■ CULTURE
Festival to start in Taitung
The eighth festival of Austronesian Cultures will commence on Saturday in Taitung County with the theme of "strength and beauty." Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞) said this year's event would include Aboriginal dance and folk song performances in addition to an exhibition of twelve 3.5m wood carvings by 12 Aboriginal artists and a "Taiwan beer night" on the last night. Festival goers will also be entertained by performers from the Solomon Islands, Palau, Korea and Okinawa, Kuang said. The National Museum of Prehistory will host indoor activities, while outdoor activities will be held at Taitung Forest Park, she said.
■ SOCIETY
Hotline up for ex-inmates
The Taiwan After-care Association has set up a telephone line providing counseling services for prison inmates released under a commutation statute that will go into effect tomorrow. Released inmates can dial 0800-788595 for counseling, association Chairman Yen Ta-ho (顏大和) said. A total of 10,969 inmates will be released under the commutation program, which was implemented to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 228 Incident and the 20th anniversary of the end of 38 years of martial law. The association has also taken other measures to help released inmates return to normal life and to prevent recidivism, Yen said. Staff of the association will be deployed in prisons around the country tomorrow to offer rehabilitation information about returning to school, employment opportunities and medical treatment to the inmates prior to their release.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
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