■ Cross-Strait Ties
Travel-permit rules eased
The Mainland Affairs Coun-cil announced yesterday that starting March 1, ordinary citizens will not need to apply for permission from their companies or agencies to travel to China. The council and the Ministry of Interior have amended a
law that required Republic
of China citizens to obtain permits from their work-places to travel to China. Council Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said only government employees and workers from certain agen-cies will still need the per-mits. Government workers cannot stay in China for more than a month. Those who do need to stay longer than that must obtain special permits from their employ-ers, the council said.
■ Environment
Taipei probes raffle fraud
Taipei City Government's Bureau of Environmental Protection issued an apology yesterday for a scandal
over a raffle aimed at encouraging people to recycle batteries. The bureau had commissioned Gillette Co to hold the raffle. The company has been accused of counterfeiting the raffle prize list and not giving out 101 computers as prizes. Bureau Director Chen
Yeong-ren (陳永仁) said the city is investigating whether any of its officials were involved in the scandal.
He said the city will file
fraud charges against the company and any officials
it believes were involved
in the scandal.
■ Politics
April court date for Lee
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) will be sum-moned to attend a hearing at Taipei District Court in April about a secret fund that was established to secure diplomatic relations with South Africa nearly 10 years ago. Presiding judge Liao Wen-yu (廖紋妤) decided yesterday that Lee would be summoned on April 14. Court spokesman Huang Jiunn-ming (黃俊明) said that Liao was planning to sum-mon another 15 witnesses
in addition to Lee. Huang said that since the case concerns national security, the hearings would be held behind closed doors and the transcripts would not be made public.
■ Crime
Drug seizures up last year
The number of narcotics seized totaled more than 8,500kg last year, up 2.7 fold from 2002, statistics com-piled by the Department of Health showed yesterday. Officials said that not only the size of the narcotics haul had increased sharply, but the types had become more varied, and the use of marijuana grew by nearly 10 fold. Amphetamines made up half of the drugs seized last year, followed by ketamine, heroin, ecstasy and mari-juana. National Bureau of Controlled Drugs Director-General Li Jih-heng (李志恆) said the amount of ketamine seized last year surpassed that of heroin, and marijuana seizures totaled 121kg, compared to 11kg in 2002.
■ Education
Dutch offer scholarships
The Netherlands Trade and Investment Office Taipei is handing out NT$1 million scholarships to Taiwanese students pursing post-graduate studies in the 2004- to-2005 academic year.
There are 36 awards which will be given to 19 students enrolled in post-graduate programs at Leiden Univer-sity, University of Groningen, Utrecht Univer-sity, Delft University of Technology, Rotterdam School of Management and NIMBAS Graduate School of Manage-ment. Information on the scholarships can be obtained by contacting Ariel Lin at the trade office at (02) 8770-7621, ext 720.
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