Diplomacy: Japan's Ishiba boosts Taiwan
Taiwan should not be excluded from the Northeast Asian security system, Japan's new defense chief said over the weekend. Shigeru Ishiba, director-general of the Defense Agency, said in a television program broadcast Sunday that any Northeast Asian security system that were to exclude Taiwan would be unreal. Asked about his view on former president Lee Teng-hui's plan to visit Japan next month, Ishiba said he understands that Lee has received an invitation to make a private visit to Tokyo. But he stopped short of going into detail. The Keizai Shinjin Kai, a student association at Japan's elite Keio University, has invited Lee to deliver a speech in late November on the traditional Japanese spirit, as part of the school's birthday celebrations.
Defense: Officials get CSIS training
A group of 25 government officials will attend a training program hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington this month. The strategic training program, the third of its kind, was exclusively designed for Taiwan under a contract with the Ministry of National Defense and will be held at Georgetown University from Oct. 15 to 22, according to ministry sources. This will be the first time that civilians from the foreign, interior and economic affairs ministries and the National Security Council will attend the program. General Kao Hua-chu (高華柱), deputy commander in chief of the army, will head the group. General Liang Kung-kai (梁功凱), acting director of the ministry's newly-established Department of Strategic Planning, will also attend.
Labor affairs: Foreign workers getting less
There were a total of 311,464 foreign workers in Taiwan at the end of August, down by 736 from July, according to the recent statistics released by the Council of Labor Affairs. The largest proportion -- 162,912 workers -- were hired in the domestic manufacturing sector, followed by 119,110 working as domestic maids or caregivers. The August drop followed a three-consecutive-month rise, according to statistics that indicate that some 120,000 workers from Thailand made up the bulk of the foreign labor force as of the end of August, followed by those from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in that order. The number of foreign laborers in the construction sector posted the largest fall of 703 from the month-earlier level, while the number of foreign domestic maids and caregivers was down by 245. In contrast, an additional 75 foreign workers were employed in the manufacturing sector.
Earthquakes: Tremors hit Ilan, Nantou
Two moderate earthquakes shook Taiwan yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of damages or casualties. The first quake -- measuring 5 on the Richter scale -- occurred at 7:38am with its epicentre 35km off Ilan on Taiwan's east coast, 5.3km under the sea. The second quake, measuring 4.4, hit at 8:55am with its epicentre in Nantou, central Taiwan. Taiwan sits on the circum-Pacific seismic belt. About 68 percent of the world's earthquakes occur along this belt. Most of the quakes which occur off Taiwan's east coast are caused by friction between the Eurasian Plate and the Filipino Plate.
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