Digital Music News
Date:  July 17, 2020
By: Dylan Smith

Taiwanese government officials have moved to block Chinese streaming services amid rising regional tensions and security concerns.

Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC), the government entity tasked with regulating the telecommunication and broadcasting spheres, recently drafted the corresponding legislation. Entitled “Internet Audiovisual Service Management Law,” the proposed law introduces an array of regulations and requirements for digital-media service providers, in addition to the aforementioned blocking of Chinese streaming services. Lawmakers will reportedly discuss and possibly modify the legislation for the next two or so months before sending it away to Taiwan’s executive branch, the Executive Yuan.

Included in the legislation is a clause proposing fines of up to about $169,000 (NT $5 million) for Taiwan-based telecommunications companies and internet service providers (ISPs) that supply over-the-top (OTT) streaming services from entities in mainland China. If passed in its current form, it appears that the bill would accordingly prohibit streaming services including Tencent Music, Tencent Video, and several others.

The legislation also sets forth regulations pertaining to specific types of content prohibited by Taipei – presumably media with political messages. Additionally, if made into law, the measure will encourage OTT media-streaming services (from all countries) to register with the National Communications Commission, though some brands may be legally required to register, depending upon the size and scope of their operations.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese woman swears loyalty to China's constitution, accepts 'supervision'

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/17
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Video surfaced on Friday (July 17) showing a person who claimed to be Taiwanese swearing allegiance to communist China's constitution.

Taiwanese netizens on the popular online message board PTT posted a link to the video on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, with the caption "The first Taiwanese in history to respect the constitution and pledge patriotism." In the video, a woman swears the following oath:

"I am a person from Taiwan, China. I swear allegiance to the constitution of the People's Republic of China, and to uphold constitutional authority, fulfill statutory obligations, show loyalty to the Motherland, show loyalty to the people, cherish my position and fulfill my work responsibilities, uphold integrity and friendliness, and accept the supervision of the people. To build a prosperous democracy for a civilized, harmonious, and beautiful socialist powerful nation, I will work hard."

She then proudly identified herself as Chen Chun-chen (陳淳薽). The video comes just weeks after the national security law for Hong Kong went into effect and makes references to the Chinese constitution, loyalty to China, and "supervision" — all major themes of the new draconian law.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 07/17/2020
By: Kuo Chien-shen, Yu Hsiang,
Chen Chun-hua and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) Taiwan's Legislature on Friday broke out in scuffles and water balloon throwing — the third fight in the past two weeks — but lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) eventually managed to approve the controversial appointments of all 27 nominees to the government watchdog body Control Yuan, including former presidential aide Chen Chu (陳菊) as its president, as hundreds of people opposed to the nominations protested outside.

Chen, a former mayor of Kaohsiung and former secretary-general of the Presidential Office, was confirmed as president of the Control Yuan in a 65-3 vote, with two votes invalidated, in the 113-seat Legislature, in which the DPP holds a majority of the seats.

The other nominees were also confirmed after voting got underway at 9:11 a.m. Friday amid heavy protests, as lawmakers from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) tried to stop the voting over the nomination.

The KMT legislators shouted slogans and attempted to overturn ballot boxes set up at the front of the legislative chamber. When the vote closed at noon, members of the KMT lobbed water balloons at Legislative Yuan Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) and at white boards set up to tally the votes, while DPP lawmakers clad in rain ponchos attempted to shield him with large styrafoam boards.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 16 July, 2020
By: Katherine Wei

Taiwan recorded one new case of COVID-19 on Thursday. This brings the total number of cases Taiwan has recorded so far up to 452.

This latest case is imported. The patient is a woman who returned to Taiwan from the Philippines two days ago.

The woman had undergone testing for COVID-19 on June 30, while still in the Philippines. The results came back negative. However, on the afternoon of her flight to Taiwan, she realized that her sense of smell was not normal. She reported this symptom to health officials at the airport upon her arrival in Taiwan.

The woman was tested again for COVID-19 and was taken to a group quarantine center. The test results came back positive on Thursday.    [FULL  STORY]

ANI News
Date: Jul 17, 2020

Taipei [Taiwan], July 17 (ANI): Asserting that there is no such thing as "pure private companies" in China, Taiwan Digital Minister Audrey Tang has said that using Chinese equipment in core telecom infrastructure is similar to inviting a Trojan horse into the network.

"There's no such thing as pure private companies in China. From the perspective of the PRC, the ruling party can change your leader whenever the situation is intense," Audrey Tang, a hacker-turned-cabinet member, said in an interview to Nikkei Asian Review in her office at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.

"If you include them [China-linked companies] in the infrastructure then you have to be very careful every time you update the system, as that could make the network vulnerable to allowing a Trojan horse inside the system,"
A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is a type of malicious code or software that looks legitimate but can take control of your computer.

Audrey remarks come as countries around the world are mulling a ban on Chinese company Huwaei from their 5G network due to security threat.    [FULL  STORY]

Obesity drug lorcaserin permanently banned in Taiwan after US study shows increased cancer risk

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/16
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Editor

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese health authorities announced Thursday (July 16) that the weight-loss drug lorcaserin would be permanently banned from the market after American researchers identified an increased cancer risk in people taking the medication.

Marketed under the brand name Belviq, lorcaserin was in 2012 approved by U.S. authorities as an obesity drug to be used in conjunction with calorie restriction and increased physical activity. A large, randomized clinical trial in 2018 showed that the drug did not raise cardiovascular risk and even helped reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and kidney complications, according to TCTMD.

However, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday that a recent U.S. study had suggested an association between lorcaserin and a slightly increased risk of cancer. It said the report found more patients taking lorcaserin were diagnosed with cancer than those taking a placebo, and the "numerical imbalance" continued to increase with a longer duration of lorcaserin use.

The FDA said it was advised by the U.S. government to cease production of the medication and withdraw it from the market. The administration stressed that lorcaserin would no longer be sold in Taiwan since "its risks outweigh its benefits," reported UDN.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 07/16/2020
By: Kuo Chien-shen,
Yu Hsiang, Chen Chun-hua and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Taiwan's Legislature on Thursday voted to move ahead with scheduled confirmation votes for 27 Control Yuan nominees the following day, after a scuffle in which the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) successfully retook the speaker's chair from protesting members of the opposition parties.

DPP lawmakers entered the chamber at 3:47 p.m. Thursday, pushing through two doors on either side of the speaker's chair, which the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) had occupied since Tuesday to protest former Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu's (陳菊) nomination as Control Yuan president.

After almost an hour of back-and-forth, KMT lawmakers were forced off the rostrum, allowing Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) to gavel the Legislature into session at 4:36 p.m.

The DPP then passed a motion, with 53 votes in favor and four votes against, to end any debate on the nominations and proceed with    [FULL  STORY]

WORK TOGETHER: Businesses need a uniform invoice number to exchange their vouchers for cash, but can ask associations or unions to do so on their behalf

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 17, 2020
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday assured bed and breakfast (B&B) owners and taxi drivers that they can accept Triple Stimulus Vouchers, and exchange them for cash or use them to make purchases.

As of 9pm yesterday, nearly 1.6 million voucher packets had been claimed at post offices nationwide since they were made available on Wednesday, Chunghwa Post statistics showed.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs has said that business owners could start exchanging vouchers for cash on Thursday next week.

Businesses with government uniform invoice numbers can exchange vouchers for cash at banks and save it in accounts by filling out a document and providing tax and business registration numbers, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

The African nation says no to foreign influence, including the U.S., with remarkable success.

The American Conservative
Date: July 15, 2020
By: Michael Horton

The unrecognized Republic of Somaliland recently did what few African states do: it defied China. On July 1, Somaliland and Taiwan, another nation not recognized by the United Nations, agreed to exchange ambassadors and open embassies in their respective capitals. The Chinese government is not accustomed to such rebuffs and has condemned the move by saying that Taiwan is undermining the territorial integrity of Somalia.

Somaliland, like Taiwan, fulfills the requirements for statehood as laid out in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. In the case of Somaliland, it was a British protectorate that was, albeit briefly, an independent country before it chose to enter into a union with Somalia, a former Italian colony. 

Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 after fighting a brutal war against Somalia’s longtime dictator Siad Barre. Barre’s government engaged in genocide against Somalilanders, famously ordering his pilots to take off from Hargeisa’s airport, Somaliland’s capital and largest city, and bomb the city.

When Somaliland declared its independence, Hargeisa was in ruins. Somalilanders have spent the last 30 years rebuilding their cities and, most importantly, establishing a functioning democracy. Even more than Taiwan, which has enjoyed US support, Somalilanders have rebuilt their country with little outside assistance.     [FULL  STORY]