■ Festivals
Beef noodles on wheels
To compete with street vendors selling coffee or breakfast from their vans, the organizer of the 2005 Beef Noodle Festival adopted the idea of doing business on the move by refitting a van into a vehicle that can serve beef soup. Starting today through Thursday, the van, loaded with four thermos flasks, will put up posters featuring the 2005 Beef Noodle Festival while cruising the thoroughfares of Taipei City, giving away beef soup for free during the day. It will be stationed in the Living Mall and the square in front of the Taipei City Hall after 5pm.
■ Community
Volunteers clean up
Over 70,000 volunteers from 320 organizations around Taiwan, equipped with brooms, tongs and garbage bags, joined the largest "clean up the island" campaign in five years that yesterday simultaneously kicked off at 1,598 spots around the nation. Groups of volunteer workers picked up waste along the Keelung River in Taipei City and sorted it for recycling. A team of around 30 college students in northern Taiwan caught the most attention as all its members roller-skated along the bicycle track along the river at the Pailing Riverbank Park (百齡河濱公園), showing of dazzling skating skills while performing the public service. The campaign was run from Paisha Bay (白沙灣) in Taipei County in the north to Kenting National Park (墾丁國家公園) in the south, Tungying (東引) on the outlying island of Matsu (馬祖) in the west and Lungtung (龍洞) in the east, according to the organizers.
■ Diplomacy
Soong no messenger
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has never asked opposition People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to pass on any messages to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), a Presidential Office spokesman said over the weekend. James Huang (黃志芳) a Presidential Office deputy secretary-general, made the remarks after James Keith, a US State Department senior adviser, said that Soong met Hu and other Chinese leaders in Beijing on May 12 this year and passed on the message that Chen was willing to engage in dialogue with Beijing, using a flexible formulation about what constitutes "one China." Huang said that he didn't know where the US State Department got its information from and that the State Department has not contacted the Presidential Office regarding the matter. One thing is certain, however, and that is that Chen has never asked Soong to give any messages to the Chinese leadership, Huang said.
■ Politics
No apologies, Hsieh says
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday said that a demand by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers that he apologize for errors in the Kaohsiung MRT project is like forcing him to admit something he did not do. An apology should come from the bottom of the heart, Hsieh said. In this case, the premier said that even if he apologizes, it will not mean anything because the responsibility is not his. In addition, the KMT lawmakers accused him of making a variety of wrong decisions during his term as Kaohsiung City mayor, because they watched related TV reports that said Hsieh should take the responsibility for the project's shortcomings. This is just unfair and ridiculous, he said. Meanwhile, the KMT caucus yesterday said that the DPP should take the responsibility for the premier being banned for merely carrying out his administrative briefing.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard