Radio Taiwan International
Date: 01 September, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil is calling on democracies to stand in unity to safeguard shared values. Vystrčil made the remarks in his speech at Taiwan’s Legislature on Tuesday.

Despite pressure from China, Vystrčil is leading a 89-person delegation from the Czech Republic on a five-day visit to Taiwan.

Vystrčil is the first foreign parliamentary speaker to give a speech at the Legislature in 45 years. On Tuesday, he was awarded a diplomatic medal of honor by Legislature President Yu Shyi-kun.

Vystrčil said Taiwan and Czech have a similar fate as both are working hard to pursue freedom and democracy. Vystrčil also said law-making bodies all over the world should safeguard democratic principles, rather than suppress freedom through legislation.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Free Asia
Date: 2020-09-01

Top academic publisher Springer Nature has once more sparked concerns over its censorship of topics regarded as politically sensitive by Beijing.

A Taiwanese doctor, Wu Jo-hsuan, recently reported via Facebook that she had been asked by the editorial team at Eye and Vision, a medical journal published by the group, to add the word "China" after "Taiwan" in her paper, or have her article rejected for publication.

Editors at Eye and Vision wrote to Wu telling her that the change was required under the journal's editorial policies.

Wu is the first author of the paper on retinopathy with her mentor at National Taiwan University, and said she was shocked by the level of political censorship she encountered.   
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan inventor bestowed prestigious award for developing caller ID app that filters unwanted phone calls

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/01
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Jeff Kuo (郭建甫), creator of Taiwanese caller ID and number management app Whoscall, was given the fourth Presidential Innovation Award Tuesday (Sept. 1) for his contributions in improving telecommunications in Taiwan.

Speaking at the Presidential Office for the award ceremony, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) explained that the biennial award is bestowed on individuals or companies that have achieved excellence in the categories of science and technology, culture, service, and talent-nurturing. She said the coronavirus pandemic has forced global industries to "reset" and that innovation is the key to standing out in times of uncertainty.

According to Tsai, a total of 223 participants entered the competition this year but only three were presented with the innovation award. The three winners are: Taiwan Design Center for the Group Category, Taipei City Hospital Superintendent Hong Shen-jian (黃勝堅) for the Individual Category, and Kuo for the Youth Category.

Tsai pointed out that Whosapp was developed by Kuo's startup company Gogolook, which she had the opportunity to visit last year. She said the app has effectively prevented many scam calls by identifying incoming phone calls and allowing users to filter out unwanted ones, reported UDN.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/01/2020
By: William Yen and CNA intern Meryl Kao

Taipei, Sept. 1 (CNA) A U.S. special diplomatic envoy on Tuesday asked for Taiwan to ban the collection of recruitment fees, service fees, or deposits from migrant workers in the interest of preventing human trafficking.

The request was delivered in a pre-recorded message by U.S. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking-in-Persons John Cotton Richmond and was played in Taipei at the 2020 International Workshop on Combating Human Trafficking.

"Taiwan should ban recruitment agencies and employers from charging foreign workers recruitment fees, service fees, or deposits — and they should enforce the ban. Employers should bear these costs," Richmond said.

These fees and deposits often create vulnerabilities among migrant fishermen that later allow them to be exploited by unscrupulous labor recruitment brokerage systems, Richmond said.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 02, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday urged pregnant women to maintain good hand hygiene and avoid eating raw food after it reported a case of listeriosis in a newborn, who might have contracted the disease from her mother after she ate contaminated food during the pregnancy.

Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said that the nation’s first case of neonatal listeriosis reported this year was an infant born in northern Taiwan late last month with shortness of breath.

“Examination results showed that she had contracted listeriosis,” Guo said. “The mother had eaten salad and sashimi in May and June, so doctors think there is a high possibility that the infant was infected through vertical transmission from her mother.”

So far this year Taiwan has reported 97 cases of listeriosis, lower than in the same period in 2018, which had 121 cases, and last year, which had 129 cases, he said.  [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 31 August, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The Food and Drug Administration has given Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. permission to test a potential COVID-19 vaccine on humans. The company is the third Taiwanese firm to get permission to start phase one clinical trials so far.

Testing will take place on around 100 human volunteers over a two-month period, with results expected in November or December. Researchers will look at the vaccine’s effectiveness as well as any side effects it might have.    [FULL  STORY]

bne Intellinews
Date: August 31, 2020
By: bne IntelliNews 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Czech Senate chair Milos Vystrcil should pay a high price for visiting Taiwan and for his “shortsighted behaviour”, Czech News Agency reported on August 31.

Vystrcil headed to Taiwan, along with a nearly 100-member delegation of businesspeople, academics and seven fellow senators. The delegation seeks to strengthen bilateral relations and trade, despite fierce protests from China and criticism from Czech President Milos Zeman.

Wang’s spokesperson Zhao Lijian added that Beijing would not "sit idly by and let go of the public provocation of the Czech Senate speaker and the anti-China forces behind him", as quoted by Euronews.    [FULL  STORY]

Girl yanked violently into sky, scene filled with shouting

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/31
By: Sylvia Teng , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A three-year-old girl was pulled violently into the sky by a large kite after a strong gust hit Hsinchu's Nanliao Harbor on Sunday (Aug. 30).

The 2020 International Kite Festival kicked off this weekend in Hsinchu, a northwestern city famous for its high winds. The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when a kite with a long tail was accidentally sent flying by a sudden gust.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/31/2020
By: Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) Taiwan's military has allocated budgets to buy Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (TUAVs), underwater vehicles, and to improve its radar surveillance and camouflage capabilities in response to the increasing military threat from China, according to a defense budget proposal it submitted to lawmakers for review on Monday.

The 2021 defense budget proposal the military sent to the Legislative Yuan pending approval shows that the Army is seeking to spend NT$779 million (US$26 million) to buy 50 TUAVs to boost its newly formed combined arms battalions' early warning and response capability from fiscal year 2021 to 2023.

The Navy wants to spend another NT$213 million from 2021 to 2022 to purchase 12 underwater vehicles to boost its amphibious forces' mobility.

Between 2021 to 2030, the Navy is also planning to spend a total of NT$5.05 billion to overhaul its existing radar stations that monitor the waters surrounding the country.    [FULL  STORY]