Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/20
By: Tang Pei-chun, Tai Ya-chen and William Yen 

Geneva, May 20 (CNA) A proposal to invite Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, as an observer has not been placed on the agenda of this year’s session for discussion.

The decision to not include the proposal was made despite four of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies advocated its inclusion during two-on-two debates at the 72nd WHA General Committee and plenary session in Geneva on Monday.

The four allies were the Marshall Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Honduras and Eswatini.

Meanwhile, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) released a video saying that there was no legitimate reason for Taiwan’s exclusion from this year’s WHA in Geneva from May 20 to 28.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: May 21, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) marked the third anniversary of her inauguration with a

news conference highlighting the achievement of her administration in the areas of defense, space technology, pension reform and soft power.

She promised that if re-elected, the government would host a “Taiwan Expo” to highlight the nation’s development of its “soft power” over the past few decades to the world.

“‘MIT’ or ‘Made in Taiwan’ has become a popular search term on the Internet again because of the trade confrontations between the US and China … but we need to create an ‘MIT Upgrade’ — a new economic model for better production processes that incorporates artificial intelligence, green energy and other advanced technologies,” Tsai said.

“Therefore, I hope that there will be a ‘Taiwan Expo’ in my second term, so that our friends around the world can see the nation’s comprehensive power,” she said.
[FULL  STORY]

VISIBLE PRESENCE: While Chen Shih-chung is focusing on bilateral meetings with WHO members during his vist, five TaxiBikes are carrying advertisements for Taiwan

Taipei Times
Date: May 20, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

Taiwan has become a popular term in Geneva, as Taiwanese nongovernmental

organizations and the government push for the nation’s participation in this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA), Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday in the Swiss city.

Taiwan had hoped to attend the WHA that opens today as an observer, as it did from 2009 to 2016, but was not invited for a third year due to China’s obstructionism.

Despite the snub, Chen on Friday left for Geneva at the head of a delegation to publicize Taiwan’s contributions to global health.

Chen said that he had attended two bilateral meetings since his arrival in Geneva.
[FULL  STORY]

rdnews Now
Date: May 19, 2019

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Gay couples in Taiwan plan a mass wedding registration after lawmakers voted to legalize same-sex marriage, a first in Asia and a boost for LGBT rights activists who had championed the cause for two decades.

Legislators pressured by LGBT groups as well as by church organizations opposed to the move on Friday approved most of a government-sponsored bill that recognizes same-sex marriages and gives couples many of the tax, insurance and child custody benefits available to male-female married couples.

That makes Taiwan the first place in Asia with a comprehensive law both allowing and laying out the terms of same-sex marriage.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, a supporter of the law, tweeted: “On May 17th, 2019 in Taiwan, LoveWon. We took a big step toward true equality, and made Taiwan a better country.”    [FULL  STORY]

• Health minister Chen Shih-chung says excluding island from World Health Assembly could undermine attempts to control infectious diseases
• Exclusion from summit follows pressure from mainland China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province

South China Morning Post
Date: 19 May, 2019 

Taiwan’s health minister called on Sunday for the island to be allowed to attend an annual World Health Organisation summit, saying it was vital to have proper disease prevention measures in place before next year’s Olympic Games in Japan.
In an interview with Kyodo News in Geneva, health minister Chen Shih-chung voiced disappointment at Taiwan being shut out yet again from the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s decision-making body, due to pressure from mainland China.

Chen and his delegation flew to Geneva for a series of meetings on the sidelines of the annual event, which opens on Monday.

As Taiwan is a transport hub for East and Southeast Asia, excluding it from the WHO’s health and safety system could create a loophole for infectious disease control, he warned.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News  
Date: 2019/05/19
By:  Central News Agency

A wide range of military equipment, weapons and vehicles, including F-16V fighter jets from the United States, Taiwan’s indigenous Clouded Leopard armored vehicles and two U.S.-made Perry-class guided missile frigates will take part in this year’s Han Kuang live-fire drills May 27-31.

The Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s biggest annual military drill, are divided into two parts, which are computer-aided war games held April 22-26 and nationwide live-fire drills to be staged May 27-31, a Ministry of National Defense (MND) official said under condition of anonymity.

The live-fire drills will involve the Army, Navy and Air Force to test their coordinated response to simulated assaults by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from air and sea.

Taiwan’s first F-16V modified by the local Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) will take part in an exercise on a freeway-based emergency airstrip in Huatan Township in Changhua County May 28.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/19
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) criticized China’s

state-run media Sunday after it downgraded Taiwan’s sovereign status by describing Taiwan as part of China in a tweet about its decision Friday to legalize same-sex marriage.

The People’s Daily, the largest newspaper group in China, in a Saturday English-language tweet, said that “local lawmakers in #Taiwan, China, have legalized same-sex marriage in a first for Asia, according to local media reports.”

In response, Wu rebutted the comments, stressing that Taiwan is not part of the People’s Republic of China.

“WRONG! The bill was passed by our national parliament & will be signed by the president soon. Democratic #Taiwan is a country in itself & has nothing to do with authoritarian #China,” he tweeted.    [FULL  STORY]

‘TROUBLED’: The group of US representatives expressed concern over the need for a ‘cross-strait understanding,’ which has allowed China to veto Taiwan’s participation

Taipei Times
Date: May 19, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA, WASHINGTON

Heavyweight US lawmakers on Friday called on the WHO to invite Taiwan to attend this

year’s World Health Assembly (WHA), its decisionmaking body.

US representatives Steven Chabot, Gerry Connolly, Mario Diaz-Balart and Albio Sires — cochairs of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus in the US House of Representatives — sent a joint letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to urge the global health organization to include Taiwan in the 72nd session of the WHA.

This year’s assembly is scheduled to open tomorrow in Geneva, Switzerland, and run through May 28.

Taiwan was not invited to attend the meeting, as China again opposed its participation due to Taipei’s refusal to accept Beijing’s “one China” principle.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 17 May, 2019
By: Paula Chao

World-renowned architect I. M. Pei has died at the age of 102. The Chinese-born architect passed away in New York on Thursday.

Born in China’s southern Guangdong province in 1917, Pei went to the United States at the age of 18. He studied architecture at MIT and Harvard.

Pei is best known for his Louvre pyramid, a glass structure which has become a major landmark in Paris since its opening in 1993. Pei’s other notable works include the National Gallery of Art’s East Building in Washington, DC, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, and the John F. Kennedy library in Boston.

In Taiwan, Pei’s greatest legacy is the Luce Chapel, designed for central Taiwan’s Tunghai University in 1963. The chapel is constructed without the use of beams or pillars and is known for its resemblance to two hands pressed together.    [FULL  STORY]

By Siobhán O’Grady and
Olivier Laurent
May 17 at 11:00 AM

Throngs of Taiwanese took to the streets of Taipei to celebrate their parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage, becoming the first legislature in Asia to do so.

Photos from Taiwan show celebrants erupting in cheers and embracing one another after the announcement on Friday.

And even when it started raining on the celebrations, they kept the party going as they huddled under umbrellas or wrapped themselves in ponchos. Some carried rainbow flags and maps of Taiwan decorated in rainbow. Others cracked open bottles of beer on city streets to toast the decision.

Advocates for LGBT rights hope Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage will spark a ripple effect across Asia, where some countries are already inching toward marriage equality.    [FULL  STORY]