This Week in Taiwan 0503-0509
May 7: Premier Su Tseng-chang announced on May 4 that the government is expanding relief eligibility such that uninsured workers would be able to receive a NT$10,000 (about US$335) subsidy. Crowds of people flooded the local government offices to apply for the subsidy. However, application did not open until March 6, and the application process and computations were complicated, causing an outcry from the public and front-line civil servants. Premier Su apologized twice and decided to simplify procedures and dispense funds within two weeks.
May 8: President Tsai Ing-wen is about to begin her second term on May 20. She announced that Premier Su Tseng-chang would continue to lead the government. President Tsai asked the premier to manage the five tasks of surviving the pandemic, revitalizing the economy, caring for the people, deepening reforms, and balancing construction. Premier Su will soon reorganize cabinet personnel.
May 8: Since restarting games ahead of the world on April 12, Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) opened each of the games in New Taipei and Taichung to 1,000 fans, signifying to the world that Taiwan has put the coronavirus pandemic under control.
May 8: The Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office investigated mainland Chinese involvement in Taiwan’s elections and indicted seven Taiwanese businessmen for bribery. The prosecution pointed out that Ho Jianghua, chairwoman of Chinese Women’s Federation, and Lin Huai, chairman of the Taiwan Compatriots Investment Enterprise Association of Changsha, helped campaign for Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu last December. They hosted some 500 Taiwanese businessmen for a dinner at a restaurant in Changsha, Hunan Province, mobilized them to vote in Taiwan, then applied for grants totaling 1.49 million yuan (about US$210,000) from the Taiwan Affairs Office of Changsha City and Hunan Province.
May 9: On March 6, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called upon Director-General Tedros Adhanom of the World Health Organization (WHO) to invite Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly (WHA) this year on May 18 and 19. Tedros avoided answering related questions directly at the WHO’s regular press conference on March 6. The chairs of both the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committee jointly wrote to 55 governments of Europe, Australia, and India, calling upon them to support Taiwan’s participation in the WHA.
May 9: Director Brent Christensen of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) was reported to have asked Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan the possibility of changing the name of CPBL (Taiwan's baseball league) to reflect “Taiwan” in its name. Mayor Cheng said that Christensen and he discussed whether the name of the baseball league was easily misunderstood (to be affiliated with mainland China), and neither of them proposed a name change. The responsibility lies with CPBL. In a statement, the CPBL stated that the AIT respects the baseball league’s name that has been in use for 31 years. In order to prevent misunderstanding by foreign fans that the CPBL is affiliated with China, the AIT recommended adding Taiwan to related English materials.