Taiwan Weekly is a newsletter released every week by Fair Winds Foundation, Association of Foreign Relations and Taipei Forum that provides coverage and perspectives into the latest developments in Taiwan.
This Week in Taiwan 0530-0606
May 31: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic situation in Taiwan remains challenging. The government has not procured vaccines effectively, while efforts by companies and private groups to purchase vaccines themselves persistently face bureaucratic obstruction. Critics suspect that the government is betting unreasonably on the development of domestic vaccines and question that government officials are trying to manipulate the stock prices of certain pharmaceutical companies. President Tsai Ing-wen personally held a press conference in which she responded that the government has conducted an internal investigation, and no politically appointed officials have problems related to stock trading. Specific allegations will be investigated strictly in accordance with the law. However, the efforts behind experts developing vaccines baseless should not be undermined by baseless claims.
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China's Cognitive Warfare a Self-Staged Act？ Prosecution to Promptly Investigate
The pro-government writer Lin Wei-feng was caught feigning to be pro-China, posting messages on PTT, a popular online bulletin board system, mocking Taiwan's epidemic prevention policy, and attacking the epidemic prevention platform created by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, thereby creating a fake impression that China is waging a cognitive war against Taiwan.
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DPP Plays Pro-China, Acting Out “Cognitive Warfare” Imagined by President Tsai
In an effort to divert the attention of the public from her administration's poor performance in containing the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, President Tsai Ing-wen has recently played the card of "cognitive warfare," but this has unexpectedly exposed a litter of cockroaches within the ruling party’s own house.
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Vaccine Politics versus "Same Island, One Fate"
As the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen was preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of her second term, the recent wave of coronavirus (COVID-19) infections broke out in Taiwan, once acclaimed for being a role model in epidemic prevention.
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This Week in Taiwan 0523-0529
May 25: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continued to spread in Taiwan. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), announced that the third-level epidemic alert will be extended to June 14. Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung announced that suspension of classes will extend until June 14.
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Origin of Disaster: When Only the China Virus is the Virus
In just a few days, Taiwan's domestically transmitted cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) have reached 2,000 (Note: As of May 22, the number is now over 5,000), and Taiwan's glorious status as a model in epidemic prevention has fallen rapidly.
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Tsai Administration Failing in International Negotiations
The administration of President Tsai Ing-wen has been in office for five years.
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Taiwan Should Seriously Review its Energy Policy
Two units of Taipower's Xingda Power Plant tripped on May 13, causing power outages in some areas. Officials from President Tsai Ing-wen, Premier Su Tseng-chang, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-Hua, to the chairman of the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) have all emphasized that the incident was not related to electricity shortage.
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This Week in Taiwan 0516-0522
May 17: Following the major power outage across Taiwan on May 13, the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) announced emergency regional power cuts on the evening of May 17. According to Taipower, this time was indeed a "power supply problem." The main reason is that the first generator at the Xingda Power Plant failed in the afternoon, and it took a long time to shut it down and repair. In addition, due to the current water shortage, hydropower was insufficient to support the large demand of residential electricity at night. The incident affected some 1.2 million households for nearly two hours. President Tsai apologized to the people and stated that like the people, she found the situation hard to accept.
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New Measures Implemented as Virus Alert Raised to Level 3 in Taiwan
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic situation took a downturn as a spike of 180 confirmed cases were reported in Taiwan on May 15, 2021, in which 164 cases were in the municipalities Taipei and New Taipei.
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