Page Three

Hung seeks time before KMT poll

Taipei Times
Date: May 24, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), one of the two Chinese

Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu speaks to reporters in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu speaks to reporters in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

Nationalist Party (KMT) members who registered for the party’s presidential primary, yesterday said that if she is the only contender to have passed the signature threshold, she should be allowed some time before a survey in which she is required to have at least 30 percent party support.

The KMT is to reveal tomorrow whether Hung and former minister of health Yaung Chi-liang (楊志良) have each obtained signatures from at least 15,000 registered party members.

Some political and media observers contend that Yaung might fail to reach the threshold, given the relatively small number of signatures he presented with his registration.

KMT presidential primary rules stipulate that if there is only one registered contender, the party’s review committee has two options.     [FULL  STORY]

KMT presidential hopeful not worried about tough primary threshold

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/23
By: Chen Wei-ting, Kelven Huang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, May 23 (CNA) Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said 2015052300241Saturday that she is not worried about a rule in the Kuomintang’s (KMT) presidential primary procedures aimed at keeping people of lesser stature from representing the party in the 2016 election.

Hung said she will do her best in seeking a breakthrough in support and indicated she was not worried about the requirement that a candidate must receive a support rating of higher than 30 percent to be nominated.

Hung and former Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) are the only two people who submitted petitions of support from KMT members by the May 18 deadline to be able to compete in the party’s presidential primary.

KMT heavyweights often mentioned as potential candidates — KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) — are conspicuously absent from the primary.     [FULL  STORY]

MERS-CoV fears rising following new cases in South Korea

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-23
By: CNA

Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned on Friday of the growing threat from MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) in the country after neighboring South Korea reported its first three such cases earlier this week.

Patient zero, a 68-year-old male who visited Bahrain to discuss an agricultural project between April 18 and May 3, returned to South Korea on May 4 and developed MERS-CoV symptoms seven days later, the CDC said, citing South Korean officials.

After he was confirmed with MERS-CoV on May 20, his wife and a 76-year-old male who shared the same ward with him while he was in the hospital were also found to be infected, the CDC said.

A total of 64 people who came in close contact with patient zero, including his family members and health care workers, are currently in quarantine and being monitored, the CDC said, adding that all three confirmed cases are receiving treatment in isolation.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese warned against travel to Burundi

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/22
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and Scully Hsiao

Taipei, May 22 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday urged Taiwanese 201505220026t0001people to avoid travel to Burundi as the East African country is caught in a political upheaval.

The ministry kept its travel alert at orange, the second-highest warning level in its four-color warning system, and urged potential travelers to be extra vigilant when going there or avoid travel to the country altogether.

Political turmoil and conflicts among ethnic groups in Burundi could spiral into further confrontation, the ministry warned.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan sees sharp increase in enterovirus infections: CDC

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-22
By: CNA

Roughly 200 more patients in Taiwan sought emergency treatment for enterovirus

Hand washing being promoted in schools as a way to prevent the transmission of enterovirus, Dec. 10, 2014. (File photo courtesy of Department of Public Health)

Hand washing being promoted in schools as a way to prevent the transmission of enterovirus, Dec. 10, 2014. (File photo courtesy of Department of Public Health)

symptoms in the past week, a week-on-week increase of some 36%, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Thursday.

A total of 635 enterovirus cases seen in the one-week period from May 10-16 represented an emergency consultation rate of 4.35 per thousand, higher than the epidemic threshold of 2.7 per thousand, the CDC said.

The numbers were up from 307, 427 and 465 emergency enterovirus cases reported in Taiwan in the three previous weeks, according to CDC data.

The Coxsackie A virus has been the dominant strain of enterovirus circulating around the country, accounting for 76.5% of total infections, the CDC said.     [FULL  STORY]

US not taking sides in elections: US official

Taipei Times
Date: May 23, 2015
By: William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

The US does not take sides and does not “take actions that would imply that we are taking sides” in Taiwan’s elections, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said on Thursday.

“We respect the people of Taiwan and we respect their ability to select their own leaders,” he said.

Russel was answering questions following a Washington news briefing on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit to Beijing and Seoul.

He had been asked if the US would try to persuade Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to accept or acknowledge the existence of the so-called “1992 consensus” when she visits Washington next month.

The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having their own interpretation of what “China” means.     [FULL  STORY]

Diva of Taiwan remembered after 20 years with concert, TV show

The Japan News
Date: May 22, 2015
By Jin Kiyokawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Twenty years have passed since the death of Taiwan singer Teresa Teng, a

Courtesy of Teresa Teng Foundation Teresa Teng performs at a concert.

Courtesy of Teresa Teng Foundation
Teresa Teng performs at a concert.

superstar in Japan and other Asian countries and territories.

A charity tribute concert for Teng will take place in Tokyo on Saturday, during which the audience will be able to see a 3-D hologram of the singer. The image will be borrowed from Taiwan, where it was shown at a tribute concert on May 9.

The Tokyo concert is called the Teresa Teng Memorial Concert — Botsu Nijunen Tsuito Charity Ongakukai. It will feature such illustrious singers as Hiroshi Itsuki, Akari Uchida, en-Ray, Natsuko Godai, Toshimi Tagawa, Yoko Nagayama and Rimi Natsukawa, who will sing Teng’s hit songs.

Lyricist Toyohisa Araki will speak about his memories of Teng at the concert, which will be emceed by Kazuo Tokumitsu.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan uses smartcards and a premium on capital-gains taxes to keep health care affordable

The Geordia Straight
Date:  May 21st, 2015
By: Charlie Smith

In 2008, the PBS current-affairs show Frontline broadcast an intriguing documentary

Chiang Been-Huang oversees a health system that links medical-service premiums to a person's wages.

Chiang Been-Huang oversees a health system that links medical-service premiums to a person’s wages.

about health-care systems in five capitalist countries: the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan (Republic of China), and Switzerland.

Taiwan, in particular, garnered high marks for keeping costs low while providing universal coverage through a single-payer government-insurance system. Its National Health Insurance model was adopted in 1995 borrowing best practices from other countries.

At the time of the Frontline broadcast, the average family of four paid $650 per year with copayments of 20 percent for the cost of drugs up to $6.50. Even with those low costs, there were exemptions for major diseases, the poor, veterans, and childbirth.

Eventually, the cost pressures became too much, so there were revisions introduced in 2011 to bring more money into the system.

In advance of this week’s World Health Assemby taking place in Geneva, Taiwan’s health and welfare minister, Chiang Been-Huang, wrote an article highlighting the current system.     [FULL  STORY]

Myanmar girl with tongue hemangiomas receives treatment in Taiwan

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/21
By: Sunrise Huang and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 21 (CNA) With the help of a local charitable group, a girl from Myanmar

Photo courtesy of Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps

Photo courtesy of Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps

who suffers from extensive hemangiomas of the tongue — or severe swelling — arrived in Taiwan on Monday for treatment.

Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps (TRMPC, 臺灣路竹會), a private non-profit organization whose mission is to provide free medical services, discovered during a trip to Myanmar in August last year that Pu Shuan-ting (濮雙婷), a girl of Chinese descent living in a mountainous area in northern Myanmar, has a swollen tongue that was bleeding irregularly and cannot be withdrawn into the mouth, TRMPC Chairman Liu Chi-chun (劉啟群) said Thursday.

The swelling gradually increased to the present size that is three times the normal size of a child’s tongue, according to Liu.     [FULL  STORY]

Shih Ming-te launches campaign for presidency

Taipei Times
Date: May 22, 2015
By: Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

Long-time political activist Shih Ming-te (施明德) yesterday announced his

Veteran political activist Shih Ming-te yesterday announces at a Taipei news conference that he plans to enter the race for next year’s presidential elections. Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times

Veteran political activist Shih Ming-te yesterday announces at a Taipei news conference that he plans to enter the race for next year’s presidential elections. Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times

presidential bid, saying that he aimed to bring about cross-strait reconciliation and implement social justice, while lashing out at “conventional” politicians who he said had betrayed the public.

“In each successive administration, we see politicians betraying their ideologies, tearing the nation apart and losing direction,” Shih, a founding member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who broke ties with the party in 2000, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday morning. “There is no leadership in Taiwan, just decisions based on the interaction of power and interests, and the public no longer has any expectations of a new dawn.”

“Along the path of revolution, I have made narrow escapes from the dictator’s knife, and eventually, I knew I would have to engage in a duel with these dirty politicians,” Shih said.     [FULL  STORY]