China had announced combat drills near the Taiwan Strait as US diplomat Keith Krach arrived in Taiwan on Thursday on a three-day visit.

DNA
Date: Sep 18, 2020
By: DNA Web Team 

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Friday criticised China's "military blustering" afterTaiwan scrambled jets as Chinese aircraft flew around the island crossing the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait.

"We sent the delegation to a funeral and the Chinese have apparently responded by military blustering," the US secretary of state said.

China had announced combat drills near the Taiwan Strait as US diplomat Keith Krach arrived in Taiwan on Thursday on a three-day visit.

The Chinese have stepped up military exercises near the island after witnessing the close relationship between Taipei and Washington. U.S. Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach arrived in Taipei on Thursday for a three-day visit, the most senior State Department official to come to Taiwan in four decades which has irked the Chinese government.
[FULL  STORY]

Yoshiro Mori makes second visit to Taiwan in two months to attend Lee Teng-hui memorial ceremony

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/18
By: Sylvia Teng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Japanese delegation led by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori arrived in Taipei on Friday (Sept. 18) for the memorial ceremony of former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), which is scheduled to be held on Saturday morning.

The delegation landed in Taiwan around 4:50 p.m. via a chartered flight. They are expected to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) shortly after arrival. It will be the second meeting between Mori and Tsai in the past two months.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/18/2020
By: Yu Hsiang, Yang Ming-chu
and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Sept. 18 (CNA) Japan's new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, is hoping to talk to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by phone, a former Japanese leader said during his meeting with Tsai at the Presidential Office on Friday.

On a two-day trip to Taiwan to attend the official memorial service for late President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), ex-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Suga called him Thursday to send his greetings to Tsai and express interest in talking to her by phone if there is an opportunity.

If that were to happen, it would be the first direct conversation between the incumbent leaders of the two countries since formal diplomatic ties were severed in 1972.

During the 30-minute meeting with Mori, Tsai said she hoped Taiwan-Japan ties will continue to deepen in all areas, and congratulated Suga on his election as Japan's new prime minister earlier this week.    [FULL  STORY]

TOXIC CHEMICAL: As poisoning with heavy metals does not have specific symptoms, most cases are not easily diagnosed and people do not get immediate treatment

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 19, 2020
By: Tsai Ssu-pei and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Oil painters could be at risk of lead poisoning due to long-term exposure to chemicals often found in oil paints and and other paint media, a doctor said on Thursday.

Taipei’s Lianching Clinic assistant director Frankie Gan (顏佐樺) said that he found excessive levels of lead in the blood of a 59-year-old artist surnamed Wu (吳) after she visited the clinic for chronic stomach pain and headaches.

Long-term lead exposure significantly affects many of the internal organs and could cause stomach pain, loss of appetite, constipation, headaches, anemia, restlessness, numbness in the hands and feet, mental impairment and memory loss, and in more extreme cases could even result in chronic high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, kidney damage and infertility, Gan said.

The physician said that most of the people he has encountered with excessive internal lead levels had regular contact with toxic materials at work, for example in automobile manufacturing, welding and painting.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 17 September, 2020
By: Katherine Wei

Taiwan reported three new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. This brings the total number of cases Taiwan has reported so far up to 503.

All three cases are imported. The patients are Taiwanese nationals who recently returned from overseas.

The first patient had gone to Myanmar for work in February. She did not show any symptoms upon returning to Taiwan on September 13. However, she reported that she had dined in Myanmar with someone who was later diagnosed with COVID-19. She was tested for COVID-19, and her test results came back positive. Health authorities are tracking 23 people who came into contact with her recently.     [FULL  STORY]

Next Shark
Date: September 17, 2020

Taiwanese singer and actor Alien Huang has died at the age of 36 inside his apartment in Taipei on Wednesday.

The former host of “100% Entertainment,” who was born Huang Hong Sheng, was found unresponsive by his father at around 11 a.m. on Sept. 16 after he failed to reach his son on the telephone, according to Central News Agency via CNN.

Authorities later responded to a call in a building near Sanhe Street where they found the body of Huang outside a bathroom with the water still running, Director of the Qiyan Police Station of the Beitou Branch of the Taipei City Police Department said in a press conference.

The cause of death has yet to be determined, but an autopsy is scheduled to be performed on Friday.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/17
By:  REUTERS

China will make a “necessary response” to a visit by U.S. Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach to Chinese-claimed Taiwan, and has lodged a complaint with Washington, the foreign ministry said on Thursday ahead of his arrival.

Krach, due in Taipei later on Thursday (Sept. 17), is travelling to Taiwan for a memorial service on Saturday for former President Lee Teng-hui, who was revered by many on the island and internationally as the father of Taiwan’s democracy.

Krach is expected to meet Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday.

His visit follows one last month by U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar, the highest-level U.S. official to come to the democratic island in four decades.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/17/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Ko Lin

Taipei, Sept. 17 (CNA) An American national suffering from acute myeloid leukemia, a type of cancer that starts in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow, recently received a new lease on life after successfully seeking treatment at Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) in Taiwan.

The 38-year-old patient had her treatment for leukemia cut short at a hospital in Beijing, China in February as the country focused on combating the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Just as she was about to receive her bone marrow transplant, the hospital announced that all such treatment was indefinitely suspended as a result of COVID-19, Taipei veterans hospital said, without disclosing the name of the patient.

As a result, the woman's only chance was to seek help outside China.    [FULL  STORY]

RACTOPAMINE: The KMT called on the president to apologize for flip-flopping on the US pork issue and demanded that she explain why she decided to lift the ban

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 18, 2020
By: Wu Su-wei and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday proposed amendments to two laws that would require a mandatory 60-day notification before the government announces a new executive order, and that there should be zero traces of the feed additive ractopamine in the offal, brains and spinal cords of local or imported pork products.

Speaking at a news conference in Taipei, NPP caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said that the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Council of Agriculture gave only a seven-day notice before announcing legal amendments to allow the imports of certain US pork and beef products.

The short notice completely undermines the spirit of the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法) and circumvents legislative oversight, leaving no time for stakeholders and the public to voice their opinion on the issue, the party said.

Beef from cattle older than 30 months and pork containing residues of the leanness-enhancing additive are to be allowed to enter Taiwan starting on Jan. 1 next year, after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Aug. 28 announced an executive order easing the nation’s import ban.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 15 September, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Taiwan’s foreign ministry says it will make an announcement about a US State Department official’s planned visit to Taiwan once it’s final. That was the word from Foreign Ministry official Douglas Hsu on Tuesday.

Hsu was referring to a planned trip by Keith Krach, the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment.    [FULL  STORY]