An article written by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is one of the featured stories in a special issue published by Time magazine on Thursday that asked more than 50 “Time 100” honorees for their insights on the challenges the world faces navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.
The special issue, titled “Finding Hope,” reached out to hundreds of people who have appeared on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people, including former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and the Dalai Lama, for their perspectives on the pandemic, the US magazine said.
Taiwan’s success in preventing a major outbreak of the coronavirus “is no coincidence,” Tsai wrote in the article.
“A combination of efforts by medical professionals, government, private sector and society at large have armored our country’s defenses,” she wrote, adding that the painful lesson Taiwan learned during the 2003 SARS outbreak put its government and people on high alert early on.
Taiwan began monitoring incoming passengers from Wuhan, China, as early as December last year, established the Central Epidemic Command Center in January, and subsequently introduced travel restrictions and quarantine protocols for high-risk travelers, she wrote.
In addition to public health professionals, the Taiwanese public, businesses and communities have all taken steps to contain the virus, she wrote.
“Although Taiwan has been unfairly excluded from the WHO and the UN, we remain willing and able to utilize our strengths across manufacturing, medicine and technology to work with the world,” she wrote.
“Taiwan is no stranger to hardship, and our resilience stems from our willingness to unite to surmount even the toughest obstacles,” she said. “This, above all else, is what I hope Taiwan can share with the world: the human capacity to overcome challenges together is limitless. Taiwan can help.”
Time magazine has postponed the publication of this year’s “Time 100” list, previously scheduled for release on Thursday, to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
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