■Transportation
Rapid-transit lines planned
The government plans to build five more rapid mass-transit lines, a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday. According to the paper, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans to budget NT$300 billion (US$8.8 billion) for the five lines along a high-speed railway. The five lines will be built in Hsinchu, Tainan and Taipei counties, will link CKS International Airport with Taipei City and will extend the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Line to Pingtung County. The paper did not say when construction of the five lines would begin, but the north-south high-speed railway is to start operating in 2005.
■ Legislative Yuan
DPP sets its priorities
It is urgent for the legislature to ratify the draft bills on economic and financial reform, while a referendum law can be postponed until the next legislative session which begins in September, Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), DPP legislative caucus whip, said yesterday. While the KMT and PFP caucuses have secured the signatures of 69 lawmakers to hold an extra session in July to discuss the referendum law, the DPP is struggling to initiate an extra session for the ratification of six draft bills on economic and financial reform. An extra session may be held either upon the request of the president or upon a joint proposal by at least one-fourth of all legislators.
■ Cross-strait ties
Chang pushes cargo flights
Taiwan's opposition parties said yesterday they would join forces to push for the cross-Taiwan Strait chartered cargo flights, banned under the no-direct-contact policy toward China. "We plan to get the necessary support in the legislature for our plan to launch the cross-strait cargo flights in October," said KMT Legislator John Chang (章孝嚴). Chang, who yesterday obtained support from his party and the PFP for the proposal, said under his plan the chartered cargo flight would not stop at a third port, but the cargo planes would merely fly through the zone of a third country before reaching their destinations, he said. Chang said flying through a third area should skirt the government ban on no direct flights, and save time and money for the operators.
■ Travel
Denmark eyes visa change
Denmark wants to press the EU to change its visa policy for Taiwan to allow President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and other officials to visit Europe privately, Danish daily Berlingske Tidende reported yesterday. Danish visa regulations were introduced for Taiwan in 1988 because the EU does not recognize it as an independent state. As a result, officials are unable to visit Europe, either for political or private visits. Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told Berlingske Tidende that he wanted to press the EU to change the regulation because things have changed between China and Taiwan since 1988.
■ Kaohsiung
Hsieh off to US
Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) was scheduled to leave for New York and Baltimore yesterday afternoon for a brief visit. An official of the Kaohsiung government said Hsieh will study the city-development projects of the two American harbor cities during the visit, because he wants to build Kaohsiung into a modern harbor city. Hsieh is particularly interested in the development of Baltimore's Inner City, which was developed into a major tourist attraction in the 1970s. Hsieh is scheduled to return home on July 8.
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
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