Weiming Chen vows to restore ‘CCP Virus’ after fire destroys artwork in Yermo's Liberty Sculpture Park

Weiming Chen’s latest artwork, “CCP Virus,” which he unveiled at Liberty Sculpture Park in Yermo early last month, has been destroyed in a fire, photographs obtained by the Daily Press show.

In the photos, the sculpture — which mocked China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and blamed the Chinese Communist Party for the coronavirus pandemic — lies in a pile of charred rubble. 

The base of the sculpture, as well as the bold red letters that spell the name of the artwork, are all that remain of the piece.

Source: Daily Press #Jul24

https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/2021/07/23/artist-weiming-chens-ccp-virus-sculpture-destroyed-yermos-liberty-sculpture-park/8079590002/

#Weiming #CCP #Virus #Yermo

How Taiwan is trying to defend against a cyber 'World War III'

As China steps up military pressure on Taiwan, the self-governing island is preparing for the next big frontier of warfare: crippling cyberattacks.

Taiwan's head of cybersecurity told CNN Business this month that it is using dramatic measures to guard against technological vulnerabilities — including employing roughly two dozen computer experts to deliberately attack the government's systems and help it defend against what Taiwanese authorities estimate are some 20 million to 40 million cyberattacks every month.

Taiwan says it has been able to defend against the overwhelming majority of attacks. Successful breaches number in the hundreds, while only a handful are what the government classifies as "serious."

Source: CNN #Jul24

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/23/tech/taiwan-china-cybersecurity-intl-hnk/index.html

#Taiwan #Cyber #WorldWar #CNN

#TokyoOlympics #Opening
Japanese Netizens' Different Reception of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the PRC

During the opening ceremony of 2020 Tokyo Olympics on July 23, 2021, the national team of Taiwan was arranged to march in the stadium in an order that follows the alphabetical sequence of "Ta". It means the organizer identifies Taiwan in the name of "Taiwan", instead of the name "Chinese Taipei", imposed by the People's Republic of China (#PRC).

Although the official announcement was still made according to the denomination "Chinese Taipei", the host of the Japanese national TV channnel #NHK used the name "Taiwan".

Moreover, on the platform Niconico where many Japanese netizens streamed the ceremony, enthusiatic reactions appeared with entrancd of Team Taiwan and Team Hong Kong.

Many netizens typed in phrases like "Taiwan Taiwan", "An Independent Country", "Fight on, Taiwan", "Love Taiwan" when seeing Tean Taiwan marched in. Netizens also cheered for the Team Hong Kong: "Fight on Hong Kong", "Hongkongers Persist" and "Fight for freedom"

This contrasts with the reactions the Japanese netizens had towards the PRC team. The netizens critique China's human rights violations and political prosecutions in the past and present. Words like "Tiananmen", "Covid", "massacre" popped up.

It was also reported that China's #Tencent suspended the live streaming after the said NHK host called out "Taiwan". In the end, the Chinese streaming platform failed to show the entrance of Team PRC due to its censorship of the official Japanese host.

Source: Apple Daily, Taiwan; Newstalk; Niconico, Japan #Jul24

https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2021-07-24/609393

https://bit.ly/3xXGSrc