This Week in Taiwan 0613-0620
June 14: The three-day Group of 7 summit ended June 13 in Cornwall of the United Kingdom. The joint communiqué issued mentioned for the first time the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Earlier when they met on June 12, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan and President Joe Biden of the United States also discussed issues including cross-strait stability. At the summit, Suga even expressed his support for Taiwan's participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer.
June 17: The Central Bank held its second quarter board of directors and supervisors meeting and decided that the interest rate will remain at a historical low of 1.125 percent, the fifth consecutive "freeze." Governor Yang Chin-lung explained that even if the domestic pandemic has surged, Taiwan's exports and investment are still booming, and economic growth this year continues to be stable and strong. The Taiwan economy is expected to grow 5.08 percent this year.
June 17: The International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, released its 2021 World Competitiveness Report. Taiwan ranked eighth among 64 countries, up three places from last year and its best performance since 2013. According to this report, Taiwan's competitiveness ranks third in the Asia Pacific and first among economies with a population of more than 20 million.
June 17: The Ministry of National Defense (MND) confirmed that Taiwan signed two arms purchase contracts with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). They include a long-range precision firepower strike system worth NT$9.6 billion (about US$343 million) and missiles costing NT$39 million (about US$1.4 billion). The models of the missiles were not specified.
June 18: Foxconn founder Terry Gou has intended to procure vaccines from the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech but has faced administrative obstruction for 17 days. Gou issued a statement indicating that factions within the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have different opinions about procuring vaccines. In the interest of the people's livelihood, Gou asked to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen. The Executive Yuan announced subsequently that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and the YongLing Charity Foundation funded by Gou would be each authorized to negotiate the purchase of 5 million doses of vaccines from BioNTech or its distributors. President Tsai then met with TSMC Chairman Mark Liu and Gou, reaching on consensus on purchasing original BioNTech vaccines, packaging by the original manufacturer, and direct delivery to Taiwan. That TSMC was suddenly pulled in to procure and donate vaccines worth NT$5 billion (about US$179 million) has triggered much speculation.
June 18: The European Union officially announced that eight countries and regions, including Taiwan and the United States, are included in its safe travel list. Member states are to gradually remove restrictions on non-essential travel, i.e. tourism, from Taiwan. However, it is up to each state to decide as a matter of policy whether to require travelers to present a negative test. The E.U. will implement a vaccine passport effective July 1. If Taiwan were to issue proof of vaccination compatible with EU certification, it would become more convenient to travel to Europe.
June 19: The Air Force confirmed late in the evening that an anti-submarine aircraft of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered the southwest airspace of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ). By custom, the air Force responded by dispatching patrol troops, broadcast messages to drive away the intruders, and surveillance with anti-aircraft missiles. This is the sixth consecutive day that PLA aircrafts have disturbed Taiwan.
According to public information from the MND, the PLA has sent military aircrafts into Taiwan's ADIZ eight times in June. A total of 28 counts of fighters, bombers, and slow-speed jets were dispatched on June 15. This is the largest intruding fleet since the MND began to regularly disclose PLA aircraft movements since September last year.
June 20: After the AstraZeneca vaccine were made available, there have been multiple reports of elderly deaths after being vaccinated. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, stated that there is a cumulative total of 49 death cases after inoculation. He stressed that these cases are related to vaccination in terms of sequence, but it remains to be determined whether the deaths have a causal relationship with vaccination. More precise retrospective examination and autopsy examination are needed to clarify the cause of deaths.
In a Facebook post, Vice President Wang Ming-jiuh of the National Taiwan University Hospital Cancer Center stated that according to the statistics that he assembled, some 62 elderly individuals across Taiwan have died after inoculation, a figure which makes him scared and shocked.
Wang said that in order to understand whether these elderly people who have many chronic diseases should vaccine, if vaccination carries risks, and the risk of death after inoculation, he searched for the death statistics from June 15 to 19 from the Centers for Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Welfare, but the information is becoming more and more simplified. He suspects that the CPC may be covering up the truth.
June 20: The United States donated 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccines to Taiwan. They were delivered by China Airlines on the afternoon of June 20. This amount is three times the 750,000 doses previously announced by Washington. In a statement, the AIT indicated that this batch of vaccine donation demonstrates U.S. commitment to Taiwan, which is a trusted friend and a member of the international family of democracies.
Through live webcast, President Tsai expressed heartfelt thanks to the U.S. government and all those involved behind this effort. She stated that this is an expression of true friendship in the face of adversity.