■ Defense
VSE wins Kidd contract
The US-based VSE Corp has won a US Navy contract worth US$8.1 million to overhaul four Kidd-class destroyers destined for Taiwan, Jane's Defence Weekly reported. The second-hand destroyers are part of the decade's most comprehensive arms package offered to Taipei by US President George W. Bush in April last year. The first Kidd-class destroyers could enter service by 2005, the navy estimates, and are a prelude to the nation's acquisition of the even more advanced Aegis air-defense system sometime in the next 10 years, Jane's reported. VSE will undertake logistical support, training and other technical responsibilities, Jane's said in an article published Wednesday.
■ Industry
Lu urges `Taiwanizing' food
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) encouraged food manufacturers yesterday to create their own brand names in order to promote their products in the inter-national market. Address-ing the 2003 Formosan Golden Food Awards ceremony in Kaohsiung, Lu said the country is famous for a great variety of delicious foods. To promote their products internationally, manufac-turers should not only try to improve the quality of their products, but also to create their own brands, she said. The manufacturers should be ambitious and set themselves the goal of "Taiwanizing" the stomachs of all people around the world, she said. The awards were organized by the Kaohsiung-based Taiwan News. Also attending the ceremony were Kaohsiung Vice Mayor Lin Yung-chien (林永堅) and Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄).
■ Politics
Lu urges party examination
The DPP should thoroughly examine its election stra-tegies and seek improve-ments, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday in the wake of the DPP's setback in the Hualien County commissioner by-election. DPP candidate Yu Ying-lung (游盈隆) lost to KMT-PFP candidate Hsieh Shen-san (謝深山). This was the third time that Yu has failed to win the job. Yu said he hopes next year's presi-dential election campaign will focus on public policies, saying the election must not become another ideological battlefield. Chan Chung-yuan (詹中原), a professor at National Chengchi Univer-sity, said that while drafting campaign strategies for
the presidential election, parties can take reference from the Hualien by-election in terms of grassroots support. He pointed out
that the population in Hualien -- - 48 percent Minnan, 21 percent Hakka, 18 percent mainlander and 13 percent indigenous -- is comparable to that of the nation's overall population composition.
■ Academics
Physics olympiad opens
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) opened the 34th International Physics Olympiad in Taipei yesterday. There are 239 high-school students from 54 countries participating in the contest, which runs through next Saturday. During the weeklong contest, partici-pants will work on both written and laboratory tests and will win awards based on the total points garnered by each country's team. The contest was organized by the National Taiwan Normal University with assistance from the Ministry of Education. China is boycotting the event because it is opposed to the games being held in Taiwan.
The international Olympiad is known as the Olympic games for physics.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
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