Research, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News on South Korea, Ukraine, CCP, Poland, U.S., Taiwan, disease control
News (1)
Taiwanese commentary on South Korea's new president Yoon Seok-yul
Reporters : Gao Jianlun and Zeng Yihao / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2022/03/10/a103369942.html
The South Korean presidential election was elected by the opposition candidate Yoon Seok-yul, which was also interpreted by the outside world as a victory of "pro-American and anti-communist", to see the response of Taiwan's academic and political circles.
Luo Zhizheng, Director of the International Department of the DPP vs. Wu Zhaoxie, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said, "Now let's review the process of their elections over the past period of time, and they have always turned this so-called China issue into a very important domestic election issue. Commander Yoon Seok-yul is said to be relatively pro-American and anti-China. What do you think of the future development of Taiwan-South Korea relations? Regarding the internal affairs of other countries, it is best for our Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to make comments, but about South Korea we will continue to pay close attention to the changes in the political situation, and hope to promote the relationship between Taiwan and South Korea."
Lu Xinji, assistant professor at the Institute of International Politics of Chung Hsing University, said, "In the whole world's development situation, when anti-China (-CCP) and anti-US forces are making a tug-of-war, on behalf of South Korea, it has made her own statement of choice here. It's expected that she's getting tougher and tougher on the CCP, and then getting closer to the US foreign policy stance, including what he said before the election, that he's going to increase defenses like the THAAD system. So you can see that when South Korea makes such a statement, it should allow South Korea to return to the so-called front alliance of the so-called United States, an East Asian ally."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China issued a statement saying that it would like to congratulate the South Korean people for electing their national leader through peaceful and democratic election again, and will bless the elected Yoon Seok-yul through appropriate channels. The people-to-people relationship between Taiwan and South Korea is long and profound, sharing the values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. They look forward to deepening exchanges and cooperation in important areas with South Korea in a mutually beneficial manner on the basis of our existing friendship, and working together to safeguard peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
News (2)
Yoon Seok-yul and his wife are pet slaves
Yoon Seok-yul and his wife Kim Jianxi have no children after their marriage, so they have 4 dogs and 3 cats at home, and they often share warm photos of being dog slaves and cat slaves, and their lives are quite lively. Among them, Yoon adopted his pet dog Tori in 2012. Tori was seriously injured in a car accident and was almost euthanized. However, Yoon adopted Tori and made it undergo 17 operations and actively took her to see a doctor. Finally, Tori recovered. The prospective South Korean president can be said to be a standard cat and dog slave, and he also gives people an image of being close to the people.
Ref: news.tvbs.com.tw/world/1736114
News (3)
[There is no mistake] The CCP is frustrated by the results of the South Korean general election
Report by : Shishan / Editor : Li Hong / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2022/03/10/a103370028.html / Shishan Angle: https://www.youmaker.com/c/ShiShan
There have been many major changes in the global situation recently, all of which have had a negative impact on the CCP.
Let's start with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The blitz, which Russia had planned, was turned into a protracted war, with several important outcomes. The first is the attitude of Western countries. Russia and the CCP did not expect that Western countries would take such a strong joint measure to sanction Russia. From the perspective of China and Russia, the response of the people in Western countries is not unexpected. In Europe, the United States and other countries, many people take to the streets to protest against the war. This will definitely happen, but the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, and even Japan have all adopted a common strategy. It is an accident that Russia has used such a strong boycott in economic, trade, and political and diplomatic fields for unified action.
The most terrible thing is that the Western countries have made serious moves in the military aspect, giving money and robbing missiles. In particular, a large number of volunteers entered Ukraine to participate in the war. If there is no government cooperation or even behind-the-scenes participation, it is unlikely to happen. Many people say that the American needle and javelin missiles are powerful, but without accurate data and intelligence support, these two missiles would not be able to play such a big role. For this kind of intelligence, satellites, drones and electronic reconnaissance aircraft are needed in the sky, supercomputers are needed underground for calculation, plus interconnected information integration combat units. Only Americans can do this.
If the weapons of mankind, ancient cold weapons are the first generation; the use of firearms, guns and cannons is the second generation; by now, it has actually entered the third generation, which is the information age. The only country in the world that has a third-generation weapon and has figured out a new war mode under the whole set of third-generation weapons is the United States.
Let's take an example. In ancient wars, when two armies meet, they must first line up. Battle formations are very important. In the era of hot weapons, that is, the era of guns and cannons, everyone fights in formations. The two sides line up, walk within range, you fire a gun, I fire a gun. This is the second generation of weapons, war with the pattern of the first generation of war. It was not until after the First World War that it became a second-generation weapon. With the second-generation war mode, everyone built bunkers and dug trenches. Then there were tank planes, but still a second-generation war mod.
Now, the same is true of most countries, with some third-generation weapons, but the war mode is still second-generation. Russia is a case in point this time. At the time of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, the Manchu army already had cannons and machine guns, but they would definitely lose in a fight, because the military system and war model were still outdated.
Back to the shock of Russia and China. The CCP clearly believed that the Russian blitzkrieg would win, so it did not evacuate the overseas Chinese. When the war started, everyone was asked to post the five-star red flag. In the area occupied by the Russian army, the five-star red flag is safe. Now Ukraine can't take it, and the West is united. Not only has the West united, but the Sino-Russian relationship of "not an alliance is better than an alliance", a bilateral relationship with no upper limit on cooperation, is facing a test.
In fact, everyone knows that there is no value alliance between China and Russia, only interest alliances. When interests diverge, alliances collapse. It was like this before, and it will be like this in the future.
We go back to Asia Pacific. Ukraine is a European affair, and for Asia, and even for Americans, the situation in the Asia-Pacific region is the most concerning.
Last week, Biden sent former U.S. chief of staff Murren to lead a delegation to visit Taiwan. The members included Michèle A. Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense for policy, Meghan L. OSullivan, former White House deputy national security adviser, and former Deputy National Security Adviser Meghan L. Michael Green, Senior Director of Asian Affairs at the White House National Security Council, and Evan S. Medeiros, former Senior Director of Asian Affairs at the White House National Security Council.
These people represent Biden. They are experts in national defense, security, and international politics and geostrategies. The intention is obvious. They are to appease Taiwan and make a guarantee. If the CCP takes the opportunity to attack Taiwan, what will happen to the United States. Judging from the subsequent development, the Taiwan side should be quite satisfied with this.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Trump administration also went to Taiwan last week and met with President Tsai Ing-wen. Biden declined to comment on Pompeo's visit, calling him only an ordinary citizen. In fact, I am afraid that Biden sent his own delegation to Taiwan first, and I am afraid that the purpose is to steal the limelight. Pompeo's anti-community is obvious to all, and he also has a certain reputation in the Republican Party. He may become a major enemy of the Democratic Party in the future, and he may not become a presidential candidate.
In the Asia-Pacific area, there may be Japan as well.
After World War II, Japan has actually been standing between the three countries of the United States, Russia and China. The Constitution of Peace stipulates Japan's military power and stipulates that Japan cannot start wars and can only defend itself. Therefore, Japan has no army, only the Self-Defense Force. However, the current mode of war has undergone a complete change. Japan is located in the key position of the transition between the United States, Russia and China, and Japan must choose.
Japan does not send troops, but in future wars, such as the CCP's attack on Taiwan, the US military will participate in the war, or even if the United States supports Taiwan like this time with Ukraine, the islands in the southwest of Japan will become an important support. There have always been constitutional revisionists and anti-constitutionalists in Japan, arguing whether Japan should amend the constitution, increase military spending, or even get involved in more regional affairs. Facing the increasingly complex international situation, the constitutional revisionists will have an advantage.
In this Ukraine crisis, 70 Japanese people signed up for the International Volunteer Army to go to Ukraine, of which 50 were retired soldiers of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. The Japanese government is embarrassed. On the one hand, if it is allowed, it will become "sending troops overseas." So Japan put pressure on Ukraine to ask the Ukrainian embassy in Japan to withdraw the advertisement calling for volunteers. In return, the Japanese government provided Ukraine with 100 million US dollars in economic assistance.
There are also territorial issues over the four northern islands between Japan and Russia. For Japanese leaders, perhaps this is an opportunity to help the United States and Russia communicate with each other to turn the territorial issue on the four northern islands.
The biggest change in the Asia-Pacific region is not Japan and Taiwan but South Korea.
In South Korea's presidential election on March 9, Yoon Seok-wyeh of the right-wing National Power Party won by a narrow margin.
At 3.30 am on the second day of the South Korean presidential election, the vote rate was 95%, and the largest opposition party National Power candidate Yin Xiyue was elected with 48.6% of the votes. Compared with Yin Xiyue, the current ruling party's co-democratic candidate, Li Zaiming, the gap between the poll approval rate and the exit polls in this poll is extremely small, and the gap has almost narrowed to less than one percentage point after the polls began.
South Korea has an important role in the strategic confrontation between the United States and China in the Indo-Pacific region. This is not only reflected in the geographical location, but also in the restructuring of the high-tech supply chain that the United States has been engaged in for the past two years.
After Moon Jae-in of the Common Democratic Party took office, he strengthened relations with North Korea and mainland China, and proposed to China "three no commitments", not to upgrade the THAAD system, not to join the US missile defense system, and not to participate in the US-Japan-South Korea military alliance. South Korea's economic dependence on China has accelerated, and South Korean high-tech companies, including Samsung and Hynix, have invested in China to set up factories.
The United States has troops stationed in Asia, mainly in two countries, South Korea and Japan. South Korea and Japan have always had bad relations, but they both rely on the military protection of the United States, and they are both American military alliances. The iron triangle of Northeast Asia, but because of the ups and downs in the relationship between South Korea and Japan, it has only two connections.
During the Park Geun-hye period, the U.S. maritime exercises in Northeast Asia began to appear in the same frame of the three countries' warships. Although it was only a low-level search and rescue exercise, it finally started. However, after Moon Jae-in took office, the relationship between South Korea and Japan took a sharp turn for the worse. The two sides even had a situation where they were about to start a trade war. It was useless for Trump to go to the customs in person.
During the five years of Moon Jae-in's tenure as president, the CCP's status on the international stage has plummeted.
The South Korean political scene is like a kaleidoscope, with many changes and an endless stream of political parties. But basically it can be divided into left wing and right wing. The right wing is based on the military, chaebols, and conservatives who are more pro-American, while the left is the leader of the democratic movement in the early 1980s and 1990s.
For example, Moon Jae-in won the most votes this time in Gwangju, and 80% of the votes in Gwangju went to Moon Jae-in's Common Democratic Party. Moon Jae-in's friend Roh Moo-hyun, who was also a human rights lawyer, was very strict with right-wingers after he came to power. Jung Mong-heon, chairman of Hyundai Group, committed suicide by jumping off a building in Seoul as the government investigated his illegal political donations. Zheng Mengxian's father, Zheng Zhouyong, not only runs a business, but is also interested in Korean politics. After Zheng Mengxian's death, Lee Myung-bak came out to challenge Roh Moo-hyun. Li Mingbo was born in a poor family, and has always been valued and cultivated by Zheng Zhouyong, and finally served as the CEO of Hyundai Group. After Lee Myung-bak came to power successfully, he investigated Roh Moo-hyun. Roh Moo-hyun was angry and committed suicide.
Then it was Moon Jae-in's turn.
Moon Jae-in could not find a job after graduating from university, and only Roh Moo-hyun's law firm accepted him, so he and Roh Moo-hyun were regarded as both teachers and friends. Moon Jae-in was not interested in politics at all and turned down Roh Moo-hyun's appointment to his government. But after Roh Moo-hyun's death, he vowed to return to politics. As a result, he ran for president in 2017, and immediately investigated Lee Myung-bak and his successor, Park Geun-hye, and sent both to prison.
So far, none of the right-wing South Korean presidents have had a good outcome. Park Chung-hee was assassinated, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were sentenced to prison, and Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye were also sentenced to prison.
This time, Yoon Seok-yul 's National Power Party is also a center-right party. After he comes to power, it is estimated that he will also vigorously investigate the corruption cases during the Moon Jae-in period. The leftist Moon Jae-in is also expected to face great pressure.
In terms of international politics, the National Power Party believes that it needs to get rid of the influence of the CCP economy and move towards a more pro-American line. Under the original strategy of reshaping the high-tech supply chain in the United States, South Korea will have to stay away from the CCP to gain an economic role in the Western high-tech supply chain. If Yoon Seok-yul wins the presidency, this road will go even further. In order to be thorough, it is also more fully expressed politically.
South Korea's constitution stipulates that the president serves a five-year term and cannot be re-elected. South Korea seems bound to turn the rudder to the right in the next five years, and these five years are crucial to the current Zhongnanhai, so Beijing will be quite frustrated.
News (4)
Many European and American countries aided Ukraine's military but Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to attack it. In response, NATO issued a heavy word to the Russian army for the first time in recent days: "Once an attack on a NATO ally's weapons supply convoy, it will be regarded as a war with NATO."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made the remarks in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on 8 March 2022.
"The allies are helping Ukraine assert their right to self-defense, which is enshrined in the UN Charter," Stoltenberg said. "Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is defending itself. If (Russia) attacks any NATO country, NATO territory, Any attack would trigger Article 5 of the NATO Charter."
Article 5 of the NATO Charter is the self-defense clause in the founding treaty of NATO, which stipulates that an attack on one member state is an attack on all 30 member states, and NATO can exercise the right of individual or collective self-defense, including the use of force.
Currently, the United States and its allies, including Canada, have pledged to send arms and ammunition to Ukraine. These military aid are generally unloaded in border countries such as Poland, and then transported by land to Ukraine.
Stoltenberg pointed out that there are obvious differences between the supply lines inside Ukraine and those outside its borders, and warned the Russian army of miscalculation.
"I have full confidence that President Putin knows this, and we are ruling out any miscalculation and misunderstanding of our commitment to defending every inch of NATO territory," Stoltenberg said.
He emphasized, "Ukraine is going through a war, and of course, supply lines in Ukraine may also be attacked. Attacks on NATO territory, NATO forces, and NATO military forces will be regarded as attacks on NATO."
Stoltenberg also reiterated that NATO will continue to convey calls to end the war and continue to support Ukraine.
On the same day, he, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Latvian leaders visited the NATO base and training ground in Latvia.
News (5)
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said warning systems at Zaporizhzhia had stopped broadcasting updates in the days since Russian forces shelled the site.
The announcement came after the watchdog said they had also lost touch with its systems that monitor nuclear material at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant - two weeks after Russian forces took control of the site.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said he was "concerned about the sudden interruption' of the data flows to the watchdog's Vienna headquarters.
He added that the reason for the disruption in updates was not clear but the IAEA was still receiving data from other nuclear facilities in Ukraine, including three other operational nuclear power plants.
Earlier Ukraine said Chernobyl could be 48 hours away from leaking radiation, and called on Russia to observe an urgent ceasefire to allow for repairs to be made.
The country's nuclear company Energoatom earlier warned that radioactive substances could be released if an electricity outage at the site continues any longer, as it makes it impossible to cool spent nuclear fuel.
Russian forces captured the plant and cut the power in the early days of the invasion.
It has not been possible to make repairs at the plant since, and the plant is currently running on emergency back-up generators that are powered by diesel.
The French government said it was in contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and was urging Russia to co-operate.
"Reserve diesel generators have a 48-hour capacity to power the Chernobyl NPP," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a warning on Twitter.
"After that, cooling systems of the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel will stop, making radiation leaks imminent."
Energoatom has said that work to repair the connection and restore power to the plant - the site of the world's biggest nuclear disaster in 1996 - has not been possible because fighting is under way in the region.
The company said there were about 20,000 spent fuel assemblies at Chernobyl that could not be kept cool amid a power outage.
Their warming could lead to 'the release of radioactive substances into the environment. The radioactive cloud could be carried by wind to other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Europe,' it said in a statement.
Without power, ventilation systems at the plant would also not be working, exposing staff to dangerous doses of radiation, it added.
Russia took control of the defunct atomic plant on the first day of the invasion and has since captured a second nuclear site - Zaporizhzhia - the biggest in Europe.
Energy operator Ukrenergo also said their power has been entirely cut to the plant and its security systems.
The plant "was fully disconnected from the power grid," Ukrenergo said in a statement on its Facebook page, adding that military operations meant 'there is no possibility to restore the lines".
The recent developments have now added increasing concern about safety and security around the region.
The IAEA said, "These recent developments added to the IAEA's growing concerns about the safety, security and safeguards impact of the conflict in Ukraine on the country's nuclear facilities, including its four operating nuclear power plants as well as the Chernobyl site."
News (10)
Kamala Harris visits Poland, Zelenskyy chases for planes
Reporter : Geoff Earle, Daily Mail / https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10595807/Pentagon-confirms-Poland-fighter-jet-deal-lead-military-escalation.html
Current U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris left on a Air Force Two bound for Poland on Wednesday morning after Zelenskyy's appeal to the Biden administration and as Putin's forces reached new lows by bombing a maternity hospital in Mariupol where 3,000 babies are believed to be without food or medicine.
In a Wednesday speech, Zelenskyy said, "There is an official decision of Poland to transfer the planes to the relevant base - the American base. We also have confirmation - we have all heard - that the agreement between the American party and Poland has been reached."
"But at the same time, we hear that Poland's proposal is allegedly unfounded," he continued. "And that's what they say in Washington. We also read this. So when will the decision be made?"
"Listen," the Ukrainian leader pleaded, "We have a war! We do not have time for all these signals. This is not ping pong! This is about human lives! We ask once again: solve it faster."
"Do not shift the responsibility. Send us planes," Zelensky demanded.
News (11) to (15) / Report by : Chen Chien-jen. The testimony report first appears in Nature, 8 March 2022.
News (11)
Taiwan's pandemic vice-president - from lab bench to public office and back
My CV is a strange one for an epidemiologist. Twenty years ago, I was at the National Taiwan University, training field researchers and studying liver disease, a major cause of death. When the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic broke out in 2003, I became the minister of health and led reforms that allowed Taiwan to successfully contain epidemics of H5N1 avian influenza in 2005–08, H1N1 flu in 2009–10 and COVID-19. After a brief stint back in academia, I became the minister of the National Science Council, promoting science and technology for the development of a knowledge-based economy. I was tapped to run for vice-president in 2015 and was elected to that position the following year.
Taiwan has a lower COVID-19 case rate than the 38 members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and has a lower mortality rate than all members but New Zealand. It also had positive economic growth in the first phase of containment, before vaccines were available. As of May 2020, I am back in academia, trying to fill knowledge gaps to make public-health interventions, such as cancer prevention and early detection, more effective.
Two years on from the World Health Organization’s official declaration of the pandemic, I have been thinking about lessons I have learnt toggling between science and public service. I think all researchers — from bench scientists to physicists to computational social scientists and Government advisers — might find this exercise useful.
News (12)
Chen Chien-jen: Seek out all the variables that might affect a system
The first lesson: scientific training teaches us to seek out all the variables that might affect a system. My work as a minister taught me to expand that list of variables far beyond what is typical. Budgets, laws, staffing levels and more enter the picture. So do values and priorities.
Consider: as health minister, I set up how and when to pay for antiviral therapy for people with chronic viral hepatitis. As a researcher, disease severity and treatment efficacy were top of mind. As a minister, I had to take more into account: Accessibility, equity (especially reaching marginalized groups), feasibility and financial resources.
People in rural and mountainous regions could not afford to travel to medical centres. So we set up outreach units.
I argued that fixed, separate budgets for distinct categories of disease hindered smart decisions: antiviral therapy is expensive, but liver transplants and cancer treatments are more so. I also adapted governing structures to decision-making needs. To build in sustained focus for other tricky, crucial issues, for example, I created units to focus on international cooperation and long-term care.
News (13)
Chen Chien-jen: Science is never enough to bring about a thriving society
The second lesson: science is never enough to bring about a thriving society. That takes trust, robust institutions and social cohesion. Solidarity is essential to inspire the public to comply with epidemic-prevention guidelines. Without solidarity, there cannot be effective border control, quarantine, contact tracing and isolation. The government must do its part to encourage compliance, such as paying for low-income people to get to vaccination centres and sending them free face masks and hand sanitizer. We targeted economic support where it was needed most, such as restaurants, vendors, grocery stores and taxi drivers.
News (14)
Chen Chien-jen: Infectious and toxic agents have impacts that last for decades
The third lesson: infectious and toxic agents have impacts that last for decades, so long-range investments in scientific infrastructure pay off. But action must be quick.
When SARS happened so long ago, neither the public-health nor the hospital system in Taiwan was prepared. Ineffective quarantine and shut-down procedures led to infections and deaths.
The ministry trained staff at major medical centres, then dispatched them to hundreds of regional hospitals, which launched training at local hospitals — establishing an island-wide protocol in just two weeks.
Steps to track down sources of infection with a standard set of questions were important, as was a computerized system to find out who had travelled to hotspots. This existing infrastructure has served Taiwan well through subsequent epidemics.
Each time I return to academia, my government experience leads me to pay more attention to the earlier parts of the disease process: More prevention, swifter detection and less time to treatment. In particular, that means rapid, practical diagnostics and vaccines. That requires consideration of the socio-economic and political components of public-health programmes. For treatments to be effective, patients must receive them, which depends on where they are offered, what patients have to pay and what makes them inconvenient and uncomfortable.
News (15)
Chen's team discovered health hazards caused by arsenic in drinking water
In the 1990s, as a young professor at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, I got my first inkling of these lessons. My team discovered multiple health hazards caused by arsenic in drinking water. The more arsenic ingested, the higher the rate of internal cancers and cardiovascular diseases. I worked with environmental-health scientists, civil engineers, geologists, economists and lawyers to convert our data into regulatory standards, eventually lowering the maximum permitted contamination levels of arsenic from 50 parts per billion to 10. Initially, I expected it would all be straightforward — arsenic levels should go as low as possible. Then, I realized more-expensive water bills have health impacts as well.
That experience opened my eyes to the limitations of science and technology alone in promoting human well-being, and to the need for interdisciplinary integration and co-creation. I feel fortunate to have had so many opportunities to apply these lessons in the service of my fellow citizens.
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