Radio Taiwan International
Date: 30 September, 2020
By: Katherine Wei

Taipei-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. (MVC) will soon begin working with National Taiwan University Hospital on rolling out human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Taipei-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. (MVC) will soon begin working with National Taiwan University Hospital on rolling out human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine. That was the word from the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday. 

MVC’s vaccine had first been cleared for human trials at the end of August, with health authorities giving conditional approval. The condition for approval is that Medigen submits additional technical data on the vaccine.     [FULL  sTORY]

The Washington Times
Date: September 30, 2020
By: Lauren Toms

The U.S. and Taiwan are moving forward with joint infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific region and Latin America, officials said Wednesday.

The public partnership comes as tensions with China are quickly heating up. China has made several moves to cross the disputed midline of the Taiwan strait, causing Taiwan to scramble fighter jets, while Washington and Beijing have clashed on national security, human rights, technology and business policies.

“The Taiwan-U.S. cooperative partnership relationship has gone up another level,” Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Wednesday, as quoted by Reuters.

The announcement is all but set to escalate ongoing disputes with Beijing. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has regularly reacted with a special concern to signs that the U.S. was bolstering the independence of Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Creepy video shows what appears to be detached arm darting out from bus

Taiwan News
Date: 32020/09/30
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Despite the fact that Ghost Month (鬼月) has already come to an end, Taiwanese netizens were spooked by a creepy video that surfaced on Monday (Sept. 28) showing a pale, white arm suddenly emerge from a bus.

Taiwan's Ghost Month, observed in the 7th month of the lunar calendar, which this year ran from Aug. 19 to Sept. 16, is when Taoists and Buddhists believe that the gates of hell are opened for "hungry ghosts" to roam the world of the living in search of food, money, entertainment, and possibly souls. A "hungry ghost," more politely referred to as a "Good Brother" (好兄弟), is a being that has been sent to the underworld to suffer an eternal state of hunger for its misdeeds or for not having had a proper burial.

Although Ghost Month came to a close two weeks ago, many Taiwanese are still on edge about supernatural events and are still very worried about being "visited" by Good Brothers, especially in this most inauspicious of years. As a scooter driver weaved through traffic earlier this week, he witnessed a ghoulishly white hand suddenly materialize in front of him and reach towards him as he drew near.

On Monday (Sept. 28) a member of the Facebook group Supernatural Commune (靈異公社) uploaded the video with the caption "Good thing the 7th month is over. This scared me to death." In the video, accentuated with sinister music, the scooter driver comes to a halt when the ethereal appendage surfaces.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/30/2020
By: Tsai Fan-min and Ko Lin

Taipei, Sept. 30 (CNA) A ceremony was held in Kaohsiung Wednesday to mark the beginning of work to build Taiwan's first heavy lift and installation vessel called "Green Jade," which will be used to transport materials for the development of offshore renewable energy in the country.

The vessel, a joint venture between Taiwanese shipbuilder CSBC Corp. and Belgian offshore contractor DEME Wind Engineering Co. (CDWE), will be built at the CSBC shipyard in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.

The Green Jade is scheduled to be delivered in Q4 of 2022, CSBC Chairman Cheng Wen-lon (鄭文隆) said.

According to CSBC, the 216.5 meter ship will be equipped with 4,000-tonne crane capacity and a crew of up to 160.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 29 September, 2020
By: Paula Chao

The defense ministry is working to strengthen Taiwan’s reserve forces in the face of the military threat from China. 

President Tsai Ing-wen visited the Armed Forces Reserve Command in late June. During her visit, she announced that the government will push for reform so that reserve soldiers can play a greater role and support active duty servicemen.    [FULL  STORY]

Forbes
Date: Sep 29, 2020
By: Loren Thompson, Senior Contributor

At the dawn of the 20th century, British geographer Halford MacKinder proposed that there was a “geographical pivot of history” in central Asia from which a nation such as Russia could potentially dominate all of Eurasia.

MacKinder’s idea was a counterpoint to the writings of his contemporary, American historian and naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan, who argued that command of the seas was the surest path a nation might follow to global power.

Mahan’s writings have tended to hold up better over time, although the theories of both men were undercut by the advent of long-range air power and other innovations that diminished the strategic significance of geography.

Nonetheless, the notion of a geographical pivot upon which great historical trends might turn retains its value. There are some places in the world that are of such extraordinary military and economic importance that a change in their status might signal the end of an era, or the beginning of a new global order.    [FULL  STORY]

Asia's largest gay pride parade is expecting smaller crowds this year as it celebrates 18th anniversary

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/29
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan LGBT Pride parade will celebrate its 18th anniversary later in October, with fewer people expected this year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The LGBT Pride parade held in Taipei has billed itself as the largest such event in Asia, attracting loads of overseas revelers visiting Taiwan every year. Even though it is expected there will be far fewer participants than last year, which attracted nearly 200,000, organizers believe it is likely to be the largest gay parade held across the Northern Hemisphere in 2020.

The procession is expected to set out from the Taipei City Hall Plaza in the afternoon of Oct. 31. Participants can choose to take the “north” or “south” routes, which go through Zhongxiao East Road and Xinyi Road, respectively, before returning to the original point.

Speaking on the theme of this year’s gay parade, which is "Beauty, My Own Way," parade organizer Fletcher Hong (小鯨) said instead of forcing one’s own standards or those of the society at large on others, people should “understand and respect each individual’s own identity.” The theme can also be understood as celebrating “the beauty of being a human,” said Hong, calling for people to allow others to embrace their own beauty.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/29/2020
By Matt Yu and Ko Lin

Taipei, Sept. 29 (CNA) Two Chinese Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft entered Taiwan's southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday, the eighth Chinese intrusion since Sept. 16, the Air Force Headquarters said that day.

The military responded by scrambling fighter jets, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing surveillance and air defense assets until the Chinese planes left the ADIZ, the Air Force said.
[FULL  STORY]