Page Two

For Hong Kong refugees, new life in Taiwan means traversing a legal twilight zone

The Washington Post
Date: Feb. 23, 2020
By: Nick Aspinwall 

TAIPEI — Che-lam Presbyterian Church is next door to Taiwan's legislature and a stone's throw from the presidential office in the island's capital.

But while President Tsai Ing-wen's support for Hong Kong protesters powered her to reelection last month, the church is Taiwan's only institution to publicly provide material assistance to people who have fled the Asian financial hub's crackdown on demonstrators.

Since protests erupted in June, hundreds of Hong Kongers have sought refuge in Taiwan, a self-governed democracy over which China asserts sovereignty. Most have entered legally, but a minority have used smugglers to reach Taiwan by boat. And although Taiwan has temporarily barred entry to most Hong Kongers amid the coronavirus outbreak, many in Hong Kong view the island as a place to resettle should their political strife worsen.

"We don't ask them their names, we don't ask how they came here," said Charles Kong, secretary for Che-lam head pastor Huang Chun-sheng. "We just provide support once they get here."
[FULL  STORY]

China says it’s taking care of Taiwanese stranded by coronavirus. Taiwanese aren’t sure

Los Angeles Times
Date: Feb. 22, 2020
By: Ralph Jennings

Chen Chi-chuan was grateful when his hotel near the epicenter of the China coronavirus outbreak offered him three free meals a day, from rice porridge breakfasts to specially prepared vegetarian dinners, while he remains barred from leaving China to return to Taiwan.

But after nearly a month in the same room at the state-owned Vienna International Hotel in the city of Shiyan, a six-hour drive from the outbreak epicenter of Wuhan, his patience for China is running thin.

For the past two years China has tried to win the affections of Taiwanese citizens by enticing them to China for work and investment. China’s economy is growing faster and Taiwanese can earn more in China in professional posts.

But aggravation is mounting among the nearly 1,000 visitors, investors and workers from Taiwan stuck behind closed doors this month in the disease outbreak zone.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan advises military personnel against visiting 29 countries

Due to high risk of Wuhan coronavirus even travel to Taiwan's close ally the US is discouraged

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The military cautions its personnel against travel to 29 countries  (CNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of National Defense said Saturday (Feb. 22) it was counseling military personnel not to travel to 29 countries, including close ally the United States, due to the high risk of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) infections.

The measure follows reports that three officers in South Korea had been infected, posing a threat to the efficiency of the military, CNA reported. If there is no special reason for a trip, then soldiers should cancel or at least postpone it, the ministry said, adding it had ordered all garrisons to improve virus prevention measures.

The 29 countries on the list ranged from China, Japan and South Korea, each of which has more than 100 cases of the virus, to Finland and Belgium, with just one case each. The list of risk areas also included Canada and the U.S., one of Taiwan’s closest allies and top supplier of military hardware.
[FULL  STORY]

Jon M. Chu and Alan Yang on the legacy of Fresh Off The Boat Recent Video

AV Club
Feb 22, 2020
By: Danette Chavez

Jon M. Chu, Photo: Albert L. Ortega: (Getty Images); Alan Yang,
Photo: Jon Kopaloff (Getty Images)

Both CBS’s Criminal Minds and ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat bid their final farewells this week. It seems obvious to us which show will be missed more than the other: Although Mr. Scratch will live on in our minds, Fresh Off The Boat broke up the monotony of network family sitcoms, inviting audiences into the home of a Taiwanese American family that proved increasingly relatable over the last six years.

Created by Nahnatchka Khan, who served as showrunner until 2019, Fresh Off The Boat was loosely based on the autobiography of Eddie Huang, retracing the celebrity chef’s adolescence. Hudson Yang portrayed the young Eddie, who loved basketball and hip-hop in equal measure. Randall Park, who recently wooed Ali Wong in Always Be My Maybe, co-starred as Eddie’s dad Louis, the owner of Cattleman’s Ranch restaurant. And series breakout Constance Wu starred as Jessica, the highly competent and competitive matriarch of the Huang family. The series garnered recognition from the Critics Choice Awards, the Television Critics Association, and the NAACP Image Awards throughout its six-season run.

Audiences will miss gathering at the Huangs’ table, which was relocated along with the show to Friday nights for the penultimate season. While Fresh Off The Boat was no ratings juggernaut, there’s no denying the impact that the show has had, not just in raising the profiles of Park and Wu but also in providing some much needed momentum to greater representation on TV. That will always be part of the show’s legacy, as Master Of None co-creator Alan Yang and Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu attest.

When The A.V. Club spoke with Yang about his latest series, the Apple TV+ anthology Little America, at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, we also discussed the mark left by the Huang family.    [FULL  STORY]

COVID-19 origin could be natural or synthetic: NTU professor

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/22/2020
By: Chen Chih-chung and Matthew Mazzetta

Image taken from NIAID flickr website；Author：NIAID-RML，CC BY 2.0

Taipei, Feb. 22 (CNA) A professor at National Taiwan University's (NTU) College of Public Health on Saturday waded into the highly contentious debate over the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, saying that the virus could indeed be synthetic, but that much more research is needed before a definitive conclusion can be reached.

At an educational forum hosted by the Taiwan Public Health Association, Professor Fang Chi-tai (方啟泰) said finding the virus' origin is vital because of its implications for response measures, which usually differ based on whether viruses are naturally occurring or synthetic.

The theory that the COVID-19 was developed in a laboratory and accidentally released has gained enough attention in recent weeks to draw a statement from the World Health Organization (WHO), which said conspiracy theories only undermine its response efforts.

In an open letter Wednesday, public health scientists from nine countries also denounced the notion of a laboratory virus, saying it was a "conspiracy theory" that threatened "the rapid, open and transparent sharing of data" between China and other countries.    [FULL  STORY]

Desert locusts pose little threat

TAIWAN TOO COOL: Although the pests damaging crops abroad could enter the nation, experts said that their chances of surviving the climate was extremely low

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 23, 2020
By: Chien Hui-ju  /  Staff reporter

Desert locusts that have ravaged crops across East Africa and parts of the Middle East are unlikely to

A desert locust feeds on a plantation on the outskirts of Dusamareb in Galmudug, Somalia, on Dec. 22 last year.
Photo: Reuters

affect Taiwan, where the climate is unsuitable for their survival, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.

Heavy rain and humid weather in East Africa last year created favorable conditions for the insects to reproduce, allowing them to feed on land along the Red Sea and invade Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Iran, Pakistan and India, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Friday said that swarms in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia remain alarming, while in Southwest Asia, the situation is relatively calm with some operations under way to control a few residual summer-bred swarms in India.

Desert locusts rely on air currents for migration, former bureau director-general Feng Hai-tung (馮海東) said on Tuesday.    [FULL  STORY]

Schools promote disease prevention measures

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 21 February, 2020
By: Jake Chen

Schools promote disease prevention measures. (CNA Photo)

Schools in Taiwan are placing posters at all entries and exits to promote disease prevention measures amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

All schools in Taiwan below the high school level are set to start the new semester on Tuesday, February 25. That’s after the government extended the schools’ winter break by two-weeks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.    [FULL  STORY]

‘Never been this happy’- passengers from virus-hit cruise ship arrive home in Taiwan

Reuters
Date: February 21, 2020
By:Yimou Lee

‘Never been this happy’- passengers from virus-hit cruise ship arrive home in Taiwan

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Nineteen Taiwanese citizens arrived back home clad in full protective suits on Friday after spending more than two weeks stuck on a quarantined cruise ship in a Japanese port due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“I have never been this happy before to return to Taiwan…I almost burst into tears the moment the aircraft touched down,” one of the passengers, Sunny Chen, said in a social media post.

The 19 landed on a chartered China Airlines plane at the island’s main airport in Taoyuan, live television channels showed. They were taken by ambulances and will be put into quarantine after further medical checks, the health ministry said.

More than 620 passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise liner have been infected with the coronavirus, the most outside mainland China.    [FULL  STORY]

Chinese coronavirus patient reinfected 10 days after leaving hospital

Health officials in China’s Sichuan confirm recovering patient tested positive for COVID-19

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/21
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Coronavirus continues to infect people in China.  (AP photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Chinese patient who just recovered from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) has reportedly been infected for the second time in the province of Sichuan, according to local health officials.

On Wednesday (Feb. 19), the People's Daily reported that a man in Sichuan's capital Chengdu had tested positive for the virus during a regular check-up just ten days after being discharged from the hospital. The report said he had previously been cleared of the virus by medical staff.

The Sichuan Health Commission confirmed the news on Friday (Feb. 21) and issued a community warning announcement in the patient's neighborhood. The announcement said that the man and his family had been transported to a nearby health facility on Thursday morning (Feb. 20) and that health officials had sanitized the entire community, reported Liberty Times.

According to ETtoday, the patient and his family had been under home quarantine and had not left the house since Feb. 10. The authorities are still investigating the cause of the reinfection.

The news has stirred up heated reactions from Chinese netizens. Some suspect that the hospital discharged the man before he was fully recovered, and many have expressed concern about the worsening epidemic.    [FULL  STORY]

Startup develops mask vending machine amid rationing in Taiwan

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/21/2020
By: Huang Li-yun and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) A Taiwan-based startup has developed face mask vending machines that could eventually be used to distribute the product under a government rationing scheme aimed at ensuring everyone has access to masks amid the novel coronavirus scare.

Yallvend Co., founded in January 2019, has installed a smart vending machine at the Ningxia Night Market and another at the Taiwan Tech Arena office at Taipei Arena to demonstrate the technology, developed with other startups Biilabs, Drippp and AuthMe.

During the demonstration, 2,000 general-use masks will be distributed for free over a week's time through the machines.

But the company stressed that the masks only block dust and are not the surgical masks capable of combating the coronavirus that are currently being rationed.    [FULL  STORY]