Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/03
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, April 3 (CNA) Taiwan has been hit by 10 earthquakes measuring 5.0 or more on the Richter scale so far this year, compared with an annual average of 22, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Wednesday, after a magnitude 5.6 temblor shook southern Taiwan earlier in the day.

However, while the number is significantly higher than for the same period in other years, the CWB said it is within a reasonable range and does not necessarily indicate a higher frequency of quakes this year.

On average, Taiwan has 2-3 earthquakes with a 6.0-7.0 magnitude and 22 with a 5.0-6.0 magnitude each year, according to Wu Chien-fu (吳健富), deputy head of the bureau’s Seismology Center.

Some 70 percent of the earthquakes are centered in northeastern Taiwan, he pointed out.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 02 April, 2019
By: Paula Chao

National Yang-Ming University has introduced PET-CT scans for pets, a first for Taiwan. PET refers to positron-emission tomography, a technique that can better detect cancer in its early stages and monitor the spread of the disease after surgery.

Taiwan has about 2.5 million pet cats and dogs. Alarmingly, their chances of getting cancer are as high as 54%. To ensure better treatment for sick pets, National Yang-Ming University has introduced PET-CT scans.

Besides pet cats and dogs, PET-CT scans can also be used for hamsters, rabbits, chickens, and ducks.    [FULL  STORY]

Chiang Kai-shek once called communism ‘a disease of the heart.’ Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu now describes Taiwan and China as partners in an ‘arranged marriage’ who are now ‘madly in love.’

The News Lens
Date: 2019/04/02
By: David Evans

Taiwan appears to be on the brink of what may become a constitutional crisis.

The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, buoyed by its success in the nine-in-one elections last November, is suddenly seen as having a decent chance of seizing control of both the Legislative Yuan and the presidency. If it succeeds, then some of its policies could potentially threaten the very sovereignty of Taiwan.

In recent years, the KMT has morphed into being Taiwan’s pro-China party. This reached its zenith on Nov. 7, 2015, shortly before the most recent presidential elections in Taiwan, when the Beijing-friendly KMT president of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), formally met with the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi Jinping.

The backlash against that meeting and the trade agreement which preceded it in Taiwan was profound. With Ma having reached his term limit, the KMT candidate for the presidency in the elections that took place just two months after the meeting was Eric Chu (朱立倫). Chu was obliterated, winning just 31 percent of the vote and a mere 3.8 million votes. By comparison, in the 2012 election, Ma had secured just under 6.9 million votes for a 51.6 percent share.

The fact that the KMT lost more than 3 million voters in just four years is not exclusively down to that one meeting, of course. But it was, in no small part, down to the party’s pro-China policies, most notably the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA) which triggered the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement.    [FULL  STORY]

Caregiver caught on camera appearing to suffocate baby boy in Taipei infant care center

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/02
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A caregiver is being investigated for negligent homicide after surveillance camera footage showed her appearing to pin down an 11-month old boy before he died of suffocation on Monday afternoon (April 1) at an infant care center in Taipei, reported Liberty Times.

On Monday, a 40-year-old caregiver surnamed Liao (廖) said that the child had eaten breakfast at 10 a.m. and later took a nap in the afternoon at an infant care center on Section 1, Kangning Road in Taipei’s Neihu District. Liao said that she was in charge of watching over all the babies as they took their afternoon nap, but gave no explanation of what transpired next.

At 2 p.m.. a 61-year-old cook for the infant care center surnamed Wu (吳) prepared to feed the babies an afternoon snack. She saw that a boy, surnamed Li (李), was lying still and was not responding to her calls to wake him.

When Wu turned the infant over, she discovered his skin had turned purple. She panicked and hurriedly called for a nurse, who immediately implemented CPR and called the fire department.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/02
By: Liu Lee-jung and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, April 2 (CNA) The National Laboratory Animal Center (NLAC) announced Monday

that it has successfully developed “mouse avatars,” a method to pre-test cancer treatments in mice and guide doctors in tailoring treatment options for each patient.

To treat cancer with more precision, the NLAC first developed mice with “advanced severe immunodeficiency”(ASI) in 2015, which provided a vivo model — one that takes place outside a patient’s body — to study human tumor tissues, according to NLAC project manager Wang Jui-ling (王瑞鈴).

This year, Wang said, researchers created “mouse avatars” by implanting tumors from different cancer patients into a set of ASI mice, then waited for the tumors to grow and tested what they felt were the optimal treatments for those mice.

The process, in which an individual’s tumor was grown and treated in a specific mouse, gave physicians the chance to see which drugs might work best in treating each patient’s condition, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 03, 2019 
By: Staff writer, with CNA, Washington

Chinese provocations will not win Taiwanese hearts, but will only bring people around the

world that cherish democracy closer, White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said in a tweet yesterday.

“Chinese military provocations won’t win any hearts or minds in Taiwan, but they will strengthen the resolve of people everywhere who value democracy. The Taiwan Relations Act [TRA] and our commitment are clear,” Bolton wrote.

Bolton did not elaborate on the US’ commitment to Taiwan.

According to the TRA, which serves as the basis of unofficial relations between Taiwan and the US, Washington is obliged to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 01 April, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

Taiwan is commemorating Children’s Day and Tomb-sweeping Day during the upcoming four-day weekend, which begins on April 4. During the holiday, Pingtung County is hosting a rainbow festival. It has tagged over 50,000 pineapples in the fields with green, orange, red, purple, yellow and blue to create designs that visitors can enjoy as they visit the colorful pineapple fields.

Pingtung County Chief Pan Men-an said that ordinary pineapple fields have been turned into art for visitors to enjoy.

Pingtung is Taiwan’s largest source of pineapples. Last year, the county exported 19,000 metric tons of the fruit at a value of NT$1.3 billion (or over US$42 million). So far this year, Pingtung has already exported 8,000 metric tons or NT$300 million (nearly US$10 million) worth of the fruit.    [FULL  STORY]

Answering some common questions on Taiwan’s request to purchase F-16V fighter jets from the United States.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/04/01
By: the Editors at Illustrated Guide for Weapons and Tactics

The US military’s FMS process

The procurement of weapons is not your run of the mill transaction. There is a strict and official procedure that needs to be followed. If Taiwan is interested in a certain piece of equipment from the United States, for instance, it must first send an LOR (Letter of Request) for the P&A (Price and Availability) data. After the U.S. responds with the initial quote, Taiwan then has to produce a “Request for a LOA (Letter of Offer and Acceptance),” before the US officially sends out a “LOA.”

According to the regulations of the U.S. government’s FMS (Foreign Military Sales), in the first stage, the DOD does not have a definite time limit to respond to the buyer after they receive the “LOR.” However, in the second stage, after receiving the “Request for a LOA,” they need to make a decision on whether or not to sell within six months.

In the 40 years since the severance of Taiwan-U.S. diplomatic relations, the most significant military transaction was when President George H.W. Bush announced the sale of 150 F-16A/B jets in 1992 as he pushed for re-election. When his son, President George W. Bush, was in charge, the U.S. declared their willingness to sell submarines to Taiwan. However, after Taiwan sent out an “LOR,” the transaction was sunk to the bottom of the ocean due to some constraints enforced by the U.S. Department of State. Following that, Taiwan sent another LOR for the then newly developed F-16C/D fighter jets, but yet again, the order did not materialize.

Therefore, from the beginning of this century, throughout both the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) governments, Taiwan has been pushing to upgrade its relationship with the U.S. to something similar to close-knit allies, so that Taiwan would be able to skip to the second stage of the process and directly propose a “Request for an LOA” instead, allowing the U.S. executive branch to simply respond before the given deadline. At the end of 2018, after many years of hard work, the U.S. finally agreed to move toward a “more normal foreign military sales relationship” with Taiwan.
[FULL  STORY]

PLAAF aircraft continue to provoke neighbors in the region

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/01
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – For the third day in a row, Chinese military aircraft have left Chinese air space, provoking neighbors in the region.

On the afternoon of April 1, three Chinese aircraft, including two H-6K bombers and one Y-9 transport and reconnaissance plane crossed the Miyako Strait south of Okinawa, and entered the Western Pacific, according to the Japanese Self Defense Force.

The flight drill follows an incident on Sunday, March 31, in which two Chinese J-11 fighter jets crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait forcing the Taiwan Air Force to scramble jets.

In response, President Tsai issued a standing ordered for the Air Force to forcefully expel any Chinese military aircraft that intentionally cross into Taiwan’s airspace. The American Institute in Taiwan has condemned the actions of China’s air force as “harmful” to regional peace.    [FULL  STORY]

‘STATUS QUO’: Taiwan intercepted a pair of Chinese fighter jets crossing the Taiwan Strait median line, which the president called a provocation that harms regional peace

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 02, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday warned China against altering the “status quo”

across the Taiwan Strait after a pair of Chinese jets crossed the median line of the Strait on Sunday morning.

“China’s move is not only a unilateral change in the cross-strait status quo, it is also a provocation to peace in the region,” Tsai said in a speech at a military promotion ceremony.

In the face of a fast-changing international climate and multiple challenges to national security, the military will assume a much more important role in maintaining regional peace, safeguarding sovereignty and upholding people’s well-being, as well as the values of democracy and freedom, Tsai said.

“The military is firmly determined to defend the nation’s democracy, sovereignty and security,” she said. “We will never give even an inch of territory.”    [FULL  STORY]