■ Direct links
Poll reveals support
More than 50 percent of Taiwanese are eager to open direct links with China, but are worried about the security threat they may pose, according to a poll released yesterday. The survey by TVBS cable news was conducted this week, as the government prepares to release a plan for air links with China by the end of the month. According to the poll, 51 percent of Taiwanese support the opening of direct flights to China, and 30 percent are opposed to the move. The other 19 percent didn't have an opinion. Although the poll showed strong support for the opening of flights, 52 percent of those questioned said they were also worried about the security risks of such a move. Forty percent weren't worried and the rest didn't have an opinion.
■ Health insurance
Dead debtor found
The cash-strapped Bureau of National Health Insurance has not let up in its efforts to chase down a woman for payment of overdue health insurance premiums, local news media said yesterday. But the bureau's perseverance was fruitless as the debtor has been dead for more than five years, the Central News Agency said. For five years and six months, the bureau has sent its monthly bill to policy holder Chang Chin, despite the fact that she died in 1997 at the age of 81. Her son-in-law said he had informed the bureau about her death many times, but the bureau continued to send the dead policyholder a bill every month, with the overdue amount now totalling NT$39,864 (US$1,140).
■ Oral Sex
Man says he's innocent
A married man who was sued for adultery recently pleaded his innocence though he admitted that he had frequent sexual contact with his female colleague, a local newspaper said yesterday. His plea came a day after the Taiwan High Court reached a decision on Monday that the crime of adultery could only be prosecuted in cases involving sexual intercourse. Citing the decision, the man, identified by his family name Lee, told prosecutors he was wrongly sued because he had never had sexual intercourse with his girlfriend, though they had engaged in active sexual play for eight months, the paper said. Lee's angry wife, who had sued the pair for adultery, cried foul, but in the face of the High Court decision, the prosecutors could do nothing, the paper said.
■ Education
Cross-strait plan discussed
The Ministry of Education will sponsor a two-day seminar at Nanhua University in Chiayi today and tomorrow to lay out the ministry's policy on cross-strait academic and cultural exchanges, a ministry spokesman said yesterday. The spokesman said that over the past several years, an ad hoc Chinese affairs group under the ministry has sponsored a series of such seminars for university and college administrators. Cabinet officials in charge of Chinese affairs will present the latest information on government policies and guidelines, as well as measures relating to cross-strait exchanges, the spokesman said. Statistics released by the Mainland Affairs Council indicate that exchanges between academic and cultural establishments on both sides of the Strait have become more frequent in the past decade. As of the end of September, the government had approved nearly 70,000 applications from China for visits to Taiwan for academic or cultural activities.
Agencies
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard