■ ECONOMY
Worst is over: Chiu
The country has gone through the toughest period of the recession, based on quarter-on-quarter improvements in economic indexes predicted by economic research institutions, Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) told a forum yesterday. “Taiwan still suffered an economic slump in the first quarter, but we have passed through the darkest times,” Chiu said during a keynote speech at a forum on the global financial crisis. Chiu said that a decrease in the leading indicator in March had slowed compared with previous months, while the coincident indicator, an economic factor that varies directly and simultaneously with the business cycle, increased in two consecutive months. The TAIEX index had surged 37.89 percent since the end of last year yesterday, second only to the Shanghai index, Chiu said. He said signs of an economic recovery could also be seen in the upward trend of consumers’ confidence as the Consumer Confidence Index last month rose by 0.68 percentage points to 49.79, marking the second consecutive increase.
■ CRIME
MAC mulling Macau posting
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is considering whether to station criminal investigation liaison officers at its office in Macau to strengthen cross-strait efforts in crime-fighting, a MAC official said yesterday. The MAC has already started talks with the Macau authorities on the issue, MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said. The MAC made the decision following the third round of talks between Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), which took place in Nanjing on April 26, Liu said. The two sides signed three agreements in the talks, covering issues related to regularly scheduled direct cross-strait flights, financial cooperation and cross-strait cooperation to fight crime.
■ DIPLOMACY
Sapporo office to open
A Taiwan representative office will open in Sapporo, Japan, on July 27, with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) attending the inauguration ceremony, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) officials said yesterday. John Feng (馮寄台), Taiwan’s representative to Japan, confirmed Wang’s attendance when giving a report on Taiwan-Japan ties to the Foreign and National Defense Committee at the legislature. The Sapporo office will be MOFA’s sixth in Japan and the first situated north of Tokyo, he said. Taiwan and Japan exchanged official notes on April 28 agreeing upon the opening of the Sapporo office, he said. MOFA decided to open the office to provide assistance to Taiwanese nationals in the area and to Taiwanese fishing boats operating in the North Pacific, as well as to help attract Japanese tourists to Taiwan, Feng said.
■ CRIME
Family mulls life decision
A couple who sent their son to Australia to further his education said on their arrival in Melbourne yesterday they were ready to turn off the brain-dead 17-year-old’s life-support system. Samuel Hsiung was knocked down on Saturday by a car that mounted the pavement. “Our family is here and tomorrow his sister will arrive, and we will make a decision on behalf of Samuel’s life,” father Calvin Hsiung told reporters. “I have confidence in the police that we can hunt for the driver in order to maintain a good society.”
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