studies estimated that the total number of sexual assaults was seven to 10 times the number reported to police. Women were promoted less frequently, occupied fewer management positions, and worked for lower pay than men, earning on average 83 percent of their male counterparts’ income... ● Amnesty International (The London-based organization), 2.25.2015: The organization concerns Taiwan's gender discrimination. Taiwan’s passage of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the enactment of laws to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by 2017 were important starts, but still have to be fully implemented.
athletics	● In 2016 Rio Olympics medal tally statistics, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) got 1 gold, 2 bronze, ranks world No. 50,
int'l fraud	● Taiwan is notorious for its fraud crimes all over the world, damaging the image of Taiwan / EBC TV 4-9-2017 6:54am ● Taiwan largely sees these telecom frauds/phone scammers as an asset rather than liability... / quora ● Taiwan's legislators and judicial system don't have a sense of shame on releasing so many int'l telecomm scammers and fraud groups committing the crime across the world (United Daily, 8-24-2016 opinion-editorial ).
entertainment/circus	● Taiwan police declared crack down prostitution business, however, Apple Daily news (Dec. 25, 2014) reported that the percentage of those Taiwanese male aged above 20 visiting porn business (2.33 million men per yr. ,ps1) ranked world No.1. Prostitution business in Taiwan are, firstly, Thai massage parlors (「掛羊頭賣狗肉」的按摩店(或養生館)), second, call-girls controlled by agents, thirdly, individual working studio or so-called one-woman brothel (「一樓一鳳」). 　 ●The United Daily (8-19-2015): The area with highest density of night clubs ("酒店") / specialized profession ("特種行業",a beautified term of sex related business including massage parlors ) in Taipei city locates LinSen N. Rd. stretching from JinZhou street to ChangChun Rd.
Liveability	● According to Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)'s Global Liveability Report of 2017, Taipei ranks No. 60 among 140 cities, based on 30 factors related to education resource, safety, health care, infrastructure, environment, etc. Asia's Tokyo No. 13, Singapore 35, HK 45.
Political status	● Taiwan votes in elections, Nov. 2018 ● New York Times, 11-23-2018: Economic growth, employment and pension reforms were among key issues in the elections...China said the results (Taiwan elections) reflected a desire of Taiwanese for better relations with the mainland... ● Quartz , 11-25-2018 : Taiwan’s elections have given Beijing much to celebrate (https://qz.com/1473960/taiwans-elections-have-given-beijing-much-to-celebrate/) ● Le Monde (France), 11-24-2018 : A Taïwan, des élections sous influence chinoise ● Wall Street Journal , 11 25 2018: A great virtue of Taiwan’s voters is that they’re pragmatic, a useful trait for an island under threat of a Chinese invasion. That pragmatism was on display in local elections Saturday that rebuked President Tsai Ing-wen while refusing to ban nuclear power. ● Reuters UK , 11-26-2018: Beijing told Reuters simply: “They’re really happy.” ● SET news, Taiwan, 11-26-2018: 英國路透社一針見血，認為中國是這次選舉的最大贏家，而華盛頓郵報和法國世界報也都認為，中國是左右這次選舉的最大關鍵。　 ●The People's Republic of China (PRC) claims that the Republic of China (Taiwan) government is illegitimate, referring to it as the "Taiwan Authority". The ROC, however, with its own constitution, independently elected president and armed forces... since Chiang Kai-shek (leader of the KMT, Taiwan's ruling party most of time) and his forces fled to the island at the end of Chinese civil war in 1949. ● New York times, 12-13-2016: In Presidential inaugural speech, Tsai referred to the Constitution of the Republic of China and the legislation governing cross-strait relations, both imply the acceptance of a “one China” framework. ● Washington Post, 1-2-2017: The United States “acknowledges” that there is one China and that Taiwan is part of China. But the United States has never officially “recognized” Taiwan as part of China. ● The condition of Beijing's envoy (senior official) visiting Taiwan since the 1949 communist revolution is seeing no ROC national flag. Taiwanese government agreed and confiscated some flags in a rally... / LTN 11-06-2015 ● <Taiwan Travel Act> (Trump signed at 3-16-2018): ◆ NHK Japan, 3-17-2018 The legislation aims to encourage mutual visits between US and Taiwanese officials at all levels. (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180317_08/) ◆ The Diplomat, 3-3-2018 US Paves Way for High-Level Exchanges With Taiwan (https://thediplomat.com/2018/03/us-paves-way-for-high-level-exchanges-with-taiwan/) ◆ New York Times, 3-17-2018 China’s Foreign Ministry said it had lodged “stern representations” with the United States, saying the law sent a “seriously wrong signal” to the forces of Taiwan independence. (https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/03/17/world/asia/17reuters-usa-taiwan-china.html ; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-taiwan-china/china-says-resolutely-opposed-to-new-u-s-law-on-ties-with-taiwan-idUSKCN1GT0I9) ◆ Deutsche Welle, 3-17-2018 : China has reacted angrily ... "severely violate the one-China principle, the political foundation of the China-US relationship." Taiwan ... calling it a "friendly move" ◆ Global Times of China, 2018: <Taiwan Travel Act> is a bill to destroy Taiwan. ◆ People's Daily online (China 人民日報海外版) 3-17-2018: "annoy China, fool Taiwan !"("戲耍台灣挑臖大陸") ◆ UDN Taiwan (台灣聯合報) 3-18-2018: KMT Legislator : The US uses Taiwan as pawn to annoy China ... ( 台恐成夾心餅干) ◆ The bill identifies (indirectly) Taiwan as a country - "visits to a country by United states cabinet members ...". 　 pic. left: ROC (Taiwan) national flag; pic. right: Chinese Taipei flag for participating in int'l events, e.g., Olympics Games.

★

★ "understand Taiwan in one minute" ! ★ TAIWAN in all aspects Top rankings on internet !!

survey to find political persecutions

★

● pic1:

Ocean pollution in Taiwan coast

Daily Mail (UK) 7-14-2017 :
Shocking underwater video from Taiwan
shows ocean floor littered with plastic (bottles) garbage.

●

● Taiwan ignores environmental protection (ocean garbage clean-up) of 90% coast-line of Taiwan island for large garbage-distributions... / United Daily, 5-30-2017

●

● Daily Mail (newspaper UK), 7-14-2017
comments Taiwan coast garbage as :
"selfish" human beings ,
"Taiwan was once called 'Garbage island'
and more conversation is needed" ...... ......

●

● pic 4: Next Magazine (Apple Daily), front-page, 4-6-2017 -

ocean and river pollution by Taiwanese

● NO justice ! The courthouse judged enterprise's disposing 5000 ton cancer-producer strong acid and waste water into the river-creek (color changed to dark yellow ) and endangering the natural environment is no guilty ! / headline news of Apply Daily, 9-30-2015 http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20150930/36807420/

● pic. 2: "Taiwan is scandalous for drug exporting !!" / The China Times, headline news, 4-4-2017; pic. 3: Taiwan was already reduced to be a kingdom of producing narcotic drugs, United Daily, 11-2-2017, headline news.

●

● Taiwan administration's anti-drug is a phony show / The China Times, 7-26-2017

●

● Taiwan's image ― notorious for being a major drug transit center & a major drug exporting country

UDN 4-7-2018 opinion : Taiwan delivered huge amount of drugs to Philippines, and taught terrorists how to fight the gov. by using drugs ...

● Police of Japan and Australia already labeled Taiwan as "High Risk" illegal drug-exporting country

●

● Taiwan got bad records in The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) for the law and law-enforcement problems / United Daily, 4-11-2017

● Drug-abuse in Taiwan is too serious to stop / Apple Daily, Opinion, 5-15-2017

●

● Based on Japan's statistics, Taiwan is its No.3 drug resource country ......

●

● Philippines President Duterte (9-26-2017) : Triad supplying illegal drugs to PH is based in Taiwan, not China / inquirer.net

Philippines President: All illegal drugs came from Taiwan / UDN, opinion, 10-20-2017

● 50 packs (bags) of drugs were found in Taiwan's air force major base / United Daily News 4-7-2017

ps: Dioxin & Fipronil in Taiwan

● Taiwan administration's Dioxin
("poison of the century") control system crashed completely / FTV news, 4-22-2017

●

● "Wanna murder people?" Official certification CAS for food includes not , but Dioxin was already inside many people's body, probably was over the limit , TW government has never done source-control, never stop contaminants (pollutant, e.g., plastic, inks from industry, fly-ash from incinerator, etc) going to our environment. Pollution has exited 12 yrs, and never end / Apple Daily, head-page, 4-22-2017

●

● United Daily, opinion, 8-26-2017 : Taiwanese are mad at the administration was so careless that too many loopholes for business to illegally use chemical... TW gov. randomly inspected some farms and found Fipronil in sample chicken-eggs exceeding 30 times Euro. standard ● CT 8-23-2017 : Taiwan's pesticide control on foods only half-done.

●

pic.3

★

PS :

(1) Monocle's soft power survey:

2018/2019 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	France	16	Nederland
2	Germany	17	Finland
3	Japan	18	Norway
4	Canada	19	China
5	Swiss	20	Belgium
6	UK	21	Singapore
7	Sweden	22	Ireland
8	Australia	23	Austria
9	USA	24	India
10	Portugal	25	Brasil
11	New Zealand	ps: Asia & Pacific countries marked
12	Italia
13	Spain
14	Denmark
15	Korea

2017/2018 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	Canada	16	Nederland
2	Germany	17	Korea
3	France	18	Finland
4	Japan	19	China
5	UK	20	Belgium
6	Swiss	21	Austria
7	USA	22	Singapore
8	Sweden	23	Ireland
9	Australia	24	India
10	Italia	25	Brasil
11	Denmark	ps: Asia & Pacific countries marked
12	Portugal
13	New Zealand
14	Spain
15	Norway

2016/2017 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	USA	16	Norway
2	Germany	17	Korea
3	Japan	18	Finland
4	UK	19	Brasil
5	France	20	China
6	Australia	21	Austria
7	Canada	22	Belgium
8	Sweden	23	Singapore
9	Swiss	24	India
10	Danmark	25	Poland
11	Italy	ps: Asia & Pacific countries marked
12	Spain
13	New Zealand
14	Holland
15	Portugal

★

2015/2016 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	Germany	16	Norway
2	USA	17	Austria
3	UK	18	Finland
4	Japan	19	Portugal
5	France	20	Belgium
6	Australia	21	China
7	Sweden	22	Brazil
8	Swiss	23	Singapore
9	Danish	24	Poland
10	Canada	25	Turkey
11	Spain

(2) Taiwan failed to be listed in 2017's Soft Power 30 Study, compiled by PR company Portland Communication and University of Southern California. The top 30 nations are 1 France 2 UK 3 USA 4 Germany 5 Canada 6 Japan 7 Swiss 8 Australia 9 Sweden 10 Holland 11 Denmark 12 Norway 13 Italy 14 Austria 15 Spain 16 Belgium 17 Finland 18 NZ 19 Ireland 20 Singapore 21 S. Korea 22 Portugal 23 Greece 24 Poland 25 China 26 Russia 27 Czech 28 Hungary 29 Brazil 30 Turkey.

★

2. reviews on Taiwan's military power

★

◆ The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence “Open Hearing on China’s Worldwide Military Expansion.”, 5-17-2018

(1) China's “infatuation with Taiwan” ?

a visceral nationalistic design ...“if Taiwan survives as a democracy [it] undermines the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party”

(2) USA curb China ?

the US could soon be completely driven out of the Asia-Pacific region if Beijing is allowed to continue on its current course unopposed.

(3) Congressional hearing recommended

deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Asia, showing strong support for Taiwan, and exposing human rights abuses in China as immediate steps that could curb Beijing

○

◆ China's Military Power Report / annual Report to US Congress (2019), 5-2-2019

Military and Security Developments involving P.R.C. 2019

★

"China could use missile attacks and precision air raids against air defence systems, including air bases, radar sites, missiles, space assets, and communications facilities to degrade Taiwan's defences, neutralise Taiwan's leadership, or break the Taiwan people's resolve," ...

aljazeera news said at May 3, 2019 that much of China's military doctrine is focused on self-ruled Taiwan,

China might take if Beijing decides to use military force on Taiwan, including a comprehensive campaign "designed to force Taiwan to capitulate to unification, or unification dialogue.

The Liberty Times suggests Taiwan taking "asymmetric warfare". Apple Daily (headline news) 5-4-2019 said that the possibility of the blockade or a limited war by PLA is smaller than that of air raid, rockets, or amphibious landing. (see pic. right)

usni.org said at 2019/05/03 that Taiwan is the primary focus of amphibious assault and sea-based missile launch capability improvements made in 2018 by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the PLA Navy and PLA Marine Corps.

★

◆ CBS news 11-14-2018: U.S. military might "struggle to win, or perhaps lose" war with China or Russia
the National Defense Strategy Commission: "It might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against China or Russia." ...

"If the United States had to fight Russia in a Baltic contingency or China in a war over Taiwan," the report warned. "Americans could face a decisive military defeat." ( https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-military-might-struggle-to-win-or-perhaps-lose-war-with-china-or-russia-report-says/)

○

     ◆ Annual Report to US Congress (8-17-2018):
                Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2018
                https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018_China_Military_Power_Report.PDF

A new method was applied to make these tables below:

○

◆ USA Today 5-18-2018: Xi JinPing has signaled that China will seek to reclaim its historical properties by 2049. Freebeacon 5-17-2018 : 2020—the deadline that [Chinese supreme leader] Xi Jinping has given the [People's Liberation Army] to be ready to invade Taiwan.

○

A ◆ The New York times, 11-4-2017: New York times, 11-4-2017: “(Taiwan) needs to resist a Chinese military attack for two weeks and wait for help from the United States or the international community,” echoing a strategy that has been at the core of Taiwan’s defense doctrine for decades......Taiwan’s armed forces, by contrast (Chn), have fallen way behind, struggling to recruit enough soldiers and sailors — and to equip those they have. A major obstacle is that countries that might sell it the most sophisticated weaponry are increasingly reluctant to do so for fear of provoking China,...The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 commits the United States to defend the island’s sovereignty, providing “such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary” ... US latest arms sales " short of the major systems that could give Taiwan a real edge."

★

◆ The US subcommittee hearing (4-17-2018) Rep. Ted Soho, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific: Seems likely Xi will force the issue (unification) in his life time.

★

◆ Eastern Taiwan's anti-aircraft military force needs to be improved soon, but in recent years, Taiwan has been limited to international reality and financial difficulties, therefore focused on main forces' (F16, IDF/F-CK-1, etc) functional improvement, instead of developing or purchasing new-generation jet fighters, Taiwan looks forward to having F35B, but it may take more than 10 years in the queue. / brief - The Liberty Times, 2-5-2017.

○
◆ New York times, 5-18-2017: Beijing’s belligerence presents an existential threat to Taiwan, Chinese leaders have long vowed to take Taiwan by force if they deem necessary ... For years, the political establishment in Taipei has delegated responsibility for responding to Beijing to the United States. Taiwan's leaders have gutted the military and continued to base defense planning on the assumption that the United States would always come to the rescue. Policies put forward by the Kuomintang and the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party have left the military understaffed and in a state of low morale... Taiwan's active force down to under 200,000 (the exact number is classified). The nearly two million reservists exist in name only... Taiwan’s defense policies are largely a result of deep distrust between the military and politicians. The military has struggled with wide-range scandals/

/ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/opinion (ps: China's Baidu, 10-15-2017: Taiwanese reservists 3 million in total )

○

◆ The US Defense Gov. Report of 2017

Annual Report to US Congress (2017):
Military and Security Developments Involving
the People’s Republic of China 2017
https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2017_China_Military_Power_Report.PDF

○

China VS Taiwan

○

○

★

◆ Apple Daily, 12-19-2017 head-page, focus; data from Taiwan's national defense gov.

pic. left: China military capacity VS Taiwan; pic. right: Chinese air force did lots of "patrol circling" (flying around Taiwan and passing through 1st island chain ).

Source: Apple Daily News, head-page and focus news, 12-19-2017

○●

◆ LTN 3-5-2017 / military power of China VS Taiwan

		China (troops facing Taiwan Strait)	Taiwan
army ground forces	ground troops (地面部隊)	400000	130000
	Field Army (集團軍)	8	3
	war chariot, tank (戰車)	2800	1100
	artillery; cannon (火砲)	3900	1600
Navy	destroyer warship (驅逐艦)	16	4
	guided missile frigate(飛彈巡防艦)	40	22
	Amphibious landing/assault ship(兩棲登陸艦)	28	14
	submarine (傳統動力潛艦)	38	4
Air Force	fighter (aircraft) (戰鬥機)	130	384
	bomber (轟炸機)	200	0
	military transport aircraft (運輸機)	150	19
	special mission aircraft (特輸任務機)	75	25

★

喵◆ US Annual Report to Congress, 2016

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China

https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2016%20China%20Military%20Power%20Report.pdf

Taiwan Strait Military Balance in 2015, Naval Forces
	China	China	Taiwan
	Total	East and South Sea Fleets	Total
Aircraft Carriers	1	0	0
Destroyers	23	16	4
Frigates	52	40	22
Corvettes	23	14	1
Tank Landing Ships/ Amphibious Transport Dock	30	28	14
Medium Landing Ships	22	16	0
Diesel Attack Submarines	57	38	4
Nuclear Attack Submarines	5	2	0
Ballistic Missile Submarines	4	4	0
Coastal Patrol (Missile)	86	68	45

★

Taiwan Strait Military Balance in 2015, Air Forces
	China	China	Taiwan
	Total	Within range of Taiwan	Total
Fighters	1,700	130	384
Bombers/Attack	400	200	0
Transport	475	150	19
Special Mission Aircraft	115	75	25

★

Taiwan Strait Military Balance in 2015, Ground Forces

	China	China	Taiwan
	Total	Taiwan Strait Area	Total
Personnel (Active)	1.25 million	400,000	130,000
Group Armies/Army Corps	18	8	3
Infantry Divisions	12	4	0
Infantry Brigades	23	7	5
Mechanized Infantry Divisions	7	4	0
Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Divisions	2	2	0
Mechanized Infantry Brigades	25	8	3
Armor Divisions	1	0	0
Armor Brigades	17	7	4
Amphibious Armor Brigades	1	1	0
Army Aviation Brigades and Regiments	11	6	3
Artillery Brigades	22	9	5
Airborne Divisions	3	3	0
Marine Brigades	2	2	2
Tanks	7,000	2,800	1,100
Artillery Pieces	8,000	3,900	1,600

○● ○

◆ International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS,UK, www.iiss.org), the military balance 2018 press statement - The annual assessment of global military capability and defence economics, 2-14-2018

In 2017 Beijing showcased more advanced military systems ... are challenging the global predominance of the United States and its allies ... https://www.iiss.org/en/publications/military-s-balance

China's modernisation of its armed forces is processing faster than many experts expected ... (ref to Apple Daily, opinion, 2-21-2018, "共軍非必勝國軍非必敗")

○

◆ New York Times, 5-18-2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/opinion

● Taiwan's military is understaffed and in a state of low morale.

● Taiwan's active force was cut down to under 200,000 (the exact number is classified). The nearly two million reservists exist in name only.
● Taiwan’s defense policies are largely a result of deep distrust between the military and politicians.

★

◆ <The Chinese Invasion Threat> by Ian Eastonct., Oct. 3, 2017

Secret Military Plan: Invade Taiwan by 2020

● China has finalized a clandestine plan to invade Taiwan in 2020 by launching missile attacks, blocking the nation’s air and sea space, and carrying out amphibious landings, Washington-based think tank Project 2049 Institute research fellow Ian Easton said.

● Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) raised doubts over the time frame Easton asserted, saying that he did not think it is very precise.

●China, according to the book <The Chinese Invasion Threat>, would "almost certainly" fail in its full-scale invasion of Taiwan but its military appears driven to prepare and carry out such an attack.

pic.: Headline of Apple Daily, Oct. 6, 2017

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2017/10/05/2003679744; http://freebeacon.com/natiChina’s

◆ Apple Daily, 4-20-2018, headline news : a survey poll by 台灣民主基金會

◆ pic. left: Apple Daily, 4-20-2018, headline news : a Survey poll by 台灣民主基金會
☉ Taiwanese youth fight for independence - 55% yes, 35.9 % no, 9.1% others

☉ Taiwanese youth fight against Chinese military force for unification - 67.7% yes, 24.9 % no, 7.4 % others

◆ pic. right: China Times, 4-21-2018, Opinion: Taiwan National Security Survey conducted by Duke University and NCCU of Taiwan
at about the same time found that once China-Taiwan war happens ...
☉ more than 60% Taiwanese yield or give up & run away (逆來順受或投降逃跑)
☉ The highest percentage of giving up & escaping goes to youth group (age < 39), about 30+ %, aged 40+ is about 10%.
☉ 80% Taiwanese assumed the US army will come to rescue, otherwise the percentage of fighting people will drop, however, according to a seminar in Washington DC in 2017,
only 18% American people support US military force getting involved in the war.

◆ Taiwan's muscle show

news brief

● Apple Daily, 5-30-2016: Taiwan declared no other air forces are allowed to show their muscle in Taiwan air space ... But, CTV evening news(11-27-2016), United Daily News (11-30-2016): China's military aircraft-fighters (much stronger than TW air force) flied past around Taiwan and passed through 1st Island Chain, Taiwan air force did not intercept, stop them.
ps: Chinese troops repeated doing this again and again in 2016 ~ 2017.

◆

● Forbes, 5-21-2013: Taiwan president beset by low approval rate because of weakness against foreign countries, even including Philippines, a backward country dared to hurt Taiwan, ...

◆

● The China Times, 3-29-2017: Taiwan lacks key tech. to make a coach (large bus).

★

◆ editorial cartoons by Zola Zu

★

Taiwan air force ★◆

● Economist (special edition 2017): Taiwan will turn into a tiger again

● Taiwan declared no other air forces are allowed to show their muscle in Taiwan air space/ Apple Daily 5-30-2016,...

● Bloomberg 3-14-2018, CTV evening news11-27-2016, United Daily News 11-30-2016: China's launched regular "encirclement patrols" with military jets (much stronger than TW air force) around Taiwan's airspace and passed through 1st Island Chain, Taiwan air force did not intercept to drive them out.

● Taiwan has been watched by the super power for years......

† Taiwan's sky, our air-space ?

★

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3. reviews on Taiwan's economy & GDP

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◆ Credit Suisse, Oct. 18, 2018 :

country	Wealth per adult(USD)	GDP per adult	Total wealth (bn)	Share of world wealth	quality
United States	403,974	81,425	98,154	31.0%	Good
Singapore	283,118	75,242	1,289	0.4 %	Satisfactory
France	280,580	55,668	13,883	4.4%	Good
United Kingdom	279,048	54,621	14,209	4.5%	Good
Japan	227,235	47,980	23,884	7.5%	Good
Germany	214,893	57,955	14,499	4.6%	Good
Taiwan	212,375	31,146	4,065	1.3 %	Satisfactory
China	47,810	12,147	51,874	16.4%	Good

Global Wealth Rpt.,
http://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/index.cfm?fileid=77A4E912-A32D-8E84-CC8C21144CEE52E2

Global Weaalth Databook,
http://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/index.cfm?fileid=777FDF0E-E060-F608-52DAF97E062CC35B

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◆ Academia Sinica of Taiwan, 10-5-2017 : Taiwan Economic Competition and Growth Strategy Policy Proposal (中央研究院《臺灣經濟競爭與成長策略政策建議書》)
The country will fall into “middle-income” limbo in the next decade if it fails to deal with “three evil hands” that are stalling the economy ...

the law, environmental assessments, and Taiwan-China relations—that could leave Taiwan stuck in the so-called “middle-income trap” and see at least 15 (-30) countries catch up with it in the next 10 years.

Its economic growth rate has reduced rapidly. In the past ten years, its average economic growth rate has dropped to 3.82%, which is lower than other Asian countries such as South Korea and Singapore.

https://financialtribune.com/articles/world-economy/73782/rigid-systems-holding-back-taiwan-development

https://www.sinica.edu.tw/ch/news/4880

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◆ The China Times, opinion, 11-7-2017, The United Daily, opinion, 11-10-2017: Taiwan's industries are short of 5 core elements : electricity and water supply, labor, land and talented persons.

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◆ Credit Suisse, Nov. 15, 2017 :

Global Wealth report 2017, Country summary
Country	Mean wealth per Adult (USD)	Median wealth per Adult (USD)
Taiwan	188,081	87,257
Japan	225,057	123,724
Singapore	268,776	108,850
France	263,399	119,720
UK	278,038	102,641
Compared to the world as a whole, Taiwan has high average wealth and only moderate wealth inequality. http://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/index.cfm?fileid=A6E9E182-E39B-0353-6751EB076EF35159

Global Wealth Report 2016 by credit-suisse Research Institute, Nov. 2016

http://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/index.cfm?fileid=AD783798-ED07-E8C2-4405996B5B02A32E
　

            Taiwan's average level of wealth, at USD 172,800, is similar to that of W. Europe. Over the entire 2000 – 2016 period, wealth per adult grew by 59% in USD terms.    Taiwan has a high saving rate and well-developed financial institutions, so it is not surprising that the composition of household wealth is skewed towards financial assets. The latter now make up 64% of total assets. Debt is relatively modest, equaling 13% of gross assets.
           Taiwan has comparatively high average wealth and only moderate wealth inequality.    20% of the adult population have wealth below USD 10,000, that is not high compared to 73% worldwide.    38% percent of adults in Taiwan have wealth over USD 100,000 which is almost five times greater than the worldwide average of 8%.

Taiwan Country summary 2016
	Population	23 million
	Adult population	19 million
	GDP	32,647 USD per adult
	Mean wealth	172,847 USD per adult
	Median wealth	63,134 USD per adult
	Total wealth	3.0 trillion USD
	US dollar millionaires	356 thousand
	Top 10% of global wealth holders	8,727 thousand
	Top 1% of global wealth holders	528 thousand

Taiwanese wealth

wealth per adult

Pic.: Taiwan's wealth distribution relative to world in %
/ Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2016

Median wealth per adult by country :

● Taiwan USD 63134, ● Singapore USD 101386,
● Japan USD 120493,   ● Hong Kong USD 34362
● USA USD44977, ● Australia USD 162815,
● Canada USD 96664, ● Brasil USD 3811,
● France USD99923, ● Rusiia USD 991,
● Swiss USD244002, ● China USD 4885,
●   UK USD107865, ● Indonesia USD 1966

Pic.: wealth per adult / Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2016 :

Mean wealth per adult by country :
● Taiwan USD172847, ● Singapore USD276885,
● Japan USD 230946, ● China USD 22900,
● Australia USD 375573, ● USA 344692,
● Canada USD 270179 ● France USD244400,
● Germany USD185175, ● UK USD288800 ,
● Spain USD116320 , ● Greece USD103569,
● our world USD 52800
　

◆ United Daily, Opinion, 12-5-2017 : The average monthly salary of Taipei employee (in the amount of NT 43500) is behind that of Beijing's (rmb 9900, equal NT46000 ), Shanghai is at the third (about NT 43000). / 智聯招聘survey.

◆ Taiwan's economy and China

People's Daily of China (international edition), 11-12-2017 : China's GDP in 2016 is about 23 times the number of Taiwan's, five Chinese provinces' (GuanDong, JiangSu, ShanDong, ZheJiang, HeNan ) GDPs topped Taiwan's GDP already, in 3-5 years, 10 provinces might top Taiwan. (brief , UDN, 11-13-2017)
　

Economy

● Taiwan's economy is highly reliant on China,

Forbes. 2015/11/26 <Top 10 China Dependent Countries>: Taiwan ranks world No. 2 ― Taiwan(EWT -9.56%), has held up fairly well despite the fact that 26% of its exports are China bound. A whopping 16% of its economic output is dependent on China.

● Taiwan's Economic growth rate(yoy) (%) is estimated (2017) as 1.92. Economic growth rate (yoy) (%) is 2.88 (2016 4th QTR initial statistics by the government).

● For details pls. see section 3. below.

Economic freedom

● Heritage.Org 's Economic freedom index 2017 gave Taiwan overall score 76.5, Singapore and Hong Kong rank top 2.

● <United Daily news >,《The Liberty Times》Taiwan, 2-25-2017: Taiwanese employee's real wages (average monthly) of last year is lower than that of 16 years ago. The average amount of the real ,monthly wages of about 70% employee is less than NT40000(USD1300), 36.72% is less than NT30000. The youth's low salary is a serious problem, jobless rate is still high.

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◆ wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Taiwan)
　

Taiwan's GDP
GDP	$600.9 billion (Nominal; 2018) $1.177 trillion (PPP; 2017)
GDP growth	2.7% (2018 est.)
GDP per capita	Nominal: $24,557 (2017) Nominal rank: 36th; PPP: $49,827 (2017) PPP rank: 19th

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Taiwan's exports and imports
	Exports	Imports
amounts	$318 billion (2014 est.)	$277.5 billion (2014 est.)
goods	Electronics, flat panels, ships, petrochemicals, machinery; metals; textiles, plastics and chemicals (2014)	Electronics, machinery, crude petroleum, computers, coal, organic chemicals, metals (2014)
Main export partners	China 26.3% Hong Kong 13.7% United States 12% Japan 7% EU 8.8% (2016 est.)	China 19.1% Japan 17.6% United States 12.5% EU 10.6% South Korea 6.3% (2016 est.)

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Taiwan's industries
Main industries	Electronics, communications and information technology products, petroleum refining, armaments, chemicals, textiles, iron and steel, machinery, cement, food processing, vehicles, consumer products, pharmaceuticals
Agricultural:	Rice, corn, vegetables, fruit, tea; pigs, poultry, beef, milk; fish
Natural:	Small deposits of coal, natural gas, limestone, marble, and asbestos

◆ https://tradingeconomics.com/taiwan/gdp

Taiwan GDP	Last	Previous	Highest	Lowest	Unit
GDP Growth Rate	0.15	0.94	5.64	-5.07	percent
GDP Annual Growth Rate	2.10	2.60	17.06	-8.12	percent
GDP	523.01	530.04	530.04	42.30	USD Billion
GDP Constant Prices	4034977.00	3997376.00	4034977.00	604229.00	TWD Million
Gross National Product	4310588.00	4594814.00	4594814.00	99800.00	TWD Million
Gross Fixed Capital Formation	870419.00	963504.00	964529.00	8907.00	TWD Million
GDP From Agriculture	46828.00	60392.00	72053.00	39800.00	TWD Million
GDP From Construction	94847.00	96112.00	121071.00	41088.00	TWD Million
GDP From Manufacturing	1206114.00	1138212.00	1275942.00	130647.00	TWD Million
GDP From Mining	3156.00	3744.00	15925.00	2701.00	TWD Million
GDP From Public Administration	271017.00	267595.00	280931.00	85791.00	TWD Million
GDP From Services	2559778.00	2686530.00	2686530.00	317742.00	TWD Million
GDP From Transport	116527.00	117446.00	119140.00	20691.00	TWD Million
GDP From Utilities	28535.00	29459.00	61237.00	5349.00	TWD Million

The gross domestic product (GDP) measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. The gross domestic product (GDP) is equal to the total expenditures for all final goods and services produced within the country in a stipulated period of time. This page provides - Taiwan GDP - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news. Taiwan GDP - actual data, historical chart and calendar of releases - was last updated on August of 2017.

Compare GDP by country :

Last		Previous
United States	18569.10	Dec/16	USD Billion
Euro Area	11885.66		USD Billion
China	11199.15		USD Billion
Japan	4939.38		USD Billion
Germany	3466.76		USD Billion
United Kingdom	2618.89		USD Billion
France	2465.45		USD Billion
India	2263.52		USD Billion
Italy	1849.97		USD Billion
Brazil	1796.19		USD Billion
Canada	1529.76		USD Billion
South Korea	1411.25		USD Billion
Russia	1283.20		USD Billion
Spain	1232.09		USD Billion
Australia	1204.62		USD Billion
Mexico	1046.00		USD Billion
Indonesia	932.26		USD Billion
Turkey	857.75		USD Billion
Netherlands	770.85		USD Billion
Switzerland	659.83		USD Billion

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◆ The China Times system (June 2017), WHO: Taiwan ranks world No. 3 in the case-number of being under anti-dumping investigation.

◆ http://www.focus-economics.com/countries/taiwan

Taiwan Economy Data
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Population (million)	23.2	23.3	23.4	23.4	23.5
GDP per capita (USD)	21,044	21,344	21,894	22,696	22,469
GDP (USD bn)	489	498	512	532	528
Economic Growth (GDP, annual variation in %)	3.8	2.1	2.2	3.9	0.8
Consumption (annual variation in %)	3.1	1.8	2.3	3.3	1.5

https://www.dgbas.gov.tw/point.asp?index=1

resource from Executive Yuan ROC Taiwan at 3-13-2017

經濟成長率Economic growth rate(yoy) (%)	2.88	[ 2016 4th QTR initial statistics ]
經濟成長率Economic growth rate(yoy) (%)	1.92	[ 2017 prediction/forecast ]
名目GDP (百萬元)	17,461,748	[2017 prediction/forecast ]
平均每人GDP pc (USD)	23,827	[2017 prediction/forecast ]
平均每人GNI pc (USD)	24,607	[ 2017 prediction/forecast ]

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Daily Mail (UK) 4-1-2019: Taiwan blasts China for "reckless and provocative" incursion by 2 fighter jets across a largely respected line dividing the 2 sides in the Taiwan Straits. Japan Times, 4-1-2019: China's move also comes less than a week after the U.S. sent ships through the strait ( mission was unusual) — the third time in as many months...those sailings have likely been interpreted by China as implicit support for self-ruled Taiwan. Reuters 2-25-2019: US Navy ships ... riling China. ABC.net Australia: Chinese fighter jets cross Taiwan Strait after Tsai urges Pacific pushback against Beijing. New York Times 1-19-2019: Most of Taiwan’s 23 million people are in favor of maintaining the island’s de facto independence without taking any formal moves that might bring a military response from China. Le Monde France 1-2-2019: Le président chinois « n’exclut pas » la force pour récupérer Taïwan. BBC UK 1-2-2019: The US is by far Taiwan's only ally...most other countries seem happy to accept the current ambiguity... New York Times 11-28-2018: Will Taiwan Be the First Domino to Fall to China? New York Times, 11-23-2018: China said the results (Taiwan votes in elections) reflected a desire of Taiwanese for better relations with the mainland... Economic growth, employment and pension reforms were among key issues in the elections. Le Monde (France), 11-24-2018: A Taïwan, des élections sous influence chinoise. Washington Post, 8-20-2018: Taiwan's precarious role in the China-US spat (Trump adm.'s Taiwan policy is unpredictable... situation is undeniably risky for Taiwan); CBS News 11-14-2018: If the United States had to fight China in a war over Taiwan, Americans could face a decisive military defeat. / National Defense Strategy Commission ; Annual Report to US Congress ( Military and Security Developments Involving the PRC ), 8-17-2018: Much of Beijing’s defense budget is focused on developing the capability to unify Taiwan by force; USA Today 5-18-2018: Xi JinPing has signaled that China will seek to reclaim its historical properties by 2049. Freebeacon 5-17-2018 : 2020—the deadline that [Chinese supreme leader] Xi Jinping has given the [People's Liberation Army] to be ready to invade Taiwan. The US subcommittee hearing (4-17-2018) Rep. Ted Soho, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific: Seems likely Xi will force the issue (unification) in his life time. Bloomberg 3-14-2018: Trump's "Taiwan card" (to annoy China when needed) is China's real worry. Deutsche Welle 3-17-2018: China has reacted angrily to the bill (Trump signed <Taiwan Travel Act> which paves way for official exchanges with Taiwan, and identifies indirectly (?) Taiwan as a country ― "visits to a country by United States cabinet members ...".) Bloomberg news 3-14-2018: Taiwan will suffer even more, as it gets caught in the middle between a stronger China and a inward-looking US... New York Times at 10-19-2017: China's Xi (in 19th CP Congress Speech) "called for the return of Taiwan, a self-governing island, to mainland Chinese control", only “with patriots playing the principal role.”..."the line that won the loudest applause" ―― "We will never allow anyone, any organization, or any political party, at any time or in any form, to separate any part of Chinese territory from China". FreeBeacon at 10-19-2017 : "China’s Xi Jinping Slams the Door on Taiwanese Appeals for Independence.". Spiegel Germany, 1-9-2017, Global Times of China: "There is no room for negotiations" ("Es gibt keinen Raum für Verhandlungen"). Le Monde Diplomatique of France, Mai 2016, depicted Taiwan (click for details ! ) as a trembling sweating rat , turning its back on an approaching huge cat (China), lifting high the banner "$O$" . New York Times at 11-4-2017: Chinese aircraft routinely probe Taiwan’s airspace ... aircraft carrier traversed the Taiwan Strait.

military
The People's Republic of China (PRC) claims that the Republic of China (Taiwan) government is illegitimate, has vowed to retake the renegade province ruled by "Taiwan authority", after Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists government and forces were defeated by Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party and relocated to Taiwan in 1949. Many countries seem welcome the current ambiguity - Washington “acknowledges” there is one China and Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially “recognized” Taiwan as part of China, and passed a law to sell Taiwan defensive weapons, stressed that any attack by China would be considered of "grave concern" to the US. Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun (読売新聞), Opinion, 6-22-2017 stated the US is the key to keep the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait ('米国は台湾の防衛力強化を担っており、台湾海峡の平和と安定のカギを握る') 。However, the New York Times at 11-4-2017 pointed out that the US military "intervention now would confront a more potent Chinese military", “China’s military modernization has “eroded or negated many of Taiwan’s historical advantages (geography and the US support) ” in deterring a potential attack. ”. Washington Post at 1-5-2018 said many senior officials regarded Taiwan as a "roadblock to Washington’s smooth relations with China", "the turd in the punchbowl". China's Global Times at 1-10-2018 said "many forces" in the US are still supporting Taiwan as a "leverage against China" (Bloomberg 3-14-2018: some US national security hawks). New York Times at 4-18-2018: Mr. Trump questioned why the US should be bound by the One China policy if Beijing will not budge on trade ... The U.S. and Taiwan are seen as heading in a direction that is getting perilously close to Chinese red lines...... Because Taiwan’s government refuses to acknowledge this island is part of China, some analyst predicts that China has accelerated its timetable to 2020 for taking over the island by military means. Taiwan president Tsai said at 12-29-2017 that Chinese leader was not supposed to attack Taiwan ("應該不是決策思考範圍內"), she corrected herself at 1-22-2018 in SETN that the possibility of a war won't be ruled out. Tsai declined to endorse the so-called "1992 Consensus" that both side are part of “one China,” allowing each side its own interpretation of what that means. Till Spring 2019, the Chinese military has conducted a series of provocative, aggressive operations, e.g., "patrol circling" by aircrafts and a submarine passing through 1st island chain and an aircraft carrier passing through Taiwanese 'territory' (Taiwan Strait median line), to test the waters or prepare for an eventual future attack against Taiwan. Taiwan National Security Survey conducted by Duke University and NCCU of Taiwan found that once China-Taiwan war happens, more than 60% Taiwanese yield or give up & run away (The China Times, 4-21-2018, Opinion).

economy & diplomatic
Although Taiwan is not the most important figure in PRC's int'l-strategy chessboard, Beijing also keeps increasing steadily diplomatic pressure on Taiwan, the number of Taiwan's formal diplomatic-relation allies has fallen to 17 till Spring 2019 (Taiwan loses Salvador. China rankled TW president's visit to NASA - LA Times 8-20-2018) , more may be in trouble any time. On the other hand, China applied the strategy "offering economic benefits to Taiwan"("讓利" such as encouraging tourist to Taiwan) so that more Taiwanese will have higher inclination toward unification with mainland, then more than two-thirds of Taiwan’s outward foreign direct investment is to China ― Taiwan's leading trading partner, Taiwan earned surplus nearly USD120 billion from China in 2017. The majority of Taiwanese are concerned about the potential problems in deeper economic integration with the mainland, in spite of that realistic Taiwanese knew this interdependence is unavoidable, 83 percent chose "bread" over "romance" (state independence). United Daily survey at 11-20-2017 found the percentage of Taiwanese having good perception on Chinese people and communist government increased to 49% and 40%, at the same time Chinese aircrafts terrorized Taiwan by routinely flying around this island (UDN, 11-20-2017). Le Monde diplomatic of France, Mai '16, reported the economies of both sides were complementary, now compete each other. Taiwanese are gradually being excluded from the Chinese chain of production and supply. (Mais les économies des deux rives, qui étaient complémentaires, entrent désormais en concurrence. Les entreprises taïwanaises sont progressivement exclues de la mise en place d’une chaîne de production et d’approvisionnement chinoise ... ) To achieve its goal of reducing dependence on China by increasing commerce with other Asian countries, Taiwan will need to make more reforms to increase competition and openness (heritage.org).

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Taiwan's the 7th largest economy in Asia, and the 22nd-largest economy in the world. Latest Global Wealth Report (Credit Suisse, Oct., 2018) shows Taiwanese wealth per adult, at USD 212,375, is close to that of W. Euro., (UK USD 279,048, France USD 280,580) and Singapore (USD 283,118 ), Hong Kong (244,672), but nation's share world wealth (1.3%) is less than USA(31%), Japan(7.5%), China(16.4%) and Korea(2.2%). Singapore's GDP per adult is more than 2 times Taiwan's. Taiwan was one of the world's top producers of computer technology, but its high-tech sector is falling behind for lacking of key tech. and its low pay. Taiwan's GDP per capita retreated successively in recent years, UDN (1-28-2019) reported GDP per capita of Shanghai, Beijing, GuangZhou and SenZhen all are closed to that of Taiwan. China's GDP in 2016 is about 23 times the number of Taiwan's, five Chinese provinces topped Taiwan already.

The ROC on Taiwan, has most of the characteristics of an independent state, however, Taiwan's image and brand personality suffered for getting benefits by any means ( as Confucius analects : "窮斯濫" ) and having some principal human rights problems as below:

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● freedom of speech : < Reporters Sans Frontieres> (RSF, France) , 4-18-2019: Taiwan’s journalists are suffering from a very polarized media environment dominated by sensationalism and the pursuit of profit. Although President Tsai Ing-wen has said she wants to continue developing press freedom in Taiwan, few concrete measures have been taken to improve journalists’ editorial independence and encourage media to raise the quality of the public debate. Beijing is exploiting this weakness by putting pressure on Taiwanese media owners, who often have business interests on the mainland. ● Apple Daily 3-29-2019 editorial opinion: Democracy & Freedom of speech is the bottom line which should never be lost, the government should not create chilling effect by fishing in trouble water. The China Times 3-29-2019 headline news: Democracy on the surface, anti-democracy to the bone is not allowed. ● US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released at 3-13-2019: the impact of the concentration of media ownership on freedom of the press, self-censorship continued.

● justice : US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released at 3-13-2019 pointed out that justice ministry was insufficiently independent and conducted politically motivated investigations of politicians (in <Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government> section), ... ● The Liberty Times, head-page, The China Times, head-page, 12-8-2018: Taiwan P.M. (賴清德): Taiwan has not made significant progress on judicial reform, which is roiling with public discontent; <The United Daily>, 06-18-2016, head page news: Taiwan's prosecutors admit usually following order to conclude legal cases. <USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices>, 2016-2018, and media of Taiwan: Taiwan's justice ministry was insufficiently independent, public trust on Taiwan's judiciary system keeps falling down. <United Daily>, opinion column, 12-16-2017: Taiwan's public voice with a heavy heart : The prosecutors should abide by the law too... don't be a political tool. <UDN>, 2-13-2018: Taiwan's Minister of Judiciary and secretary of Justice Ministry issued progress report of judicial reform ― Public trust in judges is always low, the protection mechanism of lawsuit right is still not good enough.

● children & women trafficking : US state government - 2019 Trafficking in persons report, Jun. 2019: in the last five years, human traffickers subject foreign men and women to forced labor and sex trafficking in Taiwan, and traffickers subject local men and women to forced labor and local women and children to sex trafficking. ... take advantage of Taiwan and foreign women’s and children’s drug addictions to subject them to sex trafficking. Taiwan traffickers increasingly use the internet, smartphone apps, livestreaming, and other such online technologies to conduct recruitment activities, often targeting child victims, and to mask their identities from law enforcement.

● pirate : Green Peace, 5-2-2019: It remains our view that Taiwanese fisheries still have many serious problems, both environmental and social, and that the need for reform is clear and urgent. Lowy Institute & <the interpreter>, 5-2-2019: Taiwan ...illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing... Taiwan has so far refused to adopt the Work in Fishing Convention. EU warned in 2015 Taiwan with a yellow card for illegal fishing till 6 '19. US state government - 2019 Trafficking in persons report, Jun. 2019: fishermen working on Taiwan-flagged and -owned fishing vessels experience non- or under-payment of wages, long working hours, physical abuse, lack of food or medical care, denial of sleep, and poor living conditions while indebted to complex, multinational brokerage networks. Migrant fishermen have reported senior crewmembers employ such coercive tactics as threats of physical violence, beatings, withholding of food and water, and pay deductions to retain their labor. Freedom House, June 2019: labor advocates report poor implementation, citing ongoing mistreatment and abuse of foreign fishermen on Taiwanese vessels.

● privacy : The United Daily News (聯合報) , editorial, 3-31-2019 : Taiwan is a backward country on personal-data protection. Taiwan plans to sell general public's personal data and digital human rights (e.g., people's medical health data without giving any notice ), peep at whatever on the net , and even monitor all the citizens, nothing people would normally notice ... (brief https://udn.com/news/story/7338/3728815) ; ● EU General Data Protection Regulation - GDPR was given to effect at 5-25-2018, Taiwan is far behind, even is going in an opposite way / Apple Daily 蘋果日報, 5-28-2018, National Taiwan University Law School professor 林鈺雄

● democracy : <Foreign Policy>, 2015: Taiwan politics belongs to mega-corporations (not the people) and is controlled by the political parties. <UDN> editorial,12-6-2018: Taiwan's democracy exists in name only ...; <United Daily News>, editorial opinion, 6-23-2019: The operation of democracy usually strays off most public-opinions, ... fail to solve the adverse situation of reversing democracy; <United Daily News>, Opinion, 3-7-2017: Now it seems hard to keep Taiwan's skin-deep democracy ... the people's "livelihood" was sacrificed for politics ...

● corruption : Apple Daily (12-7-2018) editorial : Taiwan's corruption is off the charts by collusions between government officials and business owners, furthermore, Taiwan's underworld going wild to assist government officials, business and some elected representatives (e.g., legislators) in corruption has been ahead of most corrupt countries, e.g., China, Indonesia, Brazil, Philippines, Vietnam, the stinky rotten food-chain crossing pan-Blue (Nationalist, KMT) and pan-Green (DPP) resurges after Taiwan's elections...

● secret police : The United Daily News, editorial opinion (9-19-2018) : "secret police" (「東廠們」) have been active around us ... The Liberty Times, head-page, The China Times, head-page, 12-8-2018: Taiwan P.M. (賴清德): "Secret Police event" (「東廠事件」) has seriously damaged public trust on the government...; UDN 11-3-2018, Intel. sys. (NSB) confirmed their investigations of Facebook and other's communities on the net. All internet platform service providers in Taiwan were requested to hand in all users' personal information/data (intel denied). <Apple Daily (蘋果日報)> 11-7-2018 editorial opinion: by whatever name ( "secret police" or "national security bureau") it is called, what "it" did secretly were always more than what it admitted. ● Taiwan's Intelligence and secret-agent systems keep on governing the country ... they're true Prime Minister (行政院長), ...So many suspected political murder cases remain unsolved (ref to 2018.7.26【政經看民視】 FTV, "政經看民視", 7-26-2018; SET(三立電視), 9-24-2013 "Secret agents govern the nation (特務治國)" www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBdZCdYrwF4; Era TV, 年代電視, 9-22-2013; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1b4R2m6K3g; "Secret agent systems resurgence to control the nation (特務復辟治國)"

● fraud : Taiwan is notorious for its fraud crimes all over the world (CTV evening news, 12-14-2017, EBC TV, 4-9-2017, UDN opinion, 12-24-2017). Taiwan largely sees these telecom frauds/phone scammers as an asset rather than liability... (quora, 4-16-2016). It's not easy for Taiwan to clean its bad name of 'fraud-crime empire' because "Rome is not built in one day". (Asia Association of Police Studies, secretary general, China Times, 11-7-2017)

● torture & cruelty : Taiwan is far behind and keeps stalling legislating a new law against torture and other cruelty, conclusively advised by international review panel ( Philip Alston, law professor at New York University; Eibe Riedel, former member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Jerome Cohen, law professor at New York University; and Nisuke Ando, professor emeritus at Kyoto University, etc. ) (ref. to Apple Daily, headline, 12-9-2017) Taiwan's opposition party vice presidential candidate, NTU professor Lin Ruey-Shiung, was subject to electromagnetic wave attacks (French AFP ,Dec. 1, 2011 , Thailand's Bangkok Post, Dec. 3, 2011, Yahoo UK & Ireland, etc. ), Taiwan gov. denied this. ● Liberty Times 6-7-2019 : Control Yuan's new mission - against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment / Pavel Doubek ● United Daily, editorial, 5-6-2019: Control Yuan should work for underprivileged people, not only cover their own politicians. ● State violence and white terror (product of state violence) return in Taiwan (United Daily, opinion, 12-21-2017, 12-27-2017). Taiwan's Facebook "Green terror" suppressed free expression...... (Wikipedia 2017, The China Times, public opinion, 11-18-2017). The key-point is state violence (Apple Daily, opinion, 8-16-2013).

● food safety : The China Times, 10-20-2018 opinion (editorial) https://opinion.chinatimes.com/20181019003889-262101 :

Taiwan's food safety failed again and again, Dioxin, Fipronil poison-eggs in last year, Nicarbazin illegal drug residue event in this year. Europe was very cautious about Fipronil event, in contrast, Taiwan did nothing about it. Even worse, Taiwan officials hide Nicarbazin issue from Taiwanese people to baby related business ― indulge business to retrieve problematic eggs and then resell them as promotion goods. Why do high-ranking officials always fudge Taiwanese people's only, and humblest request ？? (brief) UDN, 2-17-2019: Gov. did not declared poison eggs until almost sold out... ● The China Times (中國時報), 2-28-2019, opinion (editorial) questions Taiwan officials are trying very hard to hide the epidemic state of Marek's virus in chicken eggs ...

● drug base : Taiwan was already reduced to be a 'kingdom' of producing narcotic drugs. (United Daily, headline news, 11-2-2017) Philippine President Duterte ... blaming Taiwan-based organised crime behind all this drug traffic... for using his country as a shipping hub. (Reuters, 9-27-2017, The Straits Times, 9-29-2017) Duterte: Triad supplying illegal drugs to PH is based in Taiwan, not China (inquirer.net, 9-26-2017). Taiwan is scandalous for being a major drug transit center & a major drug exporting country, part of Taiwanese government including Judicial sys. refused to improve this issue. (UDN Opinion, 11-6-2017, The China Times, head-page & focus, 4-4-2017, The Liberty Times, 5-12-2017)

● exploitation : Freedom House, June 2019: labor advocates report poor implementation, citing ongoing mistreatment and abuse of foreign fishermen on Taiwanese vessels. USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices, March 3, 2017, 4-20-2018: Exploitation of foreign workers, official corruption, some media self-censorship with regard to China, vote buying, etc . US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released at 3-13-2019: Foreign workers were most susceptible to forced labor, especially when serving as crew members on Taiwan-flagged fishing vessels. Mistreatment and poor working conditions for foreign fishermen remained common.

● life protection : The government has not well taken its fundamental responsibility of protecting the safety of people's life and property - why are there so many tall buildings located on the fault-zone? why are poor architectures everywhere on bad geologic grounds ? why are those shit-hole politicians doing nothing and ignoring urban renewal so as to risk millions of old houses and human beings? (ps: may face death in 6 magnitude quake) (full text: https://udn.com/news/story/11321/2974813 聯合報社論／斷層帶上何以建了那麼多高樓？ 2-8-2018, https://udn.com/news/story/7338/2977079 勿讓軟腳樓成坑殺人命陷阱 2-9-2018, https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/daily/20180209/37928659花蓮都更爛政客 2-9-2018)

● life protection (2) :Taiwan is dishonest and 'cruel' ― trying to hide, block, delay public-health news, e.g., poisoned eggs, PCV virus vaccine, and Bird-flu more than one time (1-2-2018 UDN udn.com/news/story/7266/2908720, Taiwan failed to solve food-safety issue, professors and MDs advised eating at home. (The China Times. 8-6-2016, <食品不安全的年代如何自保>, 2016, etc.), 2012 BBC news : www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese_news/2012/03/120304_taiwan_birdflu_investigate) , not to mention big issues. ● The China Times 5-9-2018 column : This is an EVIL state apparatus ... The China Times 5-26-2018 column : The government likes to conceal bad news, put paper over the cracks, e.g., air pollution, rupture of diplomatic relationships, ...http://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20180509000843-260109● Taiwan administration's policy led to air pollution, toxic pollution in the land and sea ... (The China Times, 1-7-2018 台灣海陸空污染毒害，山海變色 http://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20180107000465-260114。Daily Mail (UK) 7-14-2017 : Shocking underwater video from Taiwan shows ocean floor littered with plastic (bottles) garbage)

etc.

○○

Taiwan tried to follow US academic Joseph Nye's notion of applying power by persuasion and attraction rather than coercion or force to deal with China and expand its international space. Brookings at 1-22-2018 commented that Increasing “soft power” is a low-cost, high-return strategy for Taiwan. However, Taiwan's soft power performed worse than that of China and Asian's Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, India, UAE. Taiwan failed to be included in UK based Monocle's Soft Power list 2010 ~ 2019 and Soft Power 30 by USC Center on Public Diplomacy, 2017 ~ 2018. Taiwan's military hard power was reduced by half (the number of active forces) and is in a state of low morale, Taiwan's leader made a defense strategy to resist Chinese PLA for 2 weeks, and made assumption that then American sons and daughters will always risk their lives to protect our home.

full text

damaged web-pages of the site	dirty attacks ! free speech is worse ever in the past 20 years ! prime suspects are ... ?
Taiwan justice (e.g., page1, page2, page3, etc).	New form attacks happened at 11-20-2018 ... each char. being typed in took a long time (seconds, even 10+ minutes, or forever) to be shown on the screen while updating my web-pages concerning Taiwan judicial systems and prosecutors... attacks last ...
backup sites: http://intlhumanrights.com/TW_judiciary.htm http://intlhumanrights.com/TW_prosecutors.htm http://intlhumanrights.com/TW_prosecutor.htm , if needed, 11-22-2018

○

Taiwan Reviews ★ this site's world No. 1 in 2017~19, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010~12 ★ Top rankings since 1998 ★

○

●

◆ 1.	See Taiwan in 1 minute

☉ below each visual parody, cartoon on The dark side of Tw. are related or relevant reports or comments

★ ★ ★

Taiwan politicians buried people alive

★◆

in quakes of magnitude 6.0

◆

Taiwan government (including local gov.) has not well taken its fundamental responsibility of protecting the safety of people's life and property -

● why are there so many tall buildings located on the fault-zone?

● why are poor architectures everywhere on bad geologic grounds ?

● why are those shit-hole politicians doing nothing and ignoring urban renewal so as to risk millions of old houses and human beings ??

(full text: https://udn.com/news/story/11321/2974813 聯合報社論／斷層帶上何以建了那麼多高樓？ 2-8-2018, https://udn.com/news/story/7338/2977079 勿讓軟腳樓成坑殺人命陷阱 2-9-2018, https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/daily/20180209/37928659花蓮都更爛政客 2-9-2018)

†

★

●

◆

Taiwan, a rat or a soft chicken ! ?

Taiwan weakness

● USA Today 5-18-2018: Xi JinPing has signaled that China will seek to reclaim its historical properties by 2049. Freebeacon 5-17-2018 : 2020—the deadline that [Chinese supreme leader] Xi Jinping has given the [People's Liberation Army] to be ready to invade Taiwan.

● Le Monde diplomatic of France, Mai 2016, depicted Taiwan as a trembling sweating rat (or mouse), turning its back on an approaching huge cat (China), lifting high the banner "$O$" .
　

click the image (left) to view the graphic comment !

● FreeBeacon , at 10-19-2017 : "China’s Xi Jinping Slams the Door on Taiwanese Appeals for Independence.". Washington Post at 10-18-2017: "Mr. Xi’s biggest applause line was a vow to 'never allow anyone. . . to separate any part of Chinese territory from China.' That would include...Taiwan."(19th CPC national Congress).

● 德國 Spiegel, 1-9-2017, Global Times of China: "There is no room for negotiations" . ("一中原則 ... 沒有討價還價的餘地, "Es gibt keinen Raum für Verhandlungen".)。

◆

rapes in the dark

Taiwan state apparatus fully support freedom of expression & democracy !

You can scream as loud as you want

The louder you scream, the more I enjoy ...

more readings: ◆ State violence and white terror (product of state violence) return in Taiwan (United Daily, opinion, 12-21-2017, 12-27-2017).

◆ This is an EVIL state apparatus (column, CTN, 5-9-2018): Taiwan has shown a general tendency toward pandering state apparatus, surrendering in mind control ... http://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20180509000843-260109

◆ Abusing power to invade citizen's rights, going old route of anti-democracy are their nature (United Daily, opinion, 12-20-2017). https://udn.com/news/story/11321/2886710

ref to https://udn.com/news/story/11321/2897025。http://udn.com/news/story/7338/2179800。

◆ Now it seems hard to keep Taiwan's skin-deep democracy ... the people's "livelihood" was sacrificed for politics ...The United Daily - Opinion, 3-7-2017

◆◆

Hitler resurgence ... Nazi returns !?

pic.: This cartoon work of Zola Zu was printed in the United Daily group,
Min-Sen Daily about 20 years ago

† Secret police have already been active around us...
◆ United Daily (聯合報), editorial opinion , 9-19-2018
ps: 「東廠」meaning : imperial secret police serving the emperors of Ming Dynasty,
or the espionge agency under the leadership of the eunuch in Ming Dynasty, China

◆◆

◆

Taiwan travel ★

Does Taiwan
Have democracy?
　

Taiwan democracy

Taiwan food

● BBC UK, The SUN (2-13-2017): "BUS CRASH HORROR !" Taiwan's "safety standards need to be improved".
● China - People's Daily's Global Times (7-19-2016) Opinion-editorial: Tourists're gambling their lives in Taiwan ...
click Taiwan travel for details
● Taiwan has had a poor aviation safety record/
CNN, Newsweek, 2-4-2015

● People's Daily (8-4-2016) Opinion-editorial: Chinese not dare to visit Taiwan without safety assurance, there's loopholes in law and regulation, careless mistakes in administration, not-good-enough system, etc

★

● All night-market districts across Taiwan have safety problem similar to the big gas-cylinder LPG-explosion in Fengjia (逢甲) night market (known as largest night-market business district in Taiwan) / The China Times, 7-19-2017

†

● Taiwan politics belongs to corporations (not the people) and is controlled by the political parties <Foerign Policy> 2015.

●

● Now it seems hard to keep Taiwan's skin-deep democracy... the people's "livelihood" was sacrificed for politics ...The United Daily - Opinion, 3-7-2017

●

● Taiwan's financial system is rotten ... / FTV news, 5-29-2017●

● Food safety is one of biggest challenges to Taiwan / The China Times. 8-6-2016,
an interview to Taiwan president Tsai
● Professor Yin M.D. (殷宗海, Doctor, Univ. of London ): Minimize the times of dining out to protect your health !
● Government's food-safety budget is too little, only USD0.03 for each Taiwanese, according to 前瞻plan / China Times, 7-9-2017
● The limit-amount (ppm, part per million) of pesticide residue are restricted to in Taiwan is 1000 times that in Europe / The China Times, Opinion <短評 "Taiwan is more toxic than before>, 4-21-2017
　

Beaviss : dummy ! there's no poison, addictives, MSG, lard oil, gutter oil, added in these Chinese heritage arts - pork stone and cabbage jade
Butter-Head: so, we can eat these healthy foods now?! ps4
a visual parody by Zola Zu　

● †

●

★ ps: The incidence rate of Taiwanese people suffering colon/rectal cancer was ranked world No.1, many black-heart tainted foods containing Carcinogen (cancer producer)...../ 8-28-2015 apple daily.

◆

Taiwan - an 'empire' of illegal drugs

http://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20170404000178-260102

● Taiwan's image ― notorious for being a major drug transit center & a major drug exporting country ("drug" - amphetamine, etc, ps13 )

● Police of Japan and Australia already labelled Taiwan as "High Risk" illegal drug-exporting country

● Based on Japan's statistics, Taiwan is its No.3 drug resource country ......ref to The China Times, headline news, 4-4-2017

● Taiwan was already reduced to be a kingdom of producing narcotic drugs. (United Daily, headline news, 11-2-2017) Taiwan's anti-drug is a phony show / CTN, 7-2017

● Philippines President Duterte (9-26-2017) : Triad supplying illegal drugs to PH is based in Taiwan, not China / inquirer.net

Philippines President: All illegal drugs came from Taiwan / UDN, opinion, 10-20-2017

● Taiwan got bad records in The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) for the law and law-enforcement problems / UDN 4-11-2017

● Drug-abuse in Taiwan is too serious to stop / Apple Daily, Opinion, 5-15-2017;

● Taiwan President Tsai: "Once being addicted to drugs, they will struggle for life, ..." / United Daily, 4-21-2017 <Focus>.

† international nuisances & social harms

★

◆

● BBC 4-22-2016: Taiwanese massive international telecoms frauds lead to diplomatic row between Taiwan and China, and cost Chinese victims billions of Yuan and to have driven some to suicide...http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36108762

● Taiwan is notorious for its fraud crimes all over the world, damaging the image of Taiwan / EBC TV 4-9-2017 6:54am

● Taiwan largely sees these telecom frauds/phone scammers as an asset rather than liability... / quora.com

● Taiwan's legal system is extremely tolerant of the scammers. Not matter how much money was involved in a scamming case / https://www.quora.com/Does-Taiwan-rely-on-the-fraud-industry-heavily, /4-16-2016

● Taiwan's legislators and judicial system don't have a sense of shame on int'l telecomm scammers issue / ref to United Daily News (聯合報), Opinion, 8-2016

ps14

† international nuisances & social harms

★

Taiwan illegal fishing

Taiwan, A pirate boat ?

● <The Diplomat> (4-14-2016) : Taiwan's illegal fishing is 'out of control' - EU warned in 2015 Taiwan with a yellow card for illegal fishing. GreenPeace criticized Taiwan gov. for knowing this issue but does little. (wait & see how TW nw law works)

● Washington Post 2-22-2018: Taiwan is No.2 fishing nation as measured by Global fishing Watch's Automatic Identification Sys., 2016.

● Taiwan's principal human rights problems reported : exploitation of foreign workers, including foreign crewmembers on long-haul fishing vessels / USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices, 3-3-2017

● More than 100 foreign laborers were raped each year / BBC 1-24-2017

● Taiwanese endured foreign household caregivers who prefer an easy job and are picky about patients and severe disabilities..., Economic Daily News ( 經濟日報, 2015-11-28)
　

ps: Many laborers are 'good' at committing crimes (running away, malicious destroy/damage, guilty of burglary, etc ), something wrong with TW system.

● <Reporters Sans Frontieres> (RSF, Reporters without Borders), France, 4-27-2017 : Local government officials are also directly interfering in the editorial policies of state-owned media; Taiwan's press freedom is at 45th place.

● USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices, 3-3-2017 : some media self-censorship with regard to China......

● RSF: “the main threat to media freedom comes from China, which has been exerting growing economic and political pressure on the Taiwanese media.”

● Those faceless coward-hackers tried to damage speech-freedom and stop my modifying this web-page. 6-10-2017

★

★★

★　

Taiwan, a "kingdom" of mask ―
　

● Taiwan's environmental quality (serious air pollution, bad water) was ranked almost the last in

all OECD countries / 9-21-2015 China Times

★T● Taiwan built an environment to kill legally , for its PM2.5 air-pollution-control

standard 15 years behind / dean, College of Public health, National Taiwan University, UDN headpage, 10-16-2017; Liberty Times 1-4-2016 (http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/paper/945998).

★T

★　★● Taiwan, in the lower ranks, placing 54th out of 57 nations in the CCPI with regards to

cutting down carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases. / Taipei Times, 11-23-2017★

taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2017/11/23/2003682785
　● United Daily, Opinion, 12-2-2017: 2/3 of Taiwan's air pollutions came from local, the "culprit" is too many
coal-fired power generation - Taiwan government's policy. 　

★

Justice's raped !

Taiwan justice dead

Taiwan Justice sys. is ruler's tool, judiciary is controlled by politics - Liberty Times, 6-19-2016
　

Nearly 80% Taiwanese don't believe judges and prosecutors

Nearly 80% Taiwanese are not satisfied with gov. measures against corruption - Liberty Times 2-23-2016 †

★

★democracy vs DEMOcrazy?

★ Taiwan torture ★

Torture on Taiwan's own people - a major difference from what CIA did (ps2)
also violate Nuremberg Code (ps12)

Professor Lin R.S. was subject to electromagnetic wave attacks / French AFP, Bangkok Post, Dec. 2011, Yahoo UK & Ireland, etc

†

★

One of Taiwan's Principal
human rights problems :
rotten (corruption)

ref. to US Country Report on Human Rights, 2015-2017, and PERC 2009, etc.

cyber-link:
Corruption in Taiwan
Prosecutors in Taiwan
Justice in Taiwan

★

◆

◆ United Daily, 9-6-2018, headlines : Any solution to our ocean crisis ??
a bowl of plastic trash soup still trouble Taiwan
◆ Apple Daily, 9-6-2018: serious pollutions in many locations around Taiwan, ...
Phenol may harm human health ...
◆ Apple Daily, headline news, 8-30-2018: Taiwan is reduced to a world dumping ground - one million ton of stinky trash were delivered to Taiwan between Jan. 2018 ~ July 2018
　

†

Taiwan ― a piss boy polluting the environment

     ● Asian's biggest sewage treatment plant in Taiwan's New Taipei, skipped the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and disposed dirty and disgusting water into the sea for probably 4-5 years, witnesses confirmed. / Next, front-page, 4-6-2017
     ● Taiwan administration's Dioxin ("poison of the century") control system crashed completely / FTV news, 4-22-2017
     ● NO justice ! The courthouse judged enterprise's disposing 5000 ton cancer-producer strong acid and waste water into the river-creek (color changed to dark yellow ) and endangering the natural environment is no guilty ! / headline news of Apply Daily, 9-30-2015 http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20150930/36807420/

     ● "Wanna murder people?" Official certification for food (CAS) includes not Dioxin.    Pollution for12 yrs never end, Dioxin inside many people already over the limit probably, TW government has never done source-control, never stop contaminants (pollutant, e.g., plastic, inks from industry, fly-ash from incinerator, etc) going to our environment / Apple Daily, head-page, 4-22-2017

★

Taiwan ! Save the ocean !

save the ocean

　

comments it as "selfish" human beings ,
"Taiwan was once called 'Garbage island'
and more conversation is needed" ......

Taiwan ignores environmental protection
(ocean garbage clean-up) of 90% Taiwan's coast
with large garbage-distributions...
/ UDN, 5-30-2017

pic above: Daily Mail (UK) :

Shocking underwater video from Taiwan

shows ocean floor littered with plastic garbage
　

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4690526/The-bottom-ocean-filled-plastic-bottles.html (news & video)

★★★

★　

Taiwanese

have been patient sufferance of so many
politically bullies and toying (and killings),
hence turned into obedient, docile people

★ †

Washington Post, 1-2-2017 : 83 percent chose "bread" over "romance" ...

Eagle at home, chicken abroad,
sharp spikes pointing to
its own hoi polloi
　

in Presidential inaugural speech, Tsai referred to the Constitution of the Republic of China and the

legislation governing cross-strait relations,

both imply the acceptance of a “one China” framework.

★

Taiwan, a soft chicken 　 Taiwan president beset by low approval rate because of weakness against foreign countries, even including Philippines, a backward country dared to hurt Taiwan, not to mention military strong ones, China, Japan, etc ref. to Forbes, 5-21-2013 NY Times 5-18-2017: TW gov has left the military understaffed and in a state of low morale... ps: The Philippines is little & weak, but not soft / Independent UK, etc, 10-11-2016, Philippines refused to be "a dog with leash" / CNBC 10-25-2016		Taiwan national flag still function / working as weather cock to learn which way and how strong the political wind blowing	Major crimes fled easily, The little or innocent took the rap Little ones take the rap. Taiwan's legislators and judicial system don't have a sense of shame on releasing many int'l telecomm scammers and fraud groups (United Daily, 8-24-2016 editorial ). In the past 8 years, about 100 major crimes escaped overseas easily and happily (Next magazine, Liberty Times, 12-31-2015), including political leader Liu 劉松藩 (apple daily 12-8-2016) ps3
†			†
★ ★
pic. : political dig-dirt...ps1 　 watch the people, or listen to the people? keyhole or loophole ? Taiwanese privacy 　　　　 pic. : murder the image, firstly... 　　　　　　 pic. : Looking for the guilty? need only look into a mirror on WANTED poster / Taiwan's political culture & ecology can't cultivate citizens knowing and obeying the law ... / <United Daily> 8-24-2016 editorial	TW	Taiwan lacks creativity, not cold calculations The logo (pic. above) of Taiwan gov. / Ministry of Economic Affairs (pic. above) is similar to Canadian logos (pic.below) appeared earlier click for Taiwanese creativity ★ ps: The China Times, 3-29-2017: Taiwan lacks key tech. to make a coach (large bus). ★ ★ 　 ★ ★ ◆ Hypocritical government / Taiwan declared crackdown on prostitution, only to turn into a country with world No.1 percentage of sex-related business consumers of all the adults. (Apple Daily 12-25-2014 ). ◆ Taiwan is hard to stop sex transactions, a 9 yrs old girl as prostitute (Next Magazine, no. 1887) ◆ Prostitution is violence against women / ref to <Prostitution : violence with no name>, "Prostitution et Societe", 2010, "Int'l Day for the Elimination of Violence against women", 11-25-2016 France. ◆Taiwan government is the main criminal to harm women's rights in large scale. † ★
		'comfort women' style kowtow diplomacy, Taiwan served 2 powers, USA and/or China 　 Taiwan's economy is highly reliant on China, Taiwan needs the US for national defense 　 ps: "serving dicks" ("捧L.P.") is a widely-known political slang in Taiwan

★ ★	white terror
Taiwanese privacy / Leaking patients' medical records is a normal social protocol in Taiwan UDN 1-3-2017 In Taiwan, journalists are not used to respect patients' privacy... our hospital members do not get (cognosis) very clearly on the principle of protecting patients' privacy... <<快速看診、洩露病歷淪常態醫療倫理何在？>> https://udn.com/news/story/7266/2205935 by president of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center †
★ ★
Potential 'suicide bomber' !? 　 ● It triggered public anger that Taiwan gov. never and refuse to go public residential-area locations with potential explosion risks, even huge fiery underground explosion disasters happened recently, 　 ● Hidden underground pipelines with dangerous Ethylene, Propylene, liquefied petroleum gas, etc may pass through your home / apple daily, 8-2-2014 (ps15) ps: the little whale is Taiwan-island shape. †		★ ★ ★★★★ ● Taiwan has never gone public via media those area with landslide disaster risks, lots of houses with potential fatal dangers in Taiwan. 　 ● <CTS HD>, 5-23-2016 : <遠見> study found Taiwanese people gave a "failure" score (53.5) on "living safety". 　 †

★

Free speech in Taiwan

At 2-22-2018, the dark power (who is prime suspect ?? Taiwan ?) blocked my uploading a brief (in Chinese version) from UK's IISS study ― China's advanced military systems are challenging the global predominance of the United States and its allies ... to http://courageworld.ch/TaiwanROC.htm and ... ; however, uploading English version is fine.

Nov. 18, 2017 The China Times : Taiwan president gave tacit (secret) permission to Facebook (Taiwan) to restrict or block certain contents ... brief http://opinion.chinatimes.com/20171118000516-262114; Taiwan government did not deny or respond this. Pls. note that uploading this got similar problems as above.

free expression on FB Taiwan , Freedom of speech in Taiwan

◆

★

Too many fake scholarly papers

● Lousy conducts and bad ethics in Taiwan's academic circle happened again and again, but never be handled seriously,
some careless-done fake papers are either ignorant or extremely audacious, some are even fraud-crimes,

● There's neither democracy on campus (colleges) nor university autonomy, / Apple Daily, opinion, 5-1-2018

● UDN 5-5-2018 opinion: Associations of national and private universities criticized this is the darkest ever moment in Taiwan's history of university autonomy.

only legal punishments can stop these, Taiwan government should take hard line now, even resulting in "corpses lie all over the country " ps11

● Lousy students with totally 38 score in entrance examination are good enough to be freshmen of Taiwan's university, it's a really big international joke ! / The China Times, 7-20-2017

★

rape in Taiwan

USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices,
3-3-2017 & 2016, 2015 /

One of Taiwan's principal human rights
problems -domestic violence, Taiwanese
Women suffered being raped (spousal rape).
Many victims did not report the crime for fear of social stigmatization. Various nongovernmental organization

(NGO) and academic studies
estimated that the total number of

sexual assaults was seven to 10 times the number

reported to police.

†

where's Birds Flu ...?

Taiwan (TW) is dishonest and 'cruel' ―
trying to hide, block, delay public-health news,
e.g., poisoned eggs, PCV virus vaccine,
and Bird-flu more than one time

(1-2-2018 UDN udn.com/news/story/7266/2908720,

2012 BBC news : www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese_news
/2012/03/120304_taiwan_birdflu_investigate)

†

★★

♦ 2. suspect within reason

Has Taiwan been doing something
so base

to its own national(s)
― treat 'em like enemies or traitors ??

(state-violence drama - flunkies and opportunists humiliating or persecuting the innocent targets)
★

public shaming show
sort of "dancing-monkey-parade", dusty old political theatrics

like what happened in world war II, Chinese cultural revolution, and Chinese civil war
(ROC fooled int'l reporters by a fake show of big military victory in Yan 'an starring by fake prisoners of war )

return in new forms †

★

public punishment
Public shaming showbiz returns ? ps10
like those kinds happened in world war II and cultural revolution in chn. †

★

waterboarding
left: CIA waterboarding
right: The "suspect" poisons the little by painting a picture of "state enemy" †

★

Electrocution method 2.0

freedom of expression is re-defined
"pls. feel free to express(scream) when I 'rape' u !" †

★

ps: UDN 12-20-2016 chief editorial <Be careful the "state violence" ghost camouflaged themselves in new forms >:
New-form state violence never end (brief; full text http://udn.com/news/story/7338/2179800)

ps 2: We should not let "public trial" by media (being misled by fake news offered by TW prosecutors & police) happen again / Apple Daily, Opinion, 4-22-2017

political ★ circus ★ showbiz

★

★ ★ studies estimated that the total number of sexual assaults wa ★s seven to 10 times the number reported to police.

★

◆ Taiwan ◆

◆ Deposit room safety box ◆

† Taiwan's society,
laughs the poor instead of the prostitute

† Organs harvest 2.0 / unbloody version
Some people's compliance with the powerful (ps: In the past, government encouraged its people to struggle and sell out each other for self-preservation or benefits which may degenerate humanity and make a decadent society. ) this cartoon was prt. in The China Times.

★

Taiwan prosecutor ◆

◆ Taiwan justice ◆

†

Lack of Judicial independence
United Daily 6-18-2016 head page: Taiwan prosecutors admitted they usually take compliant & subordinate manner to follow their commanding officer's order to access legal cases Prosecutors in Taiwan
Also ref to "USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices", the US State Department, 3-3-2017.

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† Taiwan's justice dodged the celebrity

ps: The official hat has 2 flies-swappers - implying they only deal with
tiny little ones instead of major crimes Justice in Taiwan

★

◆

† Taiwan Police fired strong water cannon
against unarmed students and compatriots

courtesy news photos by Apple Daily and Liberty Times

◆

† Japan fired strong water cannon
toward Taiwan's official ship and fishing boat,
Taiwan's very weak water cannon was mocked by Japanese media (ps5)

◆

★

Taiwan, a weak country ◆

◆◆

◆

◆ Panda love bamboo ◆

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† backbone had degenerated, tail-bone has strengthened for too many whip, ... to see through political tool's bones!
TW legislator (congressman): Is Taiwan president US's puppet emperor? professor criticized that Taiwan president doesn't dare to land our island without the power's approval / CTV 7-15-2016 21:02

† Taiwan should stand manly,
project strength
Taiwan may go to "USA and China co-adm. Taiwan" status again - it was the way during former president Chen's time / the China Times , Mar. 2016

† Panda loves bamboo

(the shape of Taipei 101)

● The Chinese theory about economic integration with Taiwan is that it will bind the two together politically... / Economist, 11-14-2015
● Taiwan tries to use US to confront China... / ref to China Times Weekly, 3-18-2016 賢話政壇
● About 5000 Chinese spies in Taiwan ... /UDN opinion 3-15-2017

◆

★

◆

◆ fire dragon ◆

old man, sea, remote island ◆

†

Taiwan has enough laws, but lax management (administration) hurt too many people, e.g., traffic accidents killed too many people - local and international tourists. / ref. to The Sun, BBC, People's Daily, Washington Post, CNN, etc 2015 ~ 2017.
The SUN 2-13-2017: : BUS CRASH HORROR ! it has come under fire in recent months over safety standards.
BBC 2-13-2017 :

†

Cart before the horse

Be blind to fundamental issues - democracy, human rights, food safety, judiciary, etc, But put efforts on political propaganda 'show' !?
ps: this cartoon was exhibited in Bulgaria, Cyprus, etc

◆

★

Taiwan legal system

◆

† Big muzzle on law enforcement officers
money-talks working fine in Judicial system -
a deep-rooted perspective in Taiwanese mind

◆

† Lady Justice turns into Venus

★ ps: Should any of cartoons above is opaque to you, pls. read remarks (whole story) below each cartoon.

US president Bush was in Taiwanese restaurant

Taiwanese Presidential Office Building

pic. former US president Bush was in Taiwan's restaurant - Beijing Do It True

pic: Taiwanese Presidential Office Building ― this original Japanese governor office which was a symbol of Japanese power's colonial domination sparked a controversy about moving to new place for transitional justice. Taipei mayor Ko also stated it's really weird ! In the dinner of Ma-Xi meeting, the 1st time highest-ranking meeting since 1949, Communist Chinese leader Xi JinPing mentioned "Presidential Office" to Taiwan's leader Ma ― probably both friendly and satirical ...

●

pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword "Understand Taiwan" on US Yahoo,
10-10-2018, 4-11-2018, 1-12-2018, 8-18-2017, 5-4-2017;
No.1 "comment Taiwan" on US Yahoo, 8-18-2017

TAIWAN

★

◆

pic: No.1 rankings by keywords "comment Taiwan", "understand Taiwan", at 10-10-2018, 4-11-2018, 1-12-2018, Nov. 1, 2017, Sept. 2, 2017

★

pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1
by keyword "review Taiwan"
on US Google and English Bing, 4-11-2018, 9-8-2017 TAIWAN

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★

◆◆

review Taiwan

pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1
by keyword "review Taiwan"
on US Google, 9-2-2017; 　
among top ranks on Google, 10-10-2018

pic: This websites-group was ranked top by keyword "review Taiwan"
on US Google, 8-3-2017

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pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword "review Taiwan" on English Bing,
6-8-2018, 2-14-2018, 11-28-2017, 9-6-2017

pic.: This website was ranked No.1 on Yahoo search by keyword "review Taiwan" at 6-8-2018, 2-22-2018

★ No.1 on US Bing, Yahoo search engine by keyword "review Taiwan" , 3-8-2019, 1-1-2019

No.1

Free speech in Taiwan

free expression on FB Taiwan ,
Freedom of speech in Taiwan

● The United Daily News (聯合報) editorial opinion (9-19-2018) : "secret police"(「東廠們」) have been active around us ...