■ Diplomacy
MOFA eyes Manila events
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to monitor closely the political crisis in the Philippines although President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is not under immediate pressure to step down, a ministry official said yesterday. Gary Lin (林松煥), director of the Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, pointed out that the opposition in the Philippines has initiated many protests demanding the resignation of Arroyo over an election scandal and a gambling scandal. However, Lin said he thinks Arroyo should be able to relieve the pressure to step down and bring the situation under control.
■ Orations
Lee talks about issues
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said yesterday a national leader has to balance the development of various goals of the country. Lee made the remarks when he spoke to a class of the Lee Teng-hui School on the overall goals of the nation in the 21st century. He said that these include national security, the economy, diplomacy, education, ecology, technology and various other aspects, but there could be conflicts among the various goals. He cited national security as an example, saying that if the country wants security, it has to increase its outlay on arms, which will naturally reduce the budget for other items, saying that a leader has to balance the development of various goals. Lee's words came against the backdrop of the Executive Yuan's stalled special arms procurement package in the Legislative Yuan.
■ Politics
Soong leaves for US
People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) left yesterday for the US, in what the Chinese-language media has speculated is an attempt to take a break from the political conflict facing the party and from the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) chairmanship election tomorrow. Chinese-language media speculated yesterday that Soong decided to take a vacation in order to avoid choosing sides in the KMT's chairmanship race, and to also take a break from his party's beleagured political and financial situation. When questioned as to how long Soong might stay in the US, PFP spokesman Hsieh Kung-pin (謝公秉) would only say that Soong's stay there would "not be too short," and implied that Soong would be in the US until well after the PFP's July 22 chairmanship election. Soong is the sole person running for the post.
■ Diplomacy
Japanese official to visit
A Japanese parliamentarian is scheduled to arrive in Taipei on Sunday for a three-day visit to exchange views with Taiwanese authorities over a range of issues of mutual concern, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said yesterday. "Hirosato Nakatsugawa, a member of the lower house of the Japanese Diet of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, will visit Taiwan July 17-19 to discuss issues regarding Taiwan-Japan security cooperation and fishing disputes resulting from their overlapping economic zones," said Gary Lin (林松煥), director of MOFA's East Asian and Pacific Affairs Department. According to Lin, Nakatsugawa heads a research panel on Japan-Taiwan security and economic cooperation. During his visit, Nakatsugawa will meet with senior officials, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山), National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) and Cabinet Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元).
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