Radio Taiwan International
Date: 02 April, 2020
By: John Van Trieste
Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes has developed a reagent that can be used to make rapid tests for COVID-19. (CNA file photo)
Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes has developed a reagent that can be used to make rapid tests for COVID-19.
The work follows up on earlier research the institute conducted on SARS in collaboration with the National Defense Medical Center. [FULL STORY]
Tokyo National Museum’s show on Chinese artist Yan Zhenqing ranks 15th in our latest visitor attendance survey despite contentious loan from Taipei museum
The Art Newspaper
Date: 2nd April 2020
By: Emily Sharpe
Yan Zhenqing’s Requiem to My Nephew (759)
Caught in the crossfire of rising political tensions between China and Taiwan was the loan of a Chinese masterpiece by the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taipei to the Japanese museum for its 2019 on the Chinese artist. Critics in China and Taiwan objected to the loan of Requiem to My Nephew (759)—a calligraphic work that is especially valued because it is a draft of a lost piece and the only extant autograph work by Chinese artist. The only other time the Taipei museum had sent the piece overseas was back in 1997 for a show on treasures from its collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Some questioned whether it was safe to travel and the NPM responded by issuing a statement assuring the public that its specialists had deemed Requiem to be “stable and suitable for overseas exhibitions”. [FULL STORY]
Only exceptions are patients in critical or deteriorating condition: CECC
Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/02
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
File photo of temperature testing at a hospital entrance (CNA photo)
Several hospitals and clinics have already tightened their regulations to avoid unnecessary contact between medical personnel and patients, as well as outside visitors. Only when the coronavirus pandemic has been brought under control will visits to relatives be allowed again, CECC chief and Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said Thursday. [FULL STORY]
Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/02/2020
By: Elaine Hou, Matt Yu and Chiang Yi-ching
Photo from Ngedikes Olai Uludong’s Twitter page
"Palau has been asking the global community for help, and no one responded expect Taiwan! Thank you so much. Friends indeed!" Uludong said on Twitter.
In two photos attached to her tweet, boxes of supplies from Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital in Taipei can be seen.
Palau, one of four countries in the South Pacific that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, has not recorded any COVID-19 cases to date, though an American national who visited Palau in early March displayed symptoms of the disease when she arrived. [FULL STORY]
FINANCIAL LOSSES: The Travel Bureau said that it is considering giving self-employed tour guides monthly subsidies of NT$10,000 for three consecutive months
Taipei Times
Date: Apr 03, 2020
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
An arrival board at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) yesterday shows most flights having been canceled.
Photo: CNA
The Tourism Bureau is studying the feasibility of the proposal after Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) on Wednesday met with representatives of travel and tour guide associations to discuss how the ministry could help them as their businesses suffer because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry said.
Tour guides have also experienced financial losses, as travel agencies have stopped organizing overseas tour groups or hosting tourists from other nations, the bureau said. [FULL STORY]
Radio Taiwan International
Date: 01 April, 2020
By: Paula Chao
A WHO official caused a stir after evading a question about Taiwan’s membership in the global health body. In an interview with RTHK, Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward appeared to evade the question and hang up. In today’s show, find out how Taiwan responded, and why the WHO needs Taiwan. [FULL STORY
‘We really appreciate this gesture of solidarity,’ the European Commission’s president says in a Twitter post
‘Acts like this show that we are #StrongerTogether,’ she tweets
South China Morning Post
Date: 2 Apr, 2020
By: Stuart Lau
The European Union’s top leader has praised Taiwan for donating millions of masks to help the bloc battle the coronavirus pandemic, in a highly unusual show of solidarity with the self-ruling island expected to provoke Beijing.
“The European Union thanks Taiwan for its donation of 5.6 million masks to help fight the #coronavirus. We really appreciate this gesture of solidarity,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a Twitter post on Wednesday.
“This global virus outbreak requires international solidarity & cooperation,” tweeted von der Leyen, who is four months into leading the executive arm of the 27-nation bloc. “Acts like this show that we are #StrongerTogether.”
Beijing considers Taiwan a wayward part of China to be brought back into the fold – by force, if necessary. Taiwan, currently led by an independence-leaning party, has been running its own governments since 1949. [FULL STORY]
Beijing claims the Taipei Act is a 'hegemonic threat' which sabotages the 'one China principle'
Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/01
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Communist China on Wednesday (April 1) described the newly signed Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative Act (TAIPEI Act) an "evil act."
The legislation, which aims to discourage Taiwan's diplomatic allies from cutting ties with the island country due to pressure from Beijing, passed unanimously in the House of Representatives on March 4 and in the Senate on March 11. Despite being preoccupied with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, President Donald Trump on March 26 signed the bill into law.
The act requires the State Department to induce governments that are allies of Taiwan to maintain diplomatic ties with the country and to identify those at risk of severing relations with it. The act also calls for the U.S. to supplement its diplomatic presence in countries that support Taiwan and reduce its diplomatic footprint in those that side with Beijing.
In an editorial released on Wednesday, communist China's state-run mouthpiece, the People's Daily, expressed Beijing's "strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition" with the act, which it claimed "sabotages" the "one China principle" and "violates international law." The paper also claimed the U.S had "grossly interfered in China's domestic affairs" with the new act. [FULL STORY]
Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/01/2020
By: Chiang Yi-ching
Taipei, April 1 (CNA) Business places at which effective social distancing cannot be maintained should close the premises temporarily to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) advised Wednesday.
The advice was issued one day after Taiwan introduced its first round of social distancing guidelines, saying that people should stay at least one meter apart outdoors and keep a minimum space of 1.5 meters from each other indoors.
In cases where they are unable to do so, they should wear a mask, especially in crowded and enclosed spaces such as on the mass rapid transit (MRT) trains, particularly during rush hour, said CECC head and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中). [FULL STORY]
STRENGTH IN UNITY: The Executive Yuan respects KMT legislators’ viewpoints, but has no comment on calls for the premier to step down, spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said
Taipei Times
Date: Apr 02, 2020
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yu-jen at a news conference in Taipei yesterday holds up her national identification card, which she said identifies her as a resident not of Taiwan, but of Kinmen County, Fujian Province, Republic of China.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Prior to a question-and-answer session at the legislature on Tuesday, Su was asked by reporters to comment on Chen’s remark on Monday that Taiwan is not a country.
“Then she is not qualified to be a lawmaker,” the premier said.
Chen made the remark during a question-and-answer session with Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通), when she asked him about his view on the “growing anti-China sentiment” among the public. [FULL STORY]
