■ Leisure
Dancing contest looms
The Golden Diamond Cup World Ballroom Dancing Open Tournament 2003, the eighth of its kind to be held in Taiwan, is scheduled for Sunday in Taipei, with some 220 pairs of dancers from home and abroad participating. Title winners of the 2002 World Ballroom Dancing England Open -- Italian Luca Tonello and his Russian partner Ekaterina Baroulina -- are among the top foreign dancers coming from the US, Italy, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore to compete. The pair who wins the title of the Golden Diamond Cup will be awarded with a trophy and a symbolic NT$20,000 (US$587) in cash, said Kao Chen-tsung (高承宗), chairman of the Professional Ballroom Dancing Association of the Republic of China, which is sponsoring the international tournament. All dancers will compete in two categories: modern ballroom dancing and Latin dancing.
■ Diplomacy
Chen wants Seoul air links
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday urged South Korea to hold talks on resuming air links, which Taipei cut after Seoul dropped Taiwan to recognize the PRC in 1992. "Taiwan and South Korea have close and friendly ties and bilateral trade has been growing, with South Korea enjoying a huge trade surplus. This reflects the urgency in resuming an air link," Chen said while receiving a South Korean Christian leader, the Reverend Cho Yong Ki. "I hope the two sides can smoothly restore air links under the principle of equality and mutual benefit," Chen said. Cho heads South Korea's largest Christian church -- the True Revival Church, which has 700,000 members. He is heading a 200-member delegation that arrived in Taiwan on Monday to hold prayer meetings for world peace and to proselytize.
■ Internet
Women more active on Web
Taiwan's female Internet users are more active online than their male counterparts, according to the results of a recent survey that found female users in Taiwan spend more time browsing the Web than males. According to a poll conducted by Insight Xplorer, a market-consulting company based in Taipei, there were 54 males and 46 females out of every 100 Internet users in July. Each female user spent 1.5 times the average time online posted by male users, while they were also 1.4 times and 1.5 times more active in logging on to the Internet and viewing Web pages, respectively. In July, more than 7 million Taiwan Internet users visited B2C Web sites, accounting for 80 percent of the country's total cyber population, the survey discovered.
■ Cross-strait ties
Space program goes to seed
China will invite rival Taiwan to send seeds into space aboard its Shenzhou V rocket, expected to be launched later this year, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday. China has sent more than 70 types of crops into space since 1987, which has helped it develop new strains of rice, wheat, tomatoes and green peppers, the news agency said. Science and Technology Minister Xu Guanhua (徐冠華) said on Tuesday that preparations for the flight were on track as part of the country's plan to put a person in space. "Crop seeds in Taiwan, like rice, may be carried on board the Shenzhou V if our counterparts in Taiwan wish," Xinhua quoted Liu Luxiang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as saying.
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