■ Corruption
More than 9,000 indicted
A total of 9,251 people were indicted in 3,636 graft cases between June 2000 and last December under the Ministry of Justice's anti-corruption operations, officials said on Sunday. Illicit gains recovered as a result of these cases amounted to more than NT$29.55 billion (US$898.18 million), officials said. Of those indicted, 503 were senior-level civil servants, 579 were elected representatives, 1,680 were intermediate-level civil servants, 2,820 were junior-level civil servants and 3,669 were ordinary citizens, the officials said.
■ Society
Harassment data released
The Ministry of the Interior said that 363 cases of sexual harassment have been reported since the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法) came into force on Feb. 5 last year. The act promotes sexual harassment prevention training and awareness. Of the 363 reported cases, 163 occurred outside the home and workplace, with half of the cases involving inappropriate physical contact, while 93 percent of victims were female. One hundred and forty-five cases of sexual harassment took place in schools and 55 in the workplace.
■ Politics
Frank Hsieh in a hurry
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who has not announced whether he will run in next year's presidential election, suggested on Sunday that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) open the registration process for its presidential primaries sooner than scheduled. Hsieh, in Los Angeles after attending the US National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on behalf of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), said at a news conference that he had no opinion on whether the DPP primaries should be held earlier than May as originally scheduled. But he suggested that the registration process -- scheduled for April -- be moved forward. He said early registration would allow more time for intra-party negotiation. After the news conference, Hsieh delivered a speech titled "Taiwan Identity, Reconciliation and Co-existence" at a dinner party hosted by the DPP's West Coast Chapter in his honor. Hsieh said in a recent TV interview that he is seriously considering running for president.
■ Defense
MND hosts security forum
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) will host a regional security forum today and tomorrow, presided over by Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑), ministry officials said yesterday. Many foreign and local academics have been invited to attend the forum, including former US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Randy Schriver; vice chairman of the US-China Security and Economic Review Commission Dan Blumenthal and Bernard Cole, a professor of international history at the National War College in Washington. Discussions will center on four topics: ways to improve the military transparency in Asia-Pacific countries, ways to reinforce mutual trust among countries in the region, as well as humanitarian relief operations, anti-terrorism affairs, and international crisis management and conflict prevention, the ministry said. Participants will also talk about China's military threat against Taiwan, the state of cross-strait relations, China's military modernization, and exchanges and cooperation between Japan, Taiwan and the US.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift