■ DIPLOMACY
Lu to visit South America
The Presidential Office confirmed yesterday that Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) will visit Latin America next month, but rejected allegations that the trip was "checkbook diplomacy." The Presidential Office issued a statement saying that details of Lu's planned trip to visit diplomatic allies in Central and South America are being arranged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that the purpose of the trip is to enhance exchanges and cement diplomatic ties. The statement said Lu's trip was not to dole out money to allies and that reports about "checkbook diplomacy" were full of false allegations, urging the media to stop speculating and to put the nation's diplomatic interests first. The statement was made in response to a report published in yesterday's edition of the Chinese-language China Times.
■ EDUCATION
Skills workshop planned
A training workshop for second-generation overseas Taiwanese to learn skills in international trade -- particularly how to promote Taiwanese products -- is scheduled to open in Taipei on Thursday, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said yesterday. Forty young men and women from around the world are expected to attend the six-week business workshop organized by TAITRA at the request of the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, TAITRA officials said. TAITRA and commission officials hope that these young Taiwanese descendants from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Paraguay and Southeast Asia will pick up skills in international trade -- including marketing, international business norms and business communications -- after receiving intensive training at the 38-day workshop.
■ CRIME
Cops name councilor's killer
Taipei County police yesterday identified Lan Chia-wei (藍家偉), 36, as the alleged killer of Taipei County councilor Wu Shan-jeou (吳善九). Police published Lan's photo and said Lan -- who fled to southern Taiwan after the shooting -- is armed and extremely dangerous. Police said they suspect Lan committed the crime and was helped by Banciao gangster Wu Hsin-chung (吳信中), who entered China a couple of days after the crime. Police said that Wu Hsin-chung and his friends had been found to be involved in environmental clean-up businesses and that the murder was probably related to it. Wu Shan-jeou, who was a People First Party (PFP) member, often brought up environmental issues at council meetings. The councilor was gunned down in his office in Sindian (新店), Taipei County, on May 23.
■ POLITICS
Officials dismiss spies story
The Presidential Office yesterday dismissed allegations that President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) revelation of China's missiles targeted at Taiwan in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election led to the arrests of more than 30 Taiwanese spies operating in China. The Presidential Office issued a statement dismissing a story published in yesterday's edition of the Chinese-language China Times as "groundless." The report alleged that Chen disclosed the intelligence in November 2003 in a bid to push the "defensive referendum" and boost his odds of winning the election. The move angered Beijing, which, as a retaliatory measure, arrested more than 30 China-based Taiwanese businesspeople.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
The Supreme Court on Tuesday found four men guilty of attempted murder in the 2017 stabbing of Spanish surfer Ignacio Prio on a Pingtung County beach in the final ruling in the case, sentencing them to three-and-a-half to six years in prison. The defendants had appealed their convictions for attempted murder in the first and second rulings, which had also led to prison sentences ranging from three-and-a-half years to six years. The then-42-year-old Prio went to Jialeshui Beach (佳樂水) near Kenting (墾丁) on March 31, 2017, was attacked after he asked four men to remove their fishing lines from an area
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
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