Three Taiwanese scientists joined a Chinese expedition to Antarctica for the first time yesterday aboard Chinese polar research vessel Xuelong, which is also carrying researchers from Australia and Russia.
The three Taiwanese scientists are Hsu Ting-wei (許廷煒) from Cheng Shiu University in Kaohsiung County, and Kuo Fu-wen (郭富雯) and Lin Chia-hsing (林家興) from the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Pingtung County. The team will focus on marine biology research, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
The icebreaker Xuelong left Shanghai’s Pudong port around 10am carrying 251 scientists, workers and logistics staff from China, Taiwan, Australia and Russia on an 180-day research expedition to the South Pole.
It is China’s 26th scientific expedition to Antarctica and its largest in terms of the number of personnel on board the research ship.
The scientists are expected to complete 59 research programs during the expedition — the highest number to be attempted by China on a single mission, Xinhua reported. During the trip, two exploration teams will be sent inland. One will head to China’s Kunlun Station located at Dome A, the highest point on the continent at 4,093m above sea level, where more research equipment will be installed for astronomical observation.
The other team will be sent to the Grove Mountains 400km away from the Zhongshan Station to collect meteoric stones, and conduct other scientific research.
From 1998 to 2006, China has made four trips to the Grove Mountains for scientific research and has collected 9,834 meteoroites, the third largest collection in the world.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching