■ POLITICS
Chen Chu may visit China
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) is likely to visit Beijing and Shanghai later this month, which would make her the highest incumbent official from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ever to visit China. Chen said at a meeting of the city government yesterday that she would consider visiting Beijing from Wednesday through Friday to attend the Paris-based International Real Estate Federation’s 60th World Congress. Two public works projects that have been completed in Kaohsiung — the Heart of Love River bridge system and the Kaohsiung Central Park MRT Station — have been nominated by the federation for the prestigious Prix d’Excellence awards to be presented during the congress next week. “If I go, I will inform the DPP Central Standing Committee about the trip and file an application for the visit with the Mainland Affairs Council for approval,” Chen said. Meanwhile, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that Chen’s visit had nothing to do with cross-strait politics and that it was not politically motivated.
■ TELECOMS
More teens have handsets
Taiwanese teenagers have become increasingly dependent on mobile phones, which have become a must-have item among youngsters, a survey released by the King Car Education Foundation yesterday showed. The survey found that 65.2 percent of respondents owned mobile phones, up 8 percent from a similar survey carried out in 2006. While only one-third of respondents in senior years of elementary school had mobile phones, the ratio increased to 50 percent among junior high school students and 90 percent among first-year senior high school students. Between 43.3 percent and 48.69 percent of the respondents said they would feel lonely and uneasy if they forgot to carry their mobile phones, their phone ran out of batteries or they failed to reach people they are trying to contact. Others said they felt unhappy if nobody called them or if their phone use was limited. Only 12.3 percent of respondents said they would not be disturbed by any of these situations. The survey, which was conducted last month, interviewed 2,358 students ranging from fifth to 10th grades in 18 schools nationwide.
■ CROSS-STRAIT
Legislature to review pacts
The legislature yesterday approved a motion proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to refer the three agreements signed in the third round of cross-strait talks to the legislative committees for review. The latest round of talks between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait were held on April 26 in Nanjing. The two sides signed three agreements covering the launch of regular cross-strait passenger flights, mutual juridical assistance and joint crime-fighting measures, as well as financial cooperation. A joint statement on a proposal to open Taiwan to Chinese investment was also released on the occasion. Initially the government sent the three agreements to the legislature for reference only, meaning lawmakers had no right to review their content. DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) said his caucus proposed the motion to highlight the irrationality of the government’s intention to bypass the legislature to implement the agreements. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世) said the KMT caucus was confident that the agreements would clear the legislature.
■ SOCIETY
Panda phone-link launched
Taipei Zoo launched a “Ring-a-Panda” service on Thursday, enabling subscribers to watch the zoo’s two pandas live via videophone. Panda-loving 3G phone users can dial a number and then view either two hours of live broadcasts from the Panda House, or hours of prerecorded footage of Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓). An average of 12,500 people have visited the Panda House every day since the pair went on display, making them the zoo’s star attraction.
■ SOCIETY
Clown fish aquarium opens
The world’s first clown fish aquarium opened yesterday, featuring 18 species and nearly 1,500 clown fish. The Aquarium of Anemonefish is located in the Aquatic Ecosystem Exhibition Museum in Chengkung Township (成?Taitung County. The public can see many rare species of clown fish and learn more about the progress in local artificial fish-breeding techniques, aquarium planner Ho Yuan-hsing (何源興) said. The 18 species on exhibit consist of five native to Taiwan and 13 developed by scientists — five in Taiwan’s research center and eight from abroad, Ho said. One of the many special and rare types of clown fish on display is the skunk clown fish, which has a long, straight white line on its back and comes from East Africa, Ho said. Some other rare species are black in color, he said.
■ TOURISM
Hualien awaits lucky visitor
The tourist service center at Hualien train station is looking to welcome its 500,000th visitor sometime next week. Hualien County Tourism Bureau Chief Lin Pao-shu (林寶樹) said the county was planning an activity to award a prize to the lucky 500,000th visitor to the tourist service center since it was established in 2004. The center recorded its 300,000th visitor on Sept. 29, 2007, he said. Tourist arrivals in Hualien, one of the more popular tourist destinations in the country, have topped 500,000 since the beginning of this year, Lin said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
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