Radio Taiwan International
Date: 02 March, 2020
By: Leslie Liao
President Tsai speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Mackay Hospital Hsinchu Branch’s new children’s hospital
Tsai said that the Hsinchu City Government has partnered with major hospitals in the area, like Mackay, to fend off COVID-19. [FULL STORY]
Kpopmap
Date: Mar 3, 2020
JYP Entertainment
According to various reports, she donated approximately $42,000 to help the nation fight against the virus.
However, Chinese netizens soon began to criticize the K-Pop idol upon hearing the news, asking why she hasn’t made any donations to China.
And of course, politics soon got involved in the picture.
Many Chinese netizens stated that Tzuyu didn’t make any donations to China because she was a supporter of Taiwanese independence. [FULL STORY]
Chinese social media accounts found to be tampering with Taiwan’s coronavirus-related notices
Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/02
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
A security guard wearing a face mask in Beijing. (AP photo)
Government notices related to disease prevention have become the latest target in what the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MOJIB) calls a “mudslinging campaign” staged by netizens from China, according to a news release. The methods, which are constantly changing, aim to mislead the public and disrupt social order, the agency warned.
One tactic has been targeted at notices issued by Taiwanese authorities that contain text in images, with traditional Chinese characters being doctored into the simplified form used by China. Using fake accounts, the perpetrators then label such notices as falsified, the Investigation Bureau found.
Other instances include news footage from media outlets like Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) and Sanlih Entertainment Television being manipulated by Chinese netizens on Weibo and Di Bar and then disseminated on Taiwanese social media. One alarming example reads “President Tsai in isolation ward after contracting the novel virus,” said the MOJIB.
[FULL STORY]
Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/02/2020
By: Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh
The military’s radar station in Penghu’s Shiyu Township (Photo courtesy of the ROC Navy Command)
In a paper titled, "the Strategic Role of Penghu in the Defense of Taiwan," released late January, Paul Huang (黃恩浩), an assistant research fellow at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), called on the nation's armed forces to beef up Penghu's defenses, which play a crucial role in the defense of the country.
According to Huang, Penghu or the Pescadores are an archipelago of 90 islands in the Taiwan Strait, and have long been a strategic location, with the Dutch, French and Japanese all launching campaigns against the islands since the 17th century.
From an international political point of view, Penghu is the first-line of defense in the so-called "first-island chain," which refers to the major archipelagos on the East Asian continental coast that comprise the Kuril Islands, the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the northern Philippines and Borneo. [FULL STORY]
RENEW DRIVE: Draft amendments have been stalled in the Legislative Yuan for almost a year and now is the perfect time to pass them, Taiwan Democracy Watch said
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 03, 2020
By: Chung Li-hua and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Legislative Yuan has yet to take action on the Mainland Affairs Council’s proposed amendments to penalize Taiwanese who use the Chinese residency permit introduced by Beijing in 2018, Taiwan Democracy Watch said yesterday.
The residency card introduced in September 2018 allows Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and Macanese who have lived in China for more than six months and are legally working, living or studying in China certain rights and benefits enjoyed by Chinese citizens, such as state-funded education, social insurance and housing subsidies.
Taiwanese officials at the time said the cards were designed to evade provisions in the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) that ban Taiwanese holding household registrations simultaneously in Taiwan and China.
The council that same month proposed amendments to the act that would require holders of the Chinese residency cards to report to authorities, and then-premier William Lai (賴清德), who is now vice president-elect, said the amendments would be reviewed at the next legislative session. [FULL STORY]
Monsoon will pass on March 7, with temperatures rising once again
Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/01
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
(CNA photo)
Starting on Monday, cooler temperatures and sporadic rains are forecast for northern and eastern Taiwan with temperatures ranging from 19 – 23 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, warm weather is forecast for central and southern Taiwan during the daytime, with a high variation of temperatures between day and night, the report said. [FULL STORY]
KTAR News
Date: March 1, 2020
By: Hannah Foote, Cronkite News
ASU students Kylie Kennelly, Edward Witte, Margaret Zheng and Ryan Featherston visit Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, China, before their study abroad program was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. (Photo courtesy of Maggie Zheng)
Panicked, the 22-year-old Arizona State University senior in biomedicine reached out to friends and family to decide whether to risk returning to China to gather her belongings, or return to the U.S. without them.
Program officials discouraged her from returning for her things, so Zheng flew home to Arizona on Feb. 5. Two days later, she signed a document stating there is no guarantee of recovering her belongings.
Zheng and two other students in the ASU Chinese Language Flagship program students interviewed by Cronkite News said they have not received their belongings or reimbursements for their unplanned flights home. Four Flagship students in Nanjing were affected.
[FULL STORY]
City government decorates bear sculpture to reflect current affairs
Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/01
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
(CNA photo)
Chiayi Mayor Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) proudly informed the public that the bear had made it "big in Japan" via Facebook on Feb. 28, saying that she hoped the epidemic would soon die down so that more people would be able to visit beautiful Chiayi. [FULL STORY]
Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/01/2020
By: Wu Chia-rung and Joseph Yeh
CNA file photo
The more than 3,000 masks were found in the check-in luggage of a Taiwanese female who was scheduled to fly to Singapore, a Customs Administration official said.
Inspectors originally found 3,270 face masks in her luggage, exceeding the maximum 250 masks a traveler is allowed to carry out of the country per trip, the official said.
The authorities confiscated 3,020 masks and returned the allowable quota of 250 to the passenger in question, the official added. The seized masks will be redistributed for use in the government's efforts to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. [FULL STORY]
CHANGE: Suggestions regarding new functions for the hall from families of victims of the 228 Incident would be respected, but they should be feasible, Lin Wan-i said
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 02, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA
Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) yesterday said that it would be best to give the
Honor guards march in front of the Chiang Kai-shek’s statue at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on Dec. 17, 2018.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Lin, tasked with overseeing issues related to the transformation of the memorial hall, made the remarks after renewed calls from families of victims of the 228 Incident to dismantle the structure.
There is no timetable to decide the fate of the national historic site yet, as the Ministry of Culture is still compiling files that relate to its transformation, Lin said, adding that inter-departmental meetings would be held after the ministry submits its recommendation.
There are many suggestions regarding the memorial hall’s transformation — issues such as its new name, new functions and how to deal with Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) statue, Lin said, adding that suggestions from the victims’ families would be respected, but at the same time, they should be viable. [FULL STORY]
