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Beijing will speed up its “reunification” plan for Taiwan, a deputy to the top legislature said ahead of its annual meeting that starts this weekend. “The [Communist] Party’s overall strategy for resolving the Taiwan issue in the new era has basically taken shape, and the strategic goals and focus of the future reunification cause have also become very clear,” National People’s Congress deputy Li Yihu said. “The mainland will promote national reunification on a fast development track,” Li told China Review News Agency in an interview published on Monday. Tensions have escalated across the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island...

Senior U.S. military officials have worried in recent months that a Chinese military invasion of Taiwan could be just a few years away. The Navy’s senior officer warned Wednesday that it may come even sooner than that. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, said a cross-strait invasion of Taiwan could occur in 2023 or even before the end of the year.

aiwan underscored its own "red line" on Wednesday after its defense minister said Taiwanese forces wouldn't be moved by China's military maneuvers around the island. Taiwan underscored its own "red line" on Wednesday after its defense minister said Taiwanese forces wouldn't be moved by China's military maneuvers around the island. Taiwan’s defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, then intelligence chief, attends a press conference on August 2, 2019, in Taipei, Taiwan. Chiu told the island’s lawmakers on October 5, 2022, that Taiwanese forces would counterattack if China’s aircraft crossed Taiwan’s “red line.” Taiwan’s defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, then intelligence chief, attends a...

The Chinese military will not sit back if U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan, a Chinese defense spokesperson warned on Tuesday. Tan Kefei, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a press inquiry regarding the issue. China demands that the United States honor its promise that it would not support "Taiwan independence," Tan said, adding that if the U.S. side insists on making the visit, the Chinese military will take strong actions to thwart any external interference or "Taiwan independence" separatist scheme, and will be resolute in safeguarding China's national...

The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the top U.S. military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop Sunday in Indonesia. U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with U.S. and other partner forces has increased significantly over that time, and the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions. “The message is the Chinese military, in the air and at sea, have become significantly more and noticeably...

Biden’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken shared today that the US does not support Taiwan’s independence from China. The Daily Mail reported: Sec. of State Antony Blinken issued a stark warning Thursday morning that the threat of China will ‘test U.S. diplomacy like nothing we’ve ever seen before’ – but insisted America does not want another Cold War and does not support Taiwan independence. ..... Snip...... Blinken laid out the Biden administration’s policy towards China after the president raised eyebrows by saying the U.S. would get involved ‘militarily’ if there was an invasion of Taiwan. Blinken has a very suspect...

China is unlikely to use military force to seize Taiwan in the near future, but the country’s communist regime does pose a serious threat not only to the self-ruled island, but also to the United States, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Nov. 3.“Based on my analysis of China, I don’t think that it is likely in the near future—being defined as six, 12, maybe 24 months, that kind of window,” he said in response to a question about it.Milley made the remarks while speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual three-day security...

Taiwan has become a focal point for tensions between the US and China. Many in the US have called for a commitment to defend the island against Chinese attack, but a war with China over Taiwan would likely be devastating. The US can and should help Taiwan improve its ability to defend itself and better deter China. Daniel L. Davis is a senior fellow for Defense Priorities and a former US Army lieutenant colonel.On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that US Special Forces and Marines had secretly been training Taiwanese troops on counter-invasion tactics. On Friday, the semi-official mouthpiece...

Hong Kong said on Tuesday it would release the nine Singaporean armored vehicles it seized in November on their way home from military exercises in Taiwan, easing tensions between China and Singapore. After the troop carriers had been seized, Beijing, which regained sovereignty over the former British colony of Hong Kong in 1997, warned countries against maintaining military ties with Taiwan, which it views as a wayward province. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote to Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying requesting the return of the carriers, and Hong Kong said it would handle the matter in accordance with...

By now you know that President Elect Trump took a call from the President of Taiwan and simultaneously lit on fire the underpants of the mainstream media and maybe the leadership of China too. Apparently taking a phone call from the president of Taiwan is a major diplomatic change from the so-called “One China Policy” that imagines Taiwan as a rogue province of China, not its own country. Reports are saying this call was planned, not a mistake on the Trump team’s side. Was this a mistake by Trump? If you look at this call through the filter of normal...

The islands of Polynesia were first inhabited around 3,000 years ago, but where these people came from has long been a hot topic of debate amongst scientists. The most commonly accepted view, based on archaeological and linguistic evidence as well as genetic studies, is that Pacific islanders were the latter part of a migration south and eastwards from Taiwan which began around 4,000 years ago. But the Leeds research -- published February 3 in The American Journal of Human Genetics -- has found that the link to Taiwan does not stand up to scrutiny. In fact, the DNA of current...

Taipei is very closely watching Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong—and so far it doesn’t like what it sees. The events of the past three weeks in Hong Kong have underlined two major points. First, Beijing’s policy has not changed. Second, China’s attempt to reintegrate Taiwan with the mainland has been postponed indefinitely—perhaps forever. Beijing’s preeminent leader, Xi Jinping, has refused to allow Hong Kongers to participate in the nomination process that is the first step in the selection of the next leader of the province. This does not surprise anyone in Taipei. Even though Beijing formally accepts the one country-two...

Huge hillside collapses, covers Formosa Freeway RESCUE MISSION?: While more than 300m of the busy freeway has been covered with earth, rescue workers are unsure if any vehicles are trapped under the debris By Shelley Huang STAFF REPORTER Monday, Apr 26, 2010, Page 1 A landslide covers Freeway No. 3 close to Keelung yesterday. PHOTO: REUTERS A huge landslide buried more than 300m of Freeway No. 3 near Maling Keng (瑪陵坑) in Keelung yesterday afternoon, about 3km from the northern end of the 429km long Formosa Freeway. As of press time, rescue teams were still digging and it was unclear...

The Republic of China Navy (ROCN), or Taiwan Navy, has an ambitious vision for its future strategy. According to the “ROC Navy Vision,” which is available on the Navy’s website, “Based on the guidance of ‘Command and control automation, Three-dimensional mobile strike capabilities and Missile-oriented weapon system,’ and through measures such as enhancing intelligence reconnaissance and surveillance, extending strike zone depth, expanding combat radius, accelerating response and contingency protection, the Navy aims to construct an effective deterring and three-dimensional mobile strike force that is elite, highly efficient, rapidly deployable, and capable of performing long range strikes” [1]. In other words,...

The United States on Thursday left open the possibility of further arms sales to Taiwan, with a senior official saying that China's military buildup was aimed squarely at the self-governing island. President Barack Obama's administration in January approved a 6.4 billion dollar arms package for Taiwan including helicopters, Patriot missiles and mine-hunting ships, angering Beijing. State Department official David Shear told a congressional panel that the United States will "continue to stand by our commitment" under US law to provide Taiwan with weapons to defend itself. "Taiwan must be confident that it has the physical capacity to resist intimidation and...

Researchers in Taiwan have discovered what the believe is the island's oldest civilization, dating back about 20,000 years and belonging to a pygmy-like people that came from China, Southeast Asia or beyond, the team leader said on Friday. Taiwan's government-run Academia Sinica, which found more than 200 stone tools at the Ba Hsien Cave excavation site on the island's east coast, will return next year to seek clues on who was living there, leader Tsang Chen-hua said. The civilization was probably a dark-skinned people similar to Negritos, a term that covers several ethnic groups of short stature in isolated parts...

A pending lawsuit says the U.S. owns Formosa and that island residents are non-citizen U.S. nationals. What will Obama do?

Mr Chen set out a "four wants" policy for Taiwanese independence China has hit out at Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian after he made a strongly pro-independence speech on Sunday.Mr Chen said Taiwan should pursue independence, write a new constitution and change its official name from "Republic of China" to Taiwan. China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said anyone wanting to split Taiwan from the mainland was a "criminal". The row came as China opened its annual session of parliament and announced a hike in defence spending. Mr Chen, in a speech to a pro-independence group on Sunday, said: "Taiwan should...

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) on Monday spoke of the eventual "reunification" of China and Taiwan, a comment likely to annoy Taiwanese officials who regard the island as an independent nation. On a tour of Asia, Powell also said Taiwan does not enjoy "sovereignty as a nation" -- a long-standing but quietly held U.S. view whose blunt expression may irk independence-minded Taiwanese officials. "We want to see both sides not take unilateral action that would prejudice an eventual outcome, a reunification that all parties are seeking," Powell told CNN International, according to a State Department transcript...

Data links early settlers to African diaspora DIFFERENT STORIES: While genetic research puts this land on a main route of early humans' dispersion, anthropologists tie early settlements to the Pearl River Delta By Wang Hsiao-wen STAFF REPORTER Sunday, Aug 29, 2004,Page 2 Long before Portuguese sailors put "Formosa" on the world map, and long before Chinese people crossed the dark current to set up home here, this land was inhabited by Austronesian Aborigines for thousands of years. Multigenetic analysis reveals that Austronesian tribes arrived as early as 14,000 years ago. According to Marie Lin (ªL¶ý²ú), who conducted the research as...