■ POLITICS
KMT names appointments
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) revealed the names of five Cabinet members appointed to its Central Standing Committee (CSC) yesterday: Cabinet Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川), Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以), Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德), Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) and Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國). The appointments will enhance cooperation between the party and the government, the KMT said. KMT Spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) said the five designated CSC members would attend the CSC’s weekly meetings starting next week. The KMT began inviting Cabinet members to CSC meetings earlier this year.
■ POLITICS
Taisugar official to resign
Taiwan Sugar Corp chairman Wu Rong-ming (吳容明) yesterday reiterated his intention to resign, saying he wanted to express dissatisfaction at the Cabinet’s decision to promote Chen Ching-bin (陳清彬) to company president. Wu said that under the rules governing state-owned enterprises, a candidate for president should be recommended by the chairman to the Cabinet. Wu said he had recommended Chi Tsung-chi (紀聰吉), a land management professor at Feng Chia University, but that the Cabinet violated the system to choose Chen. In response, the Cabinet said it would respect the final decision of Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) after he returns from the APEC forum in Peru.
■ HEALTH
Official encourages flu shots
The Department of Health yesterday called for those at high risk of catching influenza to get free flu vaccines before the end of the month. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director General Lin Ting (林頂) said the remaining stock of free flu shots should be given to those who are vulnerable to influenza before being offered to others next month. Lin said senior citizens, children between the ages of six months and three years, elementary students in the first to fourth grades, medical professionals, those who live in nursing homes or other care facilities and poultry workers should get the shots. He said that the centers had purchased 3.2 million doses this year, of which 700,000 shots remained as of Monday. “Due to the enthusiastic response to the offer, only around 610,000 shots for adults and around 80,000 shots for children are left,” he said. He estimated that when the shots are offered to the public on Monday there will be around 600,000 shots left. The CDC estimated the influenza outbreak this year would peak in early January. As it takes about two weeks for a flu shot to build protection, Lin urged the public to get shots no later than the middle of next month.
■ CRIME
Smuggled goods seized
The Keelung Customs mobile inspection brigade seized 11,250kg of smuggled herbicide, it said yesterday. The seized herbicide, Nitrofen, which is primarily used by growers of rice and certain vegetables to control broadleaf weeds and grasses, has an estimated market value of NT$30 million (US$1 million), the office said. It said the team had inspected a shipment of 45 drums allegedly containing an organic surface active agent because it suspected that the bottom of the drums contained a solid material. The team drilled holes in the bottom of the barrels with the consent of the importer and discovered they concealed Nitrofen. Officials are continuing to investigate the case.
■ CRIME
Fake credit cards seized
Customs officials at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport seized 201 fake credit cards from a Taiwanese passenger returning from Macau last Thursday, the Taipei Customs Office said on Monday. The credit cards were discovered when the passenger, surnamed Liao, was passing through customs. Considering it abnormal for a passenger to carry so many credit cards, the officials decided to request help from the National Credit Card Center to determine whether the cards were fake, the customs office said. After a verification process lasting several days, the center reported that all the cards were fake, although they appeared to be issued by various well-known banks, including the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong, the DBS Bank of Singapore and two British banks, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC.
■ NAVAL
Gutted ship towed back
A Taiwanese fishing boat found empty and gutted by fire in the South Pacific was being towed back to Taiwan for investigation after hopes faded of finding its 29 crew members alive, an official said yesterday. The scorched shell of the Tai Ching 21 was found near Kiribati on Nov. 9 with no sign of the crew members — from Taiwan, China, Indonesia and the Philippines — or its three life rafts and one lifeboat. A New Zealand Air Force Orion airplane spent more than 30 hours searching 54,000km² of ocean in the central Pacific north of Fiji, but found nothing. The air search was suspended on Saturday. Fiji Navy Warrant Officer Anare Rasunusunu said the boat was being towed back to Taiwan, and “from there they will make an assessment and investigation.”
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
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