Coronavirus: WHO urged to lift ban on Taiwanese reporters

Reporters Without Borders
Date: April 29, 2020

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the World Health Organization (WHO) to lift its ban on Taiwanese journalists, which violates the universal right to information and is undermining efforts to combat the coronavirus epidemic.

The international community is working together through the WHO to combat the pandemic, but the WHO – under pressure from China – continues to to bar Taiwanese media outlets and reporters from its events and press conferences on the grounds that the United Nations, of which the WHO is an offshoot, does not recognize Taiwan and its passport.

From 2009 to 2016, when Beijing was seeking a rapprochement with Taiwan, the UN and WHO nonetheless issued accreditation without any problem to Taiwanese media outlets and journalists that requested it.

RSF urges Beijing to stop pressuring the WHO, and asks WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres to put an immediate stop to this discriminatory practice, which deprives the Taiwanese scientific community and public of vital updates about the latest coronavirus discoveries.    [FULL  STORY]

It's time to replace the 17th century sovereignty-based Westphalian order with a more inclusive one

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/29
By: Dr Wolfgang Pape, Bruxelles, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

A pandemic[1] was announced by the WHO on March 11, 2020, describing the global spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, as early as the beginning of December last year, health officers in Taipei were checking passengers from Wuhan for symptoms before they left their plane. As a result, by the end of December 2019, the WHO had already received from Taipei an early warning about the risk of this new coronavirus.[2]

However, the WHO could not officially share this warning with its members. Precious time to prepare for prevention worldwide was lost. Why? In simple terms, because the alert came from a society that is not an official member of the WHO nor its parent body, the UN. As its name suggests, the United Nations accepts only “nations” as its formal members.

Shouldn’t the current “multi”-lateral or inter-“national” institutions, founded on the logic of the 17th-century Westphalian system of “sovereign nations,” which underpins the UN, now be opened up globally to all legitimate stakeholders? Is it not time to evolve towards an omnilateral[3] system?

The often un-“United Nations,” which this year is preparing for its 75th anniversary, has impressively grown its membership from 51 nations in 1945 to 193 today. But like with the democracies of the world, growth seems to be only in numbers and not in strength and efficiency. For about a century, attempts to shape a global order have come and gone under the much-marketed brand of “multilateralism,” notably through its strongholds in the League of Nations and UN. However, how successfully have they managed to build a truly common global order?    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/29/2020
By: Matt Yu, Wang Hong-kuo and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, April 29 (CNA) Taiwan's Army said Wednesday that it has suspended three military officers over their alleged roles in the death of a lieutenant, who committed suicide at a military camp in Taoyuan earlier this month.

The statement about the suspension of the three officers followed President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) comment on the matter earlier in the day, when she said she had read a letter written by the late lieutenant's mother and promised a thorough investigation into the case.

In the letter, the mother said she suspected that her son had been a victim of bullying, which had led to his suicide.

In its statement, the Army said it had suspended three officers, pending its investigation into their roles in the death of lieutenant Huang (黃), whose first name was not released.    [FULL  STORY]

NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE: Attacks against advocates of democracy would happen again if the masterminds are not identified, DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin said

Taipei Times
Date:  Apr 30, 2020
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) yesterday called on law enforcement authorities to treat the recent paint attack on Lam Wing-kei (林榮基), a former co-owner of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, as a national security matter.

Chao said that if it was treated like a regular criminal case, it would easily get swept under the rug, so authorities should deal with it as a national security issue involving coordinated criminal groups.

“If the masterminds behind the plot are not identified, then attacks like this will recur again and again. The dark forces behind them will continue to operate from abroad, out of reach of our laws, and they will continue to pose a danger to democracy activists,” he said.

Chao invited Lam to attend yesterday’s briefing, along with Criminal Investigation Bureau Deputy Commissioner Liao Hsun-cheng (廖訓誠) and officials from the National Security Bureau’s (NSB) Third Department.

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 28 April, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Congressional friendship group donates 2,300 gowns to Osaka[/caption] A congressional friendship association has donated 2,300 protective medical gowns to Osaka to help the Japanese city weather the COVID-19 crisis.

The cross-partisan association, founded by DPP lawmaker Kuo Kuo-wen, is aimed at promoting friendship between Taiwan and Japan. Taiwan and Japan do not have formal diplomatic relations.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, DPP lawmaker Kuo Kuo-wen said his association has mailed 2,300 gowns to Osaka.

Kuo says Osaka desperately needs protective medical gowns. The city is short of medical gowns and often uses raincoats instead. Kuo says there is a serious need for medical supplies there and Taiwan should send donations to help out.    [FULL  STORY]

The Globe And Mail
Date: April 28, 2020
By: Steven Chase

Taiwan is donating half a million masks to Canada, expressing hope that some can be used to protect Indigenous communities, as the self-ruled island tries to counter the Chinese government’s effort to isolate it during the pandemic.

Taiwan, a democracy of more than 23 million people, has been prevented from taking part in World Health Organization activities to fight COVID-19 because of Beijing, which regards the jurisdiction as a renegade province.

The island has proven extremely successful at containing COVID-19, with only 429 infections and six deaths as of Tuesday, and this has left it in a position to extend medical assistance to other countries.

Taiwan’s donation of medical supplies to Canada is the latest in a string of gifts from Taipei to other jurisdictions, from the United States to Japan to the European Union, as the island practices what’s being called “mask diplomacy.”    [FULL  STORY]

Those who have experienced sleepwalking, semi-conscious movements not to be prescribed these medications

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/28
By:  Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday (April 29) banned doctors from prescribing medicine containing any of four ingredients to people who have experienced an episode of sleepwalking or other movements while in a partially conscious state.

The four medications are eszopiclone, zaleplon, zolpidem, and zopiclone. The last three are currently listed in Class IV drugs, meaning they are available only by prescription.

FDA division chief Hung Kuo-teng (洪國登) said that while these four drugs are most commonly prescribed for insomnia, there have been reports in various countries about their side effects, which include sleepwalking. So far, the agency has received around 200 complaints across Taiwan, including reports of sleepwalking and even sleepdriving. Fortunately, no major accidents related to these drugs have been reported.

According to official data, over 4 million people around the country take some form of sleeping pill each year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/28/2020
By: Joseph Yeh

Angelito T. Banayo, chairman and resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural

Office. CNA file photo.

Taipei, April 28 (CNA) The Philippines top envoy to Taiwan said Monday he has not received instructions from President Rodrigo Duterte to arrange the deportation of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Taiwan to Manila for allegedly libeling the president online.

In a phone interview with CNA, Angelito T. Banayo, chairman and resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), said he would have received the instructions had they been issued but had not received any such directives to date.

He also noted that deporting anybody from Taiwan is the sovereign right of the host government and is "not within the prerogative of a foreign government like the Philippines," which MECO represents in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties.

"So the question of deportation is something that only the Taiwanese government can decide upon," he said.    [FULL  STORY]