Free Republic

Mainland Chinese are skirting rules aimed at limiting their purchases of property in Taiwan, stirring anger among local home buyers and fueling worries over Beijing’s creeping influence over an island that it views as a renegade province. While Chinese money has boosted property markets across the world—from Sydney and London to Vancouver—mainland capital flows into the self-ruled island are an especially emotive issue for many Taiwanese. The government in Taipei has been criticized by some for not being more restrictive on mainland ownership of Taiwanese real estate. Fueling fears of further encroachment by Beijing is a review of a cross-strait...

Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung hit by massive gas explosion Deaths reported after leak in sewerage system causes 'white fog' which exploded Chris Johnston theguardian.com, Thursday 31 July 2014 21.14 BST At least 15 people have been killed and more than 230 injured by explosions in a southern Taiwanese city thought to have been caused by a gas leak in the sewerage system. Witnesses said that gas leaks began at about 9pm local time in Kaohsiung. The leaking gas formed a white fog, which then ignited and sparked massive explosions on several streets, China's Central News Agency reported.

A joint investigation by the Washington Examiner and the nonprofit watchdog group Judicial Watch found that former President Clinton gave 215 speeches and earned $48 million while his wife presided over U.S. foreign policy, raising questions about whether the Clintons fulfilled ethics agreements related to the Clinton Foundation during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch and released Wednesday in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act case, State Department officials charged with reviewing Bill Clinton's proposed speeches did not object to a single one. Some of the speeches were delivered in global hotspots...

Taiwan's Central News Agency says a plane has crashed in a failed emergency landing, killing 51 people. The news agency cited the head of the fire department in the Taiwanese county of Penghu as saying that seven people were also injured in the crash.

Taipei, July 23 (CNA) As many as 45 people are feared dead and nine people are injured after a passenger plane operated by TransAsia Airways crashed on the outlying island county of Penghu Wednesday. The local fire department said that the 45 had no life signs after the twin-engine turboprop ATR 72 crashed just outside Magong airport around 7 p.m. The flight, coded GE 222, took off at 5 p.m. in Kaohsiung and was scheduled to land at Magong 35 minutes later. The reason the crash happened over an hour later was not immediately clear. (By Elizabeth Hsu)

This delightful video was taken on a girl's first day at a kindergarten. She's clearly worried. The boy sitting next to her, however, is very comforting and reassuring. The video has been trending in Taiwan and people are commenting how 'manly' this little boy is. Their hilarious dialogue has struck a chord with the viewers and the video has become very popular.

No reported casualties or damage as yet; epicentre said to be in southwestA 5.9-magnitude earthquake jolted Taiwan today and shook buildings in the capital, the Seismology Centre said. SNIP The quake struck at 8.21am local time, with its epicentre 33.3 kilometres southwest of the eastern city of Hualien, at a depth of 18 kilometres, the centre said. SNIP

A large number of People’s Liberation Army troops have reportedly been spotted heading towards the China-Vietnam border as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate, reports Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily. Sing Tao Daily is generally considered to be aligned to Chinese state media. Thousands of Chinese nationals living or on business in Vietnam have already fled the country amid anti-China riots, which were sparked by a tense standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese naval ships near a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on May 4. The Chinese foreign ministry...

China began evacuating hundreds of its nationals from Vietnam (via at least 2 planes and 5 ships) as the anti-China protests have become increasingly deadly following Beijing's attempt to deploy an oil drill in Vietnamese dispuited waters (detailed here, here, here, and here)... *CHINA SENDING 5 SHIPS TO VIETNAM TO EVACUATE CHINESE: XINHUA*HUNDREDS OF VIETNAMESE SECURITY IN CENTRAL HO CHI MINH CITY*VIETNAM PRIME MINISTER ISSUES DIRECTIVE TO PREVENT PROTESTS*VIETNAM GOVT TAKES ACTION TO PREVENT RIOTS: BINH Hundreds of police and security forces are in central Ho Chi Minh city and the Chinese consulate is under heavy guard. Tensions across...

More than 20 people were killed in Vietnam and a huge foreign steel project set ablaze as anti-China riots spread to the centre of the country a day after arson and looting in the south, a doctor and company officials said on Thursday. A doctor at a hospital in central Ha Tinh province said five Vietnamese workers and 16 other people described as Chinese were killed on Wednesday night in rioting, one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since the neighbours fought a brief border war in 1979. "There were about a hundred people sent to the hospital last...

Vietnam said on Wednesday a Chinese vessel intentionally rammed two of its ships in a part of the disputed South China Sea where Beijing has deployed a giant oil rig, sending tensions spiraling in the region. The foreign ministry in Hanoi said the collisions took place on Sunday and caused considerable damage to the Vietnamese ships. Six people sustained minor injuries, it said. "On May 4, Chinese ships intentionally rammed two Vietnamese Sea Guard vessels," said Tran Duy Hai, a foreign ministry official and deputy head of Vietnam's national border committee. "Chinese ships, with air support, sought to intimidate Vietnamese...

Which nation is richer, Belarus or Luxembourg? If you look at total economic output, you might be tempted to say Belarus. The GDP of Belarus, after all, is almost $72 billion while Luxembourg’s GDP is less than $60 billion. But that would be a preposterous answer since there are about 9.5 million people in Belarus compared to only about 540,000 folks in Luxembourg. It should be obvious that what matters is per-capita GDP, and the residents of Luxembourg unambiguously enjoy far higher living standards than their cousins in Belarus. This seems like an elementary point, but it has to be...

Development of ATD-X jet part of Tokyo's effort to upgrade its defence capabilities; analysts warn it could spark claims of arms race in Asia The ATD-X's engines produce 5,000kg of thrust. Photo: SCMP A prototype of Japan's first domestically produced stealth fighter will get airborne before the end of the year, a significant development in Tokyo's efforts to improve its defence capabilities. Known as the Advanced Technology Demonstrator-X (ATD-X) fighter, the aircraft is being developed by the defence ministry's research institute and a number of private companies, primarily Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told the Diet's defence committee...

A Finnish company says that it has solved a problem that has vexed the designers of ultra-tall skyscrapers such as the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai or the 509-meter Taipei 101 in Taiwan – and we'll pause for a moment to let you guess what that problem might be. Ready? It's the fact that elevators are currently limited to a maximum travel distance of around 500 meters. The Burj Khalifa, in fact, has an elevator that holds the world record for the longest travel distance: 504m (1,654 feet). And what's keeping elevators from exceeding that limit? Time for another pause...

China should not doubt the U.S. commitment to defend its Asian allies and the prospect of economic retaliation should also discourage Beijing from using force to pursue territorial claims in Asia in the way Russia has in Crimea, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Daniel Russel, President Barack Obama's diplomatic point man for East Asia, said it was difficult to determine what China's intentions might be, but Russia's annexation of Crimea had heightened concerns among U.S. allies in the region about the possibility of China using force to pursue its claims. "The net effect is to put more pressure...

For the first time in history, the Taiwan Parliament (Legislative Yuan) was occupied by protesters, who fought against a trade agreement with China. = Live Update = Live broadcast stream of the protest Inside the Parliament http://www.ustream.tv/channel/longson3000 Outside the Parliament https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9Dy0IMmi0 At 08:00 3/19. Rumor goes that the government had called police from other cities to Taipei. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=631719033567182&id=523369387735481 At 06:20 3/19. The 2000 protesters oudside the Parliament started to REMOVE the police. Numerous policemen were lifted by protesters and moved out of the Parliament. At 06:00 3/19 Police started to remove protesters from the floor. Fei-Fan Lin (林飛帆), the leader...

China's top envoy to Germany has warned the West against punishing Russia with sanctions for its intervention in Ukraine, saying such measures could lead to a dangerous chain reaction that would be difficult to control. In an interview with Reuters days before the European Union is threatening to impose its first sanctions on Russia since the Cold War, ambassador Shi Mingde issued the strongest warning against such measures by any top Chinese official to date. "We don't see any point in sanctions," Shi said. "Sanctions could lead to retaliatory action, and that would trigger a spiral with unforeseeable consequences. We...

This is from a YouTube posting of a Flash Mob in Taipei, Taiwan and a Lunar New Year Celebration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHnAkbB-IYs&feature=youtu.be

The prominent realist international relations scholar John Mearsheimer says there is a greater possibility of the U.S. and China going to war in the future than there was of a Soviet-NATO general war during the Cold War. Mearsheimer made the comments at a lunch hosted by the Center for the National Interest in Washington, DC on Monday. The lunch was held to discuss Mearsheimer’s recent article in The National Interest on U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East. However, much of the conversation during the Q&A session focused on U.S. policy towards Asia amid China’s rise, a topic that Mearsheimer...

A Chinese billionaire is offering $1B Hong Kong dollars -- or $143,400,000 CAD [$129,574,375.80 USD] -- to any man who can turn his lesbian daughter straight. Cecil Chao Sze-tsung told a Malaysian newspaper his daughter is single, despite the fact she had a commitment ceremony with her longtime partner in 2012, and it's not too late to change her mind about men. But Gigi Chao told the South China Morning Post her father could offer up his entire fortune: "I don't think my dad's offering of any amount of money would be able to attract a man I would find...