DIPLOMACY
Chinese delegation visits
China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) began a trip to the nation’s center and south yesterday to study the agricultural and aquaculture sectors. Invited by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) think tank the National Policy Foundation, Zheng arrived at Kaohsiung International Airport. The itinerary for Zheng and a delegation of five to eight members will be similar to when he visited last year, officials from the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), said, when Zheng traveled to Greater Taichung, Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan and Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung counties.
CULTURE
Documentary wins US award
A documentary produced by the Public Television Service (PTS) has received a prestigious award in the US, it was learned yesterday. A Year in the Clouds was one of 15 works honored in the “People & Places” section in the Professional Non-fiction Division of the Fall CINE Golden Eagle Awards. The documentary depicts a year in the life of a group of Atayal Aborigines who live in the high mountain village of Smangus. Two decades ago, the tribe was among the poorest in the nation, but its chief, Icyeh Sulung, had a vision of great trees that would ensure the tribe’s survival. The tribe found a forest of Cypress trees that changed their lives. Interest from tourists turned Smangus into a thriving ecotourism center, but sudden wealth and outside pressures played havoc with the tribe’s unity. This was the fourth time that PTS has won the prestigious award. The three previous works honored were Mme. Chiang Kai-shek (2005), The Secret in the Satchel (2008) and Taipei 24h (2010).
SOCIETY
Agency touts English sites
The Research, Development and Evaluation Commission on Friday launched a Facebook page to publicize government English-language Web sites and seek feedback. The commission said that after years of providing bilingual Web pages, the agency was seeking to make the service better known. It encouraged people to visit the government Web sites listed on its Facebook page and leave their comments. Those who do will be eligible for a lucky draw, with prizes ranging from brand name watches and an iPad2 to round-trip tickets to Los Angeles. The event will run through March 31. More information is available at www.i-taiwan.nat.gov.tw.
ARCHEOLOGY
NTU team finds rare jade
A team of National Taiwan University (NTU) students has unearthed a rare jade core at the Puyuma Archaeological Site in eastern Taiwan, according to officials from the Taitung-based National Museum of Prehistory. Wang Ying (王潁), an anthropology student at NTU and a member of the team, and 26 other students had been participating in an archeology field study at the site in Taitung County organized by NTU and the museum, the officials said, adding the students also discovered a number of more common jade tubes. About 6,000 items of jadeware have been unearthed from the site over the years — however, jade cores are considered to be very rare, the museum’s assistant researcher Lee Kun-hsiu (李坤修) said. Used in jadeware production, a jade core is usually discarded after an item has been made, Lee said. However, no jadeware factories have been discovered in the area, and the archeological site is 100km away from the source of the jade, the researcher said.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all