CRIME
Officials charged with graft
Five customs officials, along with 17 customs brokers and importers, and a legislative aide, were indicted by prosecutors yesterday in what could be one of the biggest corruption scandals ever uncovered in the Directorate-General of Customs (DGOC). Among those indicted was Lu Tsai-yih (呂財益), former deputy chief of the directorate. Prosecutors are seeking a 16-year jail term for him and recommended that he be stripped of his civil rights for eight years. The other four indicted officials are Department of Valuation director Shih Chung-mei (史中美), staff member Chen Yu-chu (陳玉珠) and Keelung Customs Office employees Cheng Chang-ta (鄭張達) and Lin Tung-ying (林東瑩). The officials, led by Lu, are suspected of colluding with customs brokers and importers to help smuggle banned products into the country, prosecutors said. They say that on Oct. 28 last year, Lu accepted bribes of NT$300,000 from a customs broker through then-legislative assistant Chang Sheng-tai (張勝泰). Lu later returned the money, they said.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Peace unlikely: US report
China’s growing military power lowers the likelihood of a peaceful resolution to the tensions across the Taiwan Strait, according to a draft report by a US congressional commission. However, increased economic and trade interaction between the two sides reduces the possibility of war “in the near future,” the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in the final draft of its annual report. China “has progressed substantially” in military modernization since 2009, including flight testing its J-20 stealth fighter, its first aircraft carrier and the world’s latest anti-ship ballistic missile, the report said. Such modernization gives China the military advantage, “making it less likely that a peaceful resolution to the Taiwan issue will occur,” the report said.
SOCIETY
Money donated to Thailand
The government yesterday said it has donated US$100,000 to flood-stricken Thailand and has also formed a task force aimed at helping Taiwanese in that country. With the country suffering its worst flooding in half a century, the financial losses of Taiwanese businesspeople there could reach billions of dollars, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. A final group of 23 Taiwanese traveling in the kingdom would return home today as originally planned. The government issued its highest-level “red” travel alert for Thailand on Friday last week. Meanwhile, the Thai-Taiwan Business Association (TTBA) on Wednesday established a relief aid network to provide assistance to Taiwanese enterprises and expatriates in the kingdom affected by the flooding.
CRIME
Ceiling banger charged
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday indicted a woman surnamed Yang (楊) on charges of coercion for hammering on her ceiling 102 times in half a year, leading to a complaint from her upstairs neighbor, surnamed Hsieh (謝). The notice of complaint said that 59-year-old Yang, living on the fourth floor of an apartment building in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), was suspected of having made noises through the night, though Yang denied the charge and said it was Hsieh who made the ruckus. Hsieh also accused Yang of intimidation, saying Yang threatened her with violence, but Yang denied the charge. Prosecutors did not charge Yang with intimidation because of a lack of evidence.
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