Radio Taiwan International
Date: 04 December, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

The American Legislative Exchange Council has presented President Tsai Ing-wen with its International Pioneer Award for Leadership. Tsai is the second international head of state to win the honor: the only other to have done so was Margaret Thatcher in 2006. 

During an acceptance speech in Taipei, Tsai said she was accepting the award on behalf of the Taiwanese people. The president invoked the words of Margaret Thatcher saying “When people are free to choose, they choose freedom.”     [FULL  STORY]

The Hill
Date: 12/04/20
By: Seth Cropsey, opinion contributor

The Biden administration will immediately face serious foreign policy challenges, especially in the western Pacific where China’s provocations have accelerated since the coronavirus spread around the world. China’s attacks on Vietnamese fishing boats, elimination of freedoms promised to Hong Kong, threats to boycott Australian agricultural products, September clashes with Indian troops and accelerated probing of Taiwanese air and sea space — all demonstrate Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s increasing aggression.

The bullseye of these provocations is Taiwan, whose democracy contradicts mainland China’s insistence on tyranny as the only appropriate form of governance and threatens its imperial ambitions. What’s more, Taiwan’s geographic position blocks the Chinese navy’s unobstructed access to the central Pacific.

Ending Taiwan’s self-government is a fundamental Chinese objective. But preserving the U.S. position as the dominant, benevolent Pacific power is as critical to America’s economic future as it is to U.S. global security. A U.S. failure to honor the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), to assist Taiwan if it were to be attacked, would undermine every U.S. security alliance. No American president can ignore this.

Prior to the U.S. presidential election — and in light of China’s expanding regional provocations — the U.S. foreign policy community began to examine how to improve Washington’s ability to deter China from using force against Taiwan. From this emerged the question of “strategic ambiguity,” under which a state deliberately refuses to articulate its response to certain actions. 
[FULL  STORY]

Bus companies and airlines to add extra services

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/04
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Rocks fallen on the railway line between Taipei City and the east coast might take four days to be removed, Transportation Minister Lin Chia-long (林佳龍) said Friday (Dec. 4).

Days of heavy rain are believed to have caused the landslide, which came only one day after the fallout from a previous one was cleared. The latest rockslide occurred between Ruifang and Houtong in New Taipei City, CNA reported.

The area houses several popular tourist attractions, including a gold mine museum, the cat-friendly village of Houtong, the mountain town of Jiufen, rivers and hiking trails. The railway line also connects Taipei City with the northeastern coastal county of Yilan and the east coast beyond.

Nobody was injured during the landslide, but as damage occurred over an area of 3,800 square meters, it will take three days to remove all the rocks and mud, with one additional day necessary to repair tracks and cables, the minister wrote on his Facebook page.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/04/2020
By: Lin Chang-shun and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) Incumbent Legislator Chen Chao-ming (陳超明), who was being detained on suspicion of corruption, has been released on NT$5 million (US$177,302) bail on Friday but is under home detention and barred from leaving the country.

When leaving the Taipei District Court after posting bail, Chen of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) insisted he was innocent and not involved in corruption and said he would offer his side of the story at a press conference at a later date.

Chen, along with Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) of the KMT, Su Chen-ching, (蘇震清) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and former New Power Party legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) were indicted for alleged violations of the Anti-Corruption Act in September in a case related to ownership of the Pacific SOGO Department store chain.

Prosecutors alleged that they took bribes from former Pacific Distribution Investment Co. Chairman Lee Heng-lung (李恆隆) to help Lee in his legal battle against the Far Eastern Group over ownership of the department store chain.    [FULL  STORY]

BLOOMBERG TOP 50: The media firm said that because of Tsai Ing-wen’s influence, ’Taiwan will likely be among the few economies to experience growth this year’

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 05, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Thursday was named among the 50 most influential people in the world by Bloomberg News.

In an introduction titled “Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s COVID Crusher,” the US-based media company said that Taiwan had gone more than 200 days without recording a locally transmitted case of COVID-19.

That success could be attributed to the quick response of Tsai’s administration, which instituted “one of the world’s most effective pandemic response protocols,” Bloomberg News said.

Even before Tsai’s re-election on Jan. 11, the government was already responding to early reports of the virus, “preparing to close borders, impose travel restrictions, and set up rigorous contact tracing and quarantine protocols,” it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 04, 2020
By:  Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

The US and Taiwan yesterday launched a new bilateral education initiative that American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen said was aimed at expanding access to Mandarin and English-language instruction and safeguarding academic freedom.

At a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei for the US-Taiwan Education Initiative, Christensen said that it would “highlight Taiwan’s important role in providing Chinese-language instruction to Americans and to people around the world, and seeks to expand Taiwan’s influence in this area.”

As part of the initiative, the AIT and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding on international education cooperation that focuses on language education.

The memorandum is expected to remain in effect for five years, with the possibility of an extension, the AIT said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 03 December, 2020
By: Paula Chao

The foreign ministry has expressed its appreciation to the US Congress for its support of Taiwan. That was the word from Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou on Thursday.

In its 2020 Annual Report to Congress, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), suggested strengthening economic cooperation with Taiwan in key areas.

The USCC was created by US Congress in October 2000. It has the legislative mandate to monitor, investigate, and submit to Congress an annual report on the “national security implications” of the bilateral trade ties between Washington and Beijing.

In the report, the commission also suggested that Congress consider “enacting legislation to make the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan a presidential nomination subject to the advice and consent of the United States Senate.”    [FULL  STORY]

News Medical
Date: Dec 3 2020
By: Sally Robertson

Researchers in the United States and Taiwan have demonstrated the potential of a novel protein-peptide vaccine to protect against infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Chang Yi Wang from United Biomedical Inc Asia in Taipei and colleagues say the vaccine, called UB-612, is the first “multitope” protein-peptide vaccine to be developed against SARS-CoV-2.

UB-612 comprises several components designed to induce high levels of neutralizing antibodies and a broad immune cellular response, including a viral fusion protein, and five synthetic SARS-CoV-2-derived peptides.

Studies in guinea pigs, rats, mice, and rhesus macaques confirmed the immunogenicity and efficacy of UB-612, while toxicity tests in rats indicated the vaccine is safe and well-tolerated.
[FULL  STORY]

Taichung's 92-year-old IF House pastry shop destroyed by blaze

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/03
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A fire destroyed a historic pastry shop dating back to the Japanese colonial era and damaged six nearby homes in central Taiwan on Thursday morning (Dec. 3).

At 10:54 a.m., the Taichung City Fire Department received a report that a fire had broken out at a store on Zhongshan Road in the city's Central District. In response, the fire department dispatched 10 fire trucks, one ambulance, and 46 firefighters to the scene, reported CNA.

Because the old shop was constructed of wood, the fire spread rapidly, and by the time firefighters arrived on the scene, the blaze had spread to a number of nearby households. To cope with the spreading inferno, the fire department dispatched an additional 17 vehicles and over 50 additional firefighters.

At 1 p.m., firefighters were finally able to bring the fire under control and set about extinguishing its remnants.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/03/2020
By:  Chang Jung-hsiang, Hao Hsueh-chin,
Wang Yang-yu and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, Dec. 3 (CNA) A children's book that local politicians have said glorifies China's COVID-19 response has been banned in Taiwan, after its publisher was found to have not applied for permission for it to be distributed, the Ministry of Culture (MOC) said Wednesday.

As the picture book "Waiting for Dad to Come Home" (等爸爸回家) was originally published in China, its Taiwanese publisher should have applied to the MOC before it was published in Taiwan, the ministry said in a statement.

Taiwan's regulations stipulate that companies wishing to publish books in Taiwan that were initially published in China must apply to the MOC for approval. They have to include an authorization letter from the Chinese publisher and the book itself in their application.

Since the MOC did not receive an application for the book's publication, it is banned from distribution in Taiwan, effective immediately, the MOC said.    [FULL  STORY]