■ DIPLOMACY
Envoy to US approved
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) confirmed yesterday that the US had approved the appointment of Jason Yuan (袁健生) as the nation’s envoy to the US. Yuan is expected to begin his job next month. “The ROC [Republic of China] representative office in Washington received formal notice of the US’ approval of the appointment on Friday afternoon,” said Harry Tseng (曾厚仁), director-general of MOFA’s Department of North American Affairs, at a press briefing. “Yuan is well-connected in the US as he has been working there for a long time. His excellent experience and educational background make him very suitable for the post,” Tseng said.
■ DEFENSE
Ma to attend Han Kuang
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will be in a command center to observe the annual Han Kuang series of military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said on Monday. It did not confirm when Ma would participate in the simulation. The computerized warfare simulation began on Sunday and will end on Friday, while live-fire drills will be held from Sept. 22 until Sept. 26. Ministry spokeswoman Lisa Chi (池玉蘭) said it would be inappropriate for the ministry to disclose when the president would be present at the Hengshan Command Center for the exercises. Sources at the ministry said this year’s war games would break with past practice of holding air, sea and land defense drills, and would instead spend one day on sea warfare and four on land warfare, with a ground war in the northern parts of the country and a diversionary battle in central and southern Taiwan.
■ POLITICS
Ma accepts apology
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) respected National Chengchi University’s decision not to renew former Ministry of Education deputy-general Chuang Kuo-rong’s (莊國榮) contract, adding however that Ma did not want that decision to prevent Chuang from finding employment elsewhere. Wang told reporters that Chuang had apologized for the remarks he made about Ma and his family and that Ma had accepted the apology and chosen to drop the matter. Chuang is a young academic and the public should give him another chance, Wang said. Chuang sparked controversy during the presidential campaign in March when he implied that Ma’s late father had had a salacious relationship with his goddaughter.
■ CRIME
DPP opposes amendment
Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) complained yesterday that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Ching-chi’s (吳清池) proposed amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code (刑事訴訟法) would deprive defendants of their right to appeal convictions. “Most defendants — about 95 percent of them — will not be able to appeal if Wu’s proposal is approved,” Lai said during a press conference yesterday morning. At present, the code stipulates that only cases with a potential sentence of six months or less are ineligible for appeal with the high court. Through his amendment, Wu is seeking to increase the threshold from six months to two years. Quoting studies, Lai said that of those convicted last year, 95 percent were convicted and sentenced to less than two years in prison. Under Wu’s system, such people would no longer be able to appeal their verdict, he said, adding that “Wu’s proposal will actually violate defendants’ legal rights.”
■ POLITICS
Wu should stay on: Ma
The Presidential Office said yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wanted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) to stay at his post, despite calls by some party members to amend the party charter and allow Ma to double as party leader. Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) told reporters that Ma had made it clear that he has no intention of becoming party chief, nor did he intend to endorse Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (朱立倫) as Wu’s replacement. Wu had made a vast contribution to the party by leading it to victory in the legislative elections in January and the presidential poll in March, Wang said. On Monday, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported that party representatives had been pushing to amend the party charter so Ma could double as party chairman to improve the party’s coordination with the government.
■ SPORTS
Lin calls for better welfare
Ultramarathon runner Kevin Lin (林義傑) said yesterday that he would push for an amendment to the law to improve welfare for retired athletes and encourage more people to work out. Lin said athletes in Taiwan are disadvantaged compared with their Western counterparts. The 32-year-old urged the government to amend the National Sports Act (國民體育法) to give retired athletes career alternatives other than teaching or coaching. The act requires owners of companies with at least 500 employees to hire sports professionals to help design employees’ sports activities and offer counseling, he said. However, it has never been put into practice, Lin said, adding that more exercise can actually improve employee efficiency. Lin has placed in ultramarathon races in the Amazon jungle, the Gobi desert and Antarctica.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching