DISCREPANCIES: A Fisheries Agency official said that the report did not provide the names of the fishers interviewed, and that their accounts did not count as evidence

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 20, 2020
By: Dennis Xie / Staff writer, with CNA

Forced labor, human rights abuses and illegal fishing practices continue to mar Taiwan’s deep-sea fishing industry, a new report by Greenpeace East Asia shows, Greenpeace Taiwan said yesterday as it called on the government to take legal action to end such abuses.

Choppy Waters — Forced Labour and Illegal Fishing in Taiwan’s Distant Water Fisheries details the results of a two-month investigation, including interviews with Indonesian migrant fishers working on vessels flagged or otherwise connected to Taiwan.

According to interview with four Indonesian fishers, six of the 11 International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators of forced labor were met, such as the lack of clean drinking water, being required to work 34 consecutive, wage withholding, monthly wage of less than US$450, Greenpeace Taiwan member Moffy Chen (陳瓊妤) told a news conference in Taipei.

Two Taiwanese vessels linked to Fong Chun Formosa (FCF) were allegedly involved illegal shark finning and the illegal transfer of crew and shark fins, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 018 March, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

A national middle school sporting event has opened on schedule despite the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. But to keep everyone involved safe, the organizers have decided to hold their opening ceremony in a decidedly unconventional way.

Pingtung City Mayor Pan Men-an has recorded a dance video for the opening of this year’s National Middle School Athletics Games. His city is hosting this year’s games. To ensure everyone taking part stays healthy amid the COVID-19 outbreak, this year’s opening ceremony has gone entirely virtual.    [FULL  STORY]

The painful negotiations over the repatriation of Taiwanese reflect the suspicion and broken communication channels that have marred cross-strait relations since Tsai Ing-wen took office. There are lessons to be learned for both sides

South China Morning Post
Date: 11 Mar, 2020
By: Jason Li

On February 3, a China Eastern flight carried 247 passengers home to Taiwan from coronavirus-stricken Wuhan. This apparent feat in cross-strait coordination came at a low point in relations, following the re-election in January of President Tsai Ing-wen from the historically independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.Yet, hopes that successive flights would soon follow for the other Taiwanese who were still stranded in Hubei were quickly dashed. For 36 days after the first flight, disagreements between the two sides held up progress. It was only on March 10 that a second batch of evacuees were flown home, and they included only 361 of the 1,000 potential evacuees.

What caused the month-long delay, and why are the remaining 500-plus Taiwanese still not home?   [FULL  STORY]

Golden Horse Classic Film Festival and Golden Horse Film Festival both still on track for latter half of 2020

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/18
By: Lyla Liu, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The organizers of the 2020 Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival announced today (March 18) that the event will not be taking place as planned due to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The organizing committee said they had been looking for solutions since January, but no workaround was ever deemed manageable and safe. The event had been slated to kick off next month in Taipei and Taichung.

At present, the likely outcome is that the festival will be postponed until next year. Meanwhile, preparations continue for the Golden Horse Classic Film Festival and the Golden Horse Film Festival, both of which are scheduled for the latter half of 2020.

Please visit the website for the complete announcement.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/18/2020
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, March 18 (CNA) Holders of a visitor visa or landing visa are required to leave the country before their visa expires other than in cases of force majeure as Taiwan intensifies its efforts to combat the new coronavirus, the government announced Wednesday.

Visas will not be extended at this extraordinary time, Phoebe Yeh (葉非比), chief of the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said at a press conference, clarifying that force majeure refers to large scale natural disasters or when a foreign national has a serious illness.

The coronavirus outbreak in the foreign national's home country is not considered force majeure, she stressed.

However, the Taiwan government will also make exceptions if a foreign national's home country is under lockdown and the individual is unable to return home, or there are no available flights, Yeh said.    [FULL  STORY]

DUAL IDENTITY: The newly elected KMT chairman said that he was born and raised in Taiwan, but from a cultural and historical viewpoint, he is also Chinese

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 19, 2020
By: Lin Liang-sheng / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) on Tuesday said that he is “both Taiwanese and Chinese” at a meeting with former KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱).

The KMT is the Republic of China’s (ROC) founding party, Chiang said, adding that for the KMT, China is the ROC.

“I was born and raised in Taiwan. I am Taiwanese,” he said. “From the perspective of blood origin, culture and history, I am also Chinese.”

“On the basis of the Constitution of the ROC, I am an ROC national,” he added.   [FULL  STORY]

The rest of the world would do well to follow Taiwan’s lead in protecting its people from the COVID-19 pandemic

Epoch Times
Date: March 16, 2020
By:James Gorrie

As the United States faces the coronavirus pandemic, it’s critical that we learn the lessons of both Taiwan and Italy. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, while Wuhan was getting ravaged by the virus, epidemiologists figured that Taiwan was at high risk of being the very next hotspot outside of China for the deadly contagion.

That was an entirely reasonable conclusion. With the island nation’s close proximity (80 miles) and deep economic ties with China, it was the perfect scenario for infecting the island’s population.

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE

What’s more, with hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese working in China and traveling back and forth between Taiwan and the mainland, a widespread infection could hardly be avoided.

But the epidemic never happened in Taiwan.

As of March 14, Taiwan’s infection numbers are amazingly low. With a population of 23.78 million, the country’s total number of cases appears to have stabilized at just 53. Even more impressive is that of Taiwan’s 53 cases of infection, only one death has been reported. Furthermore, 20 people have been released from quarantine and the remaining victims are reportedly in stable condition, although they remain in hospital isolation.    [FULL  STORY]

College student says Taiwan's handling of air passengers during coronavirus outbreak far more organized than US

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/16
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese college student on Monday said that the contrast between Taiwan's screening of passengers for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) and that of the U.S. was like the "twilight zone."

Jeffery Chen, a 22-year-old aerospace engineering student who studies in Prescott, Arizona, on Monday elaborated on how much more systematic and efficient Taiwan's epidemic prevention operations are than the U.S.'s. On his Facebook page, Chen listed a myriad of measures Taiwan has implemented to try to screen passengers for the disease and protect those who are not infected.

Chen 'told Taiwan News that his university is canceling face-to-face classes and moving them online until at least April. He said that he decided to go back to Taiwan because he was "not confident about the US's ability to control the situation."

Chen said that the premium economy section on China Airlines was half empty. Likewise, the economy and business sections did not appear to be filled to capacity, passengers boarded rather quickly, and the plane departed ahead of schedule.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/16/2020
By: Yeh Su-ping and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) Taiwan has formed a "national team" to produce protective and isolation gowns in Taiwan and ensure a sufficient supply at home amid the coronavirus outbreak, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Monday.

Taiwan's protective and isolation gowns have been imported from DuPont Co. in the United States since Taiwan confirmed its first coronavirus case in January, Tsai said during a visit to Taiwanese apparel manufacturer Makalot Industrial.

Previous to the outbreak, Taiwan imported most of its protective gowns from China.

But now, "our national team for the production of protective gowns and isolation gowns has been established," Tsai said, indicating that these high-end protective items can be fully made from scratch in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]