Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/07/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, March 7 (CNA) The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday imposed a Level 2 travel alert for France, Germany and Spain, advising travelers entering Taiwan from those countries to observe 14 days of self-health management, in view of a recent spike in novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases there.

As of Friday, France had recorded 613 cases and nine deaths from the virus, alongside 639 cases in Germany and 374 cases and five deaths in Spain, the CECC said.

Undetected community transmission of the virus has likely occurred in all three countries, the command center said.

The move comes one day after Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said a "second wave" of the virus appears likely to hit Europe, where he predicted the number of cases would soon surpass Asia's.    [FULL  STORY]

CHANGE PROMISED: Hau Lung-bin did not wait for the final count before acknowledging defeat, while Chiang celebrated the handover to the next-generation KMT

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 08, 2020
By: Shih Hsiao-kuang, Chen Yun and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) won the party’s chairperson by-election yesterday with nearly 69 percent of the vote over former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).

Voting favored Chiang in all 22 counties and cities, KMT statistics showed.

In Taipei, where Hau served as mayor from 2006 to 2014, Chiang garnered nearly 60 percent of the votes, gaining about 2,600 more than Hau.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 06 March, 2020
By: Jake Chen

COVID-19: Children’s centers close, sport leagues ban spectators. (CNA Photo)[/caption] The government’s Central Epidemic Command Center has published a set of guidelines designed to contain the transmission of COVID-19. The new guidelines are set to impact everything from indoor playgrounds to professional sports matches through at least the end of the month.

On a normal day, this indoor children’s play center in Taipei would be full of kids and parents. But the outbreak of COVID-19 means that centers like this one have to shut their doors until the end of March.

This comes as Taiwan reports that several people have tested positive for COVID-19 despite no recent history of visiting or staying in hospitals. Experts suspect these people were infected in public places.

The government’s Central Epidemic Command Center has responded with a set of new guidelines that take aim at large gatherings and seek to prevent the kind of crowding in public places that may lead to further transmission.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date:\ 06 March, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The government has brought sixty new surgical mask-making machines online. The new machines will help alleviate a shortage of surgical masks brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak.

President Tsai Ing-wen visited the production site housing the machines on Thursday. She later took to Facebook to thank the economics ministry and a team of Taiwanese machine tool experts for their work towards getting the machines up and running.

The economics ministry decided to purchase the machines at a cost of NT$180 million (US$6 million) after it became clear that Taiwan’s stock of masks would run low. Under normal circumstances, the process of building and delivering so many machines would have taken around half a year. However, a team of experts managed to get the job done in 25 days.
[FULL  STORY]

E-International Relatins
Date: March 6 2020
By: Yu-Hua Chen

Opinion – Why Tsai Ing-wen’s Victory is a Blessing for the Taiwan Strait
Image by Wang Yu Ching / Office of the President

As the coronavirus situation inside China appears to stabilize, it is time to look back to the future of China-Taiwan relations. In the 2020 presidential election of Taiwan, the incumbent president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, was re-elected by an overwhelming majority. Since Tsai assumed office in 2016, China has intensified its pressure on the self-ruled island nation by a series of efforts. The primary purpose behind all these efforts is to force Tsai, who adamantly refuses to compromise on Taiwan’s sovereignty, to accept a unification proposal on Beijing’s terms. Despite the pressure from Beijing, she still defeated Mayor Han Kuo-Yu, a candidate Beijing prefers, by a significant margin. (2.6 million votes). While Tsai’s success should not be over exaggerated, the message the Taiwanese would like to send to Beijing in this election seems loud and clear — intimidation and coercion are not effective and even counter-productive. The more pressure Beijing puts on Taiwan, the stronger the Taiwanese resolve to defend their freedom and democracy becomes.

After the election, however, many experts on China shared the concern that Tsai’s victory may worsen the stability of the Taiwan Strait due to the likely response from Beijing. Lev Nachman argued, ‘The CCP is likely to respond in terms of doubling down on their current strategy of trying to punish Taiwan as much as possible.’ Bonnie Glaser warned that, ‘I expect they (Chinese) will double down on their use of military, diplomatic, and economic measures that they have already been taking.’ James Palmer also predicted before the election that, ‘Military options may even start to look more palatable.’ Certainly, the possibility that China will increase its pressure on Taiwan in the following months cannot be easily ruled out. However, according to the deterrence model of thinking, Tsai’s victory may stabilize this dangerous strait.0
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/06/2020
By: Liu Shih-yi and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, March 6 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court has awarded NT$54.7 million (US$1.82 million) in compensation to a small fraction of plaintiffs in a high-profile class action lawsuit involving Radio Corp. of America (RCA).

The court ruled Friday that only 24 of 246 plaintiffs were entitled to compensation for the company's toxic chemical pollution blamed for sickening or causing the deaths of thousands of RCA workers at its Taoyuan factory from 1970 to 1992.

In response to Friday's verdict, the lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a statement that they will "definitely" file an appeal after expressing disappointment at the ruling.

They criticized the compensation as being "far below a reasonable amount" and were unhappy that only 24 of the plaintiffs received compensation.   [FULL  STORY]

MUSICIAN’S TRAIL: The CECC said that 103 people who had close contact in Taiwan with an Australian composer who had COVID-19 had been told to enter quarantine

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 07, 2020
By: Cheng Wei-chi and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA

Taiwan yesterday confirmed one additional COVID-19 case, bringing the national total to 45, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

The 45th patient is a woman in her 50s who had been hospitalized in the same ward as Taiwan’s 34th novel coronavirus patient, the CECC said.

She had not traveled abroad in the past few months. She was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 due to an unrelated ailment and spent time in the same ward as the other patient, although in a different room, before being discharged on Feb. 20, it said.The woman was found to have contracted the disease after health authorities on Sunday screened the people with whom the 34th patient might have come into contact with, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 05 March, 2020
By: Paula Chao

It’s time for social distancing! Find out what health officials are recommending and why NTU epidemiologist Lin Hsien-ho thinks COVID-19 could infect 70% of the world, if we’re not careful. 

'Related investigation suggested it is an imported case linked to the Philippines,' says Taiwan's Center for Disease Control

Rappler
Date: March 06, 2020
By: Sofia Tomacruz

TRAVELERS. Passengers board international flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 in Pasay City on February 29, as novel coronavirus cases rise around the world. File photo by Inoue Jaena/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – The 44th confirmed novel coronavirus case in Taiwan had a history of travel to the Philippines, the Taiwan Center for Disease Control (CDC) said on Thursday night, March 5.

The 44th patient, who tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Thursday, is an over-30-year-old male who traveled to the Philippines with his friends from February 28 to March 3. The patient was not identified but was reported to reside in northern Taiwan.

"Related investigation suggested it is an imported case linked to the Philippines," Taiwan CDC's Central Epidemic Command Center said in an advisory on Thursday.

According to the Taiwan CDC, Patient 44 had diarrhea in the Philippines on Monday, March 2. Upon returning to Taiwan, he went to a clinic after experiencing dry throat and "tiredness" on Tuesday, March 3.    [FULL  STORY]

World-renowned Taiwanese-American HIV/AIDS researcher David Ho leads four teams in developing virus treatments

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/05
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — World-renowned Taiwanese-American HIV/AIDS researcher David Ho (何大一) said in a recent interview that he does not think the novel coronavirus is a product of a lab, but there is no doubt that the virus originated in China.

"Based on our knowledge of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and different types of coronavirus found in animals, I believe without reservations that it [Wuhan coronavirus or COVID-19] came from China."

In an interview with VOA on March 5, Ho said that it is critical to find out where the virus came from so as to be better prepared for the next global epidemic. Ho also thinks that theories suggesting the virus emanated from the U.S. are highly problematic.

He attributes the large-scale coronavirus outbreak to China's lack of transparency and its tendency to refuse to take responsibility. Those deficiencies allowed the virus to spread in the crucial early stages.    [FULL  STORY]