Sunflower Movement Activists Found Not Guilty On Friday, March 31, a group of 22 Taiwanese political leaders and activists were found not guilty of all charges related to the occupation of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s Parliament, on March 18, 2014. The 22 activists included Sunflower Movement protest leaders Lin Fei-fan, Chen Wei-ting, and Huang Kuo-chang…

Taiwan’s Homegrown Submarine Build Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen this week unveiled a new Indigenous Defense Submarine program as part of a commitment to boosting Taiwan’s defense system and improving the island-nation’s military self-reliance. The Ministry of National Defense has contracted the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) and shipbuilder CSBC Corporation for the…

The Ministry of National Defense Launches Fighter Program The Air Force commander, General Shen Yi-ming, signed a memorandum with the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to award the research institute, a unit of the Ministry of National Defense, with a NT$68.6 billion (US$2.22 billion) contract to build 66 trainer fighter aircraft. The program, titled “Blue…

As a special service to our readers, Topics Online is providing a weekly news roundup from The News Lens International covering the week’s most important stories from Taiwan, across the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.  An Ex-President Indicted Former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) this week became Taiwan’s third-straight former leader to be prosecuted…