Former judge and New Party legislator Hsieh Chi-ta (
"To me, [being in jail] was more like sitting doing Zen meditation," Hsieh said as she was received by friends, relatives and supporters following her release.
PHOTO: LIAO CHENG-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsieh was sentenced on Dec. 21 last year in a defamation case brought by Tseng Wen-hui (
Hsieh, Feng and Tai had claimed that Tseng attempted to flee to New York after the 2000 presidential election with US$85 million in her luggage but was turned back by customs officials.
Opting to go to jail instead of paying an NT$81,000 fine, Hsieh was unrepentant about her behavior and said that her three-month jail term was "worthwhile."
"I don't mind serving the three-month jail term, because I think it is very worthwhile to have served out a sentence after pulling down the individual who has greatly harmed the country and the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party]," Hsieh said, referring to Lee.
In March 2000, after the KMT lost the presidential election to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Hsieh was among angry protesters who demonstrated outside KMT headquarters in Taipei.
They were demanding that Lee, who was chairman of the KMT at the time, step down from his post immediately.
While saying that she had no desire to run in the next legislative election, Hsieh said that as long as they needed her, she would go out of her way to boost the campaigns of candidates in the KMT and the People First Party.
Meanwhile, Li Ao (
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
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