The Straits Times
Date: January 16, 2020
By: Lim Min Zhang

SINGAPORE – The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) full-time national serviceman who was injured in a parachute incident in Taiwan is back home.

The Ministry of Defence said that Private Joshua Quek Shou Jie, 21, arrived in Singapore on Thusday (Jan 16) evening and was taken to a hospital.

He was flown back in a Republic of Singapore Air Force A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport configured for aeromedical evacuation after doctors assessed his condition was stable enough for him to fly.

Mindef said Pte Quek was accompanied by a team of medical specialists from the SAF, comprising medical officers and military medical experts, who monitored his condition closely during the flight.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/16/2020
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Jan. 16 (CNA) The European Parliament (EP) on Wednesday passed two resolutions that include articles expressing support for Taiwan's meaningful participation in international organizations.

The resolutions — one on the Common Foreign and Security Policy and another on the Common Security and Defence Policy — include articles reiterating support for Taiwan's "meaningful participation in international organizations, mechanisms and activities."

They also express concern that the interference of autocratic regimes in elections through disinformation and cyber attacks could threaten Asian democracies and regional stability.

The resolutions stressed the importance of strengthening the European Union's (EU) relations with East Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as urging parties involved in the East China Sea, South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait disputes to resolve their differences through peaceful means.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 17, 2020
By: Dennis Xie  /  Staff writer, with CNA

The National Health Insurance (NHI) covers only an average of three years of medication fees for

people with hepatitis B, highlighting the need for people to closely monitor their condition after the cessation of drugs to prevent a relapse, National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) doctors said yesterday.

Chronic hepatitis B is a major health problem in Taiwan, with an estimated 2 million hepatitis B carriers, among whom 20 percent need medication, NTUH Gastroenterology Division attending physician Su Tung-hung (蘇東弘) told a news conference in Taipei.

Although antiviral medications are covered by the NHI, there are requirements for eligibility, and people who no longer meet those requirements, but still need the medication, have to pay for the drugs themselves, he said.

The Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver advises that if virus suppression is proved to be effective over the long term, discontinuing antiviral medications could enhance the possibility of a functional care, meaning the absence of the hepatitis B surface antigen and the presence of the surface antibody in the serum, Su said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 15 January, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je says this year’s Taipei-Shanghai City Forum will proceed as scheduled.

Ko was speaking after Shanghai’s recent decision to sever its ties with the city of Prague. Prague had upset Shanghai by establishing sister-city ties with Taipei, which the Shanghai City government said violated the ‘One China’ policy.    [FULL  STORY]

The Article
Date: Jan 15, 2020
By: Mark O'Neill

On Saturday, Tsai Ying-wen scored a thumping victory in Taiwan’s presidential election — but will find it much harder to translate that success into economic progress over the next four years.

Taiwanese companies are trapped in the middle of the Sino-US economic war, which has spread from trade to science, technology and currency and is likely to become a 20th Century-style Cold War. Donald Trump and his successor, whether Republican or Democrat, will continue the process of decoupling the two economies that began during his term.

Taiwan is one of the largest foreign investors in China — it has an estimated $180 billion in the country, 10 times the amount it has invested in the US. A large number of Taiwanese-owned firms in China export to the US, and have been hit by the tariffs imposed by Trump.

The trade war has reduced demand in many countries. Last year Taiwan’s exports, which account for nearly 75 per cent of GDP, were hit by a sharp fall in demand for electronic components, such as computer chips, amid weaker device sales and slower global economic growth.   [FULL  STORY]

Illustration exemplifies relationship between Hong Kong and Taiwan leaders and their youth

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/15
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two days after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won a landslide victory with over 8.17 million votes, a Hong Kong illustrator posted a cartoon showing the stark contrast in policy towards democracy and young people on the part of Tsai and Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥).

On Monday (Jan. 13) Hong Kong illustrator SiuMingGraffiti (小銘塗鴉) uploaded a cartoon to his Facebook page titled "777 vs 8170 million." The number 777 signifies the number of delegates of Hong Kong's 1,194-member Election Committee, which is mainly comprised of pro-Beijing businessmen and members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The number 8.17 million refers to the 8,170,186 votes Tsai received in Taiwan's presidential election on Saturday (Jan. 11). Her total broke the record of 7.23 million votes set by KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2008.

On the left side of the illustration, Lam frowns as she grabs a young man dressed in black with his hands bound and dressed in black, a color associated with Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters. Lam can be seen pointing a gun at the young person's chest, harkening to a recent incident in which a Hong Kong police officer shot a protestor at point-blank range, with a caption in Chinese which reads, "Youth is a crime!"    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/15/2020
By: Matt Yu and Emerson Lim

Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) appointed Commander of the Republic of China

(ROC) Navy Admiral Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光) to the post of Chief of the General Staff Wednesday.

Huang will succeed Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴), who was killed in a Jan. 2 military helicopter crash, effective Jan. 16, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a statement that day.

Following Huang's appointment, his previous post will be taken by Deputy Chief of General Staff Admiral Liu Chih-pin (劉志斌), who has been acting Chief of the General Staff since the crash, the MND said.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Hsu Yen-pu (徐衍璞) will take the post left vacant by Liu as Deputy Chief of General Staff and be promoted to the rank of three-star general. He will be the first three-star general of indigenous descent.    [FULL  STORY]

CURTAILS FREEDOMS? The Suicide Prevention Act has provisions on regulating media reporting that could ‘teach, cause or entice people to committing suicide’

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 16, 2020
By: Liu Li-jen and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Taipei Newspapers Association yesterday decried draft enforcement rules to the Suicide

Prevention Act (自殺防治法) that prohibits newspapers from printing stories about suicide on the front page, saying that the rule has overstepped the act’s jurisdiction and risks curtailing freedom of the press.

The act, passed in May last year and promulgated in June, includes provisions on regulating media regarding reporting that could “teach, cause or entice people to committing suicide.”

The association stated that, despite the good intention, items No. 6 and 8 of Article 13, which covers reporting on suicides, could contradict the act’s purpose.

Item No. 6 states that the media should not “post/print pictures, illustrations or videos of suicides or pass/show media Web site links to content about suicides,” while item No. 8 states that such stories “should not be used for front-page material, listed on Web site homepages or be repetitively reported on.”    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 14 January, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The Centers for Disease Control is urging Taiwanese people to take precautionary measures when visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Authorities are screening arriving airline passengers for signs of illness in an effort to keep a pneumonia outbreak in China from reaching Taiwan.

Chinese figures put the number of cases at 41. Seven patients released from hospital, while six are in serious condition and one has died. The outbreak is centered on the Chinese city of Wuhan, but at least one case has been found in Thailand. Thailand has put the patient, a visiting resident of Wuhan, under quarantine.

The disease is caused by a new type of coronavirus. The virus’ path of transmission remains unclear, but some experts suspect it may spread from animals to humans.

In Taiwan, health authorities have found seven people who developed pneumonia or a fever after recent travel to Wuhan. They are still monitoring four cases that are awaiting diagnosis.
[FULL  STORY]

The Hill
Date: 01/14/20
By: Joseph Bosco

President Donald Trump prides himself on going where none of his predecessors dared to go, taking actions he believes serve America’s national interest where other presidents’ passivity failed.

He did it most recently, and most dramatically, when he ordered the elimination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, a serious security threat to the United States. In doing so, Trump consciously weighed the risk of war with Iran and correctly assessed that it was minimal and was outweighed by his strong message against Iranian terrorism and aggression.

The president showed his proclivity for doing the unorthodox in foreign affairs even before taking office, when he accepted a congratulatory call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen after his election in 2016. Foreign policy experts in and out of government tut-tutted that he was offending Chinese leader Xi Jinping and disrupting carefully constructed U.S.-China relations.

Trump said he could talk to anyone he chooses, but agreed to give Xi a heads up before the next conversation with Tsai. It is time for him to make those two calls, now that Tsai has achieved a sweeping reelection victory in the face of Communist China’s influence operations against her.
[FULL  STORY]