Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Addressing the PLA’s new tactics

Lu Li-shih 呂禮詩

During a commissioning ceremony on Friday last week at the Yulin Naval Base in China’s Hainan Province, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy unveiled three new vessels, coinciding with the 72nd anniversary of the navy’s founding.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who also heads the powerful Chinese Central Military Commission, attended the ceremony, presenting the navy’s ensign and formally naming the ships.

The vessels were a new Type 075 Yushen-class landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious assault ship, a Type 055 Renhai-class guided-missile destroyer and a Type 094 Jin-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.

Ma keeps on parroting Beijing’s propaganda

Liou Je-wei 劉哲瑋

During a speech on Saturday last week at a discussion forum titled “Resume cross-strait air travel: post-pandemic opportunity,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had criticized him for being pro-China and “selling out” Taiwan.

Paradoxically, instead of reducing reliance on China, the government had increased Taiwan’s dependence on it, Ma said, adding that Taiwanese exports to China last year reached a historic high. This shows that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration is more pro-China and has “sold out” Taiwan to a greater degree than he had, Ma said.

Warning issued after 7 new local cases

Taipei Times

>Workers at Feng Chia Night Market in Taichung hold signs in an undated photograph. The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday raised the COVID-19 warning to level 2 and implemented new restrictions and measures effective until June 8, including asking that people practice social distancing at night markets.
Photo copied by Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times

The COVD-19 situation has entered the “local transmission” stage and enhanced disease prevention measures have been implemented until June 8, the Central Epidemic Command Center announced yesterday as it reported six locally transmitted cases with unclear infection sources.

Little coverage on Taiwan in West

Ashley Rindsberg

Given China’s regional might, it is little surprise that the nation casts a long shadow across Asia — including in its media coverage. However, we are now seeing a disturbing trend of Western media casting a favorable light on China, right as it stands accused of suppressing democracy in Hong Kong, interning Uighurs and obscuring investigations into the origins of COVID-19.

At the same time, important coverage of Asian democracies, such as Taiwan’s 20-place leap in the Democracy Index last year — in the midst of a pandemic that brought major constrictions of democratic rights in many places — gets downplayed or, worse, ignored completely.

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