■ 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.
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
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
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