Radio Taiwan International
Date: 25 February, 2020
By: Jake Chen

Mazu pilgrimage to go on as planned: head of temple. (CNA Photo)[/caption] The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has cast a doubt on many upcoming public events in Taiwan. One of them is the annual Mazu procession, the largest religious gathering in Taiwan.

Despite health concerns, the head of Dajia Jenn Lann Temple has announced that this year’s procession will begin as scheduled, on March 19.

Crowds struggle to get close to a statue of Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea, one of the most popular deities in all of Taiwan. This is the annual Dajia Mazu pilgrimage, the largest religious gathering in Taiwan. Each year, worshippers carry her statue, walking hundreds of kilometers for up to 10 days. More than a million believers join in the pilgrimage, hoping to receive Mazu’s blessings for a safe year ahead.    [FULL  STORY]

Straits Times
Date: Feb 26, 2020
By: Katherine Wei, Taiwan Correspondent

TAIPEI – Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on Monday (Feb 24) that frontline medical personnel working in hospitals will need to apply for approval before travelling to countries or regions with outbreaks of Covid-19.

These medical staff will be banned from travelling to regions with a Level 3 travel alert – the highest level alert – such as China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Those who wish to travel to areas that have lower travel alerts, issued by Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC), must apply for approval before going.

Currently, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are Level 2 countries. Italy, Iran and Thailand are at Level 1. Travellers to these countries should take precautions against becoming infected.
[FULL  STORY]

Elementary school in Dongshan touched off wave of controversy by using tents as temporary isolation wards

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/25
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Is it a good idea for schools with insufficient facilities to use tents as temporary isolation wards? Apparently not, according to a county government.

The Yilan County Government asked the Da Jin Primary School (大進國小) in Dongshan Township to remove tents that it used as temporary temporary isolation spaces for students with temperatures over the limit. The school was instructed by the country to come up with a better approach, citing safety concerns, CNA reported on Tuesday (Feb. 25).

As schools across Taiwan reopen on Monday (Feb. 25) amidst the coronavirus outbreak, thermometers will be used to screen students for the purpose of quarantine, the report said. If students are detected to have a fever, some schools will temporarily isolate them until their parents come to pick them up.

The elementary school in Dongshan touched off a wave of controversy on Monday by using tents as temporary isolation wards, the news agency reported. After being briefed on the situation, the county’s education authority asked the school to change its practice.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/25/2020
By Christie Chen

Taipei, Feb. 25 (CNA) A magnitude 5.0 earthquake hit northeastern Taiwan at 7:14 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), but no damage or injuries were immediately reported.

The epicenter of the temblor was about 51.9 kilometers southwest of the Yilan County Hall, and it hit at a depth of 10 km, the bureau's Seismology Center said.

The earthquake's highest intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, measured 5-moderate on Taiwan's 0-7 intensity scale in Yilan County, and reached 4 in Taichung City and Hualien and Nantou counties.

The quake was also felt in Hsinchu County at an intensity of 3, as well as in New Taipei and Taoyuan cities and Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin counties at an intensity of 2, according to the CWB.    [FULL  STORY]

GENERAL TREND: The average temperature between next month and May has a greater chance of being warmer than normal, the bureau said

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 26, 2020
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

People can expect a drier and warmer spring this year, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said

yesterday, ahead of the start of the spring season this weekend.

The equatorial Pacific sea temperature is relatively warmer at the moment, which is likely to reduce humidity across the nation and cause temperatures to rise further, Weather Forecast Center Deputy Director Fong Chin-tzu (馮欽賜) said, adding that the phenomenon would be particularly apparent next month and in April.

The spring weather forecast for this year generally corresponds to the trend that has emerged since the 1990s, with rain in the west coast decreasing over the years, Fong said.

The nation would see normal to lower than normal rainfall from next month to April, the bureau forecast.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 24 February, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

The Central Epidemic Command Center on Sunday announced measures to restrict medical personnel from traveling abroad. The health ministry has invited hospitals to a meeting on Tuesday to discuss details about the restriction.    [FULL  STORY]

Defense One
Date: Feb 24, 2020
By: Mischae5l Hunzeker
      Mark Christopher

Washington’s longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity is increasingly likely to inflame the kind of crisis it was meant to deter.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday night, Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders suggested that he might take military action to defend Taiwan if China attacks it. The implication is that a Sanders Administration would fundamentally transform America’s security policy toward Taiwan—a move that would surely cause hand-wringing in foreign policy circles from Washington to Beijing.

At least in this instance, Sanders is right to shake things up. Washington’s longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity” is increasingly likely to inflame the very kind of crisis that it was intended to deter. It’s time for Washington to re-evaluate, redefine and clarify its commitment to Taiwan.

Since the 1979 passage of the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States has had a legal obligation to sell Taiwan the arms it needs for self-defense. Yet the United States remained deliberately vague as to whether it might come to Taiwan’s aid in a cross-Strait conflict. The logic behind this one-foot-in, one-foot-out policy is that as long as the United States kept both sides guessing about the conditions under which it might intervene, it could deter both Taiwan from declaring independence and China from invading.    [FULL  STORY]

Percentage of people identifying themselves as Taiwanese soars to new high as Wuhan virus ravages China

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/24
By:  Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to rage, a poll has found that over 83 percent of the people of Taiwan identify themselves as Taiwanese, the highest level since 1991.

The latest poll by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF, 台灣民意基金會), which was released at a press conference on Monday (Feb. 24), found that 83.2 percent of Taiwan's citizens consider themselves Taiwanese, reported Liberty Times. At the same time, the proportion of people who think of themselves as Chinese or having a dual identity has halved since September of last year, reaching the lowest level in 30 years.

In its latest survey results for the month of February, survey participants were asked, "Do you think you are Taiwanese or Chinese, or do you have another identity?" Of those who responded, 83.2 percent view themselves as Taiwanese, followed by 5.3 percent who consider themselves Chinese, while 6.7 percent claim to be both Taiwanese and Chinese and 4.8 percent have no opinion or refused to answer the question.

The poll was a continuation of a survey that commenced in 1991 and was titled "A Study of Voting Behavior in Taiwan: the 1991 Election for the Members of National Assembly." TPOF Chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) pointed out that the survey results showed that those respondents who identify themselves as Taiwanese has reached the highest point since climbing to 83 percent in 1991.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/24/2020
By: Flor Wang and Wang Cheng-chung

Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) The Control Yuan, Taiwan's government agency watchdog, censured the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) and the Air Force Command on Monday for their roles in an F-16 crash in New Taipei in 2018 and required them to make improvements.

In a statement, the Control Yuan said its decision was based on the conclusions of an investigative report approved by its Committee on National Defense and Intelligence Affairs on Feb. 20 that looked into the accident that occurred in Rueifang District on June 4, 2018.

Half an hour after taking off from Hualien Air Base to take part in a major annual drill, pilot Wu Yen-ting's (吳彥霆) single-seat F-16 aircraft collided with Wufen Mountain, apparently because of "human error" by Air Force and civilian flight controllers, the report said.

The Control Yuan blamed the crash on negligence and lax discipline at the Air Operations Center under the Air Force Command after finding that five of the officers involved were not fully prepared for the mission in advance and did not carry out the mission based on standard procedures due to a lack of training.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 25, 2020
By: Chen Hsin-yu and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Staff and students at a New Taipei City elementary school are on the lookout for their school dog

after she went missing last month.

The mixed-breed, 13-year-old dog — named Huang Yu-chih (黃玉枝) — went missing on Jan. 24 after she was frightened by firecrackers that were set off by residents near the school as part of Lunar New Year celebrations.

Kuo Li-ying (郭立穎), a teacher who normally cares for the dog, has posted notices to the school and community social media accounts asking people in the community to report any information on the dog’s whereabouts, Bali Elementary School principal Chen Mu-lin (陳木琳) said on Sunday.

“Huang Yu-chi is not only a friend to everyone in the school, but is a minor celebrity in all of New Taipei City,” Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]