Office at ITC building ends 3 years of absence

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/10/01
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan is preparing to launch its new representative office in Guam on Oct. 10, the Double Ten National Day, following three years of absence from the United States territory.

The office, named the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Guam, will be housed at the International Trade Center (ITC), where other tenants include the consulates of Japan, the Philippines, and Palau, CNA reported.

Taiwan’s new representative, Paul Chen (陳盈連), arrived in Guam on Sept. 23 and has since been supervising the office’s interior decoration work while also holding videoconference meetings with prominent local officials, such as Governor Lou Leon Guerrero and Lieutenant Governor Josh Tenorio.

The planned Oct. 10 opening ceremony will be modest, since Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions do not allow gatherings of more than 10 people on the island, Chen said.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/01/2020
By: Kuo Chi-hsuan and Ko Lin

Taipei, Oct. 1 (CNA) Visitors on Thursday arrived in droves at Taiwan's offshore Liuqiu Island, commonly called Xiaoliuqiu, on the first day of the long Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

The number of passengers departing from Dongliu Ferry Terminal in Pingtung County's Donggang had surpassed 10,000 as of 2 p.m. Thursday, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) statistics showed.

According to the Southern Branch of CGA, controls were ramped up at the Dongliu terminal to prevent ferry operators from carrying too many passengers, while reminding people to wear masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chi Ching-sheng (冀慶生), who manages the Taifu ferry service between the two destinations, said he anticipates the number of passengers to increase significantly on Friday.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 30 September, 2020
By: Katherine Wei

Ms. Huang's house is almost completely wrapped in a tree.[/caption] Tree houses are rare in Taiwan, as most people don’t have properties with backyards. And, even those who do generally don’t have much in the way of trees.

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But in Changhua County, there’s a special tree house that people travel from across Taiwan just to see.

You may have heard the English nursery rhyme about a little old lady who lives in a shoe. Well, have you heard of the little old lady with a full-sized tree in her bathroom?    [FULL  STORY]

Non-profit organizations question government’s ability to manage American pork imports

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/30
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A new survey has found that a majority Taiwanese do not support the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration’s move to allow the import of American pork over food safety concerns.

Commissioned by the Grassroots Influence Foundation (草根影響力文教基金會) and carried out by TVBS, the poll suggests that 63 percent of the Taiwanese surveyed oppose the policy to lift import restrictions on ractopamine-laced pork from the U.S., reported Liberty Times.

Around 67 percent of respondents said they believe food safety is worth more than diplomatic or economic gains, and 54 percent doubt the efficacy of a planned measure to mandate country of origin labeling for relevant products. The survey collected 1,070 valid samples and had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/30/2020
By: Chang Hsiung-feng and Kay Liu

Taipei, Sept. 30 (CNA) A two-month trial program using more environmental friendly packaging for goods purchased online will begin Thursday, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In partnership with four e-commerce platforms and Chunghwa Post, the EPA unveiled the packaging designed by Package Plus Co., including bags and boxes, during a press conference in Taipei Wednesday.

According to the agency, two of the e-commerce platforms PChome and momo, will use the eco-friendly packaging to deliver selected goods.

The bags, and boxes delivered by Chunghwa Post from PChome and momo can be returned by simply placing them in green mail boxes or the post office's iBox, which serves as a pick-up place for package delivery.    [FULL  STORY]

RACTOPAMINE: Levying a health surcharge on US pork imports might be deemed a nontariff barrier, Chen Shih-chung said, while leaving room for further discussions

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 01, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) yesterday said that he is not in favor of imposing a health surcharge on imports of US pork containing traces of the feed additive ractopamine.

Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee to report on government measures to ensure schoolchildren’s safety after imports of pork containing ractopamine and beef from cattle older than 30 months are to be allowed from Jan. 1 next year.

At a meeting of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s National Health Insurance Committee on Sept. 18, several members proposed imposing a food safety surcharge on US pork.

However, no consensus was reached at the meeting.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 29 September, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

Country classification for Kaohsiung city changed back to "Chinese Taipei" on global coalition website (Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung City Government)

Taiwan on Monday received an apology from the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy for mistakenly classifying six Taiwan cities as belonging to China. The global coalition responded that the mistake was due to a ‘technical error’.    [FULL  STORY]

Ending Strategic Ambiguity is not enough. We need to develop a vision on how we want to include Taiwan into the family of nations.

The National Interest
Date: September 29, 2020
By: Gerrit van der Wees

The year 2020 is turning out to be the year in which the United States transitioned from the well-worn concept of strategic ambiguity to a new vision of strategic clarity in how we counter China’s ambitions to take Taiwan.

While the concept of strategic ambiguity itself has its roots back in the 1950s, it was Clinton Administration official Joseph Nye who stated it most clearly, when asked during the 1995-96 Taiwan Strait missile crisis whether the U.S. would come to the defense of Taiwan, he said: “It depends on the circumstances.” In other words, the best deterrent was perceived to be to keep them guessing.

Some observers, such as former Pentagon official Joe Bosco have long argued that this approach had outlived its usefulness, and that there was a need for strategic clarity.
[FULL  STO-RY]