Chinese Peril

Ecuador jails Chinese fishermen found with 6,000 sharks
Reuters

Residents protest after Chinese crew members were detained along with others for illegally fishing off the Galapagos Islands, in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Ecuador August 25, 2017.

QUITO -- An Ecuadorean judge has jailed 20 Chinese fishermen for up to four years for illegally fishing off the Galapagos Islands, where they were caught with 6,600 sharks.
The Chinese-flagged ship Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 was apprehended in mid-August with some 300 tonnes of near-extinct or endangered species, including hammerhead sharks.
The crew received jail time of between one and four years, the judge said late on Sunday.

They were also fined a total of $5.9 million.
Ecuador’s foreign ministry said it had sent a formal protest to China over the presence of ships near the Galapagos, which inspired British naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
It reported earlier this month that China’s ambassador in Quito, Wang Yulin, said his country wanted to take all measures necessary to “put an end to these illicit practices.”
The islands are about 1,000 km (620 miles) west of Ecuador’s Pacific coast.

A Chinese crew member steps off a bus after being detained along with others for illegally fishing off the Galapagos Islands, in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal, Ecuador August 25, 2017. 

The Environment Ministry said the Chinese vessel was fishing in the Galapagos’ marine reserve.
The boat will be taken over by Ecuador and the dead animals thrown out to sea, the government said on Monday.
Shark fin is a status symbol for many Chinese, prized as nourishment and consumed in a shredded jelly-like soup. 

Restaurants across China serve it at traditional banquets.
Centenarian tortoises and blue-footed boobies inhabit the Galapagos alongside some 18,000 islanders who earn a living from fishing and the tourism industry.

Rogue Nation

China 'impertinently' wants Taiwan to soften representation in 5 countries
Reuters

Taipei

China has been pressuring the United Arab Emirates and four other countries to ask Taiwan to rename its representative offices in another sign of diplomatic pressure on the self-ruled island, Taiwan's foreign ministry said on Thursday.
The pressure from Beijing on the UAE, Bahrain, Ecuador, Jordan, and Nigeria follows Panama's decision earlier this week to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and instead recognize China and its "One China" policy.
Taiwan's foreign ministry said in a statement China wanted the five countries to ask Taiwan to use names, such as "Taipei Trade Office", that do not suggest Taiwanese sovereignty.
"China is acting to suppress us in an impertinent way that has seriously offended the sensibilities of Taiwan's people," the statement said.
China's foreign ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Taiwan's office in Jordan is currently called the "Commercial Office of the Republic of China".
The Republic of China is Taiwan's official name and dates back to the ROC government's control of mainland China before it fled to the island at the end of China's civil war.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be brought back under its sovereignty by force, if necessary.
Taiwan and China have tried to poach each other's diplomatic allies ever since Taiwan's expulsion from the United Nations in 1971 to allow formal recognition of China.
The cross-strait rivals have often engaged in "dollar diplomacy", dangling generous aid packages in front of developing nations, although Taiwan has struggled to compete with an increasingly powerful China.
Panama became the second country to switch its recognition to Beijing since Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen took office last year, following Sao Tome and Principe last December, reducing the number Taiwan's diplomatic allies to 20.
Taiwan had as many as 30 diplomatic allies in the mid-1990s. 

Its remaining formal ties are with mostly smaller and poorer nations in Latin America and the Pacific.