Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/16/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Ko Lin

Taipei, May 16 (CNA) Taiwan on late Friday held a virtual forum with 13 like-minded countries including the United States, Japan and Canada to discuss COVID-19 prevention and control strategies.

The video conference, organized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), saw the participation of some 50 local and foreign officials, including Pam Pryor, the acting assistant secretary for International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

At the event, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) explained how Taiwan continues to be one of the few countries that has successfully curbed the spread of the virus while allowing its citizens to maintain their normal lives.

Chen also detailed some of the early efforts that Taiwan took against the disease, such as the government requisitioning domestic surgical face mask supplies and establishing a name-based rationing system for face mask distribution.    [FULL  STORY]

INSIDE JOB? Legislator Ann Kao said that the Presidential Office should launch an internal investigation to determine if credentials were stolen or information leaked

Taipei 
Date: May 17, 2020
By: Su Yung-yao, Chen Yun and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday said that it has launched an investigation into a suspected cyberattack on the Presidential Office, after some members of the media on Friday received what the office said were altered documents pertaining to two meetings last month between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).

On Friday night, an e-mail account named “ser lo” sent members of the media on the Presidential Office’s contact list two e-mails containing several files.

The files were purportedly documents prepared by aides for two meetings between Tsai and Su on selecting members of Tsai’s second-term Cabinet.

A motorist waits at a stoplight in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on Jan. 4.

Photo: Betsy Joles, Bloomberg

Also attached was a purported assessment report on vice president-elect William Lai (賴清德) from early last year, when he competed against Tsai in the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential primary.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwn International
Date: 14 May, 2020
By: Paula Chao

[When will Taiwan reopen its doors to the world?]

 

There hasn’t been a single domestic COVID-19 case in Taiwan for over a month, and officials are beginning to ease restrictions on daily life. Find out how that could pave the way for summer weddings! Also, in Taiwan Explained, a look at what it’s like to eat at a restaurant in a post-lockdown world. 

The easing of restrictions may not be apparent at the nation’s borders, though. We’ll tell you what the health minister had to say about when cross-border travel can resume. 
[FULL  STORY]

Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Markus Castaneda

Sputnik News
Date: 14.05.2020

The US Navy has announced one of its destroyers transited the Taiwan Strait, separating autonomous Taiwan from mainland China – the sixth such transit this year. This one, however, comes amid media reports of Chinese plans to seize islands controlled by Taipei, and a week before Taiwanese President Tsai Ing Wen is sworn in for a second term.

Sixth Transit This Year

Early on Thursday, the US Pacific Fleet announced via its Facebook page that a US warship had sailed through the 180-mile-wide waterway separating Taiwan from the Chinese mainland. The autonomously governed island is preparing to inaugurate its anti-reunification president for a second term; meanwhile, the US is making moves to win Taipei’s admission to the World Health Organization (WHO) at Beijing’s expense.

“The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG-85) conducted a Taiwan Strait transit May 13 (local time), in accordance with international law,” Lt. Anthony Junco, a US 7th Fleet spokesperson, told USNI News. “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told Reuters that Beijing “paid close attention” to the transit, adding, “We hope the US side can appropriately handle the relevant issue, and play a constructive role in regional peace and stability, not the opposite.”
[FULL  STORY]

Independent Fu Kun-chi described by critics as the 'King of Hualien'

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/14
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An independent lawmaker nicknamed the “King of Hualien” will have to spend two years and 10 months in jail for illegal stock market practices, but he will retain his seat and his salary as he has not lost his political rights, reports said Thursday (May 14).

Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁), 58, is a legislator and former county magistrate for Hualien who exerts considerable influence in the sparsely populated east coast region. He served as legislator for the area from 2002 until 2009, then ruled as county chief for the maximum two consecutive terms from 2010 to 2018, when his wife, Kuomintang (KMT) member Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚), succeeded him.

After he spent seven months in prison last year for insider trading, he won a seat in the Legislative Yuan in the January elections. Even though a renewed stint in jail might be expected to cause the loss of his position and his salary and a by-election for his legislative seat within three months, his latest sentence for stock manipulation in a 1997 scandal did not include the removal of his political rights.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/14/2020
By: Su Szu-yun and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) Taiwanese and Australian university researchers will work together on developing new drugs with potential efficacy against various viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said Thursday.

In video conference call on May 7, researchers from Australia's Monash University and Taiwan's Chang Gung University (CGU) expressed a strong desire to embark on a study and reached an agreement on the areas in which they will cooperate, the ministry said.

Under the agreement, Taiwan will provide strains of the SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses, and Australia will provide the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin to study its effectiveness against COVID-19, the ministry said, adding the research will be carried out in Taiwan laboratories.

The cooperation will focus on identifying novel therapeutic drug targets against COVID-19 and will be expanded to study their effectiveness against other viruses, including HIV, dengue, Zika, and influenza, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘WIND IS BLOWING’: European lawmakers have called on their health ministers to request the World Health Assembly let Taiwan’s Chen Shih-chung participate

Taipei Times
Date: May 15, 2020
By: Lu Yi-hsuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taiwan has not received an invitation to the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which is to be held virtually from Monday next week, and all of the nation’s diplomatic allies, except the Vatican, have tendered proposals to the WHO backing Taiwan’s bid for participation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

In the past, some of the nation’s allies chose not to make formal appeals and instead made remarks at the decisionmaking body of the WHO, but this year those that could make proposals to back Taiwan’s WHA bid have all done so, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing in Taipei, describing the development as a “home run.”

The Vatican, which is only an observer at the WHA, would voice its support for Taiwan through other methods, the ministry said.

In a letter addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and signed by Saint Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines said that Taiwan from 2009 to 2016 had been invited to the WHA, and has had meaningful and ongoing interactions with the WHO.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 13 May, 2020/
By: Shirley Lin

Gov't eases restrictions on weddings as COVID-19 pandemic slows[/caption] It’s been nearly impossible for couples to get married over the past several months. Most countries have limited large-scale gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center has eased restrictions, paving the way for summer weddings. 

Good news for couples that want to get married! With COVID-19 under control, health officials are giving the green light to weddings… with some restrictions.

Normally, wedding banquet tables can seat ten people. But now they’re only seating eight. Wedding banquets are also limited to 250 people.

A spokesperson for one hotel says that the government will require detailed guest lists… but hotel staff will help take care of that.    [FULL  STORY]

The Asian Age
Date: May 13, 2020
By: Rahul Karan Reddy

The country's speedy, efficient and expert-led action, despite not having WHO membership, becomes a blueprint for infectious disease control

 Baseball fans enter the Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City, Taiwan, Friday, May 8, 2020. Up to 1,000 spectators are now allowed in the stands for baseball in Taiwan on Friday, albeit spaced far apart as a safeguard against the spread of the coronavirus, but they are still barred from bringing in food and concession stands are still closed. (Photo | AP)

In the fight to halt the coronavirus, several countries have been touted as models to be emulated. Chiefly, South Korea is oft cited, justifiably so. However, no country has met with as much success in holding off and beating back the virus as Taiwan, whose geographical and cultural proximity, literally next door, to China makes the feat all the more remarkable. Contained in this narrative are valuable insights for other countries such as India that are still in the throes of this pandemic.

Situated a mere 130 km off the coast of mainland China, Taiwan has 850,000 to 1 million citizens who live or work in China. Although Beijing and Taipei are adversarial regimes, numerous daily flights link the island to multiple major cities in China. Given such proximity, Taiwan would likely be the most affected by any epidemic with origins in China. In fact, it was the hardest hit when SARS broke out in China in 2003. Taiwan then had the highest mortality rate in the world.

That did not happen this time.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/13
By:  Central News Agency

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has vowed to strengthen Taiwan's psychiatric care services while offering her condolences to the widow of a Taichung dentist murdered by a man with a history of mental health issues.

Tsai made the pledge on Tuesday in a letter to the dentist's widow, Tsou Feng-chu (鄒鳳珠), in response to Tsou's appeal for help last week after the Taichung branch of the Taiwan High Court upheld a lower court's decision to give Lai Ya-sheng (賴亞生) a life sentence for the murder.

Lai fatally stabbed Tsou's husband, surnamed Wang (王), and injured two dental assistants as he tried to kill his estranged sister at the clinic where she worked on May 24, 2017.

In an April 29 decision, the Taichung court ruled that Lai's history of schizophrenia constituted grounds for a reduced sentence under Article 19 of Taiwan's Criminal Code and therefore declined to impose the death penalty.    [FULL  STORY]