Eye On Taiwan

Air France to cancel Taipei-Paris flight route from June 1 Posted: 07 May 2020 05:58 PM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 05/07/2020 By: Yu Hsiao-han and Lee Hsin-Yin CNA file photo Taipei, May 7 (CNA) Air France announced Thursday that it will cancel all direct flights between Taipei and Paris, with effect from June 1, citing financial issues due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The carrier said it will terminate its three round-trip services per week between the two cities, after it temporarily suspended the flights on March 8 this year amid the pandemic. In a letter to its business partners, Air France said the airline industry has been among those that have taken the brunt of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic since early 2020. [FULL  STORY]

IDB approves 756 aid requests Posted: 07 May 2020 05:55 PM PDT STAYING AFLOAT: IDB has issued NT$734 million in subsidies to help companies pay wages last month for up to 33,957 employees, and it plans another NT$1.12 billion Taipei Times Date: May 08, 2020 By: Natasha Li / Staff reporter Industrial Development Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Chih-ching, left, speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Huang Pei-chun, Taipei Times The Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) has approved 756 of 1,224 applications from companies seeking government subsidies due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it said yesterday. Of the approved applications, 280 are from base metal and machinery equipment makers, 188 are from consumer goods and chemical materials manufacturers, and 120 are from information and communication technology companies, IDB data showed. The remaining applications are from businesses across various sectors, such as design, tourism and knowledge-based industries. “Applications are still pouring in and we are receiving an average of 100 applications per day,” IDB Deputy Director-General Yang Chih-ching (楊志清) said at a news briefing in Taipei. [FULL  STORY]

Poll: Tsai’s approval rating hits 75% as she heads into second term Posted: 07 May 2020 01:31 PM PDT Radi Taiwan International Date: 07 May, 2020 By: John Van Trieste President Tsai Ing-wen is enjoying her highest approval rating since 2016 according to the results of a new poll. The results of a recent poll released on Thursday show that President Tsai Ing-wen’s approval rating has reached 74.5% as she heads into her second term. That’s the highest approval rating Tsai has had since 2016, when she began her first term in office. The poll was conducted in late April on behalf of Taiwan Brain Trust, a group with ties to President Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Never Needed Shutdowns to Control Covid-19. Its Economy Is Stalling Anyway. Posted: 07 May 2020 01:27 PM PDT Barron's Date: May 7, 2020 By: Matthew C. Klein Americans hoping to boost the economy by lifting restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus should pay close attention to Taiwan. The country of 23 million has handled the novel coronavirus better than any other country in the world, with fewer than 500 confirmed cases and only six deaths. Taiwan never needed to shut businesses or impose lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus. But that hasn’t been enough to prevent the disease from taking a bite out of the economy. Taiwan’s experience is a sobering lesson on the limits of what “reopening” can achieve under even the best of conditions. The most obvious problem for Taiwan is that many of its businesses sell to customers in other countries. As spending falls elsewhere, Taiwanese producers will take a hit regardless of domestic conditions. According to a survey of Taiwanese purchasing managers by IHS Markit, new orders for manufactured goods fell in April at the fastest rate since January 2009. Big Crash Taiwanese manufacturers had the biggest drop in new orders in April since the globalfinancial crisis.    [FULL  STORY]

CORONAVIRUS/Doctors inhibit key COVID-19 complication with blood purification Posted: 07 May 2020 01:22 PM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 05/07/2020 By: Chiu Chun-chin and Matthew Mazzetta Wang Wei-chieh (王偉傑) Taoyuan, May 7 (CNA) State-run Taoyuan General Hospital said Thursday it successfully used blood purification techniques to treat a patient suffering from complications of COVID-19, though a government expert cautioned more research is needed to determine the overall efficacy of the treatment. At a press conference, nephrologist Wang Wei-chieh (王偉傑) said his team used the techniques to inhibit an extreme immune response — known as a "cytokine storm" — which often causes death in severe COVID-19 patients. The patient in question was a 52-year-old woman who was diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 15, Wang said. On March 24, she was intubated after developing severe respiratory symptoms, and transferred to a negative-pressure isolation room two days later, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Woman gets 18 years for matricide Posted: 07 May 2020 01:17 PM PDT Taipei Times Date: May 08, 2020 By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter A 44-year-old woman surnamed Lin (林) was yesterday sentenced to 18 years in prison for beating her mother to death last year, although the defense told the Shilin District Court of Lin’s mental illness and alleged abuse by family members. The judges convicted Lin of assaulting her mother and inducing injuries causing death, and said that despite having a mental illness, she had the ability to control her actions at the time of the crime, so the sentence could not be commuted to a lesser punishment. As it was the first ruling, Lin can file an appeal. An investigation showed that Lin lived with her 73-year-old mother in Taipei’s Tianmu (天母) area. The two had quarreled for many years, as Lin said she believed her mother took her things and had placed a death curse on her.    [FULL  STORY]

Tsai vows to continue work towards justice for indigenous peoples Posted: 07 May 2020 01:14 PM PDT Radio Taiwan International Date: 07 May, 2020 By: Paula Chao President Tsai Ing-wen (CNA photo) President Tsai Ing-wen has vowed to continue pushing for transitional justice for Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. Tsai set up the Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee under the Presidential Office in March 2017.    [FULL  STORY]

A Lesson for AMERICA? Posted: 07 May 2020 01:10 PM PDT Taiwan’s Single-Payer National Health Insurance Milken Institute Review Date: May 4, 2020 By: tsung-mei cheng The idea of single-payer (government) health insurance — sometimes made more appealing to Americans by calling it Medicare for All and first proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders in 2017 — has gained considerable traction thanks in large part to the Democratic presidential primaries. A January Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that a narrow majority of Americans (56 percent) favor Medicare for All. But the candidates who want a single-payer system haven’t spelled out precisely what they mean. And most Americans, it is safe to say, have at best a fuzzy idea about what a true single-payer approach is and how it would work. If Americans are somewhat familiar with any single-payer system, it’s the one in Canada. Here, I outline another single-payer system built almost from scratch more recently — and in a place that’s even more affluent than Canada: the island of Taiwan. Arguably the most startling aspect of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) system is how they manage to get high-quality outcomes for a small fraction of what Americans pay — and how well they have managed the coronavirus pandemic. But I get ahead of myself. The Origin Story Before Taiwan chose to go the single-payer route, it had a crazy-quilt of 13 separate insurance schemes — Labor Insurance, Government Employees Insurance, Farmers Insurance and so on — which together covered just 59 percent of the population. And a disproportionate number among the remaining 41 percent were people who could least afford to go without: children, women, the elderly and disabled, and informal sector workers who had to pay out of pocket for needed care or forego it. Impoverishment from costly illnesses was commonplace, and health disparities were wide. But when Taiwan decided that enough was enough, it plowed through a thicket of obstacles in relatively short order. After some seven and a half years of planning and 18 months of toiling through the legislative process, the government implemented its national insurance program in March 1995 — a full five years ahead of the original schedule. And once in place, it was implemented in startlingly little time: by the end of 1995, 90 percent of Taiwan’s then 21 million residents were enrolled.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan protests WHO’s reference to Taiwan as part of China Posted: 07 May 2020 12:59 PM PDT Taiwan's foreign ministry asks UN health agency to refrain from kowtowing to Beijing Taiwan News Date: 2020/05/07 By:  Taiwan News, Staff Writer WHO Legal Counsel Derek Walton. (Screenshot from WHO’s streaming video) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — On Thursday (May 7), Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested against the World Health Organization’s labeling of the island nation as part of Chinese territory. The UN health agency’s annual assembly will be held virtually within two weeks, and much attention has been focused on Taiwan’s participation in addition to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Taiwan had been invited to the World Health Assembly (WHA) from 2009 to 2016 as an observer, but the island nation’s access has been blocked in recent years due to Beijing's growing pressure on international organizations to exclude Taiwan. Answering a question at a press briefing Wednesday (May 7) concerning Taiwan’s invitation to the upcoming WHA on behalf of Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Derek Walton, a legal counsel for the WHO, said Taiwan’s participation is a decision to be made by the agency’s member states. In his response, which included mostly officials statements that other WHO staff had made before, Walton specifically referred to Taiwan as “Taiwan, China,” while stressing that the WHO Secretariat is not entitled to decide Taiwan’s participation.    [FULL  STORY]

U.S. secretary of state urges WHO chief to invite Taiwan to WHA Posted: 07 May 2020 12:52 PM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 05/07/2020 By: Stacy Hsu, Tang Pei-chun and Joseph Yeh United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (CNA File Photo) Washington, May 6 (CNA) United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called on the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) to invite Taiwan to this year's World Health Assembly (WHA), saying it is within a WHO director-general's power to do so. In a press briefing, Pompeo reiterated Washington's support for Taipei's participation as an observer in this year's WHA, the decision-making body of the WHO, which will be held online from May 18-19 due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. "Today I want to call upon all nations, including those in Europe, to support Taiwan's participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly and in other relevant United Nations venues," he said. He also urged WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to invite Taiwan to the WHA, "as he has the power to do, and as his predecessors have done on multiple occasions." [FULL  STORY]