■ Cross-strait ties
Ma urges economic opening
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday urged the central government to work to normalize economic relations with China, claiming this will help deter Beijing from taking any military action against the country. To this end, Ma proposed that the government lift its restrictions on Chinese tourists and on Chinese capital in certain sectors of the economy. The mayor made the remarks while addressing the opening of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chang's (章孝嚴) campaign headquarters. Ma argued that cross-strait peace does not depend solely on arms procurement but requires a comprehensive cross-strait policy.
■ Diplomacy
MOTC chief heads to summit
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) yesterday left for Chile to attend the 3rd APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting in Punta Arenas, to explore the direction of regional tourism. Lin is expected to hold talks with some tourism officials during the meeting. Under the rubric of diversity, the meeting will discuss how to manage sustainable development, enhance travel safety and invigorate small and medium tourism businesses. Lin is scheduled to arrive in Taipei on Oct. 19.
■ Tourism
Mandarin Web site launched
The Philippine representative office in Taiwan announced yesterday the launching of a Chinese-language tourism Web site to serve Chinese around the world wanting to get tourism information on the Philippines. The Manila Economic and Cultural Office noted that the Philippines has set the target of attracting 5 million tourists per year by 2010. Currently, foreign tourists to the Philippines come mostly from Taiwan, the US, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China. Taiwanese tourists account for the fastest growing source of foreign tourists to the Philippines. The Web site address is www.wowphlip-pines.com.tw.
■ Diplomacy
Representative touts Britain
Outgoing Taiwanese representative to the UK Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) on Friday expressed his appreciation for the friendship and support offered to Taiwan by various sectors in the UK in bolstering bilateral ties. Hosting a reception in celebration of the upcoming Double Ten National Day today, Tien said relations between Taiwan and Britain have become closer over the past two years. Most significantly, the number of Taiwanese students in Britain has increased over the last few years to more than 13,000, Tien said. This year alone, the British government has issued nearly 10,000 visas for Taiwanese students, Tien said. He also noted that bilateral trade now stands at more than US$4.3 billion, and that UK-based mutual funds account for one-third of all foreign mutual funds in Taiwan's stock market.
■ Society
Chiang's property on display
Crowds swarmed into Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei yesterday to view a collection of personal effects that once belonged to the late Madame Chiang Kai-shek (蔣宋美齡), the most famous first lady in Taiwanese history. The rare show was organized by the ROC Women's League to mark the anniversary of Madame Chiang's death. The exhibition, which will run through Nov. 5, is believed to be the largest of its kind ever held in Taiwan. Among the exhibits are 28 Chinese brush paintings by Madame Chiang, who died at her New York home on Oct. 24 last year at the age of 106.
■ Diplomacy
Call for fair treatment
Taiwan Representative to Singapore Roy Wu (烏元彥) yesterday called for fair treatment for Taiwan, saying that as a democratic and freedom-loving country, Taiwan shouldn't have to face "political apartheid" in the international community. Wu made the remarks during a dinner party held to celebrate the upcoming Double Ten National Day, with political, military and economic officials from various countries attending. He stressed that the 23 million people of Taiwan have become international "nomads" who are discriminated against in the international community and who have been shut out of international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization without any rights or dignity.
■ Technology
Smallest MP3 player
A domestic technology firm yesterday unveiled the world's smallest MP3 player at the 2004 Taipei International Electronics Show. The MP3 player, manufactured by the Hsuan Mao Enterprise Co., is only 4cm in diameter and 16g in weight. It has a memory capacity of up to 256 megabytes and is powered by a rechargable battery that lasts four to six hours. It will be sold at around NT$1,600 (US$47). MP3 players are replacing CD walkmans as the mainstream product in the portable stereo market thanks to their handy size, large storage capacity, and excellent acoustic quality. According to a survey by the International Data Corp. (IDC), some 25 million MP3 players are expected to be sold this year, up by over 10 million from the previous year's level. Market analysts expect MP3 player sales to continue to increase by 10 million units annually over the next several years.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater