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Taiwan Quick Take

■ POLITICS

Election bulletin out

The Central Election Commission yesterday published the election bulletin for the January legislative elections. The legislative poll will be held between 8am and 4pm on Jan. 12 at polling stations designated in the voting notice mailed to voters before the election, the bulletin said. A total of 73 legislative seats will be elected from districts, while six seats will be elected by Aboriginal constituents. In addition, 34 at large and overseas representative seats will be decided based on a list submitted by political parties that have received more than 5 percent of the vote. At least half of each party's elected lawmakers must be female, the bulletin said. The maximum campaign budget is NT$11,779,000 (US$365,000) for the 73 district and mountain Aboriginal candidates, and NT$11,582,000 for plains Aboriginal candidates, the bulletin said.



■ DEFENSE

Premier rebuts nuke report

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday dismissed a Chinese-language Yazhou Zhoukan report that Taiwan had sought help from former Indian defense minister Shri George Fernandes to develop nuclear weapons. "We will not develop nuclear weapons, nor do we possess nuclear weapons ... [the report] is pure speculation," Chang Chun-hsiung said when fielding questions from People First Party Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) during a question-and-answer session in the legislature. The Yazhou Zhoukan report this week said that Fernandes had secretly visited Taiwan several times, while Ministry of National Defense and National Security Council personnel had also visited India several times in secret. The purpose of the visits, the article said, was to help Taiwan develop nuclear weapons. Minister of National Defense Lee Tien-yu (李天羽), who was also at the question-and-answer session, denied that the ministry had such plans, adding that the National Security Council had never discussed the issue with him.



■ CRIME

Wang's detention extended

The Taipei District Court yesterday decided to extend the detention of Eastern Multimedia (東森多媒體) group president Gary Wang (王令麟) by two months. Wang was indicted in August on charges of embezzling corporate funds. Taipei judges said they made the decision to prevent Wang from colluding with other defendants or witnesses to give false testimony. Wang was indicted on Aug. 13, along with 31 suspects. He was alleged to have embezzled NT$3.3 billion (US$102.23 million) from the Eastern Multimedia Group and to have colluded with his father Wang You-theng (王又曾), founder of the Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業 集團), to loot NT$37.9 billion from the Rebar group.



■ DEFENSE

Base worries Kinmen

The Kinmen County Government expressed concern on Thursday that the central government could propose building a missile base there, adding that Kinmen residents wanted to continue peaceful exchanges with China. Kinmen County officials said that local residents had indicated they were resolutely opposed to any plan to construct missile bases there after a media report on Sept. 27 said the Ministry of National Defense would complete a missile base on Matsu Island by the end of this year. Kinmen officials said residents were worried that if such a project were launched, it would upset cultural and tourism exchanges with China.



■ CULTURE

Shan bids `farewell to life'

Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi (單國璽), one of only three cardinals of Chinese origin from Taiwan, who has fought an uphill battle against cancer for over a year, is scheduled to bring his round-the-island lecture tour to Taipei today, according to a religious source yesterday. The cardinal was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma -- the most common form of lung cancer -- more than a year ago. Over the past year, Shan has undergone a number of surgeries and his condition has improved and then worsened several times, prompting him to launch a "farewell to life" lecture tour to share his thoughts about life and human compassion, the officials from the Taiwan bishops' conference said. The cardinal has already visited Kaohsiung, Chiayi, Taichung and Hsinchu over the last month. Shan, 83, was created and proclaimed cardinal by Pope John Paul II on Feb. 21, 1998. He is currently serving his fourth term as president of the Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference.



■ ECONOMY

Hualien seeks to ease rule

A township chief in Hualien County urged the central government to ease rules on erecting new buildings in areas adjacent to Hualien Airport to help boost local development. Hsincheng Township (新城) Mayor Her Lee-tai (何禮臺) issued the call after the Executive Yuan approved relaxation of building controls in the neighborhood of Songshan Airport in Taipei during its weekly meeting on Wednesday. According to Her, local residents living near Hualien Airport -- a military-cum-commercial facility -- have long suffered from noise and lagging development because of current construction restrictions. Now that the Executive Yuan has agreed to ease the regulations governing the height of buildings near the airport in Taipei, raising the limit from 60m to 90m, Hsincheng residents expect that the central government would do the same for Hualien Airport to galvanize local development, Her said. Building limitations have dragged down the local real-estate and property markets and raised investment costs in Hsincheng, keeping investors away and generating no handsome tax revenue for local county authorities, Her said.


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