Radio Taiwan International
Date: 06 January, 2020
By: Natalie Tso

Today, we look at one of the three candidates running for president, James Soong.

People First Party Chairman James Soong is offering voters what he’s calling a third option for people tired of the sparring between the two major parties. The 77-year old veteran politician is on his fourth run for president.  This time, he’s running with former media tycoon Yu Hsiang.

Soong was born into a Kuomintang military family. He received a master’s in poli-sci from UC Berkeley and a PhD from Georgetown University. He entered politics as a Secretary to Premier Chiang Ching Kuo. Soong later became the director-general of the Government Information Office. His popularity grew and in 1994, he became the only elected governor of the Taiwan Province.

In the 2000 election, when the Kuomintang chose Lien Chan as its presidential candidate, Soong broke away from the party to run as an independent… and later started the People First Party.
[FULL  STORY]

• Black box data will need to be cross-referenced with other information, including maintenance records, health of pilots and other factors
• 80 per cent of potential mechanical factors ruled out

South China Morning Post
Date: 6 Jan, 2020
By: Sarah Zheng

Taiwan’s public may have to wait a year to learn the details of what happened in the Black Hawk helicopter crash  which killed eight senior military officials, including chief of staff Shen Yi-ming, according to the island’s air force.

Investigators earlier confirmed they had retrieved data from the chopper’s black box, while officials from the Taiwan Transport Safety Board (TTSB) said over the weekend they had ruled out 80 per cent of potential mechanical factors in the crash which killed eight of the 13 military personnel on board.

The UH-60M Black Hawk fell off radar screens less than 15 minutes after taking off from Songshan Airport in Taipei. The wreckage of the craft was located a few hours later in the mountainous region of northern New Taipei county’s Wulai district.    [FULL  STORY]

Election results will have significant bearing on US, China’s future policy towards Taiwan: Templeman

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/06
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An international relations expert has predicted three possible reactions

Beijing could have if Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is re-elected this Saturday, Storm Media reported on Monday (Jan. 6).

Kharis Templeman, an adviser for the Project on Taiwan at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, authored a report titled “Taiwan’s January 2020 elections: Prospects and implications for China and the United States.”

In the report, which was published in December, Templeman said President Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) appears more likely to be re-elected now than six months ago, when her “path to re-election looked difficult.”

Templeman attributed Tsai’s improved electoral position to the months-long protests in Hong Kong, steady economic growth in Taiwan, continuous pressure from Beijing, missteps by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, potential independent rivals, and tense relations between the U.S. and China.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/06/2020

Taiwan is holding its presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 11, and the candidates are traveling the country this week to make their final appeals to voters.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who is running for re-election, opened a five-day campaign tour on Monday in her hometown Fenggang Village in Pingtung County in southern Taiwan.

Tsai later traveled through Pingtung, Kaohsiung and Tainan, and she is scheduled to appear Monday night at a rally in Chiayi, which is being hosted by DPP legislative candidates in the county.

Meanwhile, Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) started Monday with a visit to the National Palace Museum, accompanied by Chou Kung-shin (周功鑫), a former president of the museum.    [FULL  STORY]

NOTHING CONCRETE YET: The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission suspects that the disease originated from animals that were sold at the Huanan Seafood City market

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 07, 2020
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that SARS and Middle East respiratory

syndrome (MERS) have been excluded as possible causes of a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China, but the cause of the viral pneumonia has not yet been identified.

According to information received on Sunday night from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, 59 people have been diagnosed with the unspecified pneumonia, and seven of them had serious symptoms, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.

“The commission said all cases experienced onset of symptoms between Dec. 12 and Dec. 29 last year,” he said.

“Based on the report it sent to the WHO, it suspects the source of infection to be associated with animals sold at a local market, Huanan Seafood City,” Chuang said, adding that the market has temporarily been shut down.    [FULL  STORY]

NAMING THE PLANETS: The IAU said according to a 1979 deal with China, Chinese astronomers are referred to as ‘China Nanjing’ and Taiwanese as ‘China Taipei’

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 06, 2020
By: Chien Hui-ju and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taiwanese astronomers who named an exoplanet and the star it orbits have been listed as being from

“China Taipei” by the Paris-based International Astronomical Union (IAU), the Astronomical Society of the Republic of China (ASROC) said on Friday.

The astronomers, who were part of a research team that last year became the first to photograph a black hole, were invited by the IAU to an event to mark the group’s 100th anniversary and name recently discovered exoplanets and their stars, but attended under the title “China Taipei,” the society said.

The IAU said the designation was the result of discussions it held in 1979 with Chinese authorities, which concluded with Chinese astronomers working under the title “China Nanjing” and Taiwanese astronomers as “China Taipei.”

After it announced its intent to participate in the event and opened up entries to Taiwanese astronomers, ASROC received 128 submissions, which received 6,101 votes, it said, adding that it chose the winning entry last month.    [FULL  STORY]

China Global Television Network
Date: 05-Jan-2020
By: Duan Fengyuan

Elections for Taiwan's leader and legislative body will be held concurrently on January 11. 

Here are some key information you need to know about the elections and their possible influence, especially on cross-Strait ties.

Candidates from three major political parties in Taiwan, namely the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Kuomintang (KMT) party and the People First Party (PFP), have registered for the upcoming elections.    [FULL  STORY]

Exams rescheduled and special trains laid on to get students home to participate in ballot

Times Higher Education
Date: January 5, 2020
By: Joyce Lau

Taiwanese students were heading home early before the Lunar New Year break so they could vote in the 11 January presidential election, seen as a bellwether for the self-governed island’s relationship with the rest of the region. The race is between the incumbent, Tsai Ing-wen, a Western-educated lawyer, and Han Kuo-yu, a conservative mayor whose party is closer to the Chinese authorities.

Most major universities have rescheduled exams, as requested several months ago by the Ministry of Education, and some schools are even planning special train services to get students home in time to cast their ballots, the Taiwan News reported.

Young voters make up a powerful demographic. According to a 29 December poll by the TVBS cable station, 63 per cent of those in their twenties preferred Dr Tsai, compared with 24 per cent backing Mr Han. Among the general public, 45 per cent supported Dr Tsai and 29 per cent supported Mr Han.

“Democracy cannot be sustained if it does not get the younger generations actively participating,” Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, told Times Higher Education. “So making arrangements to enable young people to vote is a sound policy for a democracy.    [FULL  STORY]

Rescue comes 2 days after Black Hawk helicopter crash that killed 8 Taiwanese military officials

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/05
By:  Central News Agency

An Air Force UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter conducted a rescue mission by airlifting a mountain hiker with acute mountain sickness (AMS) Saturday, two days after the crash of an Air Force Black Hawk chopper that killed eight military officers aboard, the military said Sunday.

The chopper from the Chiayi Air Base was dispatched at around 10:49 a.m. in response to a call for help after the male mountain climber was found suffering from AMS in a mountainous area of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan, the Air Force said in a Facebook post. The helicopter picked up the patient and returned to the air base, from where he was transferred to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment, it added.

The Air Force said it continues to carry out emergency rescue missions despite Thursday's crash that killed Chief of the General Staff Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴) and seven others in New Taipei's Wulai District. The Air Force pledged that it will continue to stand by 24/7 for the nation's security and to carry out rescue missions.

The government had previously announced Thursday that it had grounded all of its Black Hawks pending safety checks after the fatal crash. However, an Air Force official told CNA Sunday that the grounding only applies to Black Hawk helicopters conducting routine missions and that the Air Force still has a number of Black Hawks on stand-by mode at all times for emergency rescue missions like the one it conducted Saturday.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2020/01/05
By: Chen Yun-lu and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) Chang San-cheng (張善政), the vice presidential candidate of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), expressed concern Sunday over whether President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) supports a controversial remark by her former campaign office spokeswoman that appeared to associate advocating unification with China with treason.

Speaking in a forum during which he exchanged views with some 30 young people, Chang said the key issue involving the controversial remark made by Tsai's former campaign spokeswoman, Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), does not lie in whether it is related to freedom of speech but in whether Tsai, who is seeking re-election, supports Lin.

Lin of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said during an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Thursday that in terms of national sovereignty, proposing unification with a hostile power like China constitutes treason.

Lin's remark sparked controversy and prompted her to resign as Tsai's campaign spokeswoman the following day. She later apologized on Facebook, saying that her wording in the interview was "not sufficiently precise."    [FULL  STORY]