Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese author Iris Chiang hardly seems like the type whose work would be banned from publication in China. Yet four years after being sold to a Chinese publisher, her book teaching children how to appreciate art has yet to go to press, a victim of heightened tensions between China and Taiwan that are spilling over into the cultural sphere.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — President Xi Jinping pledged that China will supply a total of 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to other countries through this year, increasing its commitment as the largest exporter of the shots.

Xi’s announcement was delivered Thursday at the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation, state media reported.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Hong Kong police have arrested a man accused of booing the Chinese national anthem while watching an Olympic event at a mall.

The 40-year-old man was allegedly waving colonial-era Hong Kong flags and booing, while urging others to join him in insulting the national anthem, according to a police statement posted on Facebook.

Hong Kong passed a law in June last year that criminalized any actions that insult the national anthem. Violating the law can mean a fine of up to $6,400 (50,000 Hong Kong dollars), and up to nine years in prison.

TAIPEI, China (AP) — Taiwan’s economic growth slowed to 7.5% over a year earlier in the latest quarter as anti-coronavirus controls depressed consumer spending and manufacturing.

Growth in the three months ending in June decelerated from the previous quarter’s 8.9%, government data showed Friday.

Measured compared with the previous quarter, growth slowed to 2% from the previous quarter’s 3%.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Two Taiwanese high-tech companies announced a donation Monday of 10 million doses of anti-coronavirus vaccine made by Germany’s BioNTech to the island’s government, which faces political obstacles in fighting the pandemic.

TAIPEI, July 11 (Reuters) - The Chinese sales agent for Germany's BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) said on Sunday it had signed a deal to provide 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan, part of a drawn-out and highly politicised process for the island to access the shots.

Taiwan's government has tried for months to buy the vaccine directly from BioNTech and has blamed China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory, for nixing an agreement the two sides were due to sign earlier this year. China denies the accusations.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — At the end of May, Chen Pei-jer, a member of an expert committee in Taiwan to evaluate COVID-19 vaccines for use on the island, resigned.

Chen’s resignation came after he learned that Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration planned to take a regulatory shortcut in approving two vaccines being developed in Taiwan. The shortcut would allow the shots to be given to people for emergency use before the vaccines have finished the final stage of testing.

TAIPEI, June 24 (Reuters) - The United States no longer sees Taiwan as a problem in its relations with China, but as an opportunity to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Thursday.

Like most nations, the United States has no formal diplomatic ties with the Chinese-claimed island, but is its most important international backer, to Beijing's anger, and President Joe Biden's administration has moved to restate that support.

TAIPEI, June 20 (Reuters) - Taiwanese staff working at the island’s representative office in Hong Kong will begin leaving the Chinese-run city from Sunday, a senior official said, after the government there demanded its officials sign a document supporting Beijing’s claim to Taiwan.

Chinese-ruled Hong Kong has become another bone of contention between Taipei and Beijing, especially after Taiwan lambasted a security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing and began welcoming Hong Kongers to settle on the island.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The U.S. sent 2.5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan on Sunday, tripling an earlier pledge in a donation with both public health and geopolitical meaning.

The shipment arrived on a China Airlines cargo plane that had left Memphis the previous day. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung and Brent Christensen, the top U.S. official in Taiwan, were among those who welcomed the plane on the tarmac at the airport outside of the capital, Taipei.