Voice of America
Date: March 09, 2020
By John Xie

FILE – Chiang Chi-chen, the newly elected chairman of Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang Party (KMT), speaks during a news conference in Taipei, Taiwan, March 7, 2020.

Taiwan's main opposition party has elected a reform-minded chairman, which could mean the party will reconsider its longstanding support for closer ties with China.

The new chairman of the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), is Chiang Chi-chen, a 48-year-old lawmaker who pledged during his campaign to take a harder line against Beijing's influence.

The KMT lost both the presidential and parliamentary elections in a landslide defeat to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in January, largely because of its pro-China stance. After the election, many younger generation members within the more than 100-year-old political party pushed the KMT to chart a new path, which would likely result in a setback for Beijing's quest to gain control over the self-ruled island.    [FULL  STORY]

Legislature braces itself for possible coronavirus outbreak

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/09
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s legislature will adopt video conferencing if two or more legislators contract the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Preparations are being made for the worst scenario should the novel virus make its way into the top legislative body of the country, said Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), secretary-general of the Legislative Yuan on Monday (March 9).

When there is one confirmed case among the legislators, those who have come into contact with the case will be required to self-monitor their health conditions. When two or more cases emerge, the meeting rooms will cease operations, and sessions will be conducted over video conference, he added.

In that scenario, legislators will be asked to attend meetings using the laptops distributed to them. However, the validity of video voting still needs to be determined through bipartisan discussions, wrote CNA.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/09/2020
By: Wu Po-wei, Lee Wan-lin and Ko Lin

Taipei, March 9 (CNA) Taiwan is ramping up its production of surgical face masks, with the goal of reaching 10 million per day by next week, using newly acquired equipment, in an effort to meet domestic demand amid the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic, Economics Minister Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said Monday.

With the delivery of the machines, 60 new production lines have been opened at various manufacturing plants across Taiwan, although some of the equipment still needs fine tuning, Shen said.

This week, Taiwan's daily output of surgical face masks is expected to be 9.2 million on average, and when the production lines reach full capacity next week, they will be manufacturing 10 million masks per day in total, he said.

On March 5, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said NT$90 million will be spent to set up another 32 mask production lines, which will eventually help meet the current high demand due to the coronavirus epidemic.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 10, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) pledged urgent reforms as he was sworn in as the party’s new chairman yesterday.

“The end of the by-election is the beginning of unity,” Chiang said at his swearing-in at KMT headquarters in Taipei, which was attended by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), and former party chairmen Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), among others.

Saturday’s by-election was held to fill the vacancy left by Wu, who stepped down last month after the party’s losses in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections.Chiang defeated his sole opponent, former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), by taking nearly 69 percent of the vote.

“I have always believed that what is needed between generations is dialogue and not confrontation; what is needed is cooperation and not conflict,” Chiang said, adding that as party chairman, he hopes to facilitate understanding and cooperation among different generations within the party.    [FULL  STORY]

The Street
Date: Mar 8, 2020
By: Adam Smith

As the coronavirus that spread out of Wuhan, China, late last year has now infected nearly 110,000 people in 93 countries and is overwhelming nations as far away as Italy, there’s one place where the infection rate has been minimal so far. Just over 80 miles away from China, Taiwan has logged only 45 known cases of Covid-19 as of Sunday. That’s a small fraction of the more than 470 cases – and nearly 20 deaths – now discovered in the U.S. And yet Taiwan is close not only geographically to the mainland, but also historically, economically and politically.

But unlike the U.S. and other nations, Taiwan acted quickly, aggressively and strategically to prevent the kinds of outbreaks and death rates seen in faraway places such as Europe and now the United States. It’s been using a combination of disaster preparedness set up following the SARS crisis, a strong health care infrastructure, big data and technology to combat the spread there, according to a new paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And the small island nation acted quickly, by as early as Dec. 31, while much the world was carefree.

For insight into how Taiwan is handling the threat of the virus, TheStreet asked the JAMA paper’s main author, Dr. C. Jason Wang, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention at Stanford University School of Medicine, by email. Dr. Wang was also a management consultant with McKinsey and Company and served as the project manager for Taiwan's National Health Insurance Reform Task-force. Following is an edited version of the exchange.    [FULL  STORY]

Redevelopment project preserved original green tree tunnel, ecology, military buildings to create multifunctional spaces

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/08
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An army barracks in the southwestern city of Tainan reopened to the public on Sunday (March 8) after the completion of a project to rezone and redevelop it following years of desertion, CNA reported.

According to Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲), the Army abandoned the Changsheng Barracks (長勝營區) in 1999, and the redevelopment project has preserved the original military facilities, surrounding ecology, and tunnel of trees to create multifunctional open spaces.

The mayor said that the redeveloped Changsheng Barracks now serves as a recreational environment with excellent public facilities and as floodwater detention and retention basin. As it is located near National Highway 1, the barracks will become a new landmark and attraction for the city's Xinying District, he added.

"The green tree tunnel, in particular, was actually grown by the military to provide cover to tanks in the early years,” according to the Travel Tainan website. “Today, the Changsheng Barracks green tree tunnel is a shaded boulevard lined by fig trees forming a rare U-shaped green tunnel.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/08/2020
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, March 8 (CNA) A new report on the 228 Incident, a civil uprising that took place 73 years ago and led to a bloody government crackdown, was officially published Sunday to serve as a reference for the government's pursuit of transitional justice.

"The Draft Report on the Truth of the 228 Incident and Transitional Justice," written by 10 Taiwanese historians and scholars, was published in two volumes totaling more than 1,260 pages.

"The publication of the draft report will comfort the souls of the 228 incident victims," said Yang Cui (楊翠), acting chairperson of the Transitional Justice Commission (TJC) during a ceremony to mark the publication held at the National 228 Memorial Museum.

The significance of the draft report is that it will allow the country to face the past with sincerity and move forward, as many family members and descendants of the victims are still alive, she added.    [FULL  STORY

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 09, 2020
By: Staff Writer, with CNA

A woman accused of defrauding nine Taiwanese banks out of NT$38.6 billion (US$1.28 billion at the current exchange rate) yesterday arrived in Taiwan to stand trial after being arrested in the US late last year, the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau said.

Wang Ying-chih (王音之), a former co-owner of Taipei-based New Site Industries Inc (NSI, 潤寅實業) and one of the chief suspects in the fraud case, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on a flight from Los Angeles, escorted by two US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the bureau said.

She was subsequently arrested by bureau agents and taken to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, it said.

Wang and her husband, NSI co-owner Yang Wen-hu (楊文虎), allegedly instructed their employees to create fraudulent transaction records, fund transfers and investment schemes from January 2011 to May last year to deceive the banks and secure loans, the bureau said.
[FULL  STORY]

Global Times
Date: 2020/3/7
By: Yang Sheng

 
To provoke China by playing the “Taiwan card” is not only a strategic approach of the US approved by both Republicans and Democrats, but is also a “dirty business” between Taiwan separatists and US politicians that serves the interests of US defense contractors at the expense of peace and stability in the West Pacific region, said analysts on Saturday.

The draft bill titled "Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative Act of 2019," or TAIPEI 2019, was passed with a unanimous vote by the US House on Wednesday.

The US Congress has passed several Taiwan-related enabling acts in recent years, including Taiwan Travel Act in 2018 and Taiwan Assurance Act of 2019.

This kind of trick is played frequently by US politicians to provoke China as it costs nothing and can cost Taiwan a fortune by selling weapons to the island, said Li Xiaobing, an expert on Taiwan affairs at Nankai University in Tianjin. “Not only the US Congress and politicians, but also US defense contractors want to get a share in this game.”    [FULL  STORY]

HelloKpop
Date: March 7, 2020
By: Yann 

Super Junior has broken their own record of being on top of music charts as they stayed tenaciously on the first place for 122 weeks straight in Taiwan’s top and largest music chart!

Proving their everlasting popularity, the group successfully broke their own record of being on the top of the Korean Album Chart of KKBOX in Taiwan by recording their 122nd week holding the number one spot.

This reign started with PLAY in November 2017 and continued with REPLAY, Time Slip, and finally, their latest album TIMELESS. With this continuous streak, Super Junior was able to break the record of the longest time to rank at number one on KKBOX’s top Korean Album chart.

Specifically, PLAY was able to chart at number one for 23 weeks, while REPLAY impressively dominated at the top spot for 79 weeks. Meanwhile, TIME SLIP and TIMELESS have charted for a total of 20 weeks already as of March 5, 2020, and ELFs are looking to keep this wonderful streak of holding the number one spot on the chart.    [FULL  STORY]