■SOCIETY
Legislature amends debt law
The legislature yesterday passed an amendment to the Civil Law (民法) to protect people who guarantee a second party’s debt from being asked by creditors to repay the debt before bailiffs have seized and sold the property of the original debtor. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) proposed the amendment because an article in the law, referred to as “the counterplea right of guarantor,” which allows guarantors to avoid assuming the obligation, was ineffective. In practice, people are required to waive their rights on mortgages or car loans. Article 746 of the law entitled creditors to ask guarantors to answer for the defaults of debtors whose whereabouts are unknown, depriving guarantors of the right to counterplea. Striking the article from the law would better protect the rights of guarantors, Lai said. The legislature passed a supplementary resolution attached to the law that demanded that the Financial Supervisory Commission revise measures governing standardized contracts for certain commodities within six months to prohibit the waiver of the right to counterplea.
■POLITICS
Court upholds Chen ruling
The Supreme Count on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling made last month that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) should remain in detention until at least June 23. The High Court ruled on April 16 that the former president should remain incarcerated at the Taipei Detention Center for another two months on the grounds that Chen and his family have not remitted the large sums of money they hold in foreign bank accounts and that Chen might seek to flee the country should he be released. Chen appealed the ruling at the Supreme Court. The former president was first detained on Nov. 12, 2008, after being charged with corruption and money laundering. He was released a month later following his indictment. He was detained again on Dec. 30, 2008, by the Taipei District Court following a request by prosecutors, and has not been released. The High Court panel took charge of Chen’s case on Sept. 24 after he appealed a life sentence.
■JUSTICE
Chief gets 203 years
A township chief was sentenced to 203 years in prison on 20 counts of graft involving government construction projects, a court official said yesterday. Yu Wei-hsiang (余維祥) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), a chief of Tainan County’s Sigang Township (西港), was convicted on Thursday of taking NT$790,000 (US$25,000) in bribes from contractors, a spokesman for the Tainan district court said. The spokesman said the lengthy sentence reflected a minimum 10-year jail term for each count of graft and that Yu would have to serve at least 25 years in prison.
■SOCIETY
Vendor wants normal life
Taiwanese vegetable vendor Chen Shu-chu (陳樹菊), who was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world this year by Time magazine for her charitable donations, said on Thursday in San Francisco that she would continue to lead a simple life despite the accolades. Chen arrived in San Francisco earlier that day from New York, where she attended a citation dinner hosted by Time magazine on Tuesday. “I will continue to be myself and I am pleased to learn that some people have been inspired by me and have started doing charity work as well,” she said. “What I want to do now is return to my normal life and concentrate on my business as a vegetable vendor.”
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
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
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