Page Three

Presidential Secretary-General Chen Chu to step down May 20

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/17/2020
By: Wen Kuei-hsiang and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 17 (CNA) Presidential Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊)

CNA file photo

said Sunday on Facebook she will leave her post on May 20 when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) begins her second term.

Chen said it was the right time to leave the Presidential Office as Taiwan moves into a new phase and the president needs more freedom to make personnel arrangements.

"Therefore I have decided to leave the Presidential Office where I have served for two years," she said.

Chen will reportedly be nominated by Tsai to serve as the president of the Control Yuan.    [FULL  STORY]

Committee quashes island heritage site petition

FINDING: As Turtle Island no longer has permanent residents, after they were relocated to Toucheng Township in 1974, it does not meet the requirements for a heritage site

Traipei Times
Date: May 18, 2020
By: Lin Ching-lun and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A boat casts off in Yilan County on Feb. 11, with Turtle Island (Gueishan Island) in the distance.
Photo: Chang Yi-chen, Taipei Times

A petition to recognize Yilan County’s Turtle Island (Gueishan Island, 龜山島) as a county-level cultural heritage site was turned down by a review committee on Friday.

Chien Ying-chun (簡英俊), who lived on Turtle Island for 23 years before the government relocated the island’s residents in 1974, submitted the petition in October last year.

The Yilan County Cultural Affairs Bureau that month visited the island for a preliminary investigation.


After reviewing the petition, the committee said that as the island no longer has permanent residents, and the lifestyle of its former residents is already long gone, it does not meet the requirements to be listed as a heritage site.
[FULL  STORY]

Number of babies born in Taiwan hits nine-year low

Taipei Times
Date: May 17, 2020
By: Huang Hsin-po / Staff reporter

The number of newborns in the nation last year reached a nine-year low, while the average age of women giving birth to their first child reached a record high, Ministry of the Interior data showed.

As the average age at which people are getting married for the first time has been increasing, so has the average age of women giving birth to their first child, which last year reached 31 — 4.26 years more than 20 years ago and 1.71 years more than 10 years ago, the data showed.

The majority, or 35.57 percent, of women who gave birth to their first child last year were aged 30 to 34, followed by women aged 25 to 29 at 27.93 percent, and 35 to 39 at 19.19 percent, the data showed.

Women aged 35 and older only accounted for 9.4 percent of those giving birth to their first child in 2009, but the figure increased by 13.6 percentage points to 23 percent last year, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

World Should Give Recognition To Taiwan And Tibet – OpEd

Eurasia Review
Date:  May 17, 2020
By N. S. Venkataraman

Opinion 

The Chinese government considers any country as its number one enemy, which recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign nation.  Similarly, if any country would demand that Tibet should be recognized as a sovereign country, China would protest very strongly. As a matter of fact, China holds a vice like grip over Tibet and does not permit any foreigners to visit to see the conditions for themselves.

The ambition of China to annex Taiwan and firmly hold on to its occupation of Tibet is  definite proof of China’s expansionist plans.

There seem to be lot of similarity between the behavior of the present Chinese government and Hitler’s Germany before World War II.  The present Chinese government and Hitler’s Germany have something in common, in  their  ambitious goal of dominating  rest of the world at any cost, with least concern for ethical or moral principles and fairness in dealing with other countries.

Just as many countries in the world are now trying to appease China, then British Prime Minister Chamberlain too visited Germany to appease Hitler before World War II. Churchill called the bluff of Hitler, which is a matter of history.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan poised to relax mask distribution and export restrictions

Manufacturers may soon receive green light on resuming sales of surgical masks

 Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/15
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Children wear face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as they play carnival games at a night market in Taipei. (AP photo)

Children wear face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as they play carnival games at a night market in Taipei. (AP photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan may soon ease restrictions it imposed on the purchase and export of masks as the country increases its mask manufacturing capacity to ensure domestic demand is met.

At a daily briefing on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Friday (May 15), Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) head and Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) hinted that the mask allocation system would be adjusted in the near future to allow for a more flexible distribution of the protective gear, wrote CNA.

Taiwan announced a ban on the export of surgical masks in January as the novel virus broke out in the country, and the ban was later extended through the end of June. An ID-based mask rationing system was implemented in February to ensure fair distribution and prevent price gouging.

As Taiwan ramps up its production of surgical masks, the rationing system will be relaxed, but IDs are still required to purchase masks, said Chen. He added that restrictions on the acquisition and export of the item may be partially removed in the event of a mask glut — a decision to be made by the Ministry of Finance.    [FULL  STORY]

CORONAVIRUS/36 Taiwan nationals return home from Maldives via Kuala Lumpur

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/16/2020
By Wu Jui-chi, Kuay Chau-churh and Frances Huang

Taipei, May 16 (CNA) Thirty-six Taiwanese nationals stranded in the Maldives by the COVID-19 pandemic returned home on Saturday evening on a regularly scheduled China Airlines (CAL) flight from Kuala Lumpur after reaching Malaysia on a charter flight from Male.

The CI722 flight, which had a total of 200 passengers on board, departed from Kuala Lumpur at around 2:45 p.m. and arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at 7:12 p.m.

After the flight touched down at the Taoyuan Airport, the 36 people returning from the Maldives handed in health declarations before being placed in quarantine for 14 days.

Four of them reported having respiratory problems in the past 14 days and had mucus samples taken to test for COVID-19 before being sent to a designated quarantine facility with the others.    [FLL  STORY]

Bureau names ransomware culprits

Taipei Times
Date: May 17, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Hackers known as the Winnti Group were behind ransomware attacks on Taiwan’s two largest fuel suppliers, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau said on Friday, adding that similar attacks on 10 domestic companies are likely in the next few days.

On May 4, state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan announced that its computer system had been infected with ransomware, causing payment issues at gas stations.

Formosa Petrochemical Corp reported similar issues the following day, and shut down its computer systems.

Powertech Technology Inc, a Hsinchu-based semiconductor firm, also reported a ransomware attack on May 5.     [FULL  STORY]

Education ministry rolls out plan to boost students’ global awareness

Radio Taiwan International
Date:\ 14 May, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The education ministry has announced a new six-year plan to boost the global awareness of Taiwan’s elementary and middle school students.

Ministry officials say the plan will work to make schools and classes more international and promote international exchanges. Among the plan’s other objectives are creating international links for schools and reevaluating laws on the hiring of foreign teachers and the recruiting students from overseas to Taiwanese schools.    [SOURCE]

Taiwan’s Handling of Pandemic a Model for the World, Says Liberal MP

Liberal MP Judy Sgro in a file photo. Taiwan’s successful handling of the COVID-19 outbreak should serve as a model for other countries, Sgro says. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

Epoch Times
Date: May 14, 2020
By: Justina Wheale

Taiwan’s successful handling of the COVID-19 outbreak and the relatively low number of deaths

Liberal MP Judy Sgro in a file photo. Taiwan’s successful handling of the COVID-19 outbreak should serve as a model for other countries, Sgro says. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

that resulted should serve as a model for other countries, says Judy Sgro, a Liberal MP and chair of the Canada-Taiwan Friendship Group.

“Their measures should be a model for the rest of the world to follow. They were very active, they were very careful, they protected their people,” Sgro said in a recent interview.

“If the rest of the world had been following Taiwan’s example much sooner, it would have caused much less death.”

Despite Taiwan’s population of 23 million people and its close proximity to China, the island nation has seen only 440 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with seven deaths to date.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan vice president thanks citizens week before leaving office

23.7 million Taiwanese light up island nation like candles, every citizen is a hero: Chen Chien-jen

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/14
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Vice President Chen Chien-jen. (Presidential Office photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — With the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Vice President-elect William Lai (賴清德) less than a week away, current Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) on Wednesday (May 13) expressed his sincere gratitude to the country's 23.7 million people for giving him an opportunity to serve.

As Tsai prepares to start her second term on May 20 with the former premier, Chen took to Facebook Wednesday evening to reveal his next step and share the lessons he has learned over the last four years. Chen said he plans on returning to Academia Sinica to continue his research.

As a Catholic, Chen said he is "a little pencil in God's hands" just as Mother Teresa once described herself, and that God has endowed him with the courage to face every challenge and guide him through his term. He emphasized that it was an honor to serve the Taiwanese public, who has shown much generosity to him and his team.

The vice president pointed out that Taiwan has demonstrated its progressiveness since he took office in 2016 in areas such as pension reform, marriage equality, human rights, as well as its efforts in handling the pandemic crisis. He said each citizen is a hero and serves as a candle that lights up the nation.    [FULL  STORY]