A Conduit of Mostly New or Old Unfiltered Non Mainstream News / Information about China without Political Correctness…
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s military said on Wednesday the latest U.S. navy sailing near Chinese-claimed Taiwan was “extremely dangerous” and stirring up such trouble was in neither country’s interests.
The U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin sailed through the narrow and sensitive Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the U.S. navy said, in what have become relatively routine trips in recent months, though they always anger China.
Full story: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-china-taiwan/china
China is trying to turn democratic Taiwan into another Hong Kong, the island’s foreign minister warned Tuesday as he met with a senior US official making a historic diplomatic trip.
A crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong has gathered pace since China imposed a sweeping security law on the financial hub in June, with opposition politicians disqualified and activists arrested.
Taiwan’s newly appointed representative to its trade and economic office in the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, has said she will go to bat for the democratic island as a “battle cat” to counter China’s aggressive, “wolf warrior” style of diplomacy.
Hsiao, who started her career as an intern in the same office three decades ago, told journalists shortly after her appointment that she wants to promote ever-closer ties between Washington and Taipei.
A former member of Taiwan’s parliament for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Hsiao told RFA she hopes her approach will serve as a counterweight to China’s aggressive form of “wolf warrior diplomacy” in Washington.
“China has been using its philosophy of ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ against Taiwan for decades,” Hsiao said. “They have excluded Taiwan from every area and limited Taiwan’s international presence.”
Full story: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/update-08072020092444.html
The lure of the massive Chinese market has led Hollywood to readily self-censor its films to please Beijing, according to a new report by Pen America, an anti-censorship group.
Screenwriters, producers and directors in the huge US film industry are changing scripts, deleting scenes and altering other content, afraid of offending Chinese censors who control the gateway to the country’s 1.4 billion consumers, according to the report released Wednesday.
The actions include everything from deleting the Taiwanese flag from Tom Cruise’s bomber jacket in the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick, to removing China as the source of a zombie virus in 2013’s World War Z.
But it also means completely avoiding sensitive issues including Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong politics, Xinjiang and the portrayal of LGBTQ characters, the report said.
Faced with blacklisting and other punitive measures, Hollywood producers are even censoring films not targeting the Chinese market, in order to not impact others planned for Chinese theaters, Pen America says.
Full story: https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/hollywood-self-censors-to-please-beijing-report/
China has deployed more amphibious weapons in coastal cities across the 110-mile wide strait that separates China from Taiwan, according to reports of recent satellite images.
The images published in Canadian military magazine Kanwa Asian Defence show that more Type 05 vehicles had been deployed to China’s Eastern Theatre Command, according to the South China Morning Post.
The Type 05 is a family of amphibious tracked armoured fighting vehicles developed for the navy marine corps of the People’s Liberation Army.
It comes amid rising tensions between Taiwan and China.
China’s communist rulers seek to annex the island of 23 million, which functions like any other nation with its own democratic government and military but lacks widespread recognition as an independent state because of opposition from Beijing….
Full story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/06/china-deploys-amphibious-weapons-eastern-coast-tensions-taiwan/
Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe urged his US counterpart in a phone call Thursday to avoid actions and rhetoric on Taiwan and other issues that could escalate tensions between the rivals, state media reported.
Wei urged the US side to stop erroneous words and deeds” and “avoid taking dangerous moves that may escalate the situation,” referring to the status of Taiwan and territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper initiated the call, according to Xinhua, which comes ahead of a contentious visit to Taiwan by US Secretary of Health Alex Azar.
Wei and Esper “exchanged views on the bilateral ties and military relations, as well as the bilateral military exchanges in the next phase,” Xinhua said.
China-US relations are at a low point, with the economic powerhouses clashing on numerous issues ranging from trade to the coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan and the status of Hong Kong.
Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory — vowing to one day seize it — and bristles at any moves by other countries to recognise or communicate with Taipei.
The federal government is said to be negotiating a deal to sell Taiwan four of its sophisticated drones, according to several sources familiar with the talks.
This would mark the first sale of its kind for the U.S. and is expected to heighten American tensions with China, Reuters reported.
The SeaGuardian surveillance drones reportedly have a range of 6,000 nautical miles, which is far superior to the 160-mile range of Taiwan’s current technology.
One of the sources told Reuters U.S. officials are still undecided as to whether or not they will greenlight the export of the drones with weapons attached, or if they will be removed prior to the handover.
Full story: https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/taiwan-drones-us
TAIPEI — While most Taiwanese were focused on the presidential election at the start of the year, many doctors and epidemiologists were picking up on an unusual surge of pneumonia cases in the Chinese city of Wuhan — the epicenter of the novel coronavirus.
“Right at the start of 2020, all front-line doctors at medical centers received an official alert, following a warning by the Centers of Disease Control asking us to be attentive if we encountered patients with symptoms of cough, fever, sore throat and runny nose,” Lin, a pulmonologist at a national medical center in Taipei, told the Nikkei Asian Review. “We had to ask those patients their travel history, occupation and contact history.”
Full Story: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Taiwan-s-battle-against-coronavirus-began-in-late-2019
Taiwan is battling against not only the corona virus, but China and the World Health Organization. After an interview with WHO leader Bruce Aylward on Hong Kong media, the world has become transfixed with how the Chinese Communist Party has gotten the United Nations to ignore Taiwan, even during the midst of the deadly coron avirus pandemic that came from an outbreak in Wuhan, China.
China is making a lot of demands on the US—end the trade war tariffs, cancel the $2 billion weapons sale to Taiwan. A Hong Kong broadcaster TVB is accused of pro-Beijing bias during the extradition bill protests and loses it’s Pocari Sweat ads. And Disney’s new live action Mulan trailer is out!
