Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called yesterday for an end to nuclear weapons as he toured a memorial to the horror of the world’s first atomic bombing.
Rudd started a visit to Japan, aimed at easing doubts about his commitment to the two countries’ alliance, with a tour of Hiroshima, where a partially destroyed dome lies as a memorial to the nuclear attack.
The first Australian prime minister to visit the memorial was joined by his wife, Therese Rein, as they laid a wreath and toured a museum documenting the Aug. 6, 1945, attack.
He wrote in the museum guest book: “Let the world resolve afresh from the ashes of this city — to work together for the common mission of peace for this Asia-Pacific century, and for a world where one day nuclear weapons are no more.”
He echoed his remarks in public remarks, saying: “Hiroshima should cause the world community to resolve afresh that all humankind must exert their every effort for peace in this 21st century.”
The US dropped an atomic bomb on the city in the early morning, killing about 140,000 people either immediately or in the months that followed from radiation injuries or horrific burns.
Three days later, an even more powerful nuclear bomb flattened Nagasaki, killing another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered six days afterwards, ending World War II.
Rudd has taken a harder line on nuclear issues since taking office last year, reversing a decision to sell uranium to India because New Delhi has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
His commitment on nuclear issues will likely be welcomed in Japan, where the election of Rudd’s Labor Party was received with some unease last year.
Japanese officials were privately irate when Rudd, a Sinophile, visited China rather than Japan on his first major overseas visit that also took him to the US and Europe.
Rudd has also ramped up pressure on Japan over whaling, sending a customs vessel to monitor Tokyo’s controversial annual hunt in the Antarctic Ocean.
Japan, which says that whaling is part of its culture, kills hundreds of the giant mammals each year in defiance of strong protests by Australia and New Zealand.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS