Page Two

The Coronavirus outbreak spotlights Taiwan’s exclusion from international organizations

American Enterprise Institute
Date: January 29, 2020
By: Michael Mazza, Visiting Fellow

The outbreak of a new illness caused by a coronavirus—one that threatens a global pandemic, although the World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to declare it a “global emergency”—is drawing attention to Taiwan’s continuing exclusion, at China’s insistence, from the WHO and other international organizations. When the WHO once again failed to issue Taipei an invitation to the annual World Health Assembly in May 2019, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu described the decision as “morally wrong.” In a prescient appeal, he described a “pandemic or epidemic outbreak in countries nearby Taiwan, especially China and Japan, or Southeast Asia” as one of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s biggest concerns, explaining that “we need the WHO’s guidance in dealing with this [potential] situation, and excluding Taiwan is going to put neighboring countries in great jeopardy as well.”

Clearly, memories of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which originated in China and spread throughout Asia and further afield in 2003, remain fresh in the minds of officials in Taiwan. During the SARS crisis, Taiwan quarantined approximately 150,000 people and 37 people died of the illness. Foreign Minister Wu told the Telegraph last May that the WHO waited six weeks before responding to Taiwan’s request for assistance. “It’s our belief that if the WHO had provided Taiwan with necessary help at an early stage, we could have prevented the situation from happening, we could have prevented the situation from getting that bad.”

Fast-forward eight months to January 2020 and, at the time of this writing, Taiwan has confirmed five cases of the coronavirus that has thus far infected at least 2,879 people, 81 of whom have died worldwide. Additional cases are probably going to be identified in days and weeks ahead. And although Taiwan is able to access WHO information indirectly through the United States and other friendly governments, such procedures can be inadequate when lives are at risk and time is of the essence. To put the matter into perspective, while SARS reportedly took three months to become easily transmissible between humans, the new coronavirus became transmissible in one month, according to one leading epidemiologist.   [FULL  STORY]

Exhibition celebrates the ubiquitous art of calligrapher Tung Yang-tzu

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/29/2020
By: Chao Ching-yu and Matthew Mazzetta

Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Taipei, Jan. 29 (CNA) Although Tung Yang-tzu (董陽孜) is perhaps not a household name, it is hard to go anywhere in Taiwan without encountering her calligraphy.

Her work appears everywhere, from the passport stamps at immigration control, to the logos of Taiwan's Ministry of Culture, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and Huashan Creative Park; the covers of books by renowned novelist Pai Hsien-yung (白先勇); in the main hall of Taipei Station and the arrivals terminal of Songshan Airport; even in a music video by the pop star Jay Chou (周杰倫).

Now, 94 of Tung's large-format pieces, as well as oil paintings dating from early in her career, are being exhibited at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, in a solo retrospective called "Moving Ink."

Born in Shanghai in 1942, Tung came to Taiwan at age 10, and studied art at National Taiwan Normal University. After a period spent developing her skills in the United States, Tung returned to Taiwan in 1977 to devote herself full-time to calligraphy.    [FULL  STORY]

STARLUX cancels Macau flights

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 28 January, 2020
By: Natalie Tso

STARLUX’s A321neo taking off (CNA)

Taiwan’s newest airline, STARLUX Airlines, announced on Tuesday the cancellation of upcoming flights to and from Macau. Flights JX205 and JX206 between Taoyuan and Macau will be cancelled from January 30 to March 28. JX203 and JX204 between Taoyuan and Macau will be cancelled from February 16 to March 28. The airlines said it would assist passengers who booked flights to transfer their tickets to other airlines.

The cancellation is part of measures that Taiwanese airlines are taking to prevent the spread of the coronavirus which originated in Wuhan, China. Taiwan saw its fifth confirmed case of the new virus on Monday.      [FULL  STORY]

Cornell Law alumna reelected president of Taiwan

Cornell Chronicle
Date: January 28, 2020

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, LL.M. ’80, was reelected in a landslide victory on Jan. 11. The first woman and second Cornellian to hold Taiwan’s highest office, Tsai received nearly 8.2 million votes, the highest tally for a presidential candidate since Taiwan began electing presidents by popular vote in 1996.

Cornell University File Photo
Tsai Ing-wen at Cornell in 2008.

Tsai won 57% of the vote; her main opponent, Han Kuo-yu, took 39%.

After receiving her law degree from National Taiwan University, Tsai earned her master of law degree at Cornell; the program is designed for students who have a law degree from outside the United States.

“We would certainly like to think that the lessons President Tsai learned at Myron Taylor Hall about collegiality and about the importance of the rule of law have had an impact on her career since graduating,” said Eduardo Peñalver ’94, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law. “But the Law School cannot realistically claim any credit for President Tsai’s tremendous success leading Taiwan for the past four years. That said, Tsai Ing-Wen stands out among an illustrious list of Cornell Law School alumni who have gone on to distinguished careers in public service.”    [FULL  STORY]

Magnitude 4.1 earthquake jolts Southern Taiwan

Intensity 3 near epicenter in Tainan and Chiayi areas

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Image from Taiwan weather bureau
https://www.cwb.gov.tw/V8/E/E/EQ/EQ109004-0128-180553.html

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A magnitude 4.1 earthquake hit the Tainan region shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 28), but no immediate damage or injured were reported.    [FULL  STORY]

U.S. denounces ICAO for blocking critics supportive of Taiwan inclusion

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/28/2020
By: Chiang Chin-yeh and Emerson Lim

Washington, Jan. 27 (CNA) The United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on Monday denounced the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for blocking Twitter accounts that criticized ICAO's continued exclusion of Taiwan during a global public health crisis.

"The United Nation's @icao plays a valuable role in ensuring aviation security. But silencing voices that oppose ICAO's exclusion of Taiwan goes against their stated principles of fairness, inclusion, and transparency," the committee said in a Twitter post.

The tweet was a response to ICAO blocking critics, as revealed by U.S. news website Axios earlier the same day.

According to Axios, Jessica Drun (莊宛樺), a non-resident fellow at the Project 2049 Institute noticed on Jan. 25 that ICAO had blocked her on Twitter, two days after she criticized ICAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) for refusing to share knowledge with Taiwan's authorities in a tweet.

"This means civil aviation authorities for one of busiest regional airports do not receive up-to-date info on any potential ICAO-WHO efforts. This is how a virus spreads," Drun said the Jan. 23 tweet.
[FULL  STORY]

Eric Chu hints he will not run for KMT chairperson

TIME FOR CHANGE: The former New Taipei City mayor said that the party needs a full reform, which would include improving its relationship with the US

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 29, 2020
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday implied that he might not run in the by-

Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu, left, speaks to passengers on a Taipei MRT train on Jan. 21.
Photo: Ho Yu-hua, Taipei Times

election for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson.

Chu made the statement on Facebook yesterday morning, beginning the post by saying: “Making Taiwan better is the KMT’s responsibility. The party’s transformation will include me, but the by-election does not need to include me.”

The statement came after recent speculation on whether he would run for KMT chairman again, after former chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and the KMT’s top-ranking party members resigned on Jan. 15 to take responsibility for the party’s defeat in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan will assist HK people on a case-by-case basis: MAC

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 27 January, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

The Mainland Affairs Council says that Taiwan will offer assistance to Hong Kong citizens on a case-

The Mainland Affairs Council

by-case basis. Since June 2019, Hong Kong has erupted in pro-democracy protests, stemming from a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed the transfer of fugitives between China and Hong Kong. The bill has since been axed, however protests continue. Demonstrators have turned to Taiwan for assistance, citing fear of being persecuted by the Chinese government.

The Mainland Affairs Council says that Hong Kong citizens do have certain protections under current legislation.    [FULL  STORY]

Inside Taiwan’s Secret History of Trying to Obtain Nuclear Weapons

The National Interest
Date: January 27, 2020
By: Kyle Mizokami

The best way to stop a Chinese invasion?

Key Point: It remains unclear what kind of nuclear weapons Taipei was after. However, ultimately Taiwan failed to develop a nuclear deterrent.

It would have been one of the greatest crises of postwar Asia: the revelation of a Taiwanese atomic bomb.

For Taiwan, the bomb would have evened the odds against a numerically superior foe. For China, a bomb would have been casus belli, justification for an attack on the island country it considered a rogue province. Active from the 1960s to the 1980s, Taipei’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons were finally abandoned due to diplomatic pressure by its most important ally, the United States.

Taiwan’s nuclear program goes back to 1964, when the People’s Republic of China tested its first nuclear device. The test was not exactly a surprise to outside observers, but it was still Taiwan’s nightmare come true. Chinese and Taiwanese air and naval forces occasionally skirmished, and it threatened to turn into all-out war. Suddenly Taipei was confronted with the possibility that such a war could turn nuclear. Even just one nuclear device detonated on an island the size of Maryland would have devastating consequences for the civilian population.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan experts debunk online rumors about Wuhan virus

Wrong information about Wuhan virus spreads on the internet: 2019-nCoV equal to SARI, diluted saltwater can eliminate virus

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/27
By: Chris Chang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Saline water will not help sterilize mouth (Getty Image)\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As the epidemic of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) reaches a peak, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warns in a press release on Jan. 25 that the spread of misleading information on social media is becoming an obstacle to public health.

The main inaccurate information is a rumor that the Wuhan pneumonia has now been officially classified as SARI, and that SARI is a superior version of SARS. According to this gossip, no effective drugs exist to cure the infection, though steroids can be used to prolong the lives of patients.

Other falsehoods in circulation include the advice that rinsing the pharynx with diluted salt water and maintaining home temperatures above 20 C will help to kill coronaviruses.

To clarify, the CDC pointed out that SARI (severe acute respiratory infection) is in fact a common term used to refer to severe pneumonia brought on by various coronaviruses but that it is not specific to the pneumonia originating from Wuhan. The provisional name given by the WHO for the current novel coronavirus is 2019-nCoV.    [FULL  STORY]