Chinese state media covered the annual Hong Kong vigil to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre for the first time, but said the event was to mourn victims of the Sichuan earthquake, a report said yesterday.
State broadcaster CCTV made a short report on its Web site about the annual candlelit vigil, which saw thousands of people gather in Hong Kong to remember the victims of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Beijing, the South China Morning Post said.
But the report, entitled “40,000 Hong Kong residents attending vigil to mourn killed compatriots in the earthquake,” made no mention of the primary reason for the vigil.
“The vigil lasted for about two hours. It included recitals, singing, a moment of silence and laying a wreath to martyrs,” the Internet report said without explaining who the “martyrs” were, the Post said.
“The vigil expressed the Hong Kong’s public’s mourning for their compatriots,” it said
It was the first time a Chinese media organization had reported on the event, which police said saw more than 15,000 gather in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, the only such commemoration on Chinese soil.
Although organizers did tie the event to last month’s devastating earthquake which has left nearly 90,000 dead or missing, holding a minute’s silence for the victims, it was far from the main purpose.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
RSS