ENTERTAINMENT
China Blue announce tour
Rocker Wu Bai (伍佰) and his group, China Blue, will kick off the “Wu Bai and China Blue 20th Anniversary Big Thanks World Tour Concert” at the Taipei Arena on June 16, the band’s promoters said yesterday. After Taipei, the band will perform in Singapore, China and Los Angeles in July, with additional venues still being arranged. Wu said the world tour is called “Big Thanks” to express the band’s appreciation for the long-term support of its fans and the countries that have nurtured its music. Since Wu released his first album, “Loving Someone Else is a Happy Thing,” in 1992, he has continued to write and produce music that combines blues with rock and illustrates his observations of society. This will be the band’s 10th major tour in the past two decades.
DIPLOMACY
MOFA to send Kenya rice
About 4,000 tonnes of rice will be sent to Kenya to help victims of famine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. About 200,000 people in famine-hit areas will benefit from the donation, said Wu Rong-chuan (吳榮泉), vice chairman of the Non-governmental Affairs Committee. The rice will be delivered as soon as the inspection and packaging processes have been completed, he said. The goodwill gesture highlights Taiwan’s active role in the distribution of humanitarian aid, he said, adding that the government reserves about 8,700 tonnes of rice each year for charitable donations.
HEALTH
Caution urged over flu
The Centers for Disease Control yesterday reported four fatalities resulting from complications related to type B influenza and said it expects the current flu outbreak to reach its peak during the Lunar New Year holiday. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said none of the four people had been vaccinated. Those who died were a two-year-old girl, an 81-year-old woman, a 64-year-old man in New Taipei City (新北市) and a 48-year-old man in Taipei. All three adults had chronic high blood pressure, while the toddler had an underlying cerebral disease. All four were infected with type B influenza. Chou said that among the 587 confirmed cases of people suffering complications from the flu between July and last week, 28 had died, 20 of them from type B influenza. With the Lunar New Year holiday period beginning on Saturday, when a large number of people will be returning home to their families and traveling, Chou urged those in high-risk groups, such as children, the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases, to take particular care.
REAL ESTATE
Kinmen prices soar
Land prices in Kinmen rose by 7.2 percent in the April-to-September period last year, which was the highest increase in the biannual urban index, according to data released by the Ministry of the Interior on Monday. All other counties and cities also recorded land price hikes, except for Yunlin County, where prices fell by 0.24 percent compared with the previous six months, the report showed. From April unitl September last year, Kinmen recorded the highest land price rise of 7.2 percent, followed by Hsinchu County with a 6.35 percent surge and New Taipei City with a 5.55 percent increase, the report showed. The ministry attributed the spike in Kinmen to business opportunities in the real-estate market after the adoption of the free independent travelers program, under which individual Chinese tourists are allowed to visit Taiwan.
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