■LAW
KMT’s Chiang ‘not guilty’
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Lien-fu (江連福) was yesterday found not guilty by the Taichung District Court on charges of vote-buying. Taichung prosecutors immediately decided to appeal the case to the Taiwan High Court. Chiang is suspected of paying a Taiping Township (太平) councilor surnamed Lin NT$50,000 (US$1,500) to buy votes for him. Prosecutors seized video footage of Chiang allegedly offering Lin the money and asking him to distribute it, but Lin is not seen accepting the money. The district court’s ruling said that because the video footage did not have sound, the court could not determine the content of the conversation between Chiang and Lin. The ruling also said the court did not know whether the NT$50,00 was money to buy votes or a political donation.
■WEATHER
Forecast predicts rain
Most parts of Taiwan will see showers or thundershowers for seven days starting today, as a moist air mass brought by a southwesterly wind moves across the nation, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. CWB meteorologists said that from today until Sunday, all of Taiwan except the south will have rain followed by thunderstorms on Monday and Tuesday, including Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. Southeastern Taiwan will see only showers, the CWB said. Temperatures over the next seven days will vary between 20°C and 27°C in the north, 21°C and 29°C in central regions, 23°C and 31°C in the south and 21°C and 28°C in the east, the weather bureau said. Meteorologists explained that the approaching front does not mean that the annual plum rain season is beginning early this year. They added that plum rain fronts usually occur near the end of this month.
■DIPLOMACY
Status quo’ more popular
Nearly 45 percent of the respondents to a recent survey said they favor the maintenance of the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait, according to the results of a poll conducted by the Global Views Monthly magazine released yesterday. The results of the poll, conducted between April 15 and April 18, said that some 45 percent of people over 20 favored the notion that “the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should maintain the political status quo for the time being before any changes are made.” The response marks the highest of its kind in the last five years, the survey said. The poll found that the percentage of respondents who favor eventual unification had dropped to a record low of 8.4 percent. A total of 44.8 percent of the respondents favored upholding the current cross-strait situation. The telephone survey randomly selected adults from around the country. It received 1,003 valid responses.
■TRANSPORTATION
Alishan rail back in action
The Alishan railway resumed operations yesterday after a two-week suspension for safety checks, the Chiayi Forest District Office said. About 80 tourists took the train as it restarted operations, keen to travel on one of the world’s three narrow-gauge mountain railways. Chiayi Forest District Office chief Yeh Hsien-liang (葉賢良) said he is confident of the train’s safety after the office conducted a full examination of its equipment and training. The office decided to halt services on April 14 following three derailments in the previous two weeks. The Alishan mountain resort area is known for its cherry blossoms, sun rises and its steep railway with numerous hairpin bends. It attracts nearly 900,000 visitors a year.
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