■ Elections
DPP to hold poll again
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Feng-hsi (林豐喜), who is competing with former DPP vice chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) to become the party's candidate for Taichung County Commissioner yesterday said a telephone poll conducted in the second part of the primary race was unfair and asked the DPP to redo the survey. The DPP accepted Lin's demand and said it will commission a survey company to redo the poll this evening. The DPP originally planned to announce its candidate for Taichung County commissioner yesterday, as the telephone poll was done on Monday evening. According to the survey, Chiu came out on top and as such would have been selected as the candidate representing the DPP. But Lin suspects that one of the three survey companies falsified the results.
■ Trade
MOFA to push pact with US
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is trying to make contact with the US government and Congress, as well as industrial and commercial groups in the US, in the hope of opening formal negotiations on the issue of signing a free-trade agreement (FTA), a ministry official said yesterday. Victor Chin (秦日新), director-general of North American affairs, made the remarks one day after Senator John Rockefeller IV said in Taipei that he was willing to help Taiwan overcome difficulties in its efforts to sign an FTA with Washington. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) met the senator at the Presidential Office on Monday and urged the US to sign an FTA with Taiwan to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
■ Society
New Party official off to jail
The Taiwan High Court yesterday sentenced New Party Taipei City Councilor Li Ching-yuan (李慶元) to a six-month jail term and will suspend his civil rights for two years on charges of violating the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法). In 2000, Li published a book accusing President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) -- who was then running for the presidency -- of having an extra-marital affair with a lady. In March, 2000, Li and former New Party presidential candidate Li Ao (李敖), the incumbent independent legislator jointly held a press conference in Taipei City Council to publicize book co-authored by them entitled Chen Shui-bian's True Face.
■ Diplomacy
Ambassador sought
Taipei is looking for the right person to serve as ambassador to Nauru, now that Chinese diplomats on the South-Pacific island nation have officially announced the severing of diplomatic relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶隆) said yesterday. Speaking at a regular news briefing at the ministry's headquarters, Lu said that Chinese diplomats stationed in Nauru made the announcement Monday in retaliation for Nauru's decision to switch its formal recognition from Beijing to Taipei on May 14. However, the Taiwanese ambassador has yet to be named, he added. According to Lu, Nauru's case is a clear indication that Beijing has been sparing no efforts to crowd out Taiwan in the international community, and the main purpose of Beijing's establishment of diplomatic ties with other countries is simply aimed at isolating Taiwan.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
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