■ DIPLOMACY
Philippines’ move rebuffed
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reiterated Taiwan’s historical claim to islands and reefs in the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands. The ministry’s statement on Wednesday night came after both houses of the Philippine legislature passed bills to annex some isles and reefs of the Spratlys and Macclesfield Bank Islands as part of the Philippines’ territory. The ministry said Taiwan’s sovereignty claim was beyond doubt and challenge, stressing that all four groups of islands in the South China Sea — the Nansha, Jhongsha, Dongsha (Pratas) and Sisha (Paracel) — and their surrounding waters were Taiwan’s territories from a historical, geographical, factual and international law perspective. The ministry said the government would not recognize any move by another country that occupies or claims sovereignty over any of the four island groups. It called on the Philippines to negotiate with Taiwan on the sovereignty dispute to peacefully resolve the conflicting claims.
■ AGRICULTURE
Cold snap costs NT$67m
The cold weather before and during the Lunar New Year holiday caused more than NT$67.83 million (US$2.01 million) in agricultural sector losses, including more than NT$51.11 million in crop damage and NT$16.72 million in aquaculture damage, Council of Agriculture statistics showed yesterday. Twenty percent of the crops on a total of 509 hectares of farmland were lost, mainly bell fruit, tea, tangerines, bananas, pineapples, musk melons, rice and betel nuts, in Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, Nantou and Pingtung counties. Aquaculture operations in five counties and cities were affected, including fish and shrimp farms in Yunlin and Chiayi counties, as well as milkfish farms in Tainan and Kaohsiung counties.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
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