Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Study says Medigen jab as effective as others

Taipei Times

Taiwan’s indigenously developed Medigen COVID-19 vaccine is as effective in preventing deaths and serious symptoms as mRNA shots, a study to be published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s journal next month showed.

An early release of the study is available on the Web site of the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal.

The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), utilized data from Taiwan’s records of inoculations, hospitalizations and deaths since the local outbreak of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in 2022.

Taiwan’s faith in US for deterrence

Huang Jei-hsuan 黃介玄

Taiwan’s Detractors often refer to comments tossed casually by heavyweights in Washington as proof of the US’ lack of trustworthiness.

US President Joe Biden, in response to a reporter’s query about Taiwan’s presidential elections and in an apparent attempt at pacifying Beijing, stated that he does not support Taiwan independence. This was interpreted as a sign of wavering from his previous, multiple statements that Washington would defend Taiwan if China attacked.

What has been intentionally overlooked is that traditionally, no US president would use US military forces to support freedom or democracy per se in a foreign land. Biden’s utterance did not deviate from that.

Opportunities and risks ahead of Lai

Taipei Times Editorial

Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Thailand last weekend in talks described as “candid” and “fruitful.” Taiwan was one of the focuses of the meeting, along with the Iran-backed Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, sparking speculation that the US might use Taiwan as a bargaining chip in return for China’s assistance in the Middle East. Beijing is Tehran’s largest trading partner.

Rest assured, no sitting US president in the current geopolitical climate could make concessions on Taiwan, especially with a US presidential election fast approaching. As Evan Medeiros, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues said recently, Taiwan has become “a democratized issue” in the US “which everyone wants to talk about.”

Legislative speaker matters for EU

Marcin Jerzewski and Jakub Janda 葉皓勤，楊雅嚳

Tomorrow, the 11th Legislative Yuan is to elect its speaker. This decision will have important ramifications for Taiwan’s efforts to expand its international space, as parliamentary diplomacy has been a critical tool for Taipei to circumvent its diplomatic isolation. Europe continues to closely observe the lead-up to the consequential vote.

The pertinence of parliamentary diplomacy for Taiwan becomes clear in the context of Taiwan’s recent openness in relations with Europe.

Out of all EU institutions, the European Parliament, with its directly elected lawmakers across the 27 member states, has been at the forefront of efforts to elevate the perception of Taiwan to that of a like-minded partner in its own right rather than a festering sore in EU-China relations.

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