■ Diplomacy
Paraguay firm on ties
Paraguay will not sever its diplomatic ties with Taiwan for the sake of an agreement between the South American trade bloc Mercosur, of which it is a member, and China, a top foreign ministry official said on Wednesday. Mercosur is the Southern Common Market that groups Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, with Chile and Bolivia as associate members. The group is negotiating is a free-trade agreement with China. "The government [of Paraguay] maintains that it can establish trade and economic ties with any country," said Jose Martinez Lezcano, the deputy foreign minister for economic affairs and integration. "After the agreement is signed, we are not obligated to trade [with China]" or to establish diplomatic ties with the country, he said. Paraguay has had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1957. It is the only South American nation that maintains ties with Taipei.
■ Election
Observers on their way
Fifteen groups from Hong Kong and Macau will start to arrive in Taiwan in mid-February to observe the presidential election scheduled for March 20, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The council's vice-chairman, Huang Chieh-cheng (黃介正), made the announcement following an MAC meeting about political reform in Hong Kong and relations between Taiwan and Hong Kong. He said that the observers from Hong Kong and Macau, which will include journalists, lawmakers, scholars and election experts, will come to Taiwan at the invitation of local private groups and think tanks. This is five more groups than in the 2000 presidential election.
■ Society
Contest links families, heat
The Taiwan Fund for Families and Children (CCF) and Taiwan Sakura Corp are sponsoring a "Warming Up Homes" contest which will help raise money for the fund. People can participate by sending in a suggestion on how to improve relations among family members. Those interested can fax in their suggestions to (02-23688833 UFO Radiom) or submit them online (value.yam.com/2004/sakura). Submissions must include the contestant's name, age, ID-card number, contact number and suggestion. The company will donate NT$10 for every ID-card number registered to the fund. The suggestions will then be listed for public voting and the submission with highest number of vote will win a Sakura stove and water-heater.
■ Earthquakes
Southern Taiwan jolted
Two moderate earthquakes jolted southern Taiwan on Wednesday, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. The first earthquake, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, hit at 3:13am with an epicenter 19.8km northwest of Peinan in Taitung County, the Central Weather Bureau said. It originated 10km underground. A second earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 followed at 3:34am, with an epicenter 19.9km southwest of Litao in Taitung County, 4.8km under the ground. A powerful quake with a magnitude of 6.6 shook Taiwan on Dec. 10 last year but left only minor damage and injuries in some southern cities. The island suffered its worst quake in a century when one measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck central Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999, leaving 2,400 people dead.
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
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
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