Radio Taiwan International
Date: 16 December, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

Across large parts of central and southern Taiwan, reservoir levels are dropping. The need to conserve water in these regions has been dramatically captured in new drone footage that shows one southern reservoir turned into a grassy landscape.

Seen from a drone, it looks like a lush green valley. Some who’ve seen this drone footage online have suggested that this might be a view of a golf course. But the man who shot the footage explains that it’s actually a view of the Tsengwen Reservoir, a major source of water for Taiwan’s south.    [FULL  STORY]

Over the four quarters through June 2020, four major US trading partners –Vietnam, Switzerland, India, and Singapore–intervened in the foreign exchange market in a sustained, asymmetric manner, it said.

NDTV
Date: December 16, 2020

The US on Wednesday added India along with Taiwan and Thailand to the 'monitoring list' of currency manipulating countries that includes major trading partners like China and six others.

It also branded Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators.

Other countries in the monitoring list are Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia. Ireland has been removed from the Monitoring List, the US Department of Treasury said in its report 'Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States' submitted to the Congress on Wednesday.

Over the four quarters through June 2020, four major US trading partners –Vietnam, Switzerland, India, and Singapore–intervened in the foreign exchange market in a sustained, asymmetric manner, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan still needs to import battlefield integration system, missiles, torpedoes, diesel engine

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/16
By:  Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The United States has approved an export license for a digital sonar system to be installed on Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, Vice Defense Minister Chang Che-ping (張哲平) said Wednesday (Dec. 16).

Vital components for the submarine project, which started in November, have been labeled “red” if they cannot be manufactured domestically and need to be imported. Currently, they include battlefield integration and digital sonar systems, the diesel engine, missiles, and torpedoes.

The U.S. notified Taiwan on Tuesday (Dec. 15) that the process for approving the sonar's export license had been completed, Chang told lawmakers. He said legislators were wrong to assume that the U.S. government still needed to notify Congress about this kind of transaction, CNA reported.

Earlier this month, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), which is developing the project together with the Navy and with CSBC Corporation, said the sonar system would possibly arrive in Taiwan in January, while the Navy mentioned the first quarter of 2021.    [FULL  STORY]

Three different types of Y-8 and one Y-9: Ministry of National Defense

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/16
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Four Chinese warplanes of different types entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) from the southwest Wednesday (Dec. 16), according to military sources.

The aircraft were a Y-8 anti-submarine plane, a Y-8 electronic intelligence plane, a Y-9 electronic warfare aircraft, and a Y-8 reconnaissance plane, CNA reported.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/16/2020
By:  Hau Hsueh-ching and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) The de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan on Wednesday sought to assure the public that all U.S. food exports to the country are safe to eat amid concerns raised by Taichung City's mayor over the central government's decision to lift a ban on imports of American pork containing residues of a controversial veterinary drug next year.

"All U.S. exports to Taiwan and our other trade partners are safe and meet the same high, evidence-based standards that we follow for our own consumption in the United States. Safe here. Safe there. Safe everywhere," Amanda Mansour, spokeswoman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) told CNA.

The spokeswoman's comments were made after Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), in a meeting with AIT Director Brent Christensen earlier in the day, raised concerns about the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government's decision to soon allow imports of pork containing ractopamine, a leanness-enhancing drug.

AIT represents U.S. interest in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 15 December, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

The foreign ministry on Tuesday said that Taiwan will continue to act as a reliable partner to the United States. That’s after the US Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden as the next US president, ratifying Biden’s November victory despite President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede that he had lost the election.

Upon the news, Foreign ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou spoke about US-Taiwan relations going forward.

Ou said, "Taiwan will continue to build on its solid foundation [with the US].  We will deepen the partnership between Taiwan and the US in all areas and at all levels. Taiwan will continue to act as a reliable, stable and important partner to the US."
[FULL  STORY]

The Washington Times
Date: December 15, 2020
By: Lauren Toms – The Washington Times

Taiwan has set a goal to get 60% of its population — equal to 15 million people — vaccinated against COVID-19.

A Taiwanese health official on Tuesday made the vow, The Associated Press reported, and said that the island signed a deal with COVAX to purchase doses of its vaccine.

It is also in communication with other vaccine companies that are conducting phase 3 trials, Jing-Hui Yang, a deputy director at the Central Epidemic Command Center, told the publication.    [FULL  STORY]

Illegal profits estimated at NT$34 million

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/12/15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The owner of Carry Mask was indicted Tuesday (Dec. 15) for making NT$34 million (US$1.21 million) by passing off face masks from China as made in Taiwan.

Lin Ming-chin’s (林明進) company was part of the “National Face Mask Team” of private sector manufacturers requisitioned by the government earlier this year to produce masks and mask-making machines in the face of the expanding coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In addition to selling 3.95 million masks from China unsuitable for medical use, Lin is still under investigation for distributing unauthorized children’s masks, CNA reported.

The scam came to light in September when a pharmacist in New Taipei City looked inside a box of masks sent in by mail and found a user’s manual in the simplified Chinese characters used in China but not in Taiwan. She alerted the health authorities, which began an investigation through the Shilin Prosecutors Office.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/15/2020
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 15 (CNA) Employers of migrant workers could face a maximum fine of NT$300,000 (US$10,555) if they are found to have failed to ensure that labor brokers provide safe and clean dormitories for migrant workers they have hired, a Ministry of Labor (MOL) official said Tuesday.

In addition to the fine, employers could also be banned from hiring migrant workers for two years, said Paul Su (蘇裕國), deputy director of the MOL's Cross-Border Workforce Management Division.

Su made the comments while explaining the MOL's proposed draft amendment to the Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Workers that will hold employers of migrant workers responsible for providing proper accommodation for their foreign employees.

The MOL amendment has been proposed amid controversy over an overcrowded dormitory in which two migrant workers stayed and later tested positive for COVID-19.
[FULL  STORY]