■ DIPLOMACY
AIT offices closed
In observance of Martin Luther King Jr Day, all offices of the American Institute in Taiwan will be closed on Monday. The offices will re-open the following day.
■ DIPLOMACY
Cambodia rebuffs Taiwan
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday it regretted the Cambodian government's continual objection to forging closer economic ties with Taiwan. Ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) made the statement after Phnom Penh reiterated that it did not welcome any form of Taiwanese liaison office in its country. The Central News Agency reported that the Cambodian foreign ministry had issued a statement yesterday saying that, because it respected Beijing's "one China" principle, Cambodia would not allow the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to set up a branch in the country. At press time, TAITRA had not made any official response to Phnom Penh's rejection.
■ EDUCATION
Political speech contest
Foreign Mandarin students had an opportunity to weigh in on the political situation and display their language abilities in an "If I Were President" speech contest held by Radio Taiwan International on Sunday evening. A total of 46 students from 14 countries took part in the preliminary round of the contest co-sponsored by the publicly funded radio station and National Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Training Center. The contest was a colorful affair, with the participants using a variety of creative approaches to liven up their speeches. One of the contestants from Vietnam, Du Duc Hiep, a business management student at Tamkang University, used a traditional form of four-verse poetry to express how he would govern as Taiwan's head of state.
■ CRIME
Changes to drug laws mulled
The Ministry of Education (MOE) plans to amend laws to require teenage drug users and their parents to attend counseling classes and impose fines on them, an official said yesterday. In addition, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is considering sending teenage drug users to juvenile court, said Wang Fu-lin (王福林), director of the MOE's military training department. The planned measures are part of the ministries' efforts to respond to the rapidly increasing numbers of teenage students using drugs in recent years, Wang told a national meeting in Kaohsiung attended by local education chiefs. Citing MOE statistics, Wang noted that the number of students who were caught using grade three drugs, including ketamine and flunitrazepam, saw a five-fold rise from 39 in 2004 to 195 last year.
■ SOCIETY
Former minister dies
Former education minister and Academia Sinica research fellow Wu Jin (吳京), who advocated the recognition of Chinese diplomas, died of cancer at noon in Tainan yesterday. The 74-year-old researcher was respected for his dedication to education reform during his term as education minister between 1996 and 1998. During his term, he sought to reform the education system because he believed it attached too much importance to students' grades. He also proposed a military training program for female college students in 1996. Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) expressed his condolences on behalf of the ministry and praised Wu's contribution to education reform.
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