■ POLITICS
Hackers attack DPP site
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) condemned Chinese hackers on Tuesday for breaking into its Web site for a third time. Liao Chih-chien (廖志堅), deputy director of the DPP’s Information and Culture Department, confirmed that the Web site was taken offline after staff found that the DPP’s party flag on the site had been replaced by China’s national flag. The Chinese hackers also posted the words “protesting the release” of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Chen was recently released from detention without bail by the Taipei District Court after prosecutors indicted him and his wife on charges of embezzlement, bribe-taking and money laundering. Liao said IT engineers would need a full day to determine whether important information on the site had been lost. This was the third time Chinese hackers had broken into the DPP’s Web site. The previous two incidents occurred in June 2004 when Chen was DPP chairman and again during the chairmanship of Yu Shyi-kun.
■ POLITICS
Asset row rumbles on
The Ministry of Justice said yesterday that government ministries should decide themselves whether directors of state-owned enterprises and non-profit organizations should declare their assets. Ministry of Justice Deputy Minister Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) told a press conference that since enterprises and non-profit organizations owned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Government Information Office and other agencies have different characteristics, the individual ministries should decide whether directors should declare their assets. Under the amended Act on Property Declaration by Public Servants (公職人員財產申報法), which took effect in October, board directors of state-owned enterprises and non-profit organizations must declare their assets and those of their spouses. The deadline for declarations is the end of this month. A number of board members of institutions supervised by the ministries have threatened to quit over the amendment.
■ CRIME
Yeh released on bail
Former Bureau of Investigation director-general Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂) was released on NT$5 million (US$156,000) bail last night. He is banned from relocating. Yeh was detained on Oct. 6 for withholding information about the former first family’s alleged money laundering and leaking information to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). The court found Yeh guilty of corruption, concealing a government file and leaking confidential information, for which he received an eight-and-a-half year jail term. He was also convicted of leaking confidential information, for which he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years. The two sentences were combined into a jail term of 10 years. Yeh will also be deprived of his civil rights for five years.
■ SCIENCE
Park scheduled for 2013
The Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park will be fully operational by 2013, following a modification to its development strategy earlier this year, science park administration officials said yesterday. Randy Yen (顏宗明), director-general of the Hsinchu Science Park Administration, said that most of the park would be devoted to a national medical center that focuses on clinical research and translational medicine. Yen said he hoped the center would bridge the gap between clinical practice and biomedical research and boost the nation’s biomedical industry.
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