SAFETY RISK: The government is working to categorize countries based on their COVID-19 cases and prevention efforts, which would determine quarantine periods

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 02, 2020
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The government plans to rank countries based on their COVID-19 risks to determine how to treat tourists and other travelers from those nations once Taiwan reopens its borders, but it is still working out the categories, a top health official told lawmakers yesterday.

“We would divide countries around the world into several categories. One category would comprise those countries with very few confirmed COVID-19 cases, such as New Zealand and Palau. Travelers from the countries in this category would only need to practice self-health management,” Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) told a Legislative Yuan seminar hosted by Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers Mark Ho (何志偉) and Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧).

“Tourists from low-risk countries, such as Vietnam and Brunei, might be asked to undergo quarantine for five to six days after entering the country,” he said.

Taiwan has not had any confirmed domestic COVID-19 cases for 50 consecutive days, but there are now more than 6 million confirmed cases in the rest of the world, with the number rising in South America and Southeast Asia, Chuang said.    [FULL  STORY]

Chinese President Xi Jinping is shown on a large video screen in Hong Kong on May 28, during a live broadcast of the National People's Congress in Beijing. (Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images)

Washington Post
Date: May 29, 2020
By: Arthur Tam 

The successes of Hong Kong, Taiwan and the rest of the Chinese diaspora have always been an embarrassment for Beijing. Not only are they reminders of China’s historical failures, but they also represent an alternative way of life, where peoples of the same origin could somehow thrive outside of the watchful eye of the Communist Party. To Beijing, that’s an irreconcilable insult, a memory that needs to be murdered.

That helps explain why China’s government is so determined to tighten its authoritarian grip on their cultural exports. In the past, it has even gone as far as making Hong Kong and Taiwanese artists sign a pledge that they will identify as “Chinese" and not engage in any “politically incorrect” activity while in the mainland.    [FULL  STORY]

CHINA has vowed to take control of Taiwan by any means necessary.

Express
Date: May 30, 2020
By: Gursimran Hans

Taiwan has been separate from mainland China since the nationalists lost the Chinese Civil War and were forced from the mainland in 1949. The official name of Taiwan is the Republic of China (ROC) and it claims to be the legitimate successor to the pre-war Chinese government instead of the current communist party led People’s Republic of China (PRC). Li Zuocheng, chief of the joint staff department declared in Beijing: “If the possibility for peaceful reunification is lost, the people’s armed forces will, with the whole nation, including the people of Taiwan, take all necessary steps to resolutely smash any separatist plots or actions.

“We do not promise to abandon the use of force and reserve the option to take all necessary measures, to stabilise and control the situation in the Taiwan Strait.”

Politics in Taiwan is split into two loose camps – pan-blue who favour some form of unification with the mainland and pan-green who favour Taiwanese independence.

Though President Tsai Ing-wen is in the latter camp she has said a unilateral declaration of independence is unnecessary due to Taipei’s de facto independence.    [FULL  STORY]

Huang among several jailed for adultery set free on May 29

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/31
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A woman surnamed Huang, who had been in jail for adultery, was released from prison on the evening of May 29, the same day that classifying adultery as a criminal offense was ruled unconstitutional by Taiwan's Constitutional Court.

Huang was among several people jailed for adultery who were set free the same evening, CNA reported.

Carrying her bags, Huang walked out of the door of Chiayi Prison's Lucao branch, where she had been incarcerated for three months. At first, she thought that she was being allowed to leave because someone had posted her bail.

When she realized that adultery was no longer a crime, she said, "Did I serve three months in prison for nothing?”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/31/2020
By: Ku Chuan and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, May 31 (CNA) A stimulus voucher program set to be rolled out in July to boost consumption will be available to not only Taiwanese citizens but also foreign nationals and Chinese spouses who hold residency permits in the country, a source familiar with the matter told CNA Sunday.

Taiwan's government is currently fine tuning the details of the program, which will involve issuing vouchers to the public for in-store purchases in a bid to revive consumer buying amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

During a radio interview on May 25, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said the plan is to allow anyone, regardless of age or income level, to buy NT$3,000 worth of vouchers for NT$1,000 (US$32.9). These can then be used to shop at stores, buy train tickets and pay taxi fares.

However, Kung did not specify whether all Taiwan residents or only citizens would be eligible to obtain the vouchers.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 01, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The nation marked its 49th day with no new domestic COVID-19 cases yesterday, and there were no new imported cases, but that does not mean the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) can relax its attention, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said yesterday in Tainan as he and a team of health officials wrapped up a weekend visit to the city.

The visit is part of the center’s efforts to promote domestic travel under the “new disease prevention lifestyle.”

Among the 442 confirmed cases, 423 have been released from isolation and 12 people remain hospitalized, Chen said at the center’s daily news conference, which was held at the Jian Shan Pi Jianganan Resort (尖山埤江南渡假村), the second time it has be held outside of Taipei.

Chen joked with reporters that he had not been working while in Tainan, simply enjoying seeing the sights, trying various local delicacies and appreciating the warmth of the residents’ welcome.    [FULL  STORY]

• Li Zuocheng says collusion between independence and foreign forces is a ‘great and realistic threat’ to peaceful development of relations
• Taipei denounces comments, saying threats of war violate international law, and Taiwanese ‘will never choose dictatorship nor bow to violence’

South China Morning Post
Date: 30 May, 2020
By: Minnie Chan

General Li Zuocheng, chief of the PLA Joint Staff Department, said “we do not promise to abandon the use of force”. Photo: Handout[/caption] Taking Taiwan by force is an option for Beijing and it will take steps to “resolutely smash” any separatist moves made by the island, a top PLA general said on Friday.

At the same event, Li Zhanshu, the third most senior leader of the ruling Communist Party, said using force was a last resort and Beijing had not given up on peaceful reunification with the island, which it considers a part of China.

They were speaking at a gathering in Beijing to mark the 15th anniversary of the Anti-Secession Law that gives the People’s Liberation Army a legal basis to take military action against Taiwan if it is deemed to have seceded.

General Li Zuocheng, chief of the PLA Joint Staff Department, said collusion between Taiwan independence forces and foreign forces posed a “great and realistic threat” to the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s nuclear program goes back to 1964, when the People’s Republic of China tested its first nuclear device.

The National Interest
Date: May 30, 2020
By: Kyle Mizokami

Here's What You Need To Remember: Taiwan’s nuclear program was under careful surveillance by the United States, which recognized Taiwan as the rightful Chinese government and protected the country from the mainland. Still, Washington was afraid a Taiwanese bomb would unnecessarily enrage China, and by 1966 took steps to prevent the bomb from happening.

It would have been one of the greatest crises of postwar Asia: the revelation of a Taiwanese atomic bomb. For Taiwan, the bomb would have evened the odds against a numerically superior foe. For China, a bomb would have been casus belli, justification for an attack on the island country it considered a rogue province. Active from the 1960s to the 1980s, Taipei’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons were finally abandoned due to diplomatic pressure by its most important ally, the United States.

Taiwan’s nuclear program goes back to 1964, when the People’s Republic of China tested its first nuclear device. The test was not exactly a surprise to outside observers, but it was still Taiwan’s nightmare come true. Chinese and Taiwanese air and naval forces occasionally skirmished, and it threatened to turn into all-out war. Suddenly Taipei was confronted with the possibility that such a war could turn nuclear. Even just one nuclear device detonated on an island the size of Maryland would have devastating consequences for the civilian population.

From Taiwan’s perspective, a nuclear arsenal would be the ultimate guarantor of national sovereignty. Even if the United States split with the country, as it eventually did, Taiwanese nukes would keep the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at bay, a deterrent not only against Chinese nuclear power, but against conventional forces as well. In hindsight, this would have had a good chance of success, as North Korea’s own procurement of nuclear weapons has made the United States and South Korea reluctant to retaliate over the country’s various military provocations.    [FULL  STORY]

Leak contains personal information on more than 20 million Taiwanese citizens

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/30
By: Kelvin Chen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — It was reported on Friday (May 29) that a government database of more than 20 million Taiwanese citizens was leaked on the dark web.

According to researchers at Cyble Inc., Toogod, a “known and reputable actor” was found to have released the data titled, “Taiwan Whole Country Home Registry DB,” onto the dark web. It is unusual for an entire nation’s database to be leaked, Cyble reported.

The data is from the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Household Registration.

Altogether, the database is 3.5 GB and lists the names, addresses, genders, date of births, and other private information of more than 20 million citizens. According to Cyble, the "actor" claimed the leak is from 2019, though Cyble researchers have stated that it is difficult to confirm how recent it actually is.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/30/2020
By: Chen Yun-yu, Chang Ming-hsuan and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, May 30 (CNA) Taiwan officials said Saturday that they will closely watch the impact of the decision by United States' President Donald Trump to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO), with Taiwan's health minister saying the move could create an opportunity for closer cooperation between the countries.

Trump announced on Friday that the U.S. is "terminating its relationship" with the WHO, accusing the body of failing to hold China responsible for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Saturday, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) released a statement addressing the decision's impact on the country's campaign to join the global health agency, saying it had been closely following the situation since the U.S. froze funding to the WHO in April.

Taiwan has utilized various channels to understand the decision and its impact, as well as the responses of like-minded international partners, MOFA said.    [FULL  STORY]