■Crime
Police intercept gun shipment
A large shipment of contraband firearms was discovered over the weekend in a container aboard a Panama-registered cargo ship at Kaohsiung Harbor, prosecutors said yesterday. Acting on a tipoff, investigators intercepted the Consistence after the container vessel arrived at Kaohsiung Harbor from the Philippines Saturday evening. Investigators opened a container aboard the ship and discovered eight large cases containing a number of firearms, including two military-issue M-16 rifles, five submachine guns, 43 pistols of various brands and 6,059 rounds of ammunition. Among the ammunition were shotgun cartridges and dum-dum bullets. "The serial numbers of the two rifles had been removed in an apparent attempt to block any tracing of their origins," said Wang Tze-min, a secretary with the Investigation Bureau's Kaohsiung Harbor office. "Based on this finding, we suspect that some military or government officials in the rifles' country of origin might be involved in the illegal gun trafficking," he added. As most of the firearms were wrapped in Philippine newspapers, Wang said he is almost certain that they were shipped from there.
■ Cross-strait ties
Ma pushes Sungshan flights
Sungshan Airport could be used as the country's representative airport once direct air links across the Taiwan Strait are opened, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday. Ma said the Taipei City Government will not only continue to push for the opening of direct air links, but it will also suggest that Sungshan Airport be used along with Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport to provide convenient service for Taiwanese businesspeople working in China. Noting that Sunday's opening of indirect chartered flights between CKS International Airport and Shanghai's Pudong Airport was as a mere "contingent and temporary" approach, Ma said direct Sungshan-to-Hongqiao flights would be a much more practical and realistic approach.
■ Tourism
Sapporo flights now regular
A charter flight service between Taipei and Sapporo has been upgraded to regular flights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. MOFA officials said that -- after long-term efforts and several rounds of consultations with Japan -- the president of Taiwan's Association of East Asian Relations, Hsu Shui-teh (許水德), and the president of Japan's Interchange Association, Rejiro Hattori, signed an aviation agreement on behalf of their respective governments last Thursday, which became effective the same day. Sapporo became the fifth destination in Japan after Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka to which Taiwan air carriers maintain regular flights.
■ Education
PRC-university texts OK'd
The Mainland Affairs Council has agreed to allow the sale of Chinese university textbooks, an official said yesterday. The official said that initially only academic books will be allowed in. "We'll decide later whether to allow entry of other categories of books in the future," the official said. Advisers to the council have also endorsed a proposal to allow local publishers to publish Chinese magazines printed in traditional Chinese characters. Publishers must obtain government approval, plus legal authorization from their Chinese counterparts. University officials said they do not think that the measure will have much of an impact on local campuses.
UNDER WATCH: Taiwan will have to establish a standardized nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus and monitor its spread, the CDC said The Langya henipavirus, which can be transmitted from animals to humans, has been discovered in China, with 35 human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, adding that the nation would establish a nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus. A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday said that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness was identified in China. The study said an investigation identified 35 patients with acute infection of the Langya henipavirus in China’s Shandong
MISSILE PATHS: Certain information on the Chinese missile fire was not disclosed to maintain secrecy over military intelligence-gathering capabilities, the MND said Military experts yesterday speculated on the implication of the government’s tight-lipped response and the lack of air-raid sirens during the first day of China’s military drills the previous day. On Thursday, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched 11 Dongfeng-series ballistic missiles into waters north, east and south of Taiwan, a day after US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s departure from the country, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. The Japanese Ministry of Defense said that China fired nine missiles toward Taiwan, including four that flew over Taiwan proper. However, China’s exhibition of force failed to terrorize the local populace, because
If any war were to break out between the US and China, one trigger might be the increasingly frequent fighter jet encounters near Taiwan. Almost every day, Taiwanese fighter pilots hop in their US-made F-16s to intercept Chinese warplanes screaming past their territory. The encounters probe the nation’s defenses and force the pilots on both sides to avoid mistakes that could lead to a crisis that spins out of control. “I didn’t know whether they would fire at me,” said retired colonel Mountain Wang, recounting a tense five-minute confrontation he had with Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) jets more than a decade
INCREASINGLY EMBOLDENED: China can no longer be dismissed as inexperienced, demonstrating an ability to coordinate land and sea missile systems, an expert said Beijing’s largest-ever exercises around Taiwan have offered essential clues into its plans for a grueling blockade in the event of an attack on Taiwan, and revealed an increasingly emboldened Chinese military, experts said. The visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi — second in line to the presidency — sparked outrage from Beijing, which launched vast military maneuvers around the nation, even at the risk of partially exposing its plans to the US and its Asian allies. Mobilizing fighter planes, helicopters and warships, the drills aim to simulate a blockade of Taiwan and include practicing an “attack on
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