Diplomacy
Ties broken with Dahomey, established with Tonga
April 8, 1965: Taiwan severs diplomatic links with the Republic of Dahomey (present-day People’s Republic of Benin), as the African country recognizes Beijing, ending a three-year relationship with Taiwan. However, ties were resumed in April 1966 when Dahomey became the first country to switch recognition from China to Taiwan. Nonetheless, Dahomey restored ties with China in 1972.
April 10, 1972: Taiwan announces the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Kingdom of Tonga. Relations broke off in 1998 as the south Pacific country switched recognition to China. Tonga currently doesn’t maintain any representation in Taiwan.
Taiwan, US agree to establish fund
April 9, 1965: Taiwan and the US conclude an accord to establish a Sino-American Fund for Economic and Social Development (中美經濟社會發展基金). The fund aims to support Taiwan’s development after the termination of US economic aid on June 30 of the same year. American financial aid to Taiwan began in 1949. According to Executive Yuan statistics, Taiwan received US$1.48 billion from the US during that time, greatly improving the nation’s agricultural and industrial growth.
Taiwan Relations Act signed
April 10, 1979: The Taiwan Relations Act (台灣關係法) is signed by US President Jimmy Carter, guiding the conduct of unofficial US relations with Taiwan following the break in diplomatic ties between the two countries. Under the act, the American Institute in Taiwan becomes the de facto embassy. The act potentially requires the US to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons and to intervene militarily if China attacks or invades Taiwan.
In recent developments, the US House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday to authorize the sale of four decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigates to Taiwan.
Society
Vice president claims victory in civil suit
April 10, 2002: The Taipei District Court rules in favor of then-Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who sued The Journalist (新新聞) magazine over a story that claimed she spread a rumor the then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was having an affair with one of his female staffers. The magazine alleged that Lu spread the rumor to unseat Chen.
The court orders the magazine’s editor in chief Yang Chao (楊照) to clarify that Lu didn’t call him to spread the rumor. The magazine appealed the case twice. In October 2004, the Taiwan High Court ruled that the magazine must apologize to Lu. According to an Apple Daily report, however, Lu herself ended up paying for the half-page apology in a local Chinese-language daily in September 2009.
Court rules on compensation for wrongful conviction
April 10, 2013: The Supreme Court rules on the amount of compensation for the wrongful conviction of Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bing-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳) — also known as the Hsichih Trio — to be NT$15.84 million. The trio were arrested in 1991 on murder charges. They were convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but were also found not guilty in several retrials. The Taiwan High Court closed the case in 2012, in accordance with the Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act (刑事妥速審判法), which was passed by the legislature in 2010 and disallows judges and courts to retry cases indefinitely.
Obituary
Freedom fighter commits suicide
April 7, 1989: Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), editor-in-chief of dissident magazine Freedom Era Weekly (自由時代週刊), self-immolates in his Taipei office as armed police attempt to break in and arrest him on charges of sedition. Deng had published a draft “Taiwan Republic Constitution” in the magazine’s December 1988 issue.
Deng became an iconic figure in defending freedom of expression, and is believed to have pushed for an amendment made to Article 100 of the Criminal Code in 1992. In the revised code, penalties for non-violent acts outlined in the anti-sedition provisions were removed.
Sports
Female tug-of-war team takes Asian championship
April 9, 2010: Taiwan’s female tug-of war team wins the Asian Indoor Championship for the fourth year in a row. The team, composed of students from Taipei Jingmei Girls High School, takes the championship after defeating Vietnam in the semifinals and Mongolia in the final. The Jingmei team later won the World Indoor Championships in Italy.
Last week, Viola Zhou published a marvelous deep dive into the culture clash between Taiwanese boss mentality and American labor practices at the Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) plant in Arizona in Rest of World. “The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company,” while the Taiwanese said American workers aren’t dedicated. The article is a delight, but what it is depicting is the clash between a work culture that offers employee autonomy and at least nods at work-life balance, and one that runs on hierarchical discipline enforced by chickenshit. And it runs on chickenshit because chickenshit is a cultural
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
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