Taipei Times
Date: Jan 21, 2020
By: Lee I-chia and Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporters

Taiwan yesterday set up an epidemic response command center to contain the spread of a new

coronavirus, which was first discovered in Wuhan, China.

With the novel coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV) infection spreading to other Asian nations and many people expected to return from China during the Lunar New Year holiday, the Executive Yuan yesterday afternoon approved a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) plan to establish a level 3 National Health Command Center, CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said.

The command center, led by Chou, is to be in charge of holding cross-ministerial discussions to improve preventive measures against “severe pneumonia with novel pathogens” in the nation.

Taiwan currently has 44 million surgical masks and 1.9 million N95 masks, more than enough to meet demand, Chou said.    [FULL  STORY]

• Beijing’s pressure on Taipei gave the Democratic Progressive Party a boost in the polls, on its way to a landslide victory over the Kuomintang
• The vote also reflects the people’s views on the relationships between Washington, Beijing and Taipei under the presidencies of Trump, Xi and Tsai

South China Morning Post
Date: 19 Jan, 2020
By: Cary Huang

When it comes to crucial elections for the highest office, there is no place in the world where outside factors take precedence over local issues – other than in Taiwan

.Mainland China’s increasingly hawkish attitude towards the island, Hong Kong’s anti-Beijing protests, and Washington’s support of the democratic aspirations in those two Chinese communities have all contributed to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen

 and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) landslide victory in the just-concluded presidential and legislative elections.In the self-ruled island’s presidential race on January 11, Tsai won a record 8.2 million votes, or 57 per cent of the total, against 5.5 million votes (38 per cent) for her main opponent, Han Kuo-yu from the Kuomintang    [FULL  STORY]

Especially for Australia.

The National Interest
Date: January 19, 2020
By: Hugh White

Key Point: Taiwan puts Ameirca in between a rock and a hard place.

Paul Dibb, in his recent Strategist post, writes that America’s strategic position in Asia would be fatally undermined if it didn’t go to war with China if China attacked Taiwan, and that Australia’s alliance with America would be fatally undermined if we didn’t then go to war with China too. The conclusion he draws is that, in the event of an unprovoked Chinese attack on Taiwan, America should go to war with China, and so should Australia.

I think Dibb’s premises are correct, but his conclusion is wrong. Failing to come to Taiwan’s aid would seriously weaken and perhaps destroy America’s position in Asia, and our alliance with America would be seriously weakened if not destroyed if we failed to support the US. But it doesn’t follow that either America or Australia should therefore go to war with China to defend Taiwan.

That depends on who would win the war. Such a war, like any war, would be a calculus of uncertainties, but at the very least one could say that a swift, cheap and decisive US victory over China would be very unlikely. America’s military power is very great, but China’s military power, and especially its capacity to deny its air and sea approaches to US forces, has grown sharply, and is now formidable.

China also has big advantages of location and resolve: Taiwan is closer to China than to America, and it matters more to the Chinese. And any hopes that US nuclear forces would swing the balance back America’s way run up against China’s capacity to retaliate in kind, and the risk of a nuclear exchange targeting US cities would at least have to be considered by US leaders in deciding to go to war.    [FULL  STORY]

State-run electric power company shares Lunar New Year spirit with senior citizens on Penghu

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/18
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) invited around 200 solitary senior citizens from the Penghu Islands to a free lunch on Saturday (Jan. 18) to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.

The charity event was held at the Discovery Hotel on Taiwan's offshore island, while traditional new year delicacies such as drunken chicken and barbecue pork were served. The guests dressed smartly to commemorate the passage of another wonderful year.

Lai Feng-wei (賴峰偉), magistrate of Penghu County, and Taipower Vice President Chen Chien-yi (陳建益) were also present at the charity feast. During his opening address, Lai expressed his gratitude to Taipower and said the island's lonely elders should be cared for by Taiwanese companies and the country's younger generation, reported CNA.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/19/2020
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Jan. 19 (CNA) Taiwan's foreign ministry on Sunday pushed back against a joint statement between Beijing and Myanmar that said Taiwan was undisputedly part of China's territory.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) solemnly protests the joint statement issued by China and Myanmar on January 18, in which Myanmar reaffirmed the so called 'one-China principle' and categorized Taiwan as an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China's territory," MOFA spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement.

"The ministry condemns such false statements that diminish the sovereignty of the Republic of China, Taiwan," Ou said.

Taiwan is not part of China, and only the Taiwanese government elected by its people can represent Taiwan in the international arena, she said, responding to the statement issued Saturday by China and Myanmar during a two-day visit to the latter country by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 20, 2020
By: Wu Su-wei and Dennis Xie  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

About 100 people marched in Taipei yesterday, demanding that the government amend the law to

ensure the rights and well-being of pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters if they come to Taiwan.

The march, organized by International Socialist Forward (ISF), which began in front of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters, headed past Taipei Railway Station and the Ximending (西門町) area before ending in front of the Legislative Yuan.

Participants called on the DPP to grant Hong Kong protesters political asylum by amending the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例).

More than 7,000 protesters have been arrested in Hong Kong, including about 1,000 who face criminal charges, since the anti-extradition, pro-democracy protests began last year, and about 500 have been accused of committing the offense of riot, which carries a prison sentence of more than 10 years, ISF spokesperson Vincent Hsu (許偉育) said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 17 January, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

The Taiwan military's most elite unit[/caption] Taiwan’s military has been stepping-up its game in preparation for the long Lunar New Year holiday. Taiwan’s most elite squadron of marines is ready for anything that could happen as the rest of Taiwan rests.

Step one, blow out the tires. Step two, set up a roadblock. Step three, surround and take-down. Step four, extract all hostages. Not this time, would be hijackers, because Taiwan’s most elite military squad is on the job. This is Taiwan’s Marine Corps Special Service Company.   [FULL  STORY]

Deseret News
Date: Jan 17, 2020
By: Arthur Cyr, Columnist  

President Tsai Ing-wen has been reconfirmed dramatically as leader of the government of Taiwan. The election of Jan. 11 gave her 57.1 percent of the vote, a stunning landslide. She is the first woman to hold this top government position, a milestone of tremendous importance.

This also continues political complications with mainland China. The current governing party, the Democratic Progressive Party, is formally committed to independence from China.

The DPP also retained a majority in the legislature. Ironically, the conservative Kuomintang opposition party has been more comfortable than the DPP with pragmatic cooperation with Beijing.

The government of China predictably has complained bitterly about this latest political development. Current assertiveness of China in maritime and military terms adds teeth to the rhetoric. Beijing has already reduced — but not terminated — trade and tourism.    [FULL  STORY]

2020 elections saw shrinking support for parties that advocate the extremes of reunification and independence

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/17
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Three trends can be observed from Saturday's elections: split-ticket voting, an embattled KMT, and extremist parties losing ground.

Voters prefer Tsai to her party

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won a landslide victory. The DPP retains its majority in the Legislative Yuan, but its share of valid legislator-at-large votes dropped by 10 percentage points compared to the 2016 legislative elections, while Tsai's margin of victory was up one percentage point from four years ago.

As former U.S. national security advisor Steve Yates and others have pointed out, two external factors had a significant influence on this election: China and Hong Kong. The results reflected the sentiment that the majority of Taiwanese do not believe Communist China can peacefully coexist with a free society, and voters rejected China's "one country, two systems" framework by casting a vote for the presidential candidate who opposes it.

However, over 2.8 million voters who backed Tsai in the presidential election chose to support minority parties in the legislator-at-large elections.

Two young political parties, the left-of-center pan-green New Power Party (NPP) and the right-of-center pan-blue Taiwan People's Party (TPP), each secured over a million votes, nearly 2.6 million votes combined, partially thanks to the desire to counter one-party dominance in the country's highest legislative body.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/17/2020
By: Elaine Hou, Chen Chao-fu and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Jan. 17 (CNA) The number of the signatures submitted for a high-profile petition to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has passed the threshold for the first step of a recall process, the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced Friday.

A total of 28,560 signatures were verified as valid, higher than the required minimum of 22,814 for the petition, the commission said.

Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, the first step in a three-step recall process is to raise a proposal containing the signatures of 1 percent of the constituency's eligible voters.

In the case of Kaohsiung's estimated 2.28 million eligible voters, this works out to be 22,800 signatures or more.    [FULL  STORY]