■ China Relations
Stop rattling sabres
A leader of the opposition People First Party (PFP) said yesterday at the Legislative Yuan that China should not resort to sabre-rattling against Taiwan, because Taiwan people do not accept military threats. Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), convener of the PFP Caucus at the Legislative Yuan, said China should instead respect the opinions of Taiwan's people. He also said that he is grateful to the US government for its statement on Nov. 19 that Washington is firmly opposed to the use of force in trying to settle the differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
■ Diplomacy
Taiwan needs subs, US says
The US thinks Taiwan needs submarines and is ready to make them available, but it is up to Taiwan to decide whether to pursue them or not, Randall Schriver, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, said on Thursday. In a news conference organized for journalists posted in Washington by Taiwan media, Schriver said Washington believes the anti-submarine capability is most-needed by Taiwan at present and the US is willing to sell the vessels. He also categorically denied that any official from the Bush administration has ever called President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) a troublemaker, adding it is inappropriate to brand Chen as a troublemaker when his administration supports the US in many ways. Washington makes its views known to Taipei in private, he said.
■ Weather
Front brings cold weather
The Central Weather Bureau said yesterday that due to the arrival of a cold front, temperatures nationwide will begin to drop sharply and get much lower over the next two days. Meteorologists said temperatures in northern Taiwan yesterday dropped from a high of 23?C to a low of 17?C, and may drop further to 14?C today and tomorrow in some areas in northern Taiwan. The cold front may begin to weaken on Monday, they said. The bureau also said that ships sailing in waters near northern and northeastern Taiwan and in the northern half of the Taiwan Strait should remain on the alert for strong winds over the next two days.
■ Labor
Unemployment rate falls
Taiwan's jobless rate fell below 5 percent in October for the first time in five months, the government said yesterday. The figure dropped to 4.92 percent in October from 5.05 percent a month earlier, partly because there were fewer job losses associated with factory closures or downsizing, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. A smaller number of first-time job seekers in October and fewer seasonal or temporary job terminations also contributed to the lower rate, it said.
■ Labor
Labor importers suspended
More than 40 Vietnamese companies have been suspended from sending laborers to Taiwan after Taipei threatened to stop receiving guest workers from the communist nation, Vietnamese state media said yesterday. The Taiwan government complained that increasing numbers of Vietnamese guest workers were breaking their assigned contracts and illegally taking up other jobs. Eight companies had their licenses suspended for six months, while 35 others were given two-month suspension terms, the Thuong Mai newspaper said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching