■ Transportation
Military drill delays flights
Six flights were delayed when Kaohsiung International Airport closed its runways for one hour yesterday morning due to a military exercise held in the area from 10am to 11am. The delayed flights included Mandarin Airlines and Uni Air flights arriving from Taipei, Hualien and Makung, as well as a Uni Air flight from Kaohsiung to Taipei. Passengers complained about not being notified in advance that there would be delays due to the military exercise.
■ Cross-strait ties
Injured journalist returns
A Taiwanese journalist who was injured last Thursday in a bus crash in western China returned to Taiwan yesterday for medical treatment. Ho Wen-han (何文翰), a cameraman with ERA Cable TV, was rushed to Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital for emergency treatment after arriving at CKS International Airport aboard a chartered China Airlines plane. Ho was paralyzed after sustaining serious injuries to his neck in the crash in Xinjiang. He was part of a group of reporters from 15 news organizations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait traveling from Fujian to Xinjiang. The group, traveling on nine buses, was on its way to Urumuqi when the accident occurred. Five of the vehicles were involved in the pile-up, which has been blamed on an unmarked road barrier.
■ Academics
New institute inaugurated
The Academia Sinica's Institute of Taiwan History was inaugurated yesterday after 11 years of preparations. Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) said he hopes the new institute will have vision and adopt a comprehensive, circumspect and open-minded approach in researching Taiwan's history. The institute is the Academia Sinica's 22nd research organization. Institute Director Chuang Ying-chang (莊英章) said systematic research into Taiwan's history didn't begin until the 1970s when Academia Sinica launched the "Choshui-Tatu Creek Research Project." "Since the 1980s, research into Taiwan's history has gained steam with the launch of various large research programs and with the participation of new talented people," Chuang said. He said the institute will conduct in-depth studies on five major subjects: Taiwan's socioeconomics, ethnicity, colonial rule, culture and environment.
■ Overseas Chinese
Officials brief NY group
Two senior government officials paid a visit to the Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA) in New York on Monday to brief its board members on Taipei's policy toward China. Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Lin Fang-mei (林芳玫), chairwoman of the Coordination Council for North American Affairs, are among few senior officials to visit traditional Chinese expatriates groups in the New York area since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in 2000. CBA chairman Chen Yu-chu (陳玉駒) said that his group is concerned about the administration's cross-strait policy goals. Wu told the CBA officials that the administration will continue to promote cross-strait rapprochement. Since President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) second inauguration, Wu said, the government has taken active steps and extended olive branches to Beijing on many occasions with the view to boosting cross-strait ties and moving them in a positive, constructive and peaceful direction.
■ Cross-Strait Ties
Detained newsmen freed
Two journalists from Next magazine have been released from apparent detention in Shanghai and were due to return home, Pei Wei (斐偉), chief editor of the magazine, said yesterday. Reports said that the two journalists lost contact with Taipei when they were in Shanghai on Saturday afternoon, and it was thought that they might have been held by Chinese policemen. Other sources said that one of them had contacted friends via cellphone and indicated that he had been arrested. Pei said that he has no idea why the two might have been held and would have to wait until they return home for an explanation.
■ Defense
Military helps in clean-up
Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) has instructed the military to continue to help with disaster relief work, a spokesman said yesterday. Ministry spokesman Major General Huang Suey-sheng (黃穗生) said the Central Disaster Relief Center was relieved of its duties on Sunday night, but out of concerns that the areas ravaged by flooding and mudslides caused by Tropical Storm Mindulle may still need support, Lee has instructed continued relief efforts. Huang noted that as of yesterday morning, the army had mobilized more than 80,000 military personnel and various equipment for the disaster relief. They have helped disinfect, fix embankments, airlift needed material and housed 1,493 residents from affected areas.
■ Immigration
Orientation help offered
Chiayi County will offer a month-long program for foreign brides to help them better integrate into life in this country. County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) said that there are 8,332 foreign brides in Chiayi and more than half are Chinese -- 4,371. With more children being born to cross-cultural marriages, he said that the situation deserves attention and concern from the government, as these children will be crucial to the nation's development and the nation's competitiveness in the world. The program will last until Aug. 19 and will offer language training, settlement counseling, information on local customs, an introduction to festivals, cooking classes and information on medical care and traffic safety. Chen said he hoped that after being in the program, the foreign brides would be able to obtain driver's licenses without help. He also urged family members of the brides to spend more time talking with them.
■ Diplomacy
Technicians get training
Officials attached to technical missions in countries that have diplomatic relations with this country have returned home to receive organizational skills training, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. Liu Jung-tsou (劉榮座), director-general of the Economic and Trade Affairs Department said there are 276 technicians in 39 teams serving in 33 countries that either have formal diplomatic relations or are on friendly terms with Taiwan. The teams specialize in the areas of agriculture, fishery, medical services and trade. A total of 28 mission leaders met yesterday with Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) who recognized their achievements and encouraged them to continue their service. Liu said the missions strengthen ties with allies and extend help to other countries.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift