EARLY DETECTION KEY: A doctor said that a common lung cancer often shows no symptoms in the early stages and recommends that smokers be checked for it

Taipei Times
Date:  Apr 04, 2020
By: Chen Chien-chih and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A woman in her 50s who does not smoke was diagnosed with lung cancer after inhaling secondhand smoke from her husband and son, a doctor said on Thursday, urging people to be mindful of the dangers of secondhand smoke.

Asia University Hospital doctor Liu Po-yi (劉柏毅) said a woman, surnamed Lee (李), was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma after she sought treatment following two weeks of excessive coughing.

For more than 30 years, cancer has been the leading cause of death in Taiwan, with lung cancer claiming the most lives over the past decade, Liu said, citing data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Clinical statistics show that people with lung adenocarcinoma are predominantly non-smokers, and the average age of patients is decreasing, Liu added.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 02 April, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The Netherlands Trade & Investment Office in Taipei responded to a donation of masks from Taiwan with this message on its Facebook page. (Photo Courtesy: Netherlands Trade & Investment Office in Taipei)

Taiwan is set to donate 5.6 million surgical masks to the EU and its member states.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, sent out a tweet Wednesday thanking Taiwan for the donation.

The foreign ministry says that Taiwan and the EU are partners that share the same values. The ministry says that the EU has always supported Taiwan’s participation in the WHO, and that Taiwan stands ready to help now that the EU is faced with such a serious outbreak.    [FULL  STORY]

The Conversation
Date: April 2, 2020
By: Cassandra Preece
PhD Student, Political Science, McMaster University

President Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secured a majority government win following January’s Taiwanese elections.

Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to reflect on the quality of democracy in Taiwan.

While international media coverage has been blinded by China’s rising authoritarianism and Taiwan’s fight against it, there’s been little attention paid to Taiwanese domestic issues like economic development, clean energy and human rights.

And what about Indigenous representation? What did the election mean for Taiwan’s Indigenous communities? Although Taiwan guarantees a number of seats to Indigenous representatives, the current system is flawed.    [FULL  STORY]

Czechia the first European country to partner with Taiwan on medical and technological research

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/02
By:  Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has teamed up with Czechia in the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19), which has infected nearly one million people worldwide and killed over 47,000 as of Thursday (April 2).

“To further strengthen consultation and cooperation on combatting the COVID-19 virus, both offices will seek to mediate and share best practices and cooperation,” stated a joint statement released by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday (April 1). The statement was signed by Taiwan’s representative to the central European nation, Ke Liang-ruey (柯良叡), and the representative of the Czech Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, Patrick Rumlar.

The Czech Republic is the first European country to reach a cooperative agreement with Taiwan on the epidemic. According to the joint statement, the collaboration will include the developments of test kits, vaccines, and medication in addition to research into health technology and information sharing for both countries’ virus response.

The central European nation has had a close relationship with Taiwan in the field of technology, according to Taiwanese authorities. Last month, James Liao (廖俊智), the president of Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s foremost research institute, held a video conference with his Czech counterpart Eva Zazimalova, from the Czech Academy of Sciences, to discuss possible collaborations on coronavirus-related research.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/02/2020
By: Liu Hsih-yi and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 2 (CNA) The Taipei District Court ordered Thursday that Chang Kang-wei (張綱維), chairman of Far Eastern Air Transport Corp. (FAT), be detained and held incommunicado on charges of fraud and embezzlement.

The Taipei District Court approved Chang's incommunicado detention two days after prosecutors appealed its decision to release him on bail after a preliminary hearing of the case.

According to prosecutors, Chang was charged in connection with false property declarations, fraud and embezzlement.

He has been under investigation since FAT abruptly canceled all its flights last December and laid off nearly 1,000 employees, citing financial problems.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 01 April, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

Taiwan reported seven new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing Taiwan’s total since the start of the pandemic up to 329.

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said that all seven of the new cases are imported. The patients in six cases had recently traveled to the US, while the patient in the seventh case had recently been to the UK.    [FULL  STORY]

PBS
Date: Apr 1, 2020
By: Nick Schifrin

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads around the world, Taiwan seems to have it under control. The island is only 80 miles off the coast of mainland China and very near to where the virus originated; plus there were many daily flights to it from Wuhan. But Taiwan has only 329 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and only five people have died from it. Nick Schifrin reports on this COVID-19 success story.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan premier says China's insistence on changing coronavirus name shows lack of confidence

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/01
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

2TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — When asked for his take on communist China's insistence on not using the place name "Wuhan" when describing the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said the correct name is "Wuhan pneumonia" (武漢肺炎) since that was its factual origin.

During an interpellation session of the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday (March 31), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) sought Su's opinion on communist China's policy of not allowing "Wuhan" to be used in descriptions of COVID-10 and other attempts to salvage its image amidst the global catastrophe. Su responded by saying the coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan, China, and therefore it should be called "Wuhan pneumonia," and that demanding the world to change the name shows that China lacks confidence in itself, reported Liberty Times.

Tsai said that China is seeking to whitewash its gross mismanagement of the coronavirus epidemic by claiming that terms such as "Wuhan coronavirus" and "Wuhan virus" are racist, while having World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom praise China's every move. Tsai pointed out that Tedros even lauded the communist country as having "bought the world time."

Su agreed with Tsai's assessment and said that it was a fact that the disease started in Wuhan, so the world has given it the name Wuhan pneumonia. He noted that many major infectious diseases take their names from their place of origin, such as German measles, Japanese encephalitis, and Hong Kong foot (Taiwanese Mandarin term for athlete's foot), but because China does not have any confidence in itself, it behaves in this way.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/01/2020
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) A death row inmate was executed Wednesday in Taiwan, less than a year after he was convicted of killing six people by setting fire to his home.

Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said he signed the order, and the death sentence was carried out Wednesday afternoon in New Taipei.

The 53-year-old inmate Weng Jen-hsien (翁仁賢) was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court on July 10, 2019 after he was convicted in the deaths of his parents, their caregiver, his niece and nephew, and the latter's wife.

According to the court, Weng set fire to his home in Taoyuan City's Longtan District on Feb. 7, 2016 after a family feud, and the six died in the blaze, while four other relatives sustained injuries.
[FULL  STORY]