Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/07/2020
By: Flor Wang and Wu Hsin-yun

Taipei, Feb. 7 (CNA) All passenger flights between Taiwan and China will be halted from Feb. 10 to April 29, with the exception of those to five destinations in China, the Central Epidemic Command Center announced Friday.

Starting Monday, all flights across the Taiwan Strait, excluding those between Taiwan and Beijing, Pudong and Hongqiao in Shanghai, Xiamen in Fujian and Chengdu in Sichuan, will be suspended as part of government efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, the center said.
[FULL  STORY]

SPEAKING OUT OF TURN: The KMT said that Vincent Hsu did not represent the party when he made comments about the virus and would be suspended

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 08, 2020
By: Chien Li-chung and Dennis Xie  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

A member of a pro-Taiwan independence group yesterday filed a complaint with the Taipei

District Prosecutors’ Office accusing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) central committee member Vincent Hsu (徐正文) of doctoring the passenger list of the first charter flight of Taiwanese evacuees from Wuhan on Monday.

The flight, which landed in Taoyuan, sparked debate when it was discovered that three of the 247 people on board had not been on the priority list Taiwan provided to China.

The outcry escalated when one of the three passengers tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus, becoming the nation’s 11th case.

Hsu, who represents a self-help group of Taiwanese in Wuhan and helped arrange the flight, could have breached the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) by helping China “smuggle” extra passengers on board the flight, Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 06 February, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

Taiwan has recorded two new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to thirteen as of Thursday evening. One of the new patients works in Wuhan, while another is a Wuhan resident.

At the same time, however, Taiwan has also announced the first case of a novel coronavirus patient making a full recovery. The patient has reportedly been released from the hospital.

In related news, the government says it predicts that the production of surgical masks will ramp up to the point where Taiwan will be producing ten million masks a day in early March.

Masks are currently in high demand due the novel coronavirus outbreak, and are subject to government rationing. However, Economics Minister Shen Jong-chin said Thursday that supplies will increase steadily over the coming weeks as producers and suppliers of raw materials work with the government to ratchet up production. He said the military is also doing its part, sending troops to help increase production levels.    [FULL  STORY]

RT.com (Russia Today)
Date: 6 Feb, 2020

China said on Thursday it “firmly opposes” a meeting at the White House between US security officials and a senior Taiwanese politician. Vice President-Elect William Lai made the visit this week during a personal trip to the US, according to Taiwanese media.

On Monday, Lai reportedly had a 70-minute meeting with US National Security Council officials. It was not clear what was discussed.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday that Beijing opposes any official exchange between the US and Taiwan. Washington “shall not arrange [for] US leaders, government officials and Congress members to have any form of contact with Lai,” Hua Chunying said. She also called for the US to “stop sending the wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces to avoid causing serious harm to China-US relations.”

The trip comes weeks after Lai was elected to office, along with Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen who won a landslide second term, AFP said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 07, 2020
By: Tsai Tsung-hsien and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Upgrades to the hot spring park along Pingtung County’s Sihchong River (四重溪) are drawing

tourists back to the region, as the number of visitors has risen over the past two years, the county government said on Monday.

The Pingtung Transportation and Tourism Department said that investment in the area — once a popular hot spring destination, due to the county’s ocean vistas and other scenery — has started to bring bathers back.

The county last month announced that it would provide assistance to investors at the hot springs near the river, saying it hoped investor interest and creativity could speed up development in the area.

During the Japanese colonial period, Sihchong — along with Tainan’s Guanzihling (關子嶺) and Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) and Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園) — was considered one of the island’s four best hot spring areas, the county said.

However, in recent decades, as domestic tourism patterns changed and Sihchong’s facilities aged, the number of visitors decreased, the department said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 05 February, 2020
By: Jake Chen

Restaurant and dining hall owners in central Taiwan’s Miaoli City say that they have had hundreds of bookings canceled in February amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The outbreak has led to cancelations of off cross-strait flights, which has in turn impacted Taiwan’s restaurant and tourism industries.    [FULL  STORY]

Coaster spotted in Jiufen clears up Chinese Communist Party myth about Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/05
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Hong Kong tourist traveling in Taiwan last month took this photo of a coaster pointing out that the country has never been part of Communist China.

The tourist took the photo on Jan. 17 while visiting a souvenir shop in the mountain town of Jiufen in New Taipei City's Ruifang District. Out of a collection of wooden coasters carved with famous quotes, the photographer noticed one which read: "Taiwan has never been a part of China."

The Hongkonger then uploaded the photo to Twitter on Jan. 18 with the caption "How Taiwan does souvenirs." The tweet soon garnered 880 likes and 207 retweets.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to claim that Taiwan is part of China and constantly coerces world governments and international organizations to toe this line. However, Taiwan has in fact never been part of the People's Republic of China and has its own military, currency, constitution, legal system, passport, flag, and democratically elected government.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/05/2020
By: Chiang Chinye, Hsu Wei-

Washington, Feb. 4 (CNA) Vice President-elect Lai Ching-te (賴清德) highlighted Taiwan's record of religious freedom and the work of missionaries in Taiwan in a talk at a meeting on religious freedom in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

Taiwan has "safeguarded people's freedom of belief" as a democratic country, and will actively cooperate with the United States and the international community to "protect religious freedom and build a world free of the fear of religious persecution," Lai said.

He also praised the work done by missionaries in Taiwan, whose efforts in the fields of education, health care and social welfare "continue to bear fruit to this day," he said.

The meeting was organized by the International Religious Freedom Roundtable, a U.S.-based NGO.    [FULL  STORY]

UNNECESSARY: The minister of health and welfare said that foreigners visiting Taiwan have not been advised to wear masks, as there is no outbreak in the nation

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 06, 2020
By: Cheng Wei-chi and Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporters

About 3,000 Chunghwa Post workers would deliver surgical masks that are to be sold at more than

6,000 locations nationwide starting today, the company said yesterday.

The firm’s workers yesterday began picking up masks from 24 factories in 10 cities and counties and packaged them at various post offices for delivery.

Chunghwa Post has about 7,000 delivery workers on duty each day, Department of Mail Business and Operations head Chen Ching-hsiang (陳敬祥) said.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has provided a list of 6,515 partner pharmacies and 52 health centers in remote areas to which deliveries are to be made, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]