■SOCIETY
Panda-viewing to be limited
Giant pandas Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓) may arrive in Taipei Zoo as early as November via a cross-strait direct flight, and visitors will be required to take a number to see them. Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) yesterday said the Taipei City Government has formed a special team to handle the two pandas, and will seek to arrange for them to take a direct flight from Chengdu (成都), China, to Taipei. Yeh said the zoo expects the pandas to attract 6 million visitors each year. The zoo will ask visitors to draw number slips to save them from waiting in line, and each visitor may be given only three to five minutes in the Panda Hall because of the large number of expected visitors, he said.
■SOCIETY
‘Hung’ abuse ends in divorce
Banciao (板橋) District Court on Tuesday granted a woman a divorce on the grounds that her husband had used dirty and insulting language to humiliate her over a period of many years, with one of his favorite jibes being to compare his wife to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱). The court said the woman, who runs a private school with her husband, wrote down the “Hung Hsiu-chu” remark and asked her husband to sign it. She then used the signed insult as evidence to prove the verbal abuse. In the ruling, the court said it had granted the divorce to save the woman from further abuse. Asked about the story, Hung said she is actually a sweet and gentle woman, and not as tough as some people think. She added that she would like to meet the couple concerned and after spending some time with her, the man would realize that having a wife like her would lead to a happy family life.
■POLITICS
Tsai arrives in New York
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) arrived in New York on Tuesday on the first leg of a two-week US trip. “The prime aim of this visit is to exchange views with US experts and expatriates on a wide range of issues, including Taiwan’s political situation,” Tsai told reporters upon her arrival at Kennedy Airport. “I will be open and frank in response to all questions,” Tsai said. “Washington should be very aware of my views.” Tsai was to hold a closed-door meeting yesterday with members of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and is to give a speech today on cross-strait relations at her alma mater, Cornell University, in New York State. She will also attend the annual meeting of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association in New Jersey and take part in a banquet to solicit donations for the DPP on the coming weekend. The DPP chairwoman is scheduled to proceed to Washington on Monday, where she will call at the Heritage Foundation and meet US officials and academics before flying to Los Angeles on Sept. 12 and San Jose on Sept. 14. Tsai is scheduled to return to Taipei on Sept. 16. Tsai’s special aide, former legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), is accompanying her on the US trip.
■EDUCATION
Kaohsiung seeks hosts
The Kaohsiung City Government is recruiting local families to help host 12 student teachers from the US, the Kaohsiung City Education Bureau said in a press release yesterday. The bureau stressed the host families will not have to house them, but just help the teachers to understand and experience life in the city. The application period will end on Sunday, the bureau said.
■DIPLOMACY
Visa-free travel expanded
The Bureau of Consular Affairs announced yesterday that the Dominican Republic recently added Taiwan to its visa-free category. Starting this month, all Republic of China (ROC) passport holders will no longer need a visa to travel to the Caribbean country. However, all travelers must purchase a US$10 Tourist Card at the airport upon arrival. A list of visa-free countries for ROC passport holders is available at www.boca.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1335&ctNode=39&mp=1.
■CROSS-STRAIT
First quake relief ready
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) informed its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), in a letter on Tuesday that it would remit a first installment of NT$1.2 billion (US$37.72 million) to help with post-earthquake reconstruction projects in China’s Sichuan Province. The foundation asked ARATS to name a bank account in China to which the funds could be wired for the purposes of rebuilding schools and communities in the province. The SEF told the association that representatives from Taiwan would like to attend the ground-breaking and inauguration ceremonies of the reconstruction projects for which Taiwan is providing money. It also expressed hope that reconstruction plans proposed by experts from Taiwan be given priority consideration. Before handing over power to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government on May 20, the former Democratic Progressive Party government announced that the nation would donate NT$2 billion to help with reconstruction following the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, which killed nearly 70,000 people.
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