■ Business
Ohio delegation arriving
Ohio Governor Bob Taft will lead a large delegation to Taiwan today for a three-day visit, according to a press release issued yesterday by the American Institute in Taiwan. The group will be made up of about 50 representatives from more than 30 companies and organizations. The delegation will identify local companies interested in investing in Ohio, promote Ohio exports and build educational, social and cultural exchanges between Ohio and Taiwan. Taiwan is one of Ohio's top-20 export markets and is a growing source of advanced technology collaborations. Last year Ohio's exports to Taiwan were worth approximately US$201.48 million.
■ Politics
Activist quits KMT post
Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), president of the Modern Women's Foundation yesterday resigned her position as head of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) women's affairs department to concentrate on her legislative election campaign. Pan announced her resignation at KMT party headquarters in Taipei yesterday, promising to promote women's issues if she were elected. Pan said she would work for greater female representation in government, the establishment of a gender equality committee in the Executive Yuan, push for a birth health bill and initiate reforms to the Gender Equality Education Law (性別平等教育法). Pan said she would also push for the creation of a women's entrepreneurship fund.
■ Society
PTS holds racism seminar
A two-day seminar next month on ethnic conflict will provide a forum to talk about everyday experiences with racism, social welfare groups said yesterday. Sponsored by the Peacetime Foundation and the Reading Times Foundation, the forum will take a comprehensive look at ethnic conflict. The forum is co-sponsored by the Public Television Service. The seminar is entitled "The Words of the People" and will be held on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24. People over the age of 16 are encouraged to register, and selected participants will have the chance to join small group discussions with experts. Participants will be representative of all levels and sectors of society, foundation representatives said. The seminar will be recorded by PTS and screened in November. To apply, see the seminar's Web page at www.pts.org.tw/php/vote/9309_pub/index.php. The fee is NT$5,000.
■ Judiciary
Phone records recovered
Prosecutors yesterday said they had acquired the mobile phone records of independent Legislator Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) as part of an investigation into whether two grand justices attempted to persuade him to veto the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例). The probe was launched after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Tsung-yi (陳宗義) filed a slander suit on Sept. 22. Yesterday Chen visited Prosecutor-General Morley Shih (施茂林), asking that prosecutors summon him as well as Su as soon as possible, and claiming that "he also knew something about the case." Shih told Chen Tsung-yi that prosecutors were reviewing Su's phone records and would begin summoning witnesses at the appropriate time. After alleging the grand justices had tried to persuade him to veto the statute, Su refused to name them. Chen said Su had insulted the public and defamed the justices.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
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