Tag: Taiwan

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Taiwan blames politics for cancellation of global Pride event

Taiwan blames politics for cancellation of global Pride event

Taiwan participates in global organizations like the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei,” to avoid political problems with China, which views the self-governing democratic island as its own territory and bristles at anything that suggests it is a separate country.

Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung had been due to host WorldPride 2025 Taiwan, after winning the right from global LGBTQ rights group InterPride.

Last year after an outcry in Taiwan, it dropped a reference to the island as a “region.”

But the Kaohsiung organizers said InterPride had recently “suddenly” asked them to change the name of the event to “Kaohsiung,” removing the word “Taiwan.”

“After careful evaluation, it is believed that if the event continues, it may harm the interests of Taiwan and the Taiwan gay community. Therefore, it is decided to terminate the project before signing the contract,” said the Kaohsiung organizers.

InterPride said in a statement they were “surprised to learn” the news and while they were disappointed, respected the decision.

“We were confident a compromise could have been reached with respect to the long-standing WorldPride tradition of using the host city name. We suggested using the name ‘WorldPride Kaohsiung, Taiwan’,” it added.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the event would have been the first WorldPride event to be held in East Asia.

“Taiwan deeply regrets that InterPride, due to political considerations, has unilaterally rejected the mutually agreed upon consensus and broken a relationship of cooperation and trust, leading to this outcome,” it said.

“Not only does the decision disrespect Taiwan’s rights and diligent efforts, it also harms Asia’s vast LGBTIQ+ community and runs counter to the progressive principles espoused by InterPride.”

Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019, in a first for Asia, and is proud of its reputation as a bastion of LGBTQ rights and liberalism.

While same-sex relations are not illegal in China, same-sex marriage is, and the government has been cracking down depictions of LGBTQ people in the media and of the community’s use of social media.

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Impact of chronic hepatitis on cardiovascular events among type 2 diabetes patients in Taiwan pay-for-performance program – Scientific Reports

Research subjects

Patients with T2DM who joined the P4P from 2008 to 2010 were enrolled. Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of T2DM were defined as those who were hospitalized at least once or came in for outpatient visits at least three times within 1 year and had a primary or secondary diagnosis International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code “250,” “250.00,” or “250.02”38,39. Among them, patients with type 1 DM “250.x1” * or “250.x3;” gestational DM “648.0” or “648.8;” neonatal DM “775.1;” abnormal glucose tolerance test “790.2;” age < 20 years or > 100 years; and those who died within 1 year of joining P4P were excluded. Finally, 283,793 patients were included (Fig. 1). Based on the status of comorbid chronic hepatitis at enrollment, the patients were divided into four groups: no comorbid chronic hepatitis, named as “No chronic hepatitis”; comorbid liver B, named as “Hepatitis B” group; comorbid liver, named as “Hepatitis C” group; patients without viral hepatitis and with comorbid fatty liver were named as the “Fatty liver disease” group and were followed-up until the end of 2017. The “no comorbid chronic hepatitis” group was used as the reference group to analyze the correlation between different types of chronic hepatitis and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Figure 1
figure 1

Flowchart for study subject selection. DM diabetes mellitus, P4P pay-for-performance, HBV hepatitis B virus, HCV hepatitis C virus.

Ethics statements

The National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) is derived from Taiwan’s mandatory National Health Insurance program was established by the National Health Insurance Administration Ministry of Health and Welfare and maintained by the National Health Research Institute (NHRI). The patient identifications in the National Health Insurance Research Database have been scrambled and de-identified by the Taiwan government, and the database is commonly used for different types of research such as in medical, and public health fields. Thus, informed consent was waived by the Research Ethics Committee of the China Medical University, and the study protocol was approved by the research ethics committee of China Medical University and Hospital (IRB number: CMUH106-REC3-153) and was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Data sources

This retrospective cohort study analyzed data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of the “Applied Health Research Data Integration Service from National Health Insurance Administration”. The data included outpatient prescriptions and treatments, outpatient prescriptions and medical orders, inpatient medical expense lists, inpatient medical expense and medical order lists, insurance details of persons, major injury and illness, medical institution master files, diagnosis, and P4P education records.

Definitions of variables

Hepatitis B: Those with ICD-9 070.2, 070.20, 070.21, 070.22, 070.23, 070.3070.31, 070.32, or 070.33 or ICD-10 B16, B17.0, B18.0, B18.1, or B19.1 as the primary and secondary diagnosis during two outpatient visits or one hospitalization within 365 days of study enrollment.

Hepatitis C: Those with ICD-9 070.41, 070.44, 070.51, or V02.62 or ICD-10 B17.10, B17.11, B18.2, B19.20, B19.21, or Z22.52 as the primary and secondary diagnosis during two outpatient visits or one hospitalization within 365 days of study enrollment.

NAFLD: Those with ICD-9 571.8, 571.9, or ICD-10 K74.4, K74.5, K74.60, K74.69, K76.0, K76.9, etc. as the primary and secondary diagnosis during two outpatient visits or one hospitalization within 365 days of study enrollment, and without the occurrence of a hepatitis B or C code, for whom the first hospital visit within 365 days was defined as the date of diagnosis. Patients with concurrent viral hepatitis and NAFLD were classified as having viral hepatitis.

Age-based categorization included 20–39, 40–54, 55–64, 65–74, and ≥ 75 years age groups. Monthly salary was divided into five grades, namely ≤ NTD 17,280, NTD 17,281–22,800, NTD 22,801–36,300, NTD 36,301–45,800, and ≥ NTD 45,801. Charlson comorbidity index was divided into 0, 1, 2, and ≥ 3 after excluding scores correlated with independent or dependent variables40.

The diabetes complications severity index (DCSI) was scored as 0, 1, and ≥ 2 points. The DCSI was calculated based on the classification and scoring method proposed by Young et al. If the patient had no complication, the score would be 0; for each complication, 1 point would be added; if the complication was serious, 2 points would be added. Based on this calculation method, the maximum score was 13 points41.

Cardiovascular disease: Those with ICD-9 398.91, 402.xx, 404.xx, 410.xx–414.xx, 422.xx, 425.xx or 428.xx, or ICD-10 I09.81, I11, I13, I20–I22, I24, I25, I40–I43, I50, R09.89, etc. as the primary and secondary diagnosis during two outpatient visits or one hospitalization within 365 days of study enrollment42.

Calculation of the coefficient of variation (CV% = standard deviation/mean) of HbA1c and fasting blood glucose: All measurements in the first year were used, and if the measurements were taken less than four times in the first year, measurements taken up to the second year were included. If measurements were taken less than four times in the 2 years, the patient would be excluded.

Adjusted CV = CV/√ (n/n − 1): When the examination data were limited, the examination times would affect the result of the CV. In this case, a relatively correct result of the CV with a reduced effect of the examination times could be obtained by correcting the examination times.

Analytical methods

Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out according to the research objectives and framework. All research tests were based on a significance level of α = 0.05, and all statistical analyses were conducted using SAS software for Windows, version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, average, and standard deviation were used to describe the dependent and independent variables to be investigated in this study. This study adopted descriptive statistics to present the demographic characteristics, status of comorbidities, blood biochemical indicators, health status, economic factors, and medical care provider characteristics of patients with diabetes. The incidence of cardiovascular disease in patients with T2DM with chronic hepatitis per 1000 person-years was tested using univariate Poisson regression. The relative risks of cardiovascular disease in the four groups were calculated using a Cox proportional hazards model.

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Biden says US willing to respond ‘militarily’ in event of Chinese attack on Taiwan

Biden says US willing to respond 'militarily' in event of Chinese attack on Taiwan

During a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, Biden was asked if the US would be willing to go further to help Taiwan in the event of an invasion than it did with Ukraine.

“You didn’t want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?” a reporter asked.

“Yes,” Biden replied. “That’s the commitment we made.”

“We agree with the One China policy. We signed on to it, and all the attendant agreements made from there, but the idea that it can be taken by force, just taken by force, is (just not) appropriate,” he said.

Under the “One China” policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognized Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million.

In a statement following Biden’s remarks, a White House official said the US’ official position remained unchanged. “As the President said, our policy has not changed. He reiterated our One China policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He also reiterated our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself,” the official said.

The President has made similar comments on Taiwan in the past, including during a CNN town hall in October, only to have the White House walk back his remarks and insist that longstanding US policy has not changed toward the self-governing island.

The US provides Taiwan defensive weapons, but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.

But this time, Biden’s strong warning was made right on China’s door step, during his first trip to Asia as President — a visit aimed at uniting allies and partners to counter China’s rising influence.

It also came a day before Biden is scheduled to attend the second in-person summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) — an informal grouping between the US, Japan, Australia and India that has alarmed Beijing.

China is alarmed by the Quad, describing it as &#39;Asia&#39;s NATO&#39;. It&#39;s not — but Chinese threats are driving the group closer together

Within hours, China had expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to Biden’s comments, saying it will not allow any external force to interfere in its “internal affairs.”

“On issues concerning China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and other core interests, there is no room for compromise,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“We urged the US side to earnestly follow the One China principle…be cautious in words and deeds on the Taiwan issue, and not send any wrong signal to pro-Taiwan independence and separatist forces — so it won’t cause serious damage to the situation across the Taiwan Strait and China-US relations.”

Taiwan lies fewer than 110 miles (177 kilometers) off the coast of China. For more than 70 years the two sides have been governed separately, but that hasn’t stopped China’s ruling Communist Party from claiming the island as its own — despite having never controlled it.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said that “reunification” between China and Taiwan is inevitable and refused to rule out the use of force. Tensions between Beijing and Taipei are at the highest they’ve been in recent decades, with the Chinese military sending record numbers of war planes near the island.

Biden compared a potential invasion of Taiwan by China to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, warning, “It will dislocate the entire region,” and emphasizing “Russia has to pay a long-term price for its actions.”

5 Asian military hotspots and how they play into Biden&#39;s visit

“And the reason I bother to say this, not just about Ukraine — if in fact after all he’s done, there’s a rapprochement…between the Ukrainians and Russia, and these sanctions are not continued to be sustained in many ways, then what signal does that send to China about the cost of attempting, attempting to take Taiwan by force?”

Biden said that China is “already flirting with danger right now by flying so close and all the maneuvers they’re undertaking.”

“But the United States is committed, we made a commitment, we support the One China policy, we support all we’ve done in the past, but that does not mean, it does not mean that China has the ability, has the, excuse me, jurisdiction to go in and use force to take over Taiwan,” he added.

At the press conference, Kishida also reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

“Attempts to change the status quo by force, like Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, should never be tolerated in the Indo-Pacific, above all, in East Asia,” he said.

“As the regional security environment becomes increasingly severe, I reaffirmed with President Biden that we need to speedily strengthen the deterrence and response of the Japan-US alliance,” he said, adding that he conveyed his determination to “fundamentally strengthen Japan’s defense capability.”