content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Germany unleashes biggest post-war aid package to curtail virus’ effects

The German government on Friday unleashed the biggest economic aid package in the country’s post-World War II history, offering companies “unlimited” credit to keep them afloat during the COVID-19 crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the measures “are unprecedented in the history of the German government,” and repeated that Berlin would do “whatever is necessary” to tackle the fallout from the pandemic.

German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz described the rescue measures as the equivalent of bringing “a bazooka” to the economic fightback against the virus.

“There is no upper limit to the credit offered by [state-owned development bank] KfW, that’s the most important message,” said Scholz as he unveiled the measures.

About 550 billion euros (US$614 billion) in government-backed loans that was announced is just “for starters,” German Minister of Economy Peter Altmaier told the news conference.

“We promised that we will not fail because of a lack of money and political will. This means that no healthy company, no job should find themselves in trouble,” he said.

“We will reload our weapons if necessary,” Altmaier added.

The ministers also signaled that Berlin has enough funds in its treasury for a long battle.

“If it lasts longer, we can go on longer,” Scholz said.

The message to companies is that: “You can be courageous, the risks will be carried by us,” he said.

The package, even in its first stage, is bigger than the 500 billion-euro help offered by the German government during the 2008 financial crisis.

Merkel had on Wednesday vowed to do what it takes to tame the crisis, signaling that she was even ready to suspend the cherished dogma of keeping Germany’s budget balanced.

Germany has recorded over 3,600 cases of the coronavirus and eight people have died.

As concern grows, Germany’s regional states have one by one announced that schools, daycare centers and kindergartens would be closed from tomorrow.

Among them were Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to about 18 million people, as well Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse and Berlin.

Merkel urged Germans to “show solidarity by keeping their distance from each other” to protect the elderly and the most vulnerable.

Merkel’s government has in the past few days ramped up its response to fight not only the virus, but also the effects of the contagion.

With demand from abroad collapsing, Europe’s biggest economy’s vital export industries are particularly vulnerable.

Germany is rushing through new regulations to allow more employees forced into shorter working hours to qualify for compensation.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: US hospitals brace for ‘tremendous strain’ from virus

OVERWHELMING:
 The US is still going through a flu season and many hospitals are running at capacity, with some doctors fearing they might need to ration medical care

US hospitals are setting up circus-like triage tents, calling doctors out of retirement, guarding their supplies of masks and making plans to cancel elective surgery as they brace for an expected onslaught of COVID-19 patients.

Depending on how bad the crisis gets, the sick could find themselves waiting on stretchers in emergency room hallways for hospital beds to open up, or could be required to share rooms with others infected.

Some doctors fear hospitals could become so overwhelmed that they could be forced to ration medical care.

A nurse holds a swab at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing station set up by the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle on Friday.
 Photo: AP

“This is going to be a fairly tremendous strain on our health system,” said William Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

The US is still facing an active flu season and many hospitals are already running at capacity caring for those patients.

The novel coronavirus would only add to that burden, said Bruce Ribner, an infectious-disease specialist at Emory University’s medical school.

Health authorities are taking emergency steps to waive certain laws and regulations to help hospitals deal with the crisis.

Hospitals, too, are getting ready. To keep suspected coronavirus patients from mingling with others in the emergency room, the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, set up a tent in the parking lot where people with respiratory symptoms are diverted for testing.

Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia, South Carolina, did the same outside its emergency room.

In Seattle, hit by the nation’s biggest cluster of coronavirus deaths, most of them at a suburban nursing home, UW Medicine set up drive-thru testing in a hospital parking garage and has screened hundreds of staff members, faculty and trainees, with nurses reaching through car windows and using swabs to collect specimens from people’s nostrils.

Drive-thru testing is expected to be offered to patients as soon as tomorrow.

At Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial Hospital in Fremont, Michigan, Robert Davidson, an emergency medicine doctor, said hip and knee replacement surgery and other operations that are not emergencies might be postponed.

Authorities in New York state and Illinois are talking about doing the same.

If an outbreak hits, “things that don’t need to be done right now won’t be done right now,” said Raj Govindaiah, chief medical officer for Memorial Health System.

Govindaiah said the hospitals are also hiding the freebie surgical masks usually offered to visitors in the lobby, so that doctors and nurses can use them instead if supplies run tight.

At Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in the small mountain community of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, respirator masks are locked and under video surveillance.

In New York state, which has a large outbreak, the state Health Department is accelerating regulations to get nursing students certified to work more quickly and is asking retired doctors and nurses to offer their services, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

How bad US hospitals would be hit is unclear, in part because mistakes on the part of the government in ramping up widespread testing for the virus have left public health officials uncertain as to how many people are infected.

The number of cases in the US was put at about 1,700 on Friday, with about 50 deaths. However, by some estimates, at least 14,000 people might be infected.

Experts fear that when the problems with testing are resolved, a flood of patients will hit the nation’s emergency rooms.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Global soccer hit by virus, Taiwan matches affected

The suspension of soccer matches in England, Scotland and Wales until at least April 3 due to the COVID-19 pandemic was announced on Friday along with the other four major European leagues and an Olympic qualification tournament in Mexico, while FIFA recommended that all international matches this month and next month be postponed.

Taiwan’s World Cup qualifying matches are affected.

There have been 798 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK, with 10 deaths announced, but health officials fear there could be many more thousands infected.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi are among the Premier League players to have tested positive for the virus.

Financial ramifications will be felt across the board with the potential for the Premier League to lose out on millions through penalties in television rights clauses if the season cannot be completed.

The situation outside the elite could be even more grave with lower league clubs desperately in need of the gate receipts from matches to be able to meet their bills.

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp, whose side’s cruise towards a first Premier League title in 30 years has been put on hold, said: “Today, football and football matches really aren’t important at all.”

“Of course we don’t want to play in front of an empty stadium and we don’t want games or competitions suspended, but if doing so helps one individual stay healthy — just one — we do it no questions asked,” Klopp said. “If it’s a choice between football and the good of the wider society, it’s no contest.”

Liverpool fan group Spirit of Shankly said that fans wanted a say in decisions.

“In the weeks ahead it is likely difficult decisions will need to be made about how this season’s football competitions are to be concluded,” the group said. “As supporters — the most important stakeholder group in the game — we hope to be fully involved in any dialogue and decisionmaking with the football authorities on these matters.”

Shrewsbury Town chief executive Brian Caldwell, whose team play in League One, told the BBC that the financial fall-out could be ruinous for some clubs.

“We’ve got five home games left, you are probably looking at ￡200,000-￡250,000 [US$250,000-US$313,000] would be lost by not having the income from not just tickets, but bars, hospitality, programming income and everything else that we at this level all rely on.”

“It could have a devastating effect on some clubs potentially having that loss of income,” Caldwell said.

In Germany, Bundesliga games were halted with immediate effect, the first such suspension since World War II.

“Given the developments of today with new coronavirus infections and suspected cases directly linked to the Bundesliga and the second division, the German Football League has decided at short notice to postpone today’s matches,” it said in a statement.

Spain’s La Liga postponed fixtures for two weeks from Thursday, Italy’s Serie A was put on hold until April 3 at the start of the week and France made a similar announcement for its divisions, including Ligue 1.

In Paris, FIFA recommended that all international matches this month and next be postponed.

While it did not ban matches outright, the world governing body said that clubs would be allowed to refuse to send their players to national squad gatherings.

FIFA also said that it was working on rescheduling qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup in Asia — including Taiwan’s matches against Nepal and Australia — and South America, which have been postponed.

Meanwhile, a Tokyo Olympic North American qualifying tournament that was scheduled to begin in Mexico on Friday next week was postponed.

The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football announced it was delaying the event and all other competitions for 30 days.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: China sees imported virus cases exceed new local infections for the first time

The number of new COVID-19 cases imported into China from abroad on Friday surpassed the number of locally transmitted new infections for the first time, data released yesterday by the Chinese National Health Commission showed.

China had 11 new confirmed cases, up from eight cases a day earlier, but only four of those — all in the virus epicenter of Hubei Province — were locally transmitted.

The other seven — four in Shanghai, one in the capital, Beijing, and two in northwestern Gansu Province — were all detected in travelers entering China from abroad, specifically Italy, the US and Saudi Arabia, local authorities said.

The numbers underscored how China, where the outbreak began in December last year, appears to now face a greater threat of new infections from outside its borders as it continues to slow the spread of the virus domestically.

A total of 95 cases have entered China from abroad, the commission said.

Hubei has now seen new infections fall for nine straight days. All four of the new cases on Friday, down from five a day earlier, were in the provincial capital, Wuhan.

The death toll from the outbreak in China had reached 3,189 as of Friday, up 13 from the previous day. All of the latest deaths were in Hubei and 10 of them were in Wuhan.

To date, the virus has infected 80,824 people in China, the commission said.

Globally, more than 138,000 people have been infected and more than 5,000 have died, a Reuters tally of government announcements showed.

As China’s imported cases rise, the city of Tangshan, a steelmaking hub in northern Hebei Province, warned people entering the city — whether Chinese or foreign nationals — against trying to conceal their travel history.

People who do so would have to bear all treatment costs if they are later found to have contracted the coronavirus, the Tangshan City Government said in a statement.

Of the newly imported Shanghai cases, three were Chinese who worked in Italy and flew to Shanghai via Moscow, the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission said, while the fourth was an Italian who flew in from Italy via Paris.

Italy has a much higher fatality rate than most other countries, with 7 percent of those testing positive for the virus dying.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) spoke with Italian President Sergio Mattarella by telephone to offer his “sincere condolences” to the Italian people over the crisis, China Central Television reported yesterday.

Xi also had telephone calls with the presidents of two other severely hit countries, Iran and South Korea, again expressing condolences, the state broadcaster said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


taiwan-subdivisions: 板橋 新店

people: 侯友宜 陳時中

content_text:
Virus Outbreak: New Taipei City hosts large-scale virus drill

The nation’s first large-scale emergency drill to test disease prevention and control measures for a possible community transmission of COVID-19 was yesterday held in Yangbei Community (央北社區) in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店).

New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) served as the drill commander, while Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) — who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) — and CECC advisory specialist panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) attended the one-and-a-half-hour operation.

A total of 450 people, including city government officials, healthcare workers, military personnel and community volunteers, participated in the drill.

Military personnel spray disinfectant during a large-scale emergency drill to test disease prevention and control measures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District yesterday.
 Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

Four scenarios were simulated, with the first being “disease prevention promotion” before a community infection and the second being “some sporadic confirmed cases.”

The third was a “virus transmission in a single community” scenario, in which enhanced community entry-exit controls would be implemented, and the city’s Department of Social Welfare and Animal Protection Office would shelter young children or pets in controlled areas if their parents or owners are infected by the virus.

The fourth scenario was a “large-scale community spread” — defined as more than 3,000 confirmed cases — in which an advance command post would be set up in the community with the most severe outbreak, and a screening hospital would be designated to assess patients and treat them, while Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in Banciao District (板橋) would take in the most severe cases.

The city can hospitalize a maximum of 678 COVID-19 patients, but aims to expand its capacity to at least 1,000 beds, Hou said, adding that the city government has also chosen isolation centers that can quarantine up to 2,000 patients with mild symptoms if a large-scale community transmission occurs.

Medical personnel from 17 New Taipei City hospital branches attended the drill, and simulated assessing patients’ conditions and taking people who are under home quarantine to designated hospitals, as well as clearing out hospital beds in the New Taipei City Hospital’s Sanchong Branch and taking patients to other hospitals.

Military personnel simulated a large-scale disinfection scenario by spraying disinfectant in the streets and public spaces.

Hou said that if the COVID-19 situation gets worse, decisions such as whether commercial activity or schools should be suspended, or whether traffic controls should be implemented, would have to be made by the central government.

A joint drill, including the central government and four cities and counties in northern Taiwan, could be considered as a next step, he added.

Chen praised the drill as “very realistic” and a demonstration of “advance arrangement,” saying that if all local governments show the same preparation, the CECC would be more at ease.

The COVID-19 situation in Europe is worrying, because it shows how a little carelessness can cause the situation in a developed region to worsen rapidly, he said, adding that proactive measures between agencies are important, and that people should remain aware, but not panic.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: Taichung coal rules invalid: EY

content_text:
LAWS IN CONFLICT:
 The city revoked coal use permits for the Taichung Power Plant — an action overturned by the EPA last month — and now seeks a court opinion

Some provisions of legislation implemented by the Taichung City Government to reduce the use of coal are invalid, the Executive Yuan said on Friday, as the central government tries to settle the fate of the Taichung Power Plant.

The city government said that it would seek an interpretation from the Council of Grand Justices.

The Executive Yuan said in a statement that it had informed the city government of its decision, on the grounds that Taichung’s Autonomous Act for Coal Regulation (台中市管制生煤自治條例), enacted on Jan. 26, 2016, conflicts with the central government’s Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) and other laws.

The Taichung Power Plant is pictured in an undated photograph.
 Photo: Huang Chung-shan, Taipei Times

At that time, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs found that some rules enacted by Taichung authorities contradicted the Air Pollution Control Act, the Executive Yuan said.

On May 4, 2016, it asked the local government to reassess its regulations, but to no avail, it said.

The Air Pollution Control Act was last amended on Aug. 1, 2018, and the EPA on July 29 last year directed all local governments to review whether their rules conflicted with the law, the Executive Yuan said.

The Executive Yuan said that the Taichung City Government had been unresponsive to calls to amend its rules, and last month, it asked Taichung for the third time to bring its policy in line with the amended law.

The central government’s request is believed to be aimed at resolving a dispute over the city government’s decision to revoke permits for two generators at the fossil fuel-powered Taichung Power Plant.

The city in December last year said that it was revoking the coal use permits for the plant’s No. 2 and No. 3 generators, effective in January, after claiming that the power plant had breached the Autonomous Act for Coal Regulation three times last year.

However, the EPA last month overturned the decision, saying that it was based on a misstatement of the facts and a lack of just cause.

In 2017, then-Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) issued a permit that allowed the plant to burn up to 16 million tonnes of coal a year, and to reduce its consumption by 3 million tonnes last year, said state-run Taiwan Power Co, which operates the Taichung plant.

In 2018, Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was elected mayor and set a new consumption limit of 11.04 million tonnes to assuage public anger toward the plant, which is considered to be a major source of air pollution in central Taiwan.

KMT Culture and Communications Committee acting director Alicia Wang (王育敏) accused the DPP of political manipulation in its decision by taking advantage of a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet shown signs of abating.

She urged the Executive Yuan not to apply double standards, but to respect the local government’s autonomy and jointly find a solution to Taiwan’s serious air pollution.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

people: 盧秀燕 林佳龍 王育敏


content_text:
COMMUNITY SPREAD:
 The travel alert level for three US states is not the same as that of Europe, because the situation in the latter is more severe, the CECC head said

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said it would issue a level 3 “warning” travel notice for 27 European countries and Dubai on Tuesday, adding that travelers from those areas would be quarantined at home 14 days upon arriving in Taiwan.

The center also raised the travel notice to a level 2 “alert” for three US states and issued a level 1 “watch” notice for all countries for which no other notice had been issued.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, said that as the epidemic situation in Europe is rapidly worsening, the center would raise the travel notice to level 3 for 27 European countries, following Italy, as well as Dubai, advising people to avoid nonessential travel there.

A note from Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung that reads “Hoping you stay safe and in good health, thank you all for your hard work” is taped to a snack given to reporters at the Central Epidemic Command Center news conference yesterday as a token of appreciation marking the White Day, which is celebrated one month after Valentine’s Day.
 Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

The countries are France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Liechtenstein, as well as the UK and Ireland, whose citizens can move freely within the Schengen area, he said.

Although the travel notice takes effect on Tuesday, Chen said that travelers from these countries who had boarded their flights as of 2pm yesterday would be asked to perform enhanced self-health management after arriving in Taiwan.

Those who had not boarded a Taiwan-bound airplane by that time would be ordered to quarantine themselves for a mandatory 14 days upon arrival, he said.

Starting on Tuesday, foreign visitors who do not have a residence in which to be quarantined would be allowed stay at one of the nation’s quarantine facilities for a fee, the CECC said.

“As confirmed cases have been reported in 49 US states and a state of emergency has been declared [there], after comprehensive assessments, we have decided to raise the travel notice to a level 2 ‘alert’ for three states — Washington, New York and California — as community spread has been observed,” Chen said.

Asked why the travel notice for the US states was not the same as the one for Europe, Chen said that the epidemic situation in the US is better than in Europe, as the incidence rate there is about 7.5 per 1 million people, while the rate is about 292 per 1 million people in Italy and about 18.1 per 1 million people in Greece.

Other factors, including economic, trade and diplomatic relations, were also considered, he said.

The decision to issue a travel notice for all other countries is in response to the WHO declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, he added.

Chen urged people who have to travel abroad to wear a mask throughout flights, disinfect objects that they touch on the airplane and try to avoid using the lavatory or wash their hands thoroughly afterward.

Meanwhile, three new cases of COVID-19 infection were confirmed in Taiwan yesterday, all of them imported, Chen said.

The first new case — the nation’s 51st — is a Dutch man in his 30s who is the first officer of a commercial flight.

He arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday and sought emergency treatment at a hospital for difficulty breathing, chest tightness and fatigue on Wednesday, the CECC said, adding that he was reported to health authorities on Thursday and tested positive yesterday.

The second new case is a man in his 30s from northern Taiwan who traveled to Switzerland via Turkey with two friends on Feb. 28.

The man traveled to France on Feb. 29 before returning to Switzerland on Sunday last week and arrived in Taiwan on Monday, it added.

On Thursday, he sought treatment at a hospital for a fever, fatigue, coughing and a runny nose, and yesterday tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the nation’s 52nd case.

The third new case is also a man in his 30s from northern Taiwan who visited Munich and Nuremberg in Germany on a business trip from Feb. 22 to March 6, sought treatment for coughing up sputum and a sore throat in Taiwan on Wednesday, and his test result came out positive yesterday, the center said.

Contact investigations are being conducted for all three cases, Chen said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Virus Outbreak: CECC to raise alert level for Europe


people: 連戰 許信良 宋楚瑜 陳水扁

political-parties: 新黨 親民黨

content_text:
After ruling Taiwan for 55 years, the party lost power for the first time in the 2000 presidential elections after internal conflict caused an ugly split

March 16 to March 22

Thousands of angry supporters surrounded the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters on March 19, 2000, clashing with the police late into the night. The banners and posters they brought delivered their message loud and clear: “Lee Teng-hui is a traitor!” “Lee Teng-hui has swindled the loyal and steadfast KMT members!” “Lee Teng-hui, resign immediately!”

Lee, who was still the nation’s president, barely escaped from the building after riot police and water cannon trucks cleared his path — but not before one of his advisors was beaten up.

Angry KMT supporters surround party headquarters on March 19, 2000, demanding chairman Lee Teng-hui’s resignation.
 Photo courtesy of Open Museum

He officially stepped down as KMT chairman five days later as the protests continued, stating that he must take responsibility for the KMT’s ouster from power after ruling Taiwan for more than 50 years. Lien Chan (連戰), the party’s presidential candidate, finished last in a tight three-way race on March 18 with 23 percent of the vote.

Many of the protestors were supporters of ex-party member James Soong (宋楚瑜), and they blamed Lee for the KMT’s loss by insisting on the less popular Lien as the party’s candidate. The charismatic Soong declared that he would run as an independent candidate, eventually picking up 36 percent of the vote — just 3 percentage points behind the winner Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Some were convinced that Lee threw the election because he wanted Soong to lose. Others accused him of wanting Chen to win because he secretly harbored ambitions for Taiwanese independence.

On March 31, Soong announced the formation of the People First Party (親民黨). He would participate in every presidential election since then except for 2008.

FREEZING THE PROVINCE

Soong was once Lee’s close ally, supporting Lee’s consolidation of power after former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death in 1988. In turn, Lee appointed Soong party secretary-general in 1989 and provincial governor in 1993. Soong retained his position in 1994 by winning the first provincial governor election in Taiwan.

But ever since the KMT lost China to the Chinese Communist Party 1949, the Taiwan Provincial Government and the central government essentially ruled the same territory, with 98 percent overlap.

Part of why the provincial government existed was to substantiate the KMT’s claim that it remained the legitimate ruler of China, and would return one day. But the government body’s existence was eating heavily into the nation’s resources and complicating the bureaucracy. Furthermore, when the provincial governor was appointed there was little conflict between the two bodies. But with the position now being elected, clashes emerged.

In fact, mboldened by the support of his constituents, Soong reportedly began criticizing the central government over resource allocation for public works in a year of natural disasters, as well as other issues. Coupled with his popularity, leaders in the central government started worrying about the “Boris Yeltsin Effect” — referring to a confrontation between a president and an immensely popular local leader.

In late 1996, Lee brought up the idea of downsizing the Taiwan Provincial Government, which Soong strongly opposed. The DPP, who favored Taiwanese independence, of course would agree to cooperate, as getting rid of the province designation would be a first step.

Lee assured Soong that the decision was purely political and not personal, but Soong resigned in protest. Lee declined to accept and Soong returned to office the following month, but the rift between the two kept widening as the downsizing proceeded. The elections for provincial governor as well as assembly were suspended, making Soong the first and last of his kind.

DIVIDING THE VOTES

Soong didn’t announce his bid for president after he served out his provincal governor term in 1998, but polls showed that he had the most support among the people as he was much more capable and charismatic than Lien. By early 1999, it seemed possible that there might be a Lien-Soong ticket, but talks eventually fell through. (The two parties would join forces in 2004 against the DPP).

Despite the KMT naming Lien as its candidate, Soong also declared his bid for the presidency, and was expelled from the party in November 1999 along with six of his close aides. Many KMT heavyweights also announced their support for Soong, leading to a major split in the party. This would be the party’s second fracturing since those opposing Lee formed the New Party (新黨) in 1993, but one that was much more devastating.

On a side note, the DPP also had its own drama. Former chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) quit the party in May 1999 to run as an independent after Chen secured the nomination. Hsu barely made a dent, earning just 0.63 percent of the vote.

Soong was still the favorite as an independent candidate, but in December 1999, KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung (楊吉雄) accused Soong of embezzlement in a bid to destroy his image. The charges were later dropped, but Soong’s popularity took a hit, and suddenly the race became a tight one between him and Chen.

Several other factors boosted Chen’s popularity. Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) and several other prominent public figures, including Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) founder Lin Huai-min (林懷民), formed a non-official National Policy Advisory Committee in support of Chen.

As usual, the DPP also got a boost after then-Chinese premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) threatened Taiwanese to vote with caution three days before the showdown, stating: “Nothing good will happen to anyone who advocates Taiwanese independence,” “Don’t act on sudden impulse, or you will regret it” and “There are three days left and nobody can predict the future. Our Taiwanese compatriots, you must be careful!”

And with that, the KMT’s fate of losing power for the first time in 55 years was pretty much sealed.

“We used to think of the Kuomintang as this huge, powerful party,” James D. Seymour, a senior research scholar at the East Asian Institute of Columbia University, told the New York Times. “But we found out this weekend that the emperor has no clothes.”

Taiwan in Time, a column about Taiwan’s history that is published every Sunday, spotlights important or interesting events around the nation that have anniversaries this week.

title: Taiwan in Time: The KMT’s first downfall


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Jakarta closes schools for two weeks over virus

PRESSURE:
 Nurses and doctors have been under strain and some of them have been infected, the city’s governor said, urging residents to stay home

Indonesia’s capital is to close all schools and has ordered remote teaching for at least two weeks starting next week to curb the spread of COVID-19, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said yesterday.

The world’s fourth-most populous country on Friday reported 35 new coronavirus cases, including two toddlers, bringing its total to 69. At least four people have died of the virus.

The doubling of confirmed infections had already triggered some schools to announce closures ahead of Baswedan’s announcement, while some companies had also suggested employees work from home.

A worker yesterday walks past a wall with a dinosaur on it at Dunia Fantasi theme park in Jakarta, which is closed due to COVID-19.
 Photo: Reuters

Out of 69 confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide, an unspecified number of people were detected in many places across Jakarta, a city of 10 million people, Baswedan said.

The number of people under surveillance in the city had jumped to 586 people as of March 12, compared with 129 at the beginning of the month, while the number of patients suspected of having COVID-19 had surged to 261 from 39 in the same period.

“What must be done right now is to reduce interactions between residents. Social distancing measures must be taken,” Baswedan said, urging residents to also stay at home and not travel unless necessary.

“Children, based on data, not many of them have been infected with COVID-19, but they are carriers and they spread the virus from one adult to another,” he told a news conference.

Doctors and nurses in the city have been under strain trying to treat patients and some of them have been infected, Baswedan said.

The governor had also decided to close museums, parks and zoos for two weeks beginning on Friday.

The city of Solo in central Java has also announced school closures.

Indonesia only confirmed its first cases of the virus last week while some neighbors had reported scores of cases far earlier, raising concerns among medical experts about infections either not being reported or going undetected.

The central government has faced criticism for withholding information regarding the spread of the virus, arguing that it could cause panic.

It regularly discloses the number of patients and deaths, but does not say where infections are detected.

Neighboring Australia has advised its citizens to reconsider overseas travel plans including to Indonesia, citing a growing risk of transmission in the country and limited availability of testing and infection control facilities.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
On faraway planet, it’s cloudy with a chance of liquid iron rain
科學家發現奇異行星 終年下著「鐵雨滴」

Scientists have detected an exotic planet in another solar system where the weather forecast is always dire — a 100 percent chance of the most outrageous rain imaginable, with droplets of scaldingly hot liquid iron.

The researchers said on Wednesday they used the planet-hunting instrument ESPRESSO, short for “Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations,” on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to observe a planet called WASP-76b located about 640 light years from Earth. It is nearly twice the size of Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet.

Planets discovered outside our solar system are called exoplanets, and WASP-76b is one of the most extreme in terms of climate and chemistry. It is a member of a family of exoplanets spotted in recent years called “ultra-hot” gas giants.

A night-side view of the ultra-hot giant exoplanet WASP-76b that has a day-side facing its host star where temperatures climb above 2,400°C is seen in an illustration released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Wednesday. To the left of the image, we see the evening border of the exoplanet, where it transitions from day to night.
這張歐洲南方天文台於週三發布的示意圖，顯示超熱巨大系外行星WASP-76b永夜側的樣貌，面向宿主恆星的永晝側溫度最高可攀升到攝氏兩千四百度。圖中左側顯示出這顆系外行星的黃昏邊界，白晝從此處過渡到黑夜。
 Photo: Reuters
照片：路透

It resides outstandingly close to its parent star, which is almost twice as big as the sun. WASP-76b orbits at only three times the radius of that star, much closer than our solar system’s innermost planet Mercury orbits the sun. The same side of WASP-76b always faces its star, much as the same side of our moon always faces Earth.

WASP-76b receives 4,000 times the solar radiation that Earth gets from the sun, and its “dayside” is baked, broiled and barbecued, reaching 2,400°C. This ferocious heat vaporizes metals present in the planet, with strong winds then carrying iron vapor to the planet’s cooler night side where it condenses into liquid iron droplets.

Molten iron rain may be a unique feature of these “ultra-hot” exoplanets, according to University of Geneva astronomer David Ehrenreich, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. WASP-76b illustrates the exotic nature of some exoplanets and shows that much remains to be learned about alien planetary systems.

“The extreme atmospheric conditions met in WASP-76b and its siblings, other ‘ultra-hot’ gas giants, are not found anywhere in our solar system and would be very difficult to reproduce in a lab,” Ehrenreich said. “Therefore, these exotic objects are unique laboratories to crash-test our climate models and understand the most extreme forms of atmospheric evolution.” “The ‘zoo’ of planetary systems is far beyond our expectations,” added astrophysicist and study co-author Maria Rosa Zapatero Osorio of the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid, coordinator of the ESPRESSO science team.

WASP-76b appears to be the only planet orbiting its star. While its diameter of approximately 266,000km is about 1.9 times bigger than Jupiter, WASP-76b is actually slightly less massive than Jupiter. This may be the result of perpetually being heated up by the star or never having the chance to cool down and shrink after the planet’s formation because of its position so close to the star. “In other words, it is very much puffed up,” Ehrenreich said.

(Reuters)

科學家近日在另一個太陽系中觀測到一顆奇異的行星，當地的天氣預報每天都讓人絕望：下雨機率百分之百，而且下著最駭人的雨──滾燙炙熱的「液態鐵雨滴」。

研究人員於週三表示，他們利用行星探測儀「ESPRESSO」，觀察到一顆名為WASP-76b的行星。該儀器設置於歐洲南方天文台在智利建造的「極大望遠鏡」上，全名為「岩質系外行星與穩定光譜觀測階梯光柵攝譜儀」。WASP-76b距離地球約六百四十光年，大小幾乎是木星──我們太陽系中體積最大的行星──的兩倍。

在我們太陽系外發現的行星被稱為「系外行星」。就氣候和化學的層面而言，WASP-76b可說是最極端的系外行星之一。該星球屬於科學家近年發現、稱作「超熱」氣態巨行星的系外行星家族。

這顆行星座落在非常靠近其宿主恆星的位置，而且該恆星幾乎是我們太陽的兩倍大。WASP-76b公轉的軌道半徑僅是恆星本體半徑的三倍，比起我們太陽系最內側的行星──水星──繞太陽公轉的距離還要更靠近。WASP-76b的同一側固定面向其宿主恆星，就像是我們的月亮總是以同一側面對地球。

這顆行星接收到的太陽輻射量是地球的四千倍，而永遠是白晝的那一面可說是烘了又烤、再遭到炙燒，溫度達到攝氏兩千四百度。如此兇猛的高溫讓行星上的金屬都遭到氣化，強風再將「鐵蒸氣」吹向行星表面較為涼爽的永夜側，鐵蒸氣就在那裡凝結成液態的「鐵雨滴」。

該研究日前發表於期刊《自然》，主要作者為日內瓦大學的天文學家大衛‧艾倫萊赫。根據他的說法，熔化的鐵雨可能是這類「超熱」系外行星的特色。WASP-76b也展現出某些系外行星的特異性質，顯示我們對於陌生的行星系統仍有許多需要學習的地方。

艾倫萊赫指出：「在WASP-76b和其他同類型『超熱』氣態巨行星上遇到的極端大氣條件，不曾出現於我們的太陽系中，也很難在實驗室重現。」艾倫萊赫進一步表示：「也因此，這些特異的星球可說是獨特的實驗室，讓我們能夠對氣候模式進行撞擊性實驗，藉此了解最極端的大氣演化型態。」研究共同作者瑪莉亞‧蘿莎‧薩帕特洛‧奧索里歐則補充說：「行星系統的混亂狀態遠遠超出我們預期。」奧索里歐是馬德里天體生物學中心的天體物理學家，同時也是「ESPRESSO」科學團隊的協調專員。

WASP-76b似乎是唯一一顆繞著其宿主恆星公轉的行星。儘管其直徑約為二十六萬六千公里，約比木星大一點九倍，WASP-76b實際上的質量比木星還要小一點。這也許是因為該行星永遠都處於被恆星加熱的狀態，或是因為距離恆星太近，因此自從形成後一直都沒有機會冷卻收縮。艾倫萊赫表示：「換句話說，這顆行星很大一部份是膨起來的。」

（台北時報章厚明譯）

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Rieko Ioane scored a double as the Auckland Blues burnished their finals credentials with a 43-10 win over the Golden Lions at Eden Park yesterday.

The New Zealand-based team scored six tries to one to post a fourth straight victory and remain on course for their first finals berth since 2011.

Captain T.J. Faiane praised the composure of the team, who have faced accusation in past seasons of wilting under pressure.

Auckland Blues center Rieko Ioane, center, dives in for a try during their match against the Lions at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday.
 Photo: AFP

“We stayed disciplined and didn’t give away too many penalties, for me that’s the most pleasing thing,” Faiane said. “The boys put in the hard work during the week and it’s god to see it paid off today.”

It was the fourth defeat in a row for the Lions and skipper Elton Jantjies they continued to make too many mistakes.

“It’s breakdown errors, not rolling away, small things like that,” Jantjies said. “At Super Rugby and Test level you need to make sure you’re clinical in certain areas.”

Ioane, the one-time winger who is reinventing himself in the centers, opened the scoring in the eighth minute.

Daniel Kriel hit back with a converted try to briefly give the Lions the lead, but from there it was one-way traffic as the Blues dominated.

Stephen Perofeta dotted down after 31 minutes and the Blues were then awarded a penalty try just before halftime after Lions flanker Ruan Vermaak was sinbinned for a deliberate knock down. Ioane scored his second shortly after the restart, before Gerard Crowley-Tuioti and Hoskins Sotutu completed the rout.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Ioane scores double as Blues down Lions


title: Taiwan Celts celebrate 25

content_text:
By Grant Dexter and Chris Walshe / Staff reporter, with contributing reporter

The Taiwan Celts Gaelic football club celebrated its 25th anniversary yesterday with the Derek Brady Memorial Cup tournament in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District.

More than 100 people participated in men’s and ladies’ tournaments in light rain on St Patrick’s Day.

The club was started by a group of Irish university graduates in 1995 based on “a sense of adventure in their new home and a sense of pride in the culture of the one left behind,” the club said.

Players pose for a photograph at the Taiwan Celts Gaelic football club’s 25th anniversary event yesterday, the Derek Brady Memorial Cup, at the Fuhe Sports Park in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District.
 Photo courtesy of Sean Carless / The Taiwan Celts

It was the first Gaelic football club in Asia, starting with pick-up games at parks in Taipei before reaching out to other expat groups across Asia. A year later, the first Asian finals were held in Manila.

Today, the annual Asian Gaelic Games is the largest gathering of the Irish community in Asia, with more than 900 players representing 70 teams competing in last year’s event in Kuala Lumpur.

The Derek Brady Cup honors a cofounder of the Taiwan Celts, who lost his life in Taipei in 1996, the same year he helped bring about the first tournament.

Brady’s “spark of inspiration lit the fuse for the success of the Gaelic Games in Asia, and his flame continues to burn bright in Taipei to this day,” the club said.

“The club has acted as a home away from home for expats not only from Ireland, but countries around the globe, as well as many local Taiwanese,” it said.

“We happily welcome new members of all levels, ages, backgrounds and nationalities to join our family,” said the club, which has the motto: “Ni neart go chur le cheile” (“There is no strength without unity”).

The Celts have weekly training sessions on Tuesdays from 7:30pm to 9pm at Zonghe Sports Park near the Cailiao MRT Station in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District and on Saturdays from 10am to 12pm at the Bailing Right Bank Rugby Fields near Jiantan MRT in Taipei’s Shilin District.

For more information, e-mail taiwancelts@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/TaiwanCeltsGAA.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
David Edelman can usually be found at a Denver Nuggets basketball game or a Colorado Rapids soccer game. As an usher, he interacts with fans in a role he calls a staple of his life.

However, there are no Nuggets games for at least a month. No Rapids games, either. And Edelman has no idea what he will do now.

“This is what I do for a living,” Edelman said this week as the realization hit that sports were going on hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is my income.”

Vacant ticket booths are pictured at the Vivint Smart Home Arena, where the Utah Jazz would have hosted the New Orleans Pelicans, in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Friday.
 Photo: Jeffrey Swinger / USA TODAY

Thousands of workers would have staffed the 450 NBA and NHL games that will not be played over the next month in response to the pandemic. Then there are the more than 300 spring-training and regular-season baseball games and about 50 Major League Soccer matches canceled or postponed because of the global health crisis.

The total economic impact of the loss of sports and other events because of the pandemic — assuming only a month shutdown — is impossible to calculate, but will reach the billions, easily.

Tickets are not being sold, so teams, leagues and organizing bodies lose money. Fans are not going to events that are not happening, so taxi drivers and ride-share operators have no one to ferry to and from those places. Hotel rooms will be empty. Beers and hot dogs are not being sold, so concessionaires and vendors lose money. Wait staff and bartenders are not getting tips. Without those tips, their babysitters are not getting paid.

The trickle-down effect sprawls in countless directions.

Some teams are trying to help. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, within minutes of the NBA shutdown announcement, said he wanted to find a way to help workers who will lose money because games will not be played.

By Friday, he had his plan.

“We will pay them as if the games happened,” he told reporters in an e-mail.

Other teams, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, have made similar commitments to workers at not just NBA events, but also the building’s minor-league hockey games.

The Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks were among the earliest NBA franchises to reveal that they are working on how they will take care of arena staff.

So have the NHL’s Washington Capitals, among others, and the ownership group for Detroit’s Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers on Friday said that they were setting up a US$1 million fund “to cover one month’s wages for our part-time staff for games, concerts and events that they would have otherwise worked.”

“Our teams, our cities and the leagues in which we operate are a family, and we are committed to looking out for one another,” New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris said.

There were many more significant gifts revealed later on Friday.

Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans said he would “cover the salaries” for workers at the team’s arena for the next 30 days. Blake Griffin of the Detroit Pistons pledged US$100,000 for workers there, the San Jose Sharks said part-time arena workers would get paid for all games not played and Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky said he was giving US$100,000 to workers in that club’s arena — a donation matched by his teammates and followed by another pledge from the team’s ownership group.

“This is a small way for me to express my support and appreciation for these wonderful people who have been so great to me and my teammates and hopefully we can all join together to relieve some of the stress and hardship caused by this national health crisis,” Williamson wrote on Instagram.

At Chicago Blackhawks hockey games alone, about 1,500 workers are in or outside the building on event nights: guest services, concessions, parking, security, box office and so on.

“The per game payroll is more than [US]$250,000,” said Courtney Greve Hack, a spokeswoman for the United Center.

If that is the NHL norm — no official numbers are available — then workers across the league would stand to lose more than US$60 million if ice hockey does not return this season.

“I get it, but this is going to be really tough,” said Chris Lee, who owns a coffee and smoothies franchise in Arizona that draws 70 percent of its annual revenue sales at spring training and Arizona Coyotes hockey games.

Lee was packing up cups that will not be used when baseball on Thursday announced that spring training was ending about two weeks early.

He and his staff — one full-timer and 14 part-time employees — were not sure what comes next.

The enormity of the numbers stacks up quickly.

The group that owns the Raptors and other pro sports clubs in Toronto, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, says it is trying to help 4,000 workers in that city.

In Philadelphia, Rodney Thompson works on commission selling popcorn and beer at 76ers basketball games, Flyers ice hockey games and Phillies baseball games. They are all on hold.

“The more I sell, the more I make,” the 56-year-old said. “The less I sell, the less I make. It would hurt me, financially. I would have no income coming in... I make pretty good money, but if there’s no fans, there’s no work.”

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: VIrus Outbreak: Arena workers face hard times amid shutdown


title: Crusaders savage Sunwolves, go top

content_text:
PLAYING WITH 13:
 Bryn Hall said that his team had ‘the enthusiasm and experience’ to remain in control despite losing two players over illegal play

The Canterbury Crusaders went to the top of the Super Rugby table after a 49-14 bonus-point win over the Sunwolves in Brisbane, Australia, yesterday.

The Crusaders scored seven tries to two to move to 23 points, one ahead of fellow New Zealand outfit the Auckland Blues.

The Sunwolves, who could well have been playing their last ever Super Rugby match because of uncertainty over the competition’s future due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were much improved on previous weeks and were within a converted try midway through the second half trailing 21-14.

Sunwolves scrumhalf Rudy Paige looks to pass during their Super Rugby match against the Canterbury Crusaders in Brisbane, Australia, yesterday.
 Photo: AFP

However, the Crusaders stamped their authority on the match, running in four converted tries in the final 20 minutes.

Canterbury, who rested a host of All Blacks for the match, led 14-7 at halftime and then scored immediately after the break when lock Luke Romano crashed over.

Sunwolves flyhalf Garth April struck back with a brilliant solo try under the posts to narrow the gap, but despite losing replacement hooker Hugh Roach to a red card in the 66th minute and Sevu Reece to a yellow two minutes later, the Crusaders had too much class for their Japan-based rivals.

Canterbury Crusaders player Leicester Fainga’anuku, left, runs the ball during their Super Rugby match against the Japan-based Sunwolves at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia, yesterday.
 Photo: AFP

“It was a little bit touch and go there for a bit,” Canterbury captain Bryn Hall said.

“It just comes back to the enthusiasm and experience in the side — down to 13 men in the second half — it just shows the resilience and character we have in our group,” he said.

Later in Australia, the Queensland Reds beat the South Africa-based Bulls 41-17.


content_text:
The UFC is determined to fight on amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While leagues and organizers across sports canceled or delayed competition this week, the UFC proceeded with its plans to hold a fan-free event last night in Brasilia.

Next weekend, the promotion still plans to stage a full fight card with fans inside London’s O2 Arena.

UFC president Dana White speaks at a news conference in Las Vegas on Oct. 6, 2018.
 Photo: AP

The UFC has not canceled any competitions, even those previously scheduled for areas where large gatherings are now banned. Instead, the promotion has moved events scheduled for March 28 in Columbus, Ohio, and April 11 in Portland, Oregon, to the new UFC Apex complex in Las Vegas, where it has a small arena and television production capabilities.

UFC president Dana White attributes his decision to go against the sports world’s collective mindset partly to a conversation on Thursday with US President Donald Trump and US Vice President Mike Pence.

White and Trump are longtime friends and business associates.

“I talked to the president and the vice president of the United States about this,” White said on ESPN, his promotion’s broadcast partner. “They’re taking this very serious. They’re saying: ‘Be cautious, be careful, but live your life and stop panicking.’ Everybody is panicking, and instead of panicking, we’re actually getting out there and working with doctors and health officials and the government to figure out how we can keep the sport safe and how we can continue to put on events.”

The UFC will not have fans in the stands, but the competition will go on — and more importantly to the fighters, they will get paid in a sport with no financial compensation unless a fight actually takes place.

The UFC would monitor its fighters for symptoms of the virus before allowing them to compete, White said.

“We’re always looking out for the health and safety of our fans, our athletes, whatever it might be,” he said. “This thing going on, we’re going to do the same thing. We’re going to make sure that two healthy athletes are competing, and these guys are good to go.”

For most people, the novel coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older people and those with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the virus.

According to the WHO, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness might take three to six weeks to recover.

Combat sports are among the most elemental competitive events, with just two fighters and a referee in a cage or ring surrounded by three judges and relatively few vital support personnel. That’s a big reason that the UFC believes it can continue while the rest of the sporting world grinds to a halt.

They are also unlikely to get significant resistance from the fighters, who largely need the paychecks.

“I would bet more than half of fighters would expose themselves to coronavirus before not getting to fight,” UFC welterweight Anthony Rocco Martin said.

“We aren’t union and don’t get paid to not fight. Most spend all their money getting to their next fight,” he said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: UFC to fight on, White says


title: WRU calls off its Six Nations game against Scotland

content_text:
The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) insisted that its Six Nations game against Scotland yesterday was going ahead, but fewer than five hours later, it was called off.

“Whilst medical advice remains consistent, we have decided that it is in the best interests of supporters, players and staff to fall in line with recent measures taken across the UK and global sports industries,” the WRU said in a statement on Friday.

The Wales-Scotland match in Cardiff, a 74,000-seat sellout, was the last remaining tournament match to be postponed. Days earlier, the other games scheduled for what was supposed to be the final day of the Six Nations — Italy against England in Rome and France against Ireland in Paris — were also put off.

Locks are seen in front of the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Friday.
 Photo: AFP

“Given the fluid and unprecedented nature of this issue, a postponement became the only viable option,” the WRU said.

Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones was due to equal former New Zealand captain Richie McCaw’s Test caps world record of 148.

His next opportunity could be on June 27 in Japan.

Scotland were already in Cardiff, going through their captain’s run at the Principality Stadium.

“While it is disappointing the fixture could not go ahead, there are clearly wider public safety issues unfolding at this unprecedented time,” the Scottish Rugby Union said.

Four matches in total have been postponed in the Six Nations and are yet to be rescheduled.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: Turkish and Russian troops to start Syria patrols

content_text:
Turkish and Russian troops are to begin jointly patrolling a key highway in northwest Syria today as part of a fragile truce brokered by the countries, Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar said on Friday.

Akar made the announcement after Turkish and Russian officials ended four days of talks in Ankara over the technicalities of the ceasefire reached last week for Syria’s Idlib Province.

The ceasefire by Russia and Turkey — which support the opposing sides in the Syria conflict — called for the establishment of a security corridor along Syria’s M4 highway, running east-west in Idlib, with joint patrols by Russian and Turkish troops.

Children clutch a tent during strong winds at a camp for displaced people in Albrdkulai village in Syria’s Idlib Province on Friday.
 Photo: AFP

Speaking to reporters, Akar said that the Russian and Turkish delegations agreed to “set up joint coordination centers” for Idlib.

He did not provide further details.

“Our hope is for the truce to rapidly become a permanent one,” Akar said.

In rebel-held parts of Idlib, scores of people gathered in the town of Ariha on the M4 highway saying they reject patrols by Russian “occupiers” on the road, said opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, and el-Dorar al-Shamiya, an activist collective.

The observatory said that the protesters are setting up tents on the highway to prevent the opening of the road that has been closed since 2012.

Parts of the highway under government control have been cleared for the reopening by removing blocks and barriers, Syrian Minister of Transportation Ali Hammoud was quoted by state media as saying.

The highway is very important for business, as it is a considered a main link between neighboring Iraq and the Mediterranean through Syria, he added.

The truce halted a three-month air and ground campaign by the Syrian government against the rebel-held province. That offensive killed hundreds and sent 1 million people fleeing toward the Turkish border.

The Russian-backed Syrian government offensive made significant gains in Syria’s last rebel stronghold. Turkey sent thousands of troops across the border to reinforce the rebels, leading to rare direct fighting between Syrian and Turkish troops.

The cease-fire deal also appeared to achieve Moscow’s key goal of allowing the Syrian government to keep hold of the strategic north-south highway known as the M5.

Syrian forces had captured its last segments in the latest offensive, which began in early December last year.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: Malaysian ex-PM warns US about 1MDB funds

content_text:
The US should “think twice” before giving Malaysia back the money recovered from an anti-kleptocracy probe into state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Friday, as the party accused of graft at 1MDB is back in power.

Mahathir, 94, abruptly resigned last month before being replaced by Muhyiddin Yassin, whose coalition includes the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), despite voters rejecting the former ruling party in the 2018 general election amid a backlash over the multibillion dollar scandal at 1MDB.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) says that more than US$4.5 billion was looted from 1MDB under former prime minister Najib Razak of the UMNO, who is now on trial for allegedly receiving some of the stolen money.

The department, in its biggest ever anti-kleptocracy case, has recouped about US$1 billion from the seizure and sale of assets allegedly bought with 1MDB funds.

It returned nearly US$200 million to Malaysia in May last year, but a second transfer of about US$240 million was delayed last month amid uncertainty following Mahathir’s resignation, sources have said.

REASONING

Mahathir told reporters that the department should reconsider its decision to send the money to Malaysia after the return of Najib’s party to the government.

“When we took over, the DOJ was willing to give it to us because we overthrew the people who stole the money,” he said in an interview. “Now, the people who stole the money is going to get back the money they stole. I think the DOJ will have to think twice.”

HISTORY

At least six countries are investigating alleged graft and money laundering at 1MDB, founded by Najib in 2009.

After an unexpected election victory in 2018, Mahathir reopened probes into 1MDB and Najib’s involvement at the fund.

Najib is facing five trials, the first of which — involving seven charges linked to US$10 million misappropriated from a 1MDB unit — is expected to reach a verdict within months.

He has pleaded not guilty and says he was misled by financier Jho Low and other 1MDB officials.

Low, who has been charged in Malaysia and the US, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: Season uncertain after NZ imposes travel rules

content_text:
The Super Rugby season was in doubt yesterday after New Zealand ordered everyone entering the country to self-isolate for 14 days in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19.

It effectively rules out overseas teams playing games there for the foreseeable future and should New Zealand sides leave for overseas clashes, they would have to go into quarantine on their return.

“SANZAAR is now reviewing the full impact on the Super Rugby tournament,” the governing body said, adding that its executive committee would hold an urgent meeting to decide what to do.

The Bulls’ Embrose Papier, front left, kicks during their Super Rugby match against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, Australia, yesterday.
 Photo: EPA-EFE

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the self-quarantine order would be reviewed after 16 days. It applies to all inbound travelers except those from Pacific Island nations.

The Canterbury Crusaders were expected to return from Australia, where they beat the Sunwolves yesterday, before the deadline at midnight tonight after which the rules are to be enforced.

The Otago Highlanders are in Buenos Aires for their clash with the Jaguares, which was to be played behind closed doors after press time last night. They were not expected to return prior to the deadline.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: MLB releases players after pre-season call

content_text:
Major League Baseball in the US is allowing players to go home, making the decision a day after canceling the rest of the spring training schedule and postponing opening day by at least two weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a meeting in Arizona on Friday that included MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, union head Tony Clark and their top aides, players were told that they could remain at spring training, report to the team’s home city or go to their own home.

The league also announced it was suspending spring training camps.

A family leaves the Seattle Mariners team store in Peoria, Arizona, on Friday.
 Photo: AFP

New York Yankees players decided as a group to remain in Tampa, Florida.

“Everyone wants to stay here and get ready to go whenever the season starts back,” reliever and team union representative Zack Britton said.

Yankees owner “Hal Steinbrenner spoke to us,” Britton said. “He’s going to give us access to the facility. They’re going to supply us with breakfast in the morning.”

The MLB on Thursday announced that the season would be delayed at least two weeks from its scheduled start on March 26. Teams speculated that the season might not start until May, necessitating a reduced schedule.

The league and the union discussed the need for likely two-to-four weeks of workouts ahead of openers once the date for the season’s start has been set.

“Some of us have been around the game for a long time, have lived through some work stoppages and saw when you had to return to play protocols, it would be in the format of an abbreviated spring training and then maybe an expansion of rosters early,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said.

Management and the union also talked about the possible need to extend the regular season past its scheduled end on Sept. 27, tacking some or all postponed games onto the original end of the season.

Ballparks in Florida and Arizona were locked down as the sport considered how to proceed following an outbreak that has brought the global sports schedule to a standstill.

“We don’t have a playbook for this,” Cleveland Indians president Chris Antonetti said. “We are learning on the fly. We are taking the approach that we will continue to prioritize the health and wellness of our players, our staff, their families, everyone at the complex, everyone throughout the organization. That is evolving day to day.”

Some agents are worried that foreign players might have difficulty returning to the US if they go home.

Taiwanese involved in the MLB this season include: Chang Yu, who hit a two-run homer for the Indians in a pre-season game against the Los Angeles Angels at the Tempe Diablo Stadium on Monday, helping his side to an 11-10 win; Huang Wei-chieh, who the Texas Rangers on Dec. 6 last year assigned to minor-league team the Nashville Sounds; Lin Tzu-wei, who the Red Sox on Sept. 30 last year recalled from the Pawtucket Red Sox; and Wang Wei-chung, a free agent who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Oakland Athletics last year.

In a message from the Chicago White Sox to their minor-league players sent on Friday, players were told that “if it is unsafe for you to travel, or there may be challenges in a return to the US, you may remain here, but this must be discussed and cleared by the organization.”

Oakland minor-league pitcher Peter Bayer on Thursday tweeted that he had taken a food-delivery job, given the uncertainty around his next baseball paycheck.

“Who knows what’s going to happen with the MILB/pay,” he wrote. “So I decided to start driving with Door Dash tonight. $62 in 3 hours... not too bad.”

Additional reporting by staff writer

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
SHUTTLER ADVANCES:
 Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen advanced to the semi-finals at the All England Open, even as the BWF suspended tournaments after that event finishes

Sports bodies around the world have called off events in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19, with athletics, baseball, tennis, and table tennis events among the top-level cancelations in Taiwan.

The New Taipei City Marathon on March 15 has been canceled, the final Olympic baseball qualifying tournament in Taichung and Douliu City from April 1 to 5 was postponed to June 17 to 21, the ATP Taipei Challenger from March 30 to April 5 was postponed, the Asian Cup table tennis event in Tainan on March 8 was postponed and the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championships offroad triathlon and duathlon in Taiwan on March 28 and 29 was canceled.

In Kuala Lumpur, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) suspended all tournaments from tomorrow until April 12.

Lee Zii Jia returns to Viktor Axelsen during his quarter-final win at the All England Open at the Arena Birmingham in England on Friday.
 Photo: EPA-EFE

“The suspension of the circuit will come into effect following the completion of the Yonex All England Open in Birmingham on Sunday [today],” it said in a statement.

In London, Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen advanced to the semi-finals at the All England Open on Friday with a 21-11, 21-12 win over fellow Taiwanese Wang Tzu-wei in Birmingham.

In France, Germany’s Maximilian Schachmann held on to the overall lead of the Paris-Nice on Friday, with racing set to go ahead yesterday, despite the pandemic.

The final stage scheduled for today was canceled, with French rider Romain Bardet criticizing a “lack of unity” in the peloton.

With a fine solo finish under bright blue skies, Belgium’s Tiesj Benoot won the 161.5km run through the Luberon hills to Apt in Provence in the southeast of France on Friday.

Benoot climbed to second in the overall standings, trailing Schachmann by 36 seconds.

Two other key challengers also strengthened their bids as Colombian climber Sergio Higuita moved to within 1 minute, 1second and third overall, while Italian Vincenzo Nibali was 1 minute, 18 seconds back in sixth.

Yesterday’s summit finish atop La Colmiane was to provide the finale to the race.

Bardet said he had mixed feelings about continuing with the race on Friday.

“We were racing flat out. I had fun out there, why not let yourself go a bit, even if it makes no sense racing in this context,” Bardet said. “Some are leaving, others are not, we may end up with 30 riders. I wonder where the meaning is in there... We’re out on our little ride as if nothing has happened.”

Schachmann had been in a group about 20 seconds adrift of Benoot, but crashed on the final descent less than 1km from home.

New Zealand abandoned their one-day cricket tour of Australia after Wellington tightened border restrictions to combat the virus’ spread.

The Blacks Caps lost the opening game of the three-match series on Friday and were due to play the second in Sydney today, but they were to fly home immediately after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that everyone entering the country from midnight today would have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Meanwhile, the Indian Premier League postponed the start of the world’s most lucrative cricket competition.

The start of the Twenty20 tournament has been put back from March 29 until April 15 because of the coronavirus, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Virus hits sports around world


content_text:
Green energy’s US$10 trillion revolution faces oil crash test
The fight against climate change might find a boon in low oil prices,
as oil loses its power to hold the world ransom

In 2014, when the price of oil last crashed, the world’s governments had no agreement in place to fight climate change. The following year, leaders signed the Paris Agreement.

Green investments have soared since then. About US$1.2 trillion has been poured into renewable energy, and global electric vehicle sales reached 2 million last year. Bloomberg NEF expects as much as US$10 trillion to be poured into clean energy by 2050.

The agreement also marked a cultural watershed, with emissions targets now policed by a growing environmental movement that is shaping politics from Germany to India. In a sign of the times, activist Greta Thunberg and Tesla Inc founder Elon Musk are now two of the most famous people in the world.

So when this week Saudi Arabia and Russia joined in a price dispute that wreaked havoc on global markets already rattled by the COVID-19 pandemic, it looked like the major oil-producing nations reasserting their supremacy in the short term. Instead, it might prove to be another step in a longer-term trend toward ending oil’s power to hold the world to ransom.

The price of a barrel of oil remains an important economic indicator. However, the relentless push to move away from fossil fuels suggests that its geopolitical effects are likely to be softer than in the past, with the imperative to combat global warming assuming its place.

“The impact of the oil price on broader economic growth has been decoupling ever since the 1980s,” said Shane Tomlinson, deputy chief executive officer at environmental thinktank E3G. “We could see exceptional movements in the oil price in the next few months, but I don’t think that changes the fundamental need to address climate change.”

Oil’s fall to about US$35 a barrel from US$55 just last week has major implications for addressing climate change. Low prices incentivize more use of oil; it squeezes the budgets of oil companies, putting clean-energy projects in doubt; and some governments feel pressured to prop up struggling oil companies. All that drives up emissions, which is bad news for global warming.

However, if low prices are sustained this time, there might be big positives for fighting climate change.

Renewable energy is a more mature industry than five years ago. As it becomes a less risky investment, it has attracted big investors who are showering a lot of cash and building some projects that rival the capacity of conventional power plants.

At the same time, oil exploration is becoming less viable economically, with an increased risk that even those projects that go ahead no longer yield good returns and with worries about stranded assets growing.

“Now it doesn’t make sense to reduce your investment in renewables if the oil price crashes,” BNP Paribas Asset Management sustainability head Mark Lewis said. “It’s more logical to reduce your investment in oil.”

That reality points to a broader change in investor sentiment since Paris that affects companies and governments alike.

A number of large investors have come together under groups such as Climate Action 100+ to demand companies put sustainability at the heart of their business models, and that is not likely to change.

Tesla has effectively become a proxy for how the green economy is viewed by investors. Musk has demonstrated that a mass-market electric vehicle is viable, prompting all the major automakers to follow his lead. He is building his latest plant outside Berlin, in a show of his intention to take the fight to the heart of Europe’s leading luxury vehicle producer.

Tesla is after all the world’s second-most valuable automaker by market value after Toyota Motor Corp.

For governments worldwide, pressure for policy measures has mounted as the issue increasingly resonates, in part due to the kind of direct action and media campaigning espoused by Thunberg.

Low oil prices offer one reason to heed that voter call, since it is a good time to end fossil-fuel subsidies or raise taxes on fossil-fuel consumption. Such a move could also help avoid the sorts of destabilizing anti-government protests seen in France, Iran and Ecuador when energy price increases were proposed.

It could even be done in a way that “protects or even benefits poorer households and communities,” World Resources Institute climate and economics vice president Helen Mountford said.

The goal of reaching out to “left-behind” communities is a dynamic driving policy from the post-Brexit UK to South Africa and swaths of Latin America that suffered waves of unrest late last year.

During the last down cycle, between 2014 and 2016, when oil briefly dipped below US$30 per barrel, India cut annual fossil-fuel subsidies from US$29 billion to US$8 billion and even raised taxes on consumption.

Some of the money raised was diverted to renewable-energy subsidies, after setting an ambitious goal to deploy as much as 175 gigawatts of mainly solar and wind power by 2022 — about twice the power generation capacity of the UK.

“Many countries are pursuing electrification and decarbonization to make them less dependent on the volatility of oil markets,” said Adnan Amin, former director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency. “This kind of event will only reinforce that momentum.”

Also since 2014, the power of OPEC’s 14 nations to shape the market has been weakened by US shale production. (OPEC’s Vienna base is home to an Austrian government that now includes the Greens as a junior coalition partner.)

The US — which is not a member of the cartel — became an oil exporter again on the back of its shale revolution, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia in 2018 to regain its status as the world’s biggest producer. US President Donald Trump has cheered the US energy resurgence as an example of taking back control.

However, the collapse in oil prices weakens the shale industry’s ability to pump at a profit and even pushes some of the producers toward bankruptcies, adding to economic uncertainty surrounding the virus that may hurt Trump’s re-election bid, Amin said.

Since Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, it could yet tilt the presidential race toward a candidate more in favor of climate action.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen doubled down on EU plans to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, despite the emergence of what she called “unforeseen challenges.”

“Today it’s no longer the question if there will be a European Green Deal or whether the EU will become climate-neutral, but the question is how we’re proceeding and how far-reaching will the transition be,” Von der Leyen said on Monday.

That stance is understandable given that EU citizens say they want the bloc to focus on tackling climate change and preserving the environment as its No. 1 priority, a Eurobarometer survey for the European Parliament showed.

“Clearly we cannot ignore what’s going on globally,” EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said on Bloomberg TV, adding that the global “climate emergency didn’t go anywhere.”

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: Russia-Saudi Arabia relationship another COVID-19 casualty

content_text:
The first geopolitical casualty of COVID-19 is unfolding in real time: The fraying of the Saudi Arabian-Russian partnership.

Up until now, it was reasonable to expect the biggest geopolitical upsets from the virus would be related to China, and such outcomes still might unfold in the future.

Yet a coronavirus-instigated meltdown in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Russia is on full display right now. It is already roiling oil markets in a way that could further upend the global economy, and has geopolitical implications well beyond energy markets.

Five years ago, a partnership between Russia and Saudi Arabia seemed inconceivable. The two countries had a history of mistrust going back to Saudi Arabian support for the Afghan mujahidin, and they differed significantly on important issues, most notably on Syria.

However, the 2014 to 2016 descent of oil prices focused the minds of rulers in Riyadh and Moscow, and the two governments put aside their frictions to focus on lifting oil prices. Russia took the lead in forming and sustaining OPEC+, a 10-member group of oil producers that for the first time coordinated with OPEC over global oil production cuts.

Although the collective efforts of OPEC and OPEC+ could not bolster prices as much as many producers wanted, they were critical to keeping them in a middling range where many producers could manage in the short term.

The coronavirus pushed the growing divergence of Russian and Saudi Arabian interests over oil prices to the forefront, and led to the dramatic falling-out between Riyadh and Moscow on Friday last week.

Slowing economic activity in China — the source of nearly two-thirds of oil demand growth last year — has led forecasters to sharply reduce projections of oil demand growth for this year.

Although the first quarter of this year has not yet ended, the International Energy Agency has cut its forecast for oil demand several times and now predicts a quarterly decline in demand for the first time in a decade. The outlook for the rest of the year looks similarly bleak.

Faced with this grim picture, Saudi Arabia proposed an additional production cut of 1.5 million barrels per day, on top of the most recent cut that had been in place since December last year.

Russia, which can balance its budget on a significantly lower price of oil, balked. It walked away from talks in Vienna and reportedly gave the 10 members of OPEC+ license to ramp up any “idle capacity” after the current agreement expires at the end of this month.

Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco lost no time in responding, slashing the prices it would charge refiners buying Saudi Arabian crude next month by unprecedented amounts.

The biggest discounts were extended to European buyers in what can only be interpreted as an effort to undercut Russian oil sales.

Aramco publicly announced that it would increase its overall production next month from 9.7 million barrels per day today to between 10 million and 11 million; privately, Saudi Arabian officials have indicated that they are willing to explore their options for increasing production to 12 million.

Other members of OPEC that have been curbing their production, such as Iraq and the United Arab Emirate, will no doubt follow suit.

It is hard to overstate what this could mean for global oil markets. The tumble of oil prices to below US$30 a barrel in early 2016 was caused by a supply glut created in part by increases in US unconventional oil production and an OPEC strategy focused on market share instead of price.

The oil-market crisis the world is about to experience would be the product of a supply glut and dramatic demand destruction due to the coronavirus and its effects on global economic activity. The geopolitical effects could be massive. It could undercut the US shale industry, destabilize Saudi Arabia at a sensitive moment of reform, wreak havoc on the budgets of countries like Iraq, and create new hurdles to addressing climate change.

There is time for the two sides to come to a deal. It would require both Saudi Arabia and Russia to do what many negotiators do when they hit an impasse: Make the problem bigger, so there are more trade-offs and more win-win solutions.

It is possible that Moscow and Riyadh have been evaluating options largely through the lens of economics. Reaching a deal has understandably proven difficult, as Russia is much better-positioned than Saudi Arabia to weather a period of low oil prices, which it hopes will curb US shale production.

Still, Russia in particular should also look at this moment through a geopolitical lens. It has a lot more to lose than oil revenues.

The cratering of the Russian-Saudi Arabian relationship would likely reverse one of the most significant strategic trends in the Middle East of the last five years: the re-emergence of Russia as a key strategic actor in the region.

Russia parlayed the goodwill it created by cooperating with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members on oil prices to expand its diplomatic, economic and military footprint in the region from its initial incursion into Syria in 2015.

To see how much has changed in a few short years, look at October last year, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first visit to Saudi Arabia in 12 years. He received full red-carpet treatment and was flanked by a large delegation of trade, defense and security officials.

Putin rolled up the visit with the announcement of more than 20 agreements worth more than US$2 billion, as well as a status-enhancing invitation to participate in the international investigation surrounding the attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.

Any US visitor to the region in the past several years has heard the argument many times that Russia — in contrast to the US — is demonstrating how a true partner acts.

Ultimately, Russia would find that pulling out the OPEC+ agreement at a time of such uncertainty in global oil markets would be a huge setback for its larger ambition to become a power in the region on equal footing to the US.

This realization might concentrate minds in Moscow and generate alternative proposals. For example, Russia very much wants to normalize the situation in Syria and begin rebuilding the country under Bashar al-Assad’s rule. The Saudi Arabian government has so far resisted entreaties to partner in these efforts.

Yet it would not be surprising if Russia leveraged its oil policy to convince Riyadh to once again recognize the Assad regime and reopen an embassy there, as other Gulf countries have already done. An invitation for Syria to rejoin the Arab League — from which it was ejected in 2011 — could follow.

Ultimately, Moscow and Riyadh could still pull global oil markets back from the brink. Doing so, would require both sides to widen the aperture through which they are looking at the problem and bring geopolitics explicitly into the conversation.

A failure to do so would be a jolt to the world, but not without its silver linings.

The first, which Washington should be thinking about how to exploit, would be an opportunity for the US — if it is so inclined — to regain some of the foothold it has lost in the Middle East, as regional actors reflect on what really constitutes a partner in that part of the world.

Meghan O’Sullivan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School and is on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. She served on the US National Security Council from 2004 to 2007. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


people: 習近平 胡錦濤

content_text:
China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee on Feb. 24 announced that the annual assemblies of the National People’s Congress and the People’s Political Consultative Conference would be postponed until further notice.

This means that it is not possible to say with certainty that the spread of COVID-19 will be contained in the short term and that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) cannot legitimately make any international visits.

Whether considered from the perspective of the epidemic or domestic Japanese dissatisfaction with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Xi, it also means that Japan can no longer receive Xi and give him the full state visit treatment.

The question is why Beijing waited until March 5 before reluctantly giving in to Japan’s decision to postpone Xi’s visit.

China first had the idea of Xi making a state visit to Japan in the middle of the cherry blossom season, and the plan was confirmed in June last year when Xi and Abe met at the G20 summit in Osaka.

The visit was to be part of a series of events planned by Beijing over the past two years to improve China-Japan relations. Beijing had positioned Xi’s planned visit as the climax of the normalization of relations, and Xi and Abe were expected to celebrate the coming of a new era of Sino-Japanese relations.

An official visit by Xi also holds a deeper meaning directly linked to a diplomatic strategy that China has been updating over the past few years. Japan has neither curbed a “nationalizing” of the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands — which Taiwan calls the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and Beijing refers to as the Diaoyu Archipelago (釣魚群島) — in the East China Sea, nor stopped expanding its defense force, and continues to strengthen its defense deployments on the Ryukyu Islands.

The strategic reason for China still being willing to improve relations with Japan under these circumstances is that it wants to counteract the effects of the new “cold war” between China and US by ending any joint US-Japan efforts to contain China.

Over the past few years, China has also found itself surrounded by diplomatic enemies. Beijing’s hardline approach in the South China Sea has become the main cause of friction with neighboring countries. The Belt and Road Initiative has also led to concerns that the Chinese government is engaging in debt-trap diplomacy and political infiltration.

Hong Kong’s unprecedented pro-democracy protests and Taiwan’s re-election of a Democratic Progressive Party administration also highlight the complete failure of Beijing’s policies for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

China’s handling of the Xinjiang region and Tibet has also raised considerable international concern.

Beijing desperately needs to use its friendship with Japan to break through its isolation in the international community. Not only does it hope to break through the Indo-Pacific strategy jointly created by the US, Japan, India and Australia to contain China, it also hoped to use Xi’s state visit to Japan to change the international community’s negative impression of China.

However, because Xi’s visit had to be postponed, Beijing’s long-established diplomatic strategy has been disrupted.

The improvement of Japan-China relations over the past two years has been characterized by Chinese activism and Japan going with the flow.

The reason Abe has been willing to take an open and positive attitude toward this development is that he hopes to fully restore bilateral visits by Japanese and Chinese officials, not to mention the diplomatic pull and standing in history that the achievement would bring Abe and his administration.

However, the continued spread of COVID-19 has resulted in the Abe administration’s crisis management to be questioned.

The Japanese government’s plan to give Xi — “the world’s biggest dictator” — a high-profile state visit has sparked public opposition. Those opposing it include conservative members of the Japanese parliament who are close to Abe; political figures in Japan’s second-largest political party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan; Japan’s third-largest party, the Democratic Party for the People; the National Democratic Party; and the Japanese Communist Party.

The virus started in Wuhan, China, and has spread to Japan and the rest of the world. The Japanese public has been critical of China and even demanded accountability from Beijing for having concealed the outbreak in the beginning.

In short, the conditions and atmosphere that led to Xi’s planned visit have deteriorated, making Japanese more cautious, which is why Abe told Chinese Communist Party Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) at a Feb. 28 meeting that Xi’s visit “must bring sufficient results.”

State visits to Japan by Xi’s two predecessors did not bring positive results. During his visit in 1999, then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) was criticized by Japanese for talking about “historical issues” at a welcome banquet hosted by the Emperor of Japan.

Although then-Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) visited Japan in 2008, during the administration of Yasuo Fukuda, who valued Japan-China relations, Japanese were critical of China’s handling of an incident with poisonous dumplings that spread to Japan, riots in Tibet, chaos surrounding the Olympic torch relay, and the development of oil and gas fields in the East China Sea.

Now that China has agreed, on Thursday last week, to announce the postponement of Xi’s visit to Japan, Beijing’s wishful thinking has fallen short, although China continues to hope that the visit will simply be postponed until this fall.

However, as the coronavirus spreads, Japanese attitudes toward China are worsenng.

Postponing Xi’s visit until the fall might not make it any more likely to happen.

John Lim has a doctorate in law from the University of Tokyo and is a former associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Modern History.

Translated by Lin Lee-kai

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Virus foils China’s wooing of Japan


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Certain travelers restricted from blood donations

People returning from places with level 2 and level 3 travel advisories amid the COVID-19 pandemic must wait 28 days before donating blood, the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation said yesterday.

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has issued a level 3 “warning” travel advisory for China, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Macau and South Korea, while a level 2 “alert” travel advisory has been issued for Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US states of Washington, New York and California.

Starting from Tuesday, the travel advisories for Dubai, Ireland, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, the UK, and all of the EU, except for Bulgaria and Croatia, are to be raised to level 3, the center added yesterday.

To ensure safe blood, people must not donate blood within 28 days of leaving these countries and regions, the foundation said, adding that the same rule applies to those who have come into close contact with people infected or who have recovered from COVID-19.

All blood donors would have their temperature checked and their hands sanitized before donating blood, it said.

The foundation said that it is providing health counseling to donors and stepping up sanitation efforts at all of its donation stations.

If a blood donor develops a fever or exhibits signs of other pneumonia-like symptoms shortly after donating blood, they should promptly contact the donation station that they visited to inform them of their situation.

In other news, CECC advisory specialist panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) yesterday said that while the nation has no plans to follow the Netherlands’ example and screen all medical personnel for COVID-19, it might at some point conduct antibody testing to see whether people have ever been infected with the virus.

Mass screenings are usually implemented when there is community spread, but the nation has been able to limit the virus’ spread to isolated or imported cases, so it would not be adopting the method, he said.

The only case of cluster infection so far began after the 34th patient was hospitalized, Chang added.

An option that the CECC is considering involves the detection of antibodies, which would allow screening in greater numbers over a shorter period, he said, adding that testing the serum can determine whether someone previously contracted the coronavirus.

Additional reporting by Lin Hui-chin

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.