PRESIDENTIAL CITATION: The former premier had said he would never accept a certificate of recognition for his service from a DPP administration, a friend said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 02, 2020
By: William Hetherington / Staff writer, with CNA

Honoring former premier and chief of the general staff Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), who passed away on Monday, with a presidential citation is proper, as he had made great contributions to the nation, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.

Hau served as premier under then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) from 1990 to 1993, athough the two belonged to different Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) factions, with Lee leaning toward localization and democratization.

Hau’s contributions were especially important during the 823 Artillery Bombardment — the bombardment of Kinmen by China’s People’s Liberation Army on Aug. 23, 1958 — and so “conferring an official certificate of recognition upon him is proper and a matter of course,” Tsai said.

Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), one of the former premier’s sons, said in a statement released by his office on Monday that the family was opening to discussing such a citation if contacted by the Presidential Office.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 30 March, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

Taiwan has kept a tight watch on people under quarantine in order to halt the spread of COVID-19. On the frontlines are local office clerks who check up on the people in quarantine every day. They also deliver supplies, answer questions, and handle complaints. And what’s more, they’re on-call 24 hours a day.

A district office clerk in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, checks up on a resident who’s under quarantine. Sometimes she turns on the video function to make sure they are actually in their home. 

Every day, this clerk has to check up on over 70 people in quarantine. And her work isn’t limited to just making phone calls. Some days, she has to hop on her scooter and deliver food and medical supplies. She does her rounds and delivers the goods, carrying half-a-dozen bags over her shoulders.    [FULL  STORY]

Breitbart
Date: 30 Mar 2020
By: Frances Martel

The government of Taiwan revealed on Monday that the democratic country had attempted to donate 10,000 protective medical suits to the Communist Party of China in February, as Wuhan coronavirus cases were rising exponentially in the country, but Beijing refused them.

The Communist Party rejects Taiwan’s status as a sovereign state, insisting it is a province of China. Taiwan operates full independently of Beijing and has never been ruled from Beijing in its history. As China is an extremely wealthy and influential dictatorship, however, it has successfully limited Taiwan’s diplomatic ties to other states and international organizations. Taiwan maintains diplomatic ties with only 15 states and cannot participate in the United Nations or, currently more pressingly, the World Health Organization (WHO), due to Communist Party bullying.

Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong confirmed reports on Monday that, despite the tense relationship between Taipei and Beijing, the Taiwanese government attempted to send 10,000 sets of protective medical suits to China to protect health workers caring for patients infected with the highly contagious virus. The suits would have reportedly gone to Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan, where the virus originated. Taiwan News reports that Hubei declined the offer, citing Chen saying that the Communist Party officials claimed “the lead time is too short to deal with.”

Focus Taiwan, another local media outlet, blamed China’s Eastern Airlines for rejecting the suits. Eastern Airlines flew 247 Taiwanese citizens home out of Wuhan in early February. Upon landing in Taipei, the Taiwanese government reportedly said it wanted to fill the plane with protective gear before it flew back. Eastern Airlines declined. The airline is majority-owned by the Communist Party. Focus Taiwan notes that the Eastern Airlines rejection came after the rejection from Hubei itself.
[FULL  STORY]

74% of Taiwanese favor removing 'Republic of China' from passport

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/30
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Over 70 percent of Taiwanese support changing the English name on Taiwan's passports to avoid confusion with communist China, according to the results of a survey run by the New Power Party (NPP).

On Sunday (March 29), the NPP announced that 74.3 percent of survey respondents supported removing the "Republic of China" from the English name on the country's passport and replacing it with "Taiwan" to avoid being confused with communist China. According to the survey, 51.2 percent strongly supported the suggestion, 23.1 percent were supportive, 10.8 percent disagreed, and 6.4 percent strongly disagreed, while 8.5 percent expressed no clear opinion.

As for the party affiliations of survey respondents, 90 percent of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members and Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) members supported the name change. Meanwhile, 75 percent of Taiwan People's Party (TPP) members and 52 percent of Kuomintang (KMT) members were in favor of the measure.

The survey was conducted from March 23 to March 24 via telephone and gathered 1,085 valid samples. The survey had a confidence level of 95 percent with a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percent.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/30/2020
By: Listen

Taipei, March 30 (CNA) Several companies in Taiwan's textile sector have been modifying their production lines and ramping up output to help meet the soaring demand for surgical masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Among the companies that have stepped up to the challenge is a "national team" of six manufacturers, which are producing protective hospital gowns that have P3 particulate filters.

Leading the team is Makalot Industrial, a top Taiwanese manufacturer that normally supplies textiles to global clothing brands but has moved quickly into the production of special protective gowns for people on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19.

Makalot Industrial Chairman Chou Li-ping (周理平) said the company had the advantage of research and development conducted 17 years ago when the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic hit Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Bloomberg
Date: March 29, 2020
By: Noah Smith, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Crises such wars, depressions, natural disasters and pandemics can reveal differences in how effectively a society organizes itself. In the 1600s and 1700s, for example, Britain’s more advanced tax system allowed it to outspend Spain and France, while Prussia’s efficient army let it overcome larger opponents such as Austria. In the Civil War, the Union's industrial prowess allowed it to outlast and overwhelm the agrarian Confederacy.

Pandemics aren’t quite the same as wars, but they can also illustrate startling differences in the effectiveness of different countries. China, the place where coronavirus first appeared, initially tried to hush up evidence of the outbreak before pivoting to a draconian crackdown that was crudely effective. South Korea and Taiwan, scarred by the SARS epidemic 17 years ago, were ready with effective response systems that tested large numbers of people and traced their contacts in order to isolate contagious individuals before they showed symptoms. European countries tended to respond less effectively, with Italy and Spain having two of the worst outbreaks and the U.K. dithering over its strategy while wasting crucial time.

But perhaps no advanced nation has responded as poorly as the U.S. Perverse regulation, a bungled government test and fragmented supply chains held back testing for crucial weeks, allowing the epidemic to spread undetected. Abdication of leadership by the federal government left the job of shutdowns to state and local governments. Meanwhile, the president has issued highly unrealistic predictions that lockdowns could end in as little as two weeks. As a result, the U.S. now leads the world  in cases of the coronavirus.

It’s possible that the U.S.’s scattershot, slow and ineffective response to this crisis is a result of leadership failures or the recent era of political division. President Donald Trump eliminated a pandemic response team at the National Security Council, his appointments to the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration have been controversial, and his messaging has generally been unhelpful and conflicting.    [FULL  STORY]

Retired Taiwan general crashes into traffic island on highway, dies in hospital

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/29
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former Deputy Minister of National Defense Wang Wen-hsieh (王文燮) was killed in a single-car accident on the New Taipei Huanhe Expressaway on Sunday (March 29).

According to the Liberty Times, the 87-year-old Wang struck a traffic island on the highway Sunday morning and fell unconscious as a result of the collision. Despite being rushed to Cardinal Tien Hospital in the New Taipei district of Yonghe, the veteran eventually died after medical staff failed to stabilize his condition.

Wang's family told media that Wang was very healthy for his age and enjoyed driving around northern Taiwan by himself. Based on surveillance footage, police confirmed that Wang died in a single-car crash, and no other vehicles were involved.

Wang was sober when the accident took place, according to the authorities. The real cause of the fatal tragedy has not yet been determined.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/29/2020
By: Liu Kuan-ting and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 29 (CNA) Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) expressed hope Sunday that a recent proposal raised by the party to lower the legal voting age to 18 by means of constitutional amendments can be realized soon and put into practice before the 2022 local government elections.

The proposal by the KMT to amend the Constitution to lower the legal voting age to 18 from the existing 20 and lower the age of candidacy to 20 from 23 was sent to committee review Friday.

The party's newly elected chairman, Chiang Chi-chen (江啟臣), then called on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to establish a constitutional reform committee to discuss the issue.

Speaking during a press event Sunday, KMT legislative deputy caucus whip Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said the party hopes that the proposal will be supported by the public and that the amendments to the Constitution can be passed soon.    [FULL  STORY]

CLUSTERED CASES: People who boarded EVA Airways Flight BR282 on March 20 should immediately seek medical help if they develop symptoms, the CECC said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 30, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced 15 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 298.

Fourteen of the new cases — nine men and five women — are imported cases who had returned to Taiwan between March 14 and Friday, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.

Among them are three clusters of cases, including a married couple who visited Indonesia form March 10 to March 14, developed symptoms on Sunday last week and sought medical help on Thursday, he said.The second clustered case is a man who visited Morocco from March 10 to Sunday last week in a tour group, in which another traveler tested positive last week, Chen said.
[FULL  STORY]