■ PANDAS
Pandas reject local bamboo
The two pandas from China are turning up their noses at Taiwanese bamboo and have each lost 3kg, a newspaper reported yesterday. Tuan Tuan (團團), the male, weighed 109kg while Yuan Yuan (圓圓), the female, weighed 111.2kg when they were put on the scales at the Taipei Zoo on Friday, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) said. The Taipei Zoo is offering other types of local bamboo to the pair to find out which type they like, the zoo said. The two pandas arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday, along with 300kg of Chinese bamboo, or a week’s supply. Now the Chinese bamboo is running out. Besides bamboo leaves, the Taipei Zoo is feeding the pandas bamboo shoots, carrots, apples and steamed buns made with bamboo powder, corn, soybean, sugar, salt and calcium.
■ DIPLOMACY
Taiwan donates to Kiribati
Taiwan has recently donated 200 tonnes of rice to Kiribati in a bid to help relieve a food shortage in the Pacific nation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. The rice, which was given to the Kiribati government on Christmas Eve, is intended for distribution to hospitals, clinics and public boarding schools, ministry officials said. The officials quoted Ambassador to Kiribati Chen Shih-liang (陳士良) as saying that the rice had arrived just in time for Christmas and demonstrated the nation’s care and friendship for the people of Kiribati. Taiwanese agricultural missions will continue to promote farming, livestock and aquaculture in Kiribati to help resolve the country’s food shortage, the officials said.
■ AGRICULTURE
COA to revitalize farmland
The nation’s agricultural authority said it planned to revitalize 60,000 hectares of fallow farmland next year to increase food production. Yu Sheng-feng (游勝鋒), deputy director-general of the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) Agriculture and Food Agency, said the plan to revitalize the fallow land had been submitted to the Cabinet for consideration. Noting that Taiwan has 220,000 hectares of farmland lying idle, Yu said his agency hoped to allow food crops to be grown on 60,000 hectares of that land. The plan would offer subsidies of NT$50,000 (US$1,515) per hectare each year for the owner of the farmland to grow crops — higher than the NT$45,000 for owners not to farm their land.
■ CULTURE
Taoyuan holds book expo
The seventh Taoyuan National Book Exhibition will open on New Year’s Eve at Taoyuan County Arena for a six-day run, with 38 of the nation’s major publishing companies operating more than 100 stalls. The Taoyuan County Government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau, the organizer of the event, said many exhibitors will hold drawings for NT$3,600 book vouchers and NT$3,600 value packages. The value of NT$3,600 is a play on the central government’s voucher program, in which shopping vouchers worth NT$3,600 will be issued to all citizens starting Jan. 18 in a bid to stimulate the economy. Ten renowned writers and three experts in different fields will be invited to speak on various subjects during the exhibition. The county government will provide free shuttle bus services from the Taoyuan rail station to the exhibition venue. The weekend bus runs begin at 9:30am and the weekday schedule starts at 12:30pm, with service every 20 minutes.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
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