■ TRADE
Kao leads delegation to PRC
Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉), secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), is scheduled to visit regions adjacent to the Bohai Sea in northern China from today until July 11 to promote Chinese investment in Taiwan. Kao said that apart from encouraging Chinese enterprises to invest in Taiwan, he would also help to set up cooperation channels for companies on the two sides of the Strait and would explore feasible opportunities for Taiwanese businesses. Kao will lead a delegation to Qingdao in handong Province and Shenyang and Dalian in Liaoning Province. Over the past year, SEF personnel have held several seminars for Taiwanese businesses in the Yangzhe River Delta, Pearl River Delta and coastal areas of Fujian Province, where there are higher concentrations of businesses from Taiwan, he said.
■ SPORTS
National flags prepared
The national flags of 105 countries and areas have been prepared for the July 16 opening ceremony of the World Games in Kaohsiung. The flags will be distributed by the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee (KOC) and will be flown at the various stadiums, venues and exhibitions related to the Games. The flags cost the organizers NT$900,000, the KOC said. The Games, which will run through July 26, are expected to attract participants from the 105 countries and areas, with the 4,000 competing athletes representing 90 nationalities. During the 11-day competition, 26 official sports, five invitational sports and various other activities and exhibitions are scheduled. The KOC said there would be at least six events per day, with some days seeing as many as 14 events.
■ CRIME
Corruption report out soon
The Executive Yuan plans to make public a report on alleged corruption in the military on Wednesday and present an action plan “to clean up the government,” Vice Minister of Justice (MOJ) Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) said yesterday. Huang said the Ministry of Defense (MND) and his ministry had both presented their reports to the Executive Yuan, but he declined to reveal any of the contents before they are published on Wednesday at a Central Integrity Council meeting to be chaired by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄). The Council is composed of 15 Cabinet members and three experts representing civil organizations — Red Cross Society of the Republic of China president C.V. Chen (陳長文), Hung Yung-tai (洪永泰), a professor of politics at National Taiwan University and chairman of Transparency International-Taiwan, and Chilik Yu (余致力), a professor of public administration at Shih Hsin University.
■ SPORTS
Students set off on canoes
A group of students set off from the northeastern coast yesterday on a round-the-nation canoeing trip, hoping to use the challenging voyage to convey their love for their homeland and the sea and to promote water sports. More than 30 National Taiwan Ocean University students and recent graduates will row three two-man canoes in a 1,006km relay that will take one and a half months to complete. The canoes set off from Dawulun beach in Keelung City and will circumnavigate Taiwan in an anti-clockwise direction. Huang Wei-lun (黃偉倫), head of the round-the-nation canoeing team, said that while students take turns rowing, the others will take a boat and photograph the canoes, the coastal landscape and ecological changes along the coast.
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