← EDUCATION
Dictionary wins praise
The online Mandarin Chinese dictionary compiled by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education is a powerful tool for foreign students learning Chinese, a senior Belgian journalist said on Thursday. Catherine Vuylsteke, the Asian page editor of the Belgian daily De Morgen, is now studying Chinese at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University. Vuylsteke expressed her appreciation of the dictionary in an e-mail to the Taipei Representative Office in Belgium. The dictionary contains nearly 170,000 entries and has become the biggest Chinese dictionary data bank in the world, according to ministry officials. The dictionary allows input using the Zhuyin Fuhao (注音符號, commonly known as “bopomofo”) system, and provides definitions in Chinese. The dictionary can be found online at dict.revised.moe.edu.tw.
■ AGRICULTURE
Chinese buy produce
A group of buyers from China agreed yesterday to purchase NT$10 million (US$313,000) worth of agricultural products from the Tsou-Ma-Lai Recreational Farm in Tainan County. The delegation, from Guangdong Province’s agricultural and fishing institutions, signed an agreement with the Tainan County Farmers’ Association to buy pineapples, guavas, sugar apples and other produce grown in the county. The agreement was signed at a trade fair that is being held as part of a Taiwan-Guangdong week of activities and was witnessed by Guangdong Provincial Governor Huang Huahua (黃華華) and Taiwan’s People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜). Soong said he hoped that Guangdong buyers would continue to contribute to bilateral industrial and agricultural cooperation.
■EDUCATION
Students mull legal action
An association of Taiwanese students studying in China threatened yesterday to take legal action against a newly approved package of legal amendments that restrict the recognition of medical diplomas conferred by schools in China. Chen Cheng-teng (陳正騰), deputy head of the Taiwan Student Union said the restrictions would prevent Taiwanese graduates of Chinese medical colleges from working in Taiwan in the future. “Such a restriction seriously infringes upon their legitimate rights as Republic of China citizens to work,” Chen said. “Our association will retain a lawyer to file for a constitutional interpretation of the restriction from the Justices of the Constitutional Court.” He added his group will also file an administrative lawsuit against newly passed regulations that ban retroactive recognition of accreditation by 41 selected Chinese colleges and universities.
■POLITICS
Su starts donation drive
The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), started a donation drive for his election campaign yesterday. “Small donations represent the voters’ support, and we will make sure each donation is used in election campaigns,” Su said. He also pledged to run a different election campaign by not putting campaign flags around the city, not soliciting votes by phone and not writing any rubber checks during the campaign. He said he was confident of grabbing at least 800,000 votes. “There are over two million votes in Taipei City, and my goal is to get 800,000 votes in the election,” he said. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who is seeking re-election, shrugged off Su’s comments. “I am confident about winning the election and receiving more votes than Su. That’s my estimation,” he said.
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
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
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
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner