31 days without local coronavirus transmission
Taiwan goes a whole month with any local coronavirus cases, and has allowed fans to attend baseball games. Taiwan's WHA participation will go down to the wire despite growing support.
Taiwan will continue to keep its borders shut until a vaccine is found, according to Health Minister Chen Shih-chung. While certain people might be allowed in for vital economic reasons, most foreign visitors would likely not be able to enter Taiwan for a very long time this year.
The Telegraph’s Nicola Smith interviewed one of the two Taiwan experts who flew to Wuhan at the start of the outbreak on January 13. Among the several points made by Yin-ching Chuang is that Chinese experts they met with initially downplayed the possibility of human-to-human transmission, and that some Wuhan officials seemed to believe the outbreak had been contained (at that point there were 41 cases).
The story of how Taiwan found out about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan through social media is remarkable, as this Bloomberg article highlights. Finding out about it was just one part as Taiwanese officials followed up quickly by inspecting passengers from Wuhan that same day (December 31), then arranged to send two experts, including the man interviewed by Nicola Smith in the previous story, to Wuhan.
Taiwan has relaxed certain measures such as allowing a maximum of 1,000 fans to attend baseball games and Taiwanese nationals in China’s Hubei province to fly back home by themselves.
CBS is one of the latest to highlight Taiwan’s coronavirus efforts which combined early vigilance and proactive measures. The expert quoted here also points out China’s bullying, which heavily restricts Taiwan’s international participation.
Taiwan’s vice-president-elect Chen Chi-mai and several others co-authored a paper that describes how Taiwan tracked over 600,000 persons who came into contact with passengers from a cruise ship that later had a major coronavirus outbreak. Utilizing technology and surveillance, the authorities managed to prevent a cluster of cases from occurring.
The New York Times profiled Taiwan’s vice president Chen Chien-jen, who is more importantly also an epidemiologist and has done very well in helping manage the coronavirus efforts.
Taiwan’s coronavirus cases total 440 as of today (May 13), while deaths number seven. Today also marks the 31st straight day without a local case and the sixth straight day without any cases at all.
A secret MOU between the WHO and China obstructs Taiwan from participating in the WHO, said Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. This means more support is needed from the international community, but the situation is still “extremely difficult,” said Wu.
New Zealand has reiterated its support of Taiwan’s participation in this year’s WHO world health assembly (WHA) despite angry words from Beijing. Canada also backs Taiwan’s WHO bid.
One of India’s biggest newspapers, the Times of India, has called for India to support Taiwan’s bid to attend the WHO’s world health assembly later this month.
As President Tsai Ing-wen prepares for the inauguration of her second term on May 20, she has lots to be proud of. Instead of cruising to an easy victory as an incumbent, Tsai did it the hard way in defeating a populist candidate as well as enduring threats from China and Xi Jinping.
Taiwan’s baseball league achieved another milestone on Friday May 8, as it started allowing 1,000 fans per game, becoming the first baseball league in the world to do so in 2020.
This article sheds light about Taiwan’s relationship with Paraguay, its only diplomatic ally in South America. There is danger looming in the form of Paraguayan farmers clamoring for a piece of China’s market, though some elites still value ties with Taiwan due to common values such as being small countries with a history of being exploited by giant neighbors (Paraguay was crushingly defeated by Brazil and Argentina in a 19th-century war).
As Taiwan hopes to attend the WHO’s upcoming assembly as an observer, Taiwan extradited a wanted person for Interpol despite being excluded from that organization as well.
The world needs to do much more to bring Taiwan into the global community, even grant it recognition as a country. Here’s my take on why and how this should happen.
And here’s another article that also urges the US to recognize Taiwan as an independent country, while US Congressman Mike Gallagher calls for the US to stand with Taiwan in defending against any attack from China.
China is supposedly having to dampen demands from social media commentators to invade Taiwan. While it’s ironic that China is claiming restraint, this underscores that Chinese aggression in the near future is a possibility.
Any invasion of Taiwan would not be easy, as Beijing would likely find out at heavy cost.
Taiwan special forces are training with US Green Beret special forces as well as providing counter-terrorism training for units from a Middle East country.
Over 20 airlines have corrected their website references to Taiwan after having been pressured by China to use “Taiwan, China” in 2018, according to the Ministry of Legal Affairs.
Apple will build a new plant in the Longtan branch of Hsinchu Science Park, which will reportedly cost US$334 million. The plant will produce next-generation monitors and engage in monitor R&D.
Taiwan is the third-best country to invest in, according to a report by US-based Business Environment Risk Intelligence SA (BERI). Switzerland and Norway topped the ranking, meaning Taiwan is the best investment destination in Asia.
The computer and IT service sectors saw record sales of over NT$90.8 billion (US$3 billion) for the first quarter (Q1), spurred by increased demand for computers and online services during the coronavirus pandemic. Exports of electronics and networking and communications devices also saw growth in Q1.
Online sales hit a record high in April for Taiwan’s top e-commerce sites, which all saw rises in April and Q1 sales.
Hong Kong
A very turbulent weekend took place with mall and street protests which were followed by a heavyhanded police response and hundreds of arrests. Teenagers as young as 12 were detained while journalists were surrounded and made to kneel down. This was preceded by legislative brawls on Friday as pro-government lawmakers physically occupied a podium to seize a committee chairmanship while security staff dragged and carried pro-democracy lawmakers out of the chamber.