Radio Taiwan Internatuional
Date: 27 November, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says that it is still too early to discuss implementing a “vaccine passport” scheme in order to allow international travel to return to normal.

Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says that it is still too early to discuss implementing a “vaccine passport” scheme in order to allow international travel to return to normal.

Chen was speaking Friday, amidst proposals from Australian airline Qantas to require travelers to certify that they have been vaccinated for COVID-19 before boarding flights.   [FULL  STORY]

CNN
Date: Nov. 28th, 2020

Lawmakers in Taiwan threw pig intestines and punches at each other as a brawl broke out in parliament over a proposal to ease restrictions on pork imports from the United States.
[SO-URCE]

Saturday's incident was the 20th incursion for November

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/11/28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two Chinese Y-8 aircraft intruded into the southwest sector of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) Saturday (Nov. 28), according to the Ministry of National Defense.

As on 19 previous occasions in November alone, Taiwan’s Air Force scrambled jets, issued radio warnings to the Chinese aircraft and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor their activity, the Liberty Times reported.    .[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 11/28/2020
By: Chen Wei-ting and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Nov. 28 (CNA) Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said on Saturday that it is considering guidelines to fine those who arrive in the country without proof of a recent COVID-19 test, after such tests become mandatory in Taiwan on Dec. 1.

Earlier this month, the CECC announced that it would begin requiring anyone seeking to enter Taiwan to present an English-language certificate of a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test taken within three days of boarding when checking in.

It later listed several exceptions to the rule, namely for individuals coming from countries where self-paid tests are unavailable, or who are in urgent situations or have otherwise been given prior approval.

At a press briefing on Saturday, CECC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said the government health body is drafting guidelines to fine travelers who arrive without a test result or a valid exemption.    [FULL  STORY]

BALANCING ACT: Indonesia is on the nation’s ‘high-risk’ list, and 50 Indonesian migrant workers who came since last month have tested positive, the CECC said

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 29, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday temporarily banned two more Indonesian recruitment agencies from sending migrant workers to Taiwan due to COVID-19.

With immediate effect, migrant workers from the recruitment firms PT Bumenjaya Eka Putra and PT Mitra Sinergi Sukses are prohibited from entering Taiwan, bringing to eight the total number of agencies facing such restrictions.

The center on Friday announced it had added PT Laatansa Lintas and PT Prima Duta Sejati to the list of firms temporarily banned from sending workers to Taiwan. The center first banned four Indonesian recruitment firms on Friday last week: PT Sentosa Karya Aditama, PT Vita Melati Indonesia, PT Ekoristi Berkarya and PT Graha Ayukarsa.

The move came after the CECC in the past few days confirmed several new imported COVID-19 cases, most of which were migrant workers arriving from Indonesia from the recruitment firms.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 26 November, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The government is considering adopting new rules about payments into the national health insurance system by citizens living abroad.

Current rules allow Taiwanese citizens living abroad for between six months to two years to opt out of paying into the system and resume payments—and coverage—upon their return.

The government is considering doing away with this choice to opt out and requiring citizens living abroad for less than two years to continue insurance payments.

The government is also considering changing the rules that govern insurance for those who have been abroad for more than two years. The proposed changes would require those returning after two years or more abroad to wait six months on their return before receiving coverage again.
[FULL  STORY]

Beijing claims it will severely punish independence advocates in accordance with Chinese law

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/110/26
By: Eric Chang, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Chinese government said on Wednesday (Nov. 25) that it is contemplating creating a blacklist of “diehard” supporters of Taiwanese independence.

The idea was first floated by pro-Beijing Hong Kong-based newspaper Ta Kung Pao earlier this month, according to Reuters. China’s English tabloid the Global Times has said the list could include senior Taiwanese government officials.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory. However, the reality is that the country of Taiwan has its own democratically elected government from the top down, its own judicial system and laws, its own currency, its own military, its own healthcare system, in addition to a Taiwanese society that practices freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and respect for human rights, which lies in stark contrast to China.

Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮), a spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the “list of diehard Taiwan secessionists” now being considered will only target a small number of independence supporters and those who fund them, Reuters reported. “It is absolutely not aimed at the vast majority of Taiwan compatriots,” Zhu said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.   [FULL  STORY]

11 employees of Taiwan's de facto embassy in US confirmed to be infected this week

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/11/267
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Representative to the U.S. Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) is undergoing home quarantine after a cluster of coronavirus cases were reported at the de facto Taiwanese embassy in Washington, D.C.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said via a statement on Thursday (Nov. 26) that as many as 11 employees at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) have contracted the coronavirus over the past few days. Two cases were reported on Tuesday, and nine more were confirmed after the office tested the contacts of the first two.

Hsiao tested negative for the virus, according to MOFA Spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安). The representative is in good health but has to self-isolate for two weeks after coming into contact with infected employees, added Ou.

Diplomatic work will not be disrupted in spite of the cluster at TECRO, said Hsiao via Facebook. All the staff members at TECRO have worked and lived in a risky environment after the pandemic swept the U.S. in March, but they have not slackened, she added.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 11/26/2020
By: Shen Pei-yao, Chang Hsiung-feng,
Christie Chen and Matthew Mazzetta

New Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) A woman who killed her young son and daughter before attempting suicide earlier this year was sentenced to death by the New Taipei District Court on Wednesday, for a crime described by the court as "extremely cruel and cold-blooded."

The 30-year-old woman, surnamed Wu (吳), was a single mother who raised an 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son on her own after a divorce.

On Feb. 13 this year, after an argument with her brother and his wife, Wu drove her children to a motel in New Taipei's Wugu District to stay overnight. While in the room that night, she attempted to suffocate the children with pillows, but failed as they fought back, according to the court.

Two days later, however, Wu drugged her children with sleeping pills before strangling them with a rope in the motel. She later texted her ex-husband a message that read: "I'm gone. I'm going to be with the kids, or they will feel lonely," according to the court.    [FULL  STORY]

LABELING FINES: The FDA said products without clear labeling would draw fines of NT$30,000 to NT$3m, while misleading labels would be fined NT$40,000 to NT$4m

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 27, 2020
By: Lee Hsin-fang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

.The government is to institute five measures to manage imports of US pork containing ractopamine, which are to be allowed from Jan. 1, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.

Although the animal feed additive is banned for use in pigs in Taiwan due to safety concerns, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Aug. 28 announced that the nation would ease restrictions on imports of US pork containing traces of the drug within certain limits.

The first measure is that import requests for US pork would not be approved if a first-time applicant has not dispatched employees to visit the farms on which the hogs are raised, Su told a meeting at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.

The second measure is that US pork is to be subject to the Standard Classification of Commodity of the Republic of China Code, with the different cuts of meat identified by the code to increase to 67 items from 22, Su said.    [FUILL  STORY]