Radio Taiwan Internatyional
Date: 25 March, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Defense ministry spokesperson Shih Shun-wen says the military is monitoring Taiwan’s airspace and

territorial waters after reports of a US aircraft off Taiwan’s southeast coast.

Twitter account Aircraft Spots tweeted that a US EP-3E reconnaissance aircraft was in the South China Sea and off southeastern Taiwan on Wednesday. Aircraft Spots is an account that monitors military air movements.

This is not the first time that a US military aircraft has conducted missions around Taiwan over the past few weeks. Last month, an MC-130J special operations tanker aircraft, a B-52 bomber, and a P-3C anti-submarine aircraft were found operating around Taiwan. A US navy vessel also navigated through the Taiwan Strait last month.

It is generally believed that these US military missions are aimed at counterbalancing China’s attempts to threaten Taiwan by force.    [FULL  STORY]

Clever or stupid?

The5 National Interest
Date: March 25, 2020
By: David Axe

Key point: Beijing wants to seize Taiwan, but it would have to land troops to do it. Here's how American forces could slow, or even maybe stop, such an attack.

China steadily is building up the forces it could deploy in an attempted invasion of Taiwan. The Chinese navy is acquiring aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships while the Chinese army and marine corps add modern fighting vehicles and the air force trains for intensive air-to-air combat.

This first appeared in 2019 and is being reposted due to reader interest.

But in crossing the Taiwan Strait, a Chinese invasion fleet would face not only Taiwanese forces, but probably Americans forces, as well. The United States is obligated by law to assist in Taiwan’s defense. A U.S. Air Force wing commander in August 2019 revealed one form U.S. intervention could take.

Bombers. Dropping mines. Lots of them.    [FULL  STORY]

More information related to unresolved homicides of Formosa Incident activist's family unearthed

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/25
By:  Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The National Security Bureau (NSB) will continue its declassification of political archives to be used in probes into the wrongdoings of the Kuomintang nationalist government during Taiwan’s martial law period, said bureau chief Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) on Wednesday (March 25).

Most of the political documents regarding the deaths of former Democratic Progressive Party Chair Lin Yi-hsiung’s (林義雄) family members had been declassified by the bureau and provided to the Transitional Justice Commission by March 19, said Chiu at a session of the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday morning. Lin’s mother and twin daughters were killed at their residence on February 28, 1980, while Lin was being tried in a military court for his involvement in a pro-democracy march later known as the Formosa Incident.

The commission’s earlier report disclosed that the National Security Bureau had tapped Lin’s phone at the time the homicides took place but that the agency overwrote the file on record shortly after the tragedy. More bureau documents are required in order to get further information on the case, said the commission, which is also investigating the unresolved murder of Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), a math professor and pro-democracy advocate.

The bureau will continue declassifying information upon the request of government agencies, said Chiu, adding that content related to national security and the protection of sources would remain confidential.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/25/2020
By: Wu Hsin-yun, Yu Hsiao-han, Chen Yi-hsuan and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 25 (CNA) Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday announced that it will expand the scope of its COVID-19 coronavirus screening tests to medical and healthcare workers with suspected infection symptoms in order to prevent possible cluster infections in the nation's healthcare system.

Those who work in hospitals, healthcare institutes and nursing homes who have developed fever or other respiratory symptoms are now subject to coronavirus screening tests, said Deputy Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) during a CECC press event.

Previously, Taiwan only conducted COVID-19 tests on those with suspected symptoms who had recently traveled to countries with coronavirus outbreaks, or who had contact with coronavirus patients, as well as patients with severe flu-like symptoms.

According to Hsueh, medical and healthcare workers' National Health Insurance smartcards will identify their owners' occupation when they seek medical attention so that doctors can make the correct decisions.    [FULL  STORY]

BRAND AND VALUES: The KMT is at a ‘critical moment’ in its reform efforts, and it can no longer afford for the trust of the public to be eroded, the party chairman said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 26, 2020
By: Shih Hsiao-kuang / Staff reporter

Certain Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators-at-large have seriously tested the party’s image and they could face disciplinary measures or have their nomination retroactively rescinded if their behavior proves to be harmful, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday at party headquarters in Taipei.

While Chiang did not say who his remarks were directed at, KMT Legislator Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) has sparked controversy by saying that five recent Chinese flybys of Taiwan were “not provocative,” urging the Ministry of National Defense not to mislead the public.

Wu earlier this month requested classified Ministry of National Defense data and reportedly received a briefing by military officials in his office.

The data he requested reportedly included material on cyberdefense units at the Information and Electronic Warfare Command, and troop deployments of all three branches of the armed forces, as well as updates on combined service units and military operations.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date:\ 24 March, 2020
By: Jake Chen

Borough chief buys onions to help neighbors stay healthy. (CNA Photo)[/caption] There is currently no vaccine for the new coronavirus COVID-19. A borough chief in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, recently gave away a large quantity of onions to help his neighbors maintain their immune systems. 

An older gentleman is calling for his neighbors to help unload the truck. His name is Tsai Chuan-shih and he’s a borough chief in Kaohsiung’s Qianzhen Township. As it turns out, he has paid close to NT$100,000 (US$3,300) out of his own pocket to purchase 1,000 bags of onions for his fellow neighbors.     [FULL  STORY]

The Standard
Date: 25 Mar 2020
By: Maisy Mok 

Hongkongers face restrictions on their last and only travel destination as Macau today implemented a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving from Hong Kong.

Visitors who have been to Hong Kong and Taiwan within 14 days before entering Macau must undergo a fortnight of medical observation at designated venues arranged by the health bureau, Macau Chief Executive Ho Lat-seng announced yesterday – one day after Hong Kong announced visitors from Macau would need to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

Visitors from Hong Kong and Taiwan were previously allowed to enter Macau without any health restrictions from February 26.

The Macau government has also rented eight hotels for use as quarantine centers.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese-designed device meant to protect doctors from coronavirus being adopted in the Philippines

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/24
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A device designed by a Taiwanese doctor to better protect medical workers as they intubate patients has already been replicated by a doctor in the Philippines, where cases of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) have climbed to 501, including 33 deaths.

On his Facebook page on Saturday (March 21), Lai Hsien-yung (賴賢勇), an anesthesiologist at Mennonite Christian Hospital in eastern Taiwan's Hualien, wrote that as a growing number of patients must be placed on a ventilator due to severe respiratory complications associated with COVID-19, Lai designed what he has dubbed the "Aerosol box." The simple device consists of a transparent plastic box with an opening on one side allowing it to fit over the patient's chest and neck, while the opposite side has two small holes through which doctors can insert their hands.

Lai registered his invention under a Creative Commons license, and it is free to the public as long as it is properly attributed to him and is not used for commercial purposes. Lai and his colleagues on Sunday (March 22) uploaded the schematic for the cube on a website, where it can be downloaded for free.

Anton Legaspi, a designer, and his sister, Frances Legaspi, an emergency room physician at Antipolo Doctors Hospital, spotted the device on social media on Sunday (March 22). Frances asked Anton if he could replicate the device, as medical supplies are running short at her hospital, which is located 25 kilometers east of Manila.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/24/2020
By Wang Chao-yu, Chung Jung-feng and Matthew Mazzetta, CNA staff writers

In industrial parks across northern Taiwan, a team of some 100 technicians has spent the last six weeks assembling 92 surgical face mask production lines that will boost the country's daily production capacity from 4 million to 13 million masks.

Recruited from companies across Taiwan, they have been compared to a national team of engineering talent in the local media and have been hailed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for their contributions to Taiwan's COVID-19 prevention efforts.

For 63-year-old Chen Yu-hsu (陳宇旭), a factory manager at Posa Machinery in Taichung, taking part in the project has offered a chance to pass along knowledge from his decades of experience in precision manufacturing.

Although assembling face mask production lines is something new for Chen, he said he jumped at the chance when his employer recommended him for the task.    [FULL  STORY]

TWEET CONFIRMED: The US’ Morgan Ortagus backed up Taiwan, saying China only admitted that human-to-human transmission was possible as late as Jan. 20

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 25, 2020
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter

Taiwan warned the WHO and China about possible human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus at the end of last year, but the global health body did not make it public, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

Department of International Organizations Director-General Bob Chen (陳龍錦) made the remark at a news briefing in Taipei, when asked about statements made by US Department of State spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus.

“Dec. 31— that’s the same day Taiwan first tried to warn WHO of human-human transmission. Chinese authorities meanwhile silenced doctors and refused to admit human-human transmission until Jan. 20, with catastrophic consequences,” Ortagus wrote on Twitter yesterday.

Her tweet was in response to a post by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩), who wrote that the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission had issued a notice about the virus on Dec. 31 last year.    [FULL  STORY]