A recent discovery of banned Japanese foods being sold in Taiwan is causing considerable concern about the actual safety of the food supply. This comes only weeks after contaminated Japanese tea was reported as being found in Hong Kong.
Taiwan has fairly rigorous food safety standards. In 2011 Taiwan banned the sale of all foods from Fukushima and four other prefectures. That ban is still in place today...
...A total of 300 food items were found on sale in Taiwan with falsified origin food labels. Investigators found an additional 3000 mislabeled products at the port of Keelung. Local health officials have seized some of the food products but many were already sold to customers. Government officials told the companies found to be in violation to contact all retailers and to instruct them to pull all suspect products off the shelves within a week. The head of Taiwan’s health agency said the products were likely mislabeled in Japan and not done by Taiwanese importers but the agency is conducting a full investigation to make sure.
F-16V Fighters For Taiwan: Worth the Price Tag?
Continuing to upgrade the air force projects confidence that Taiwan remains the master of its own fate. Islanders will take heart.
Here's What You Need to Remember: The U.S.-Taiwan relationship has been awkward since Washington shifted diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in the late 1970s. Since then the United States has maintained a posture of “strategic ambiguity,” arming the islanders while remaining noncommittal about whether it would take a direct hand in fighting a cross-strait war.
The Trump administration informally approved a sale of 66 F-16V Viper fighter jets to Taiwan, presumably to replace the elderly contingent of F-5E/F Tiger II fighters flown by the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF). The sale was bundled into a $62 billion contract award to defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Taiwan’s share of the deal will reportedly total around $8 billion. The air force’s fleet of 144 older F-16A/B aircraft is currently being upgraded to F-16V standards. Assuming the U.S. Congress endorses the sale, as seems likely, the two projects will yield a more modern air force centered on more uniform airframes and equipment.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Chinese state media jumps on Afghan crisis to taunt Taiwan with invasion threats
Warnings that the US would abandon Taiwan come as China’s military launches new live-fire drills near the island
Chinese state media has seized on the chaos of Washington’s exit from Afghanistan to taunt Taiwan that the United States will not come to its aid if Beijing invades. ...
Chinese Propaganda: Afghanistan’s Fate an Omen for Taiwan
Communist Party-run outlets in China are touting the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as a sign of things to come for Taiwan if war breaks out between the self-ruled island and the People’s Republic of China, claiming that Taiwan’s “defense will collapse in hours and the US military won’t come to help.”
The communist Chinese regime claims Taiwan — officially called the Republic of China — as part of its own territory, vowing to “retake” the island and bring an end to the unfinished civil war that saw the fall of the ROC on the Chinese mainland.
In an Aug. 16 editorial, Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times directed its rhetoric at Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which advocates formal independence for the island:
According to the Global Times, Taiwan’s leaders “must have been nervous and feel an ominous presentiment” following the removal of most U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban.
“The situation in Afghanistan suddenly saw a radical change after the country was abandoned by the US. And Washington just left despite the worsening situation in Kabul. Is this some kind of omen of Taiwan’s future fate?”
“They [the DPP] must have known better in secret that the US is not reliable,” the editorial continued, while positing that should war come “the DPP authorities will quickly surrender, while some high-level officials may flee by plane.”
Taiwan responds: ‘Stop being delusional’
Speaking with reporters, Taiwan premier Su Tseng-chang dismissed the notion that Taiwanese leaders would flee in the event of a communist invasion.
Su noted that despite the protection afforded by the U.S. military, Taiwan has no intention of relying on Washington for protection, as reported by Newsweek on Aug. 17. “We will safeguard this country and this land.”
He also took a jab at the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which used to run the ROC as an authoritarian party, saying that when the KMT “installed authoritarian rule and 38 years of martial law in Taiwan, we lived through martial law without fear of death or imprisonment.”
“Today, a powerful country wants to annex Taiwan through the use of force. Likewise, we fear neither death nor imprisonment,” Su said. “To the foreign forces that seek to invade Taiwan, we say this: Don’t be delusional.”
In recent years and months, the United States has stepped up actions and statements of support for Taiwan, particularly in the latter half of the Trump administration. Officials from the State Department made groundbreaking visits to the island (the U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with the ROC), and Washington closed deals with Taiwan for the sale of advanced American weapons, including the M1A2 Abrams tank and F-16V fighter jets.
However, the ROC premier warned that “internal chaos” would imperil Taiwan and its democracy. Over the decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has employed “united front” tactics against Taiwan, combining military threats, economic lures, and divisive propaganda to weaken the island and its leaders.
The KMT, for example, was once Communist China’s main adversary, but was goaded into two United Front agreements with the communists that ultimately resulted in its defeat on mainland China. And despite many years of confronting the CCP threat after its retreat to Taiwan in 1949, the KMT morphed into a pro-Beijing party notorious for its mainland business ties.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
theluckycountry wrote: No one will start WWIII over China invading an island full of Chinese people.
theluckycountry wrote:No one will start WWIII over China invading an island full of Chinese people.
vtsnowedin wrote: We would soon have to decide which side we were on.
theluckycountry wrote:I'd suggest the US is on the side of profit, always has been.
vtsnowedin wrote:theluckycountry wrote:I'd suggest the US is on the side of profit, always has been.
True enough but China if it invades Taiwan will find there is no profit in it. It will in fact be killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
I can't imagine even a Democrat US government allowing any economic activity with China after they tried that and there is a good chance the Taiwanese can repel any attack with or without our help.
Based on the experience sanctioning China and applying tariffs to its exports to the USA so far, I believe that the USA can't really stop trading with China without suffering incalculable economic damage itself.
vtsnowedin wrote: The Taiwanese commerce with the mainland is significant and attacking Taiwan would disrupt if not destroy those supply lines (the golden eggs) so would be a net loss to them [China].
vtsnowedin wrote: I expect the Chinese to make a move to take over Taiwan before Biden is out of office as they see the US in a moment of complete weakness as long as he remains in charge.
vtsnowedin wrote: True enough but China if it invades Taiwan will find there is no profit in it. It will in fact be killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
theluckycountry wrote:vtsnowedin wrote: True enough but China if it invades Taiwan will find there is no profit in it. It will in fact be killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
True enough, like Hong Kong, but that didn't stop them destroying that economy. It's more about 'face' now I think, Taiwan represents the chinese opposition to the communist party, it's where the nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek escaped to after all. And it's regarded as Chinese soil.
I don't know much about the whole situations but I found this, it might shed some light? Either way it's a great 'spy story' and worth a read just for that.
Why Didn't Mao Invade Taiwan?
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/wh ... iwan-22752
In the summer of 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his Republic of China (ROC) government appeared doomed. Shanghai and Nanjing, then China’s capital city, had fallen to Mao Zedong's communist forces... Southeastern China's harbors were clogged with ships ferrying ROC government officials, troops and treasure to Taiwan, the final redoubt of “Free China...
...An unexpected turn of history kept Mao and his generals from putting their Taiwan invasion plan into action. On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, and U.S. President Harry Truman swiftly decided to save South Korea’s friendly government, while also ordering the U.S. Seventh Fleet to prevent a possible Chinese invasion across the Taiwan Strait...
vtsnowedin wrote:theluckycountry wrote:vtsnowedin wrote: True enough but China if it invades Taiwan will find there is no profit in it. It will in fact be killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
True enough, like Hong Kong, but that didn't stop them destroying that economy. It's more about 'face' now I think, Taiwan represents the chinese opposition to the communist party, it's where the nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek escaped to after all. And it's regarded as Chinese soil.
I don't know much about the whole situations but I found this, it might shed some light? Either way it's a great 'spy story' and worth a read just for that.
Why Didn't Mao Invade Taiwan?
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/wh ... iwan-22752
In the summer of 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his Republic of China (ROC) government appeared doomed. Shanghai and Nanjing, then China’s capital city, had fallen to Mao Zedong's communist forces... Southeastern China's harbors were clogged with ships ferrying ROC government officials, troops and treasure to Taiwan, the final redoubt of “Free China...
...An unexpected turn of history kept Mao and his generals from putting their Taiwan invasion plan into action. On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, and U.S. President Harry Truman swiftly decided to save South Korea’s friendly government, while also ordering the U.S. Seventh Fleet to prevent a possible Chinese invasion across the Taiwan Strait...
The threat of nuclear war makes this a much more risky proposition today but if the US could have its forces sink any invading vessel approaching Taiwan I think Taiwan could be kept free and Capitalist indefinitely.
I doubt the present administration has the brains or the courage to do that so I think the population of Taiwan should be very VERY!! worried.
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