4th UPDATE: Activists Straining Taiwan-Israel Military Ties
Taiwan Alliance for a Free Palestine (台灣巴勒斯坦自由連線)
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17 March 2024 (Sunday)/UPDATED 26 April 2024; UPDATED 29 April 2024 (Monday).
Activists Straining Taiwan-Israel Military Ties
Taiwan Alliance for a Free Palestine (台灣巴勒斯坦自由連線)
By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德
TAIPEI - A note to my readership, there are now three different anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian groups in Taiwan. Acronyms have become confusing, as you will notice, so I use their full names in this article:
台灣巴勒斯坦自由連線 Taiwan Alliance for a Free Palestine (TWAFP)
台灣巴勒斯坦行動陣線 Taiwan Action Front for Palestine (TAFP)
台灣巴勒斯坦團結網絡 Taiwan-Palestine Solidarity Network, possibly connected to 可以自由巴 For Peace Taiwan.
The Taiwan Alliance for a Free Palestine (TWAFP), a new group, has emerged demanding Taiwan end all Israeli military relations.
Ironically, the group, has made no demands on the government to cease promoting trade between Taiwan and Iran, which in the past has included the export by Taiwan companies to Iran of dual-use technology components. This has resulted in U.S. sanctions on Taiwan companies for exporting technologies for the production of weapons of mass destruction.
According to the new group’s Petition:
On February 23, 2024, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chung Chia-pin initiated the “Taiwan-Israel Congressional Association,” incentivizing deeper bilateral relations and substantive cooperation between Taiwan and Israel. This not only sustains Taiwan's consistent stance of appeasing Israel but potentially functions as an integrating platform for Taiwanese small and medium-sized enterprises, and the Israeli massacre machinery. Currently, Taiwan has a large number of companies, including Enova, Gloria Material Technology (GMTC), S-Tech (STC), Advantech, Complex Micro Interconnection, ADLINK, HIWIN, E-JET Aviation Technology, Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), Chenfull International, Transcom, Ye Fong Aluminium, Thunder Tiger, and others, that are producing weapon components for the United States and Israel. In other words, components and critical technologies “made in Taiwan” have been used in the F-35 fighter jets, F-16 fighter jets, drones, and military computers deployed in attacks on Gaza. Components produced by Taiwanese people are being used in Gaza in weapons that are slaughtering Palestinian civilians, women, and children.
The PDF above also mentions the 台灣巴勒斯坦行動陣線 Taiwan Action Front for Palestine (TAFP), which is discussed below, and a new group called 台灣巴勒斯坦團結網絡 Taiwan-Palestine Solidarity Network. Signees include over 70 Taiwan NGOs/NPOs, along with some quasi-leaderless groups and self-appointed leaders with no members minus a website.
There were only two other Islamic groups on the list: Islamic Association of Taiwan (IAT) 台灣伊斯蘭協會 and Taipei Grand Mosque 台北清真寺.
Of the 70 or so entities that signed the protest letter not all were Woke or Islamic: Collective Of Sex Workers And Supporters (COSWAS) 日日春關懷互助協會, International Marxist Tendency 火花—台灣革命共產主義 [old school Marxist studies], and Taiwan Japan Research Foundation 台灣日本綜合研究所.
In recent years, Taiwan has achieved some incremental progress in the purchasing of military hardware/software and bilateral interaction of current or retired Israeli military/security officials.
China has successfully blocked most international weapons sales to Taiwan, so any help from a tier one defense industry like Israel is welcome.
Now new pro-Palestine Taiwanese supporters of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have created organizations that could cause problems for the military’s efforts to obtain Israeli military hardware (equipment) and software (education/training/intelligence sharing, etc.).
The Taiwan military needs to pick the brain of Israel’s war machine to help fight off a Chinese invasion.
A Chinese takeover of Taiwan will end all democratic progress and human rights efforts on the small island that has struggled to shrug off 50 years of martial law, only now to face the very real possibility of becoming a slave state to the Chinese Communist Party.
Aurora Chang posted these notices regarding the 台灣巴勒斯坦自由連線 Taiwan Alliance for a Free Palestine (TWAFP):
It is an open secret that Taiwan’s new Chien Hsian or Rising Sword is based on the Harpy loitering munition produced by Israel Aerospace Industries. It is also no surprise that numerous Israeli defense companies have local sales representatives: List of Foreign Companies and Identifies of Taiwan Local Agents.
Below photographs by Wendell Minnick at the 2019 and 2023 Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition (TADTE).
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One area of concern not openly discussed is Taiwan’s student exchange program with Iran and Palestinian organizations is the unknown number of students in Taiwan studying engineering subjects necessary for missile and rocket technologies.
We know that Israel targets Iranian students in Malaysia and other Asian geographies for assassinations, which further deepens anti-Israel views in the region. Fortunately, Iranian students have not met the same fate even without diplomatic protection.
There are also Taiwan trade associations using Qatar and other countries for the export of sensitive technologies to Iran. Some of these Taiwan companies have been sanctioned by the U.S. government.
Another shocking revelation is Taiwan’s relationship with Pyongyang via North Korean trade groups operating here. One of the most famous is the Korea International Chamber of Commerce, which continues flying the North Korean flag outside the door of the office.
It would appear that human rights are for the Taiwan citizenry and do not apply for those who suffer in North Korean gulags.
If I could quote Victor Davis Hanson, the DPP are “not subject to the ramifications of its own ideology.”
Radical members and supporters of the DPP might throw a wrench in military exchanges with Israel that could forestall or even halt an invasion.
That wrench began with the Taiwan Action Front for Palestine (TAFP) that protested outside the U.S. de facto embassy, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).
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