July 2021

16 Domestic Cases Announced, Tzu Chi Inks Deal for BioNTech Purchase

Brian Hioe
16 domestic cases and nine imported cases were announced at the CECC press conference today. Six of these cases were already in quarantine. Five deaths were also announced. Nine cases were in Taipei, five cases in Taoyuan, and two cases in New Taipei. 87% of cases to date have been released from quarantine and nine of the 16 domestic cases have known sources of infection. Six of the nine imported cases are from the same group...
COVID UpdatesEnglishJuly 2021Politics9 min read

18 Domestic Cases Confirmed, KMT Tries to Sue Chen Shih-Chung on Corruption Charges Over Vaccine Approval

Brian Hioe
18 domestic cases and six imported cases were announced at the CECC daily press conference today. Nine of these cases were already in quarantine. Four deaths were also announced. 13 cases have known cases of infection, while five cases were of unknown source. There were seven cases in Taipei, six cases in New Taipei, three cases in Keelung, and two cases in Taoyuan. 86.9% of cases to date have been released from quarantine...
COVID UpdatesEnglishJuly 2021Politics11 min read

KMT Only Calls for Transparency on Vaccine Purchases to Attack the DPP, May Hope Sabotage Future Purchases

Brian Hioe
KMT chair Johnny Chiang called on the government to publicize its vaccine procurement budget yesterday. This took place after comments by Premier Su Tseng-chang on Saturday in which Su stated that he could not reveal the vaccine procurement budget, due to confidentiality maintained in vaccine purchase agreements with pharmaceutical companies...
COVID UpdatesEnglishJuly 2021Politics6 min read

Calling For a Return to Sinocentrism in the Name of Opposing It: Responding to ‘Reconsidering Sinophone Studies’

Brian Hioe
The International Journal of Taiwan Studies, one of the flagship journals of the discipline, published an unusual piece several months ago by Flair Donglai Shi. Though framed as an attack on Shih Shu-mei’s concept of the Sinophone, the crux of the piece’s argument is effectively that Taiwan studies is insufficiently Sinocentric...
Arts and CultureEnglishJuly 2021Literature and Poetry8 min read

Eight Domestic Cases Announced, Case Number Drops to Single Digits for First Time Since Start of Outbreak

Brian Hioe
Eight domestic cases and four imported cases were announced at the Central Epidemic Command Center’s daily press conference today. Four of the newly found cases were already in quarantine. There were five cases in New Taipei and one case each in Taipei, Taichung, and Taoyuan. This is the first time that cases have dropped to single digits since the start of the outbreak...
COVID UpdatesEnglishJuly 2021Politics12 min read

29 Domestic Cases Announced, Reports of Individuals Hiding Vaccination History for Mixed Vaccinations

Brian Hioe
29 domestic cases and three imported cases were announced by the CECC press conference today. Seven of the cases that were found were already in quarantine. Four deaths were announced. There were fourteen cases in Taipei, eleven cases in New Taipei, two cases in Taoyuan, and one case each in Yilan and Changhua. 85.9% of cases to date have been released from quarantine...
COVID UpdatesEnglishJuly 2021Politics11 min read

Political Disqualifications in Macau Draw From the Template of Hong Kong

Brian Hioe
21 pro-democracy legislative candidates in Macau were disqualified from running for office earlier this week. This took place on the basis of new requirements stipulating that electoral candidates must pledge allegiance to Macau and the Macau Basic Law, as well as uphold the Chinese constitution and decisions made by China’s National People’s Congress...
EnglishJuly 2021Self-DeterminationSocial MovementsYouth Movements6 min read