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TAIPEI, LELEMUKU.COM - Taiwan is not intimidated by China's military drills this week, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday, after the latest Chinese military maneuvers were denounced by a senior U.S. official as "coercion" and a threat to stability in the region.

China's People's Liberation Army said its warships, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft had conducted "necessary drills" around Taiwan on Monday, although it described them as routine.

Tsai said Taiwan was not intimidated by the drills.

"As you may be aware, China's armed forces yesterday sent a large number of military aircraft and naval vessels into our vicinity. Their actions threaten Taiwan and other-like minded countries in the region," Tsai said.

"These actions only serve to strengthen our resolve. Our military forces have the capacity, determination, and commitment to defend Taiwan and not allow coercion to dictate our own future," she said.

Tsai also said the Trump administration had notified Taipei of its third arms sale to Taiwan, the training of pilots at the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.

"It enhances their abilities to defend our air space. I want to express my appreciation to the U.S. government for the announcement," she said.

Tsai was speaking at a forum co-hosted by Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to mark the 40th anniversary of Taiwan-U.S. ties under the Taiwan Relations Act, following Washington's decision to ditch formal recognition of Taiwan in favor of China in 1979.

The event was attended by a delegation led by Paul Ryan, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Taiwan scrambled jets and ships to monitor the Chinese forces on Monday, its defense ministry said, accusing Beijing of "trying to change the status quo of the Taiwan Strait."

'Encirclement patrols'

The goal of the drills was to practice a "combined firepower assault" that included electronic jamming from aircraft under the protection of fighter jets, the People's Liberation Army Daily reported on Tuesday.

Bombers "screamed" towards the area and carried out "sudden attacks" while warships occupied assault positions and conducted attacks on "enemy" fire points, the official paper of China's military said. Landing forces reached specified waters, which were circled by helicopters at low altitude.

The paper cited a Chinese military representative as saying the drills were annual, planned exercises that were "completely within the normal legal rights of a sovereign country."

China has repeatedly carried out what it calls "island encirclement patrols" in the past few years.

Ryan said the United States considers any military threat to Taiwan a concern and urged China to stop, saying the moves were counterproductive.

The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide the island with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms.

China has stepped up pressure on Taiwan and suspects Tsai is pushing for the island's formal independence. That is a red line for China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Tsai says she wants to maintain the status quo with China but will defend Taiwan's security and democracy.

The visit by U.S. officials comes just weeks after Tsai said the United States was responding positively to Taipei's requests for new arms sales to bolster its defenses in the face of growing pressure from China.

Washington sent Navy and Coast Guard ships through the narrow strait separating the island from the mainland last month, part of an increase in the frequency of U.S. movement through the strategic waterway to show support for Taipei. (VOA)

TAIPEI, LELEMUKU.COM - Last year some of the world’s biggest airlines changed their websites, one by one, to label Taiwan as anything but an independent country. When passengers opened country-specific pages or menus, they often found the Western Pacific island linked instead to China. Each change angered the Taiwanese, who have enjoyed de facto autonomy since the 1940s even though China says the island belongs under its flag.

Now China is pressuring 66 multinational companies to do the same. Each change, including many by companies dear to Taiwanese consumers, is expected to raise a new round of anger.

That cycle will worsen China-Taiwan relations that have sunk steadily since mid-2016 over a senior-level dispute about how to hold any negotiations. The more powerful China already floats an aircraft carrier near Taiwan periodically and picks off Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to flex its muscle.

“Taiwan’s public of course can’t accept saying that Taiwan must have its label changed to ‘China Taiwan,’” said Lee Chun-yee, a legislator in Taipei. “For China to do this, for the future of relations it has absolutely no use.”

Name change demands

China said in its 2018 Blue Book on the Cyber Rule of Law that the 66 multinationals, all among the world’s top 500, should change their reference to Taiwan, Taiwan’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement Thursday. The Blue Book threatens penalties against companies that don’t comply, the ministry said.

Among the targeted companies are Apple, Nike and Siemens, the ministry added.

The companies may link Taiwan to China on store-finder websites and menus that call for picking a place of business. They’re expected, ultimately, to comply as a way of protecting market share.

Apple’s smartphone share slipped last year already against competition from homegrown brands. Greater China was Nike’s top 2018 growth market following a 35 percent increase in sales, and Siemens calls itself one of China’s biggest foreign-invested firms.

The multinationals will “of course” make the changes, said Liang Kuo-yuan, president of the Taipei research organization Polaris Research Institute.

He added they just might move slower than the airlines, he said, if “hawkish” elements of the U.S. government lean hard on China, which is struggling already with the United States on trade.

Despite protests from foreign governments including the United States, most of the 44 airlines targeted last year met China’s final July 25 deadline for changing their “Taiwan” references. At the top of its Chinese-language flight booking website aimed at Taiwanese passengers, for example, Qantas Airways calls the location “China Taiwan.”

Airlines that didn’t comply risked losing business in China’s aviation market, which is due to surpass the United States as the world’s largest by 2024.

Apple, Nike and Siemens declined comment last week on what they plan to do in response to China’s pressure.

Resentment in Taiwan

China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists lost to the Communists and rebased on the island. China insists that the two sides eventually unite, but public opinion surveys in Taiwan show most people prefer today’s autonomy that includes 30 years of democracy.

“These companies are not government organizations, so to make them express their views clearly on a political issue is definitely of course not positive for Taiwan people’s recognition or for China’s international image,” said Andy Chang, China studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

Every time a recognized company changes its website to say Taiwan isn’t autonomous, people in China might gloat while peers in Taiwan vent.

Those reactions are already showing online among younger people, said Joanna Lei, chief executive officer with the Taiwan-based Chunghua 21st Century think tank.

“They’ve started calling Taiwan really dirty words and provoking hatred across the Taiwan Strait, and those are the real danger,” Lei said.

Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a scheme that unifies Taiwan with China but gives the island some local autonomy. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen later rejected that idea as well as Beijing’s condition that both sit down for talks as parts of one China.

In its statement, Taiwan’s foreign ministry accused China of “malicious intent.”

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns China for its outrageous demands and urges China to refrain from further actions to avoid harming the feelings of the Taiwanese people and the amicable development of...relations,” the statement said. (VOA)

TAIPEI, LELEMUKU.COM - Chen Hong-zhi's notebooks are his life. Nine years ago, Chen seriously damaged his hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with forming memories, in a traffic accident.

The 26-year-old has lost the ability to make and retain short-term memories. Instead, he painstakingly records his days in lined notebooks, crammed with entries in blue ink.

"I use the notebook to remember who I helped today, how much farm work I did, whether there was rain ... the notebook is my memory," said Chen, who lives with his stepmother, Wang Miao-cyong, 65, in a remote village in Hsinchu County, northwestern Taiwan.

"I once lost one of my notebooks. I was so sad that I was crying and asked my dad to help me find it."

Since his father died four years ago, Chen and his stepmother have lived on a government disability allowance and a small income they get from farming fruit and vegetables, which they barter with neighbors, some of whom call Chen "notebook boy."

Dr Lin Ming-teng, head of the psychiatry department at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, said Chen has made remarkable progress despite his extensive brain damage.

"From the X-ray, we can see a large part of his brain in black - these are the sections that were operated on after the traffic accident," Lin said.

"After losing such a substantial portion of his brain, it is quite amazing for him to achieve what he is doing now," Lin said, adding that Chen could only remember things he had done in the last five to 10 minutes.

Lin said the damage had also affected Chen's ability to receive and process information.

"This has an effect on his relationship with his mother, too, as sometimes his mother cannot get over the fact that he forgets things," Lin said.

Wang longs to go back to her hometown in Indonesia, but she feels she cannot leave Chen alone.

"If I leave, who will take care of my son? I can't imagine his future after I die."

For now, Chen's notebooks allow him to preserve some semblance of order in his life.

"October 26 go to Beipu alone, Chen clan organization, go find phone, go Catholic church, Citian Temple, 10:38 ZZZ," reads one poignant note about a day he spent searching for, and praying to find, his lost mobile phone.

Ten days later, he found his phone, documenting the find in his notebook, of course. (VOA)