■ Earthquake
Temblor shakes nation
An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale hit Taiwan yesterday, seismologists said, but there were no reports of casualties or damage. The quake struck at 2:12pm with its epicenter 9.1km northeast of Tsaoshan in southern Chiayi. It originated 6.7km below sea level. Taiwan, frequently rocked by earthquakes, was hit by a powerful quake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale last Sept. 16. A tremor of the same magnitude on March 31 last year killed five people in Taipei. A quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale devastated central Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999, leaving 2,400 people dead and some 100,000 homeless.
■ Health
SARS holds up repatriation
The Ministry of the Interior may consider postponing the repatriation of illegal Chinese immigrants due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said yesterday. Yu made the remarks when he was inspecting operations at the Hsinchu detention center for illegal immigrants from China, where 843 female Chinese citizens are staying and awaiting repatriation. According to Lai Hsieh-yi, warden of the detention center, all 843 inmates are unlikely to have SARS since all of them are believed to have come to Taiwan before the SARS outbreak. The latest batch of 19 Chinese women who checked in the center on March 17 had stayed in various police stations islandwide for two to three months prior to their arrival in the center, Lai said.
■ Diplomacy
Tibet links get a boost
The newly inaugurated Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation started its operations yesterday in Hsintien City, Taipei County, in what a high-ranking official dubbed as a key move to augment ties between Taiwan and the Tibet government-in-exile. Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) said the foundation is expected to improve ties between Taiwan and the Tibet government-in-exile headed by the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The government regards the foundation as the counterpart of the Tibet Religious Foundation of the Dalai Lama, which has operated in Taipei since 1997 as the representative office of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Chiou said. The foundation chairman Tsegyam described the establishment of the foundation as a further breakthrough in Tibetan-Taiwanese relations.
■ History
Chinese invented jogging
New evidence that suggests jogging was discovered around 4,000 years ago in China has been unearthed at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty (1766BC to 1050BC) are part of the treasure trove collected for over a thousand years by Chinese emperors and royal families and have been stored at the museum since arriving in Taiwan after World War II. The bones had proven resistant to interpretation until recently, when visiting Chinese scholar Pao De-man (跑得漫) found the key to deciphering the meaning of the scratched marks on the bones. According to Pao, the bones prove that jogging was a popular form of exercise for many Chinese noblewomen, long before the Americans reinvented the low-impact sport. Pao said the bones were part of a series of pictogram representations that showed women running, but not toward or away from something -- suggesting the women were simply jogging for pleasure, fun or fitness. An exhibition of the bones will open this morning.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all