■ INSURANCE
No transfer for summer jobs
The Bureau of National Health Insurance yesterday said students who get summer jobs do not need to transfer their insurance to the company that employs them. The bureau said most students are insured under their parents and that when they start a temporary summer job, they do not need to transfer their national health insurance to their employer and then back under their parents after the job contract ends. The measure is meant to ensure that students who forget to make the transfer do not face a period without health insurance coverage, as well as save time and paperwork. The bureau said it had recently received an increasing number of inquiries about health insurance and summer jobs.
■ EXHIBITION
200,000th visitor expected
The Taiwan Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo is set to greet its 200,000th visitor today, 53 days into the expo, the pavilion’s manager said yesterday. The 200,000th visitor, who is expected to arrive in a 37-member tour group, will be presented with an 11.6-inch Acer notebook worth NT$29,800, pavilion manager Walter Yeh (葉明水) said. The 199,999th and 200,001st visitors will also receive 24-inch LCD monitors worth NT$15,000 each. Wang Chih-kang (王志剛), chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, which sponsored the Taiwan Pavilion, is scheduled to fly to Shanghai to preside over the occasion, Yeh said. The pavilion greeted its 100,000th visitor on May 25.
■ CRIMES
Councilor fined for assault
A politician was fined NT$122,000 yesterday after he was convicted of pushing a Chinese envoy to the ground in an incident that angered Beijing, court officials said. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Tainan City Councilor Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) was convicted in September last year and sentenced to a four-month jail term for “assaulting” Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) in 2008. Wang had pleaded not guilty, but his appeal was rejected by the High Court last month. He was allowed, as an alternative to jail, to pay a fine of NT$1,000 daily for four months. He paid the fine yesterday to close the case. The incident happened when Zhang was visiting Tainan, a DPP stronghold. The incident was caught on camera and triggered Beijing’s fury, with the Chinese government calling for the “severe punishment” of those found guilty.
■ DIPLOMACY
Taiwan to give US$50,000
The Republic of China embassy in El Salvador said yesterday it would provide US$50,000 to help improve the offices of the Central American country’s Presidential Commission for Customer Protection. The Taiwanese government will purchase office equipment, including laptops, PCs, scanners and printers, for the Presidential Commission’s help centers, the embassy said. Improving customer protection is a worldwide trend and since the commission was established in El Salvador, it has helped to safeguard customer rights by setting up centers in major cities across the country, the embassy said. The centers have received an increasing number of customer complaints and successfully assisted consumers in obtaining record levels of compensation from corporations, it said. El Salvador has expressed its appreciation to Ambassador Carlos Liao (廖世傑) and the Taiwanese government, saying that Taiwan’s donation would help the commission boost efficiency and enhance customer protection.
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