■WEATHER
Lupit to bring heavy rains
The periphery of Typhoon Lupit is likely to bring heavy rains to Taiwan next week, although it remains uncertain whether the storm will make landfall, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. As of yesterday morning, Lupit was centered 1,600km east-southeast of the Hengchun (恆春) peninsula on Taiwan’s southernmost tip, CWB forecasters said. It has maximum sustained winds of 126kph, but forecasters expected the storm to intensify as it moves closer to land. The forecasters said it was still too early to predict if Lupit would hit Taiwan, but the storm’s periphery will affect Hengchun as well as northern and eastern parts of Taiwan starting on Tuesday, they said. They urged the public to be prepared for torrential rains as Lupit’s periphery collides with an intensifying northeast monsoon.
■POLITICS
Lien selected as APEC envoy
Former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) will be named President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) special envoy to the leaders summit of this year’s APEC forum slated to take place from Nov. 12 to Nov. 14 in Singapore, sources close to the Presidential Office said yesterday. The Presidential Office is expected to announce the appointment after completing consultations on details with the host country, the sources said. This will be the second consecutive year that Lien, who is an honorary chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), represents Taiwan at the APEC leaders summit. President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday said Lien’s attendance at last year’s APEC summit helped enhance Taiwan’s status and image and that he expects Lien to continue to provide his assistance and guidance in this area.
■CULTURE
GIO holds photo competition
The government has recently begun a photography competition in which images that most represent the country will be picked via online voting. People from Taiwan and abroad interested in taking part in the competition have until Nov. 25 to submit their entries, the Government Information Office (GIO) said. The GIO said the government would donate NT$1 to the charity United Way for every picture a competitor uploads. As of yesterday, NT$185 was collected, the GIO said. According to the rules, participants in each category — culture, nature, Made in Taiwan, humor and others — will be voted and the top three in each catagory will be awarded NT$8,000, NT$5,000 and NT$3,000 respectively, or different awards of equivalent value for winners living abroad.
■ENVIRONMENT
Denmark praises Taiwan
Denmark’s top envoy to Taiwan praised the country yesterday for demonstrating its commitment to combating climate change by attending a crucial meeting on the issue in Copenhagen in December and implementing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Flemming Aggergaard, director of the Trade Commission of Denmark in Taipei, said the efforts were important because “it shows that Taiwan understands the situation.” “They also show how they [Taiwan and the other countries] are willing to follow up after the results in Copenhagen and make sure that changes will happen so that the environment will benefit,” Aggergaard said. The international community will gather in Copenhagen in December to decide future reductions on greenhouse gas emissions by working out an international climate change agreement before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
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