Page Three

Government to supply quadrivalent vaccines

POTENT MIX: The WHO recommends quadrivalent vaccines as the first choice, and they have been adopted by many European countries as well as the US and Japan

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 09, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Government-funded influenza vaccinations would be changed from trivalent to

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, left, and Centers for Disease Control Director-General Chou Jih-haw hold signs announcing upgraded government-funded influenza vaccinations at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times

quadrivalent vaccines starting next flu season, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday.

Specialists from the ministry and its affiliated Centers for Disease Control (CDC) held meetings and suggested purchasing quadrivalent flu vaccines for the government-funded vaccination program this year, which was approved by the Cabinet, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said.

“We have decided to administer quadrivalent vaccines,” he said, adding that the Food and Drug Administration is working on their procurement.

The government has been funding a trivalent vaccine that protects against the influenza A (H1N1) strain, the influenza A (H3N2) strain and a Victoria lineage influenza B strain, Chen said.

However, CDC disease monitoring data from the past 10 years showed that two strains of the influenza type B were often circulating at the same time, he said.

Quadrivalent vaccines protect against two strains of the influenza type A strains and two strains of the influenza type B.    [FULL  STORY]

US warships and PLA jets: what’s really behind the Taiwan Strait provocations between China and the US

Two Chinese jets crossed into Taiwan’s airspace last month as a warning aimed at the US, ratcheting up tension over a US-China dispute that boils down to their different interpretations of the ‘right of transit passage’ clause in the Law of the Sea

South China Morning Post
Date: 8 Apr, 2019 
By: Mark J. Valencia

Illustration: Craig Stephens

On March 31, two PLA Air Force fighter jets deliberately crossed the median line
of the Taiwan Strait and, despite repeated warnings from Taipei’s military, flew 43 nautical miles into Taiwan’s airspace. This was the first such crossing in nearly two decades.
This latest incident may have been a warning to the Democratic Progressive Party and Tsai Ing-wen government because of increasing US political support in the face of Beijing’s more assertive posture. But it was also probably a manifestation of a creeping clash of positions
between Beijing and the US over the regime for passage of warships and warplanes through the strait. This controversy has potentially dangerous practical implications.
The median line has existed since 1955 when it was declared by General Benjamin Davis, then the commander of the US 13th Air Force based in Taipei, as part of the “rules of engagement”. There was no formal agreement and Beijing has not officially recognised it because, in its view, Taiwan is an inalienable part of its territory. Nevertheless, the median line has in practice served to separate the two sides and their military activities.
[FULL  STORY]

Tsai says freedom of speech is being eroded through Chinese influence on the Internet

Formosa News
Date: 2019/04/07

President Tsai, along with Presidential Office Secretary General Chen Chu and DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai, attended a memorial today for the late publisher Nylon Cheng. On this day 30 years ago, Cheng committed suicide by self-immolation in support of freedom of speech. While paying tribute to a freedom fighter, Tsai noted her concerns about freedom of speech on the internet. China has recently tried to buy up Facebook fan pages, with hefty sums offered to their administrators, to influence social media. She warned that freedom of speech in Taiwan is being eroded and should not be taken for granted.

President Tsai Ing-wen laid down flowers in front of Nylon Cheng’s grave. She marked the 30th anniversary of his martyrdom by going to Chin Pao San Cemetery to remember him.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan president to participate in video conference Tuesday with leading US scholars

The conference will be streamed live via YouTube

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/07
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

President Tsai Ing-wen (Source: Presidential Office)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — President Tsai Ing-wen is to participate in a video conference with three leading U.S. think tanks on Tuesday (April 9).

The occasion will mark Tsai’s first engagement from the Office of the President with top U.S. scholars via video call.

Representatives of Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), The Brookings Institution and The Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars have been invited to discuss Taiwan-U.S. relations and exchange ideas on regional security.

The entire video conference will be streamed live on YouTube and the Office of the President website.    [FULL  STORY]

Traditional high swing festival held in Chiayi

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/07
By Huang Kuo-fang and William Yen 

Taipei, April 7 (CNA) A traditional high swing festival, which dates back more than 200 years, was held in front of a Taoist temple in the southern Taiwan city of Chiayi Sunday.

The festival, which invites participants to take a ride one at a time on a 12-meter bamboo swing frame, is believed to have originated during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1661-1722) in the Qing dynasty.

According to legend, the swing was built by locals in Chiayi as a part of a ceremony to ask for blessings from Xuanwu, one of the higher-ranking deities in Taoism and an end to plague in the area.

The festival was conducted every leap year until 2008, since when it has been an annual event. It was also registered as an intangible cultural asset by the city’s cultural bureau in December the same year.    [FULL  STORY]

Ko says East District not declining, woes overblown

VACANT STOREFRONTS: Cash flow in Taipei has not changed much, but growth in the city’s other areas makes it seem like the East District is declining, the mayor said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 08, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Stores are going out of business in Taipei’s East District (東區) due to of a lack of

A pedestrian on March 27 passes by vacant store fronts that are for rent on Zhongxiao E Rd between Fuxing N Rd and Dunhua N Rd in Taipei’s East District.Photo Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times

economic growth, not district decline, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said on Saturday.

Claims that the vacant storefronts point to a “declining East District” have been overblown by the media, Ko said.

Since January, local media have reported that famous stores in the district have closed their doors due to high rents. The Yun Fu Lou Restaurant (永福樓), a two-story Chinese restaurant that had served customers on Zhongxiao E Road Sec 4 (忠孝東路四段) for four decades, closed in February.

High rents are not the only reason for the shutdowns, Ko wrote on Facebook, adding that two aspects of the problem should be considered: rental costs and cash flow.

“High rent is a major obstacle for innovative industry in Taipei, because once a business starts to make a profit, the profit is often consumed by the high rental costs,” Ko said.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s No. 3 nuclear power plant unaffected by earthquake

ICRT Radio News
Date: 2019-04-06

Taipower says Taiwan’s No. 3 nuclear power plant was not affected by a
magnitude 4.4 earthquake that hit southern Taiwan, where the facility is
located, this morning.

The corporation said all three nuclear power plants operating in Taiwan
remained functional and no damage was recorded in the facilities after the
earthquake.

The quake was centered about 26 kilometers northeast of Pingtung County Hall
and struck at a depth of only 15.5 km.    [SOURCE]

Taiwan President sticks to DPP election panel’s mediation agenda

Ex-Premier Lai wants to continue with the primaries

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/06
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Saturday she would respect

President Tsai Ing-wen speaking Saturday. (By Central News Agency)

her Democratic Progressive Party’s five-member mediation panel as it paved the way for the selection of a presidential candidate.

She is currently facing a challenge for the DPP nomination for the January 11, 2020 election from ex-Premier William Lai (賴清德). The ruling party is scheduled to announce an official nominee on April 24.

According to the DPP timetable, the panel has until April 12 to work out a solution to the rivalry, while Lai has emphasized he plans to go through with the party’s primary process.

At present, discussing other options was of no use, Tsai reportedly said, according to the Central News Agency. Unconfirmed media reports said some DPP members wanted the primary process to be halted for a while to give the panel more time to find a solution.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s top officials voice support for suspended Chinese professor

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/06
By: Elaine Hou, Miao Zong-han and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, April 6 (CNA) Two of Taiwan’s highest-ranking officials on Saturday expressed

MAC Minister Chen Ming-tong

support for a Chinese professor who was suspended this month after openly criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).

Xu Zhangrun (許章潤), a law professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing was suspended after writing several articles criticizing the Chinese government, among them an essay titled “Our Current Fears and Expectations” from last July, denouncing Xi’s cult of personality.

In a series of mobile phone messages, Xu said several Tsinghua University officials ordered him on March 25 to stop all teaching and research and indicated that a university “work team” would investigate him, focusing on the essays he has written since July, according to a report in the New York Times on March 27.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) both voiced their support for Xu on Saturday.
[FULL  STORY]

Teacher drive seeks to meet English plan

MORE THAN LANGUAGE: The Executive Yuan is mulling relaxed rules for foreigners to teach non-language courses at elementary, junior-high and senior-high schools

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 07, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwan is stepping up efforts to recruit foreign English teachers to meet an expected rise

A teacher instructs pupils at Wenchang Elementary School in Taipei on March 16 last year.Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

in demand as the government seeks to transform Taiwan into a bilingual nation by 2030, the Ministry of Education said.

It aims to train 2,000 teachers to use English as a teaching medium by 2022 and to increase the number of such teachers to 5,000 by 2030 to meet the needs of the “bilingual country” policy promoted by former premier William Lai (賴清德), the ministry said.

As part of these efforts, the ministry in March last year amended regulations regarding teacher qualifications, allowing foreign nationals who complete educational courses and teaching internships in Taiwan to gain teaching certification at kindergarten, elementary, junior-high and senior-high school levels.

Last month, four Malaysian students took teacher qualification assessment exams in Taiwan, the first time since the revisions, ministry official Lee Yu-chuan (李毓娟) said.
[FULL  STORY]