■ Defense
Special flights no threat
Taiwan's defense authorities yesterday ruled out the likelihood of a surprise attack by China through loading incoming civilian planes with troops. "The chance of this happening is negligible, as the military has effective counter measures dealing with all incoming passenger planes from China," said Lee Chieh-chia (李界佳), director of the defense ministry's joint operation combat department. He was responding to lawmakers' queries during a Legislative Yuan session over the possibility of China using civilian planes loaded with troops to launch a surprise attack on Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holiday. The lawmakers demanded to know whether the landmark agreement reached by Taiwan and China on Saturday over the historic two-way charter flights would pose any security threat to Taiwan. Lee said Taiwan has the "absolute ability" to safeguard the nation and the military has all the contingency plans ready, including countering a so-called "Trojan horse" attack. However, he declined to review the details. On Sunday, Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said negotiators from the two sides had already committed themselves not to engage in any non-charter flight missions during the time designated for the special flights, between Jan. 29 and Feb. 20.
■ Legal Affairs
Malaysia to take legal action
Malaysian authorities will take legal action against a company that imported thousands of tons of toxic waste from Taiwan using a fake permit, a news report said yesterday. The Department of Environment plans to charge Syn-Enviro Sdn Bhd with illegally importing 12,000 tonnes of waste, which was being stored in 223 barrels at the southern Johor port and in 996 barrels at a brick factory owned by the company, the New Straits Times newspaper said. It quoted Deputy Minister for Natural Resources S. Sothinathan as saying that the government would wait for the courts to decide what to do with the toxic waste. The minister and company representatives were not immediately available for comment. The industrial waste, which contained byproducts from the manufacture of circuit boards, included high density minerals such as copper, lead, nickel, cadmium and chromium. The case was reported in a Taiwanese newspaper last year. In June, Taiwan confirmed that Taiwanese company Hong You Technology Co used a fake Malaysian import permit to get approval to ship the waste. Bringing toxic waste into Malaysia is strictly regulated and permission is only granted if the importer can show it will reprocess the waste. Offenders face fines up to 500,000 ringgit (US$131,600) and prison terms of up to five years.
■ Society
Taiwan nabs nine golds
The 20th Melbourne Deaflympics ended Sunday after 12 days of competition, with Taiwan's team winning nine gold, four silver and three bronze medals, Chen Chuan-shou (陳全壽), chairman of the Cabinet-level National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports said yesterday. The result was Taiwan's best ever at the Deaflympics, Chen said. A total of 3,200 athletes from 78 countries took part in 16 athletic events, with a 45-member Taiwan delegation showing their skills in track and field, swimming, table tennis, bowling, handball and cycling, Chen said. Former Taipei Deputy Mayor Pai Hsiu-hsing (白秀雄) accepted the Deaflympic flag at the closing ceremony to symbolize that the games will be held next in Taipei.
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
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
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