Free Republic

President Joe Biden has yet to comment at press time on the specifics of a mass shooting in California this weekend that law enforcement officials said was motivated by hate against the country of Taiwan as he prepares to leave Thursday for a trip to Asia. David Chou (Chou Wenwei), 68, an American born in Taiwan and later identified as a member of a Chinese Communist Party umbrella organization, allegedly chained shut the doors of the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, California, and opened fire on a group of Taiwanese congregants during a luncheon to honor a pastor.

CHANG HSU's PORNHUB PAGE A Taiwanese math teacher's decision to do "special things in special places" to attract students' attention by posting classes on an adult video website has paid off with nearly 2 million views. Chang Hsu (張旭), a former cram school teacher, has gained worldwide attention by posting his calculus classes on the Canadian-owned internet pornography website Pornhub. His page "Play Hard Study Hard!" has gained 6,900 subscribers, and his 271 videos have racked up 1,883,947 total views. Chang told CNA that he started to teach in cram schools after graduating from high school. The 34-year-old said that...

Bromance is a Taiwanese drama about a girl whose parents have forced her to live as a boy until her 26th birthday. This video shows off the growing relationship between the girl and her blood brother, a Triad leader, from first meeting to honeymoon. Bromance - 19 episodes on viki.com

Bromance is a love story between a girl raised as a boy until she turns 26, and a Triad leader dealing with the loss of his father for the past 7 years. When his father returns instinctively to their amusement park, the father has no memory of his son or wife or daughter.

This music video shows off the theme of the Taiwanese drama, "Bromance," a series in the popular girl-posing-as-a boy genre. What's different is that the girl's parents makes her fool the world until she turns 26, on the advice of a fortune teller. Her love interest is the morally upright leader of 1 of 3 connected Triad families, who she saved as an adult AND as a child. Wonderful complexities.

AS VEGAS — The first Democratic debate wasn't quite the bloodbath we had hoped for, but it was pretty darn good. Hillary Clinton stood strong and Bernie Sanders made sure people were "feeling the Bern." As for the other guys, Jim Webb spent most of his energy begging for air time, Martin O'Malley faded away with a plan for 2050 and Lincoln Chafee (remember him?) was there too. Most of the questions and attention were directed at party favorite Hillary Clinton and top contender Bernie Sanders. Candidates remained focused on the bigger issues, for the most part. When Chafee returned...

The sheer size and wildness of Yellowstone National Park's signature bison provide a magnificent subject for camera-toting tourists. But officials caution visitors not to come within 25 yards of the animals, noting that they are unpredictable and able to sprint three times faster than people can run. A 62-year-old Australian man who ventured to within 3 to 5 feet of one bison was seriously injured Tuesday when the animal charged and tossed him into the air several times, park officials said in a statement. This is the second such incident within weeks. A 16-year-old Taiwanese exchange student was gored by...

This week, the FCC voted 3-2 in favor of implementing net neutrality policies. These rules will prevent internet service providers like Verizon or Comcast from blocking or throttling traffic, ban giving priority to providers who are willing to pay for faster service, and reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service. This means that internet service will now be regulated under stricter, utility-based laws the government currently uses to control wired telephone and other similar services. The pro-NN moves made by the FCC have come under attack from both activists, and members of Congress. A recent poll shows that only 1 in...

Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) A gunman who allegedly shot Sean Lien, the son of former Vice President Lien Chan, at an election rally in a Taipei City suburb Friday night has been arrested, Criminal Investigation Bureau Director-General Lin Teh-hua has confirmed. According to Lin, the alleged gunman was believed to be a member of a gang in Yonghe City in Taipei County, but he provided no other details. Lien, 40, was rushed to National Taiwan University Hospital for emergency treatment, but President Ma Ying-jeou said at a campaign rally for Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin that Lien's wound was not life...

HP-1359 SNIPPET: "Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of Treasury today designated two Taiwanese individuals and two Taiwanese entities pursuant to Executive Order 13382, an authority aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their supporters, and at isolating them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems. "Proliferators depend on access to the international financial and commercial systems to support their dangerous trade," said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "Our action today exposes a North Korean procurement channel, and we urge governments and companies worldwide to cut this channel off entirely." Alex...

"The United States has agreed to sell Taiwan 66 advanced fighter jets to counter China's continued arms build-up..."

EXCLUSIVE-US clears two-stage path to Taiwan submarine deal By Jim Wolf WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The Pentagon has cleared Taiwan to take a two-stage approach to buying up to eight diesel submarines in a move that could revive the long-stalled potential multibillion-dollar deal. In a letter to Taiwan's defense minister, obtained on Friday by Reuters, the Pentagon's point man for Asia, Richard Lawless, said separating the design and construction phases was "legally permissible and administratively feasible." Lawless, deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, estimated the cost of the design phase at $360 million. He did not...

Taiwan should ease its trade restrictions with China or risk economic marginalisation, the deputy US trade representative said on Friday.The call by Karan Bhatia, the most senior US official to visit Taipei in six years, came after he rejected an appeal by President Chen Shui-bian to start negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement with Taiwan in the near future. He said congressional restrictions prevented the administration from starting a new round of free trade agreement talks. The refusal was a disappointment to Taipei, which had hoped such an agreement would make it politically easier for other countries to seek trade...

Taiwanese civilian enthusiast maintained site and blog, all public information, but pretty good stuff and interesting links if you are interested in keeping up with the Taiwanese air force. http://blog.taiwanairpower.org/ http://www.taiwanairpower.org/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Taiwanese citizen was charged in the United States on Thursday with being a covert agent for Beijing, and accused together with a Frenchman of trying to illegally export an F-16 jet engine, Blackhawk helicopter engines and cruise missiles to China. U.S. prosecutors in Miami said a federal grand jury had returned a nine-count indictment against Ko-Suen Moo, of Taipei, and Maurice Serge Voros, of Paris. The indictment alleged that the defendants violated the Arms Export Control Act by trying to export controlled items without a license to China, including the engines, the cruise missiles and air-to-air...

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) has angered Taiwanese officials and lawmakers by making unusually strong comments denying that the island is an independent nation and suggesting Taiwan should unify with China. Washington usually avoids weighing in on the touchy split, which arose when Mao Zedong's communist army won control of the Chinese mainland in 1949 and anti-communist forces took refuge on Taiwan. But Powell waded into the unification question Monday in interviews with CNN and Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television during a one-day visit to China. According to a State Department transcript, Powell told...

Taiwanese and US officials have never discussed formally or informally the option of purchasing Russian-built Kilo-class submarines, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The ministry was responding to a Washington Times report a day earlier that the Pentagon is considering procuring eight Kilo-class submarines from Russia for resale to Taiwan. Under a plan percolating in the Pentagon, the daily said, Russia would sell the US eight Kilo-class submarines outfitted with Russian weapons but equipped with US electronics and propulsion systems for eventual resale to Taiwan. A spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense said the ministry has never heard...

<p>U.S. opposition to two planned referendums has fed fears of a "perceived tilt" by the Bush administration toward mainland China, the chairman of Taiwan's parliamentary foreign affairs committee said in an interview yesterday.</p> <p>Parris H. Chang, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan and a member of Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said the concerns are widespread among government officials and lawmakers, despite repeated assurances from Washington that there has been no change in policy toward the Republic of China.</p>

RELIGIONBuddha BusinessTaiwanese Buddhism is no longer the faith of poor monks, but rather a multimillion dollar business. Now it's facing new challenges as it attempts to expand its reach By Erling Hoh/TAIPEI, KAOHSIUNG and STOCKHOLMIssue cover-dated September 05, 2002 ON APRIL 23 THIS YEAR, a notice appeared in the on-line edition of Taiwan's Merit Times, a daily newspaper run by the island's Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Society. Master Hsing Yun, the society's founder and leader, having propagated Buddhism in Taiwan tirelessly for more than 40 years, was convalescing abroad, and would not be returning to Taiwan in the near future....