DIPLOMACY
Jon Huntsman visiting
Former US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman Jr arrived in Taipei yesterday on a three-day visit to gain a better understanding of issues related to US-Taiwan ties and the nation’s political and economic developments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Huntsman is scheduled to meet President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) and Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新), the ministry said in a statement. Huntsman, a former governor of Utah, will deliver a speech titled “America 2012: Challenges and Opportunities” tomorrow in Taipei. Huntsman resigned as ambassador to China last year in a bid to become the US Republican presidential candidate. The 52-year-old politician has visited Taiwan several times before, having spent his two-year Mormon mission in Taiwan, starting in 1979.
SCIENCE
Ministers meet in Manila
Deputy science ministers from Taiwan and the Philippines will meet in Manila tomorrow to discuss collaboration in the fields of science and technology, Representative to the Philippines Raymond Wang (王樂生) said yesterday. The meeting will be chaired by National Science Council Deputy Minister Mou Chung-yuan (牟中原) and Philippine Science and Technology Undersecretary Fortunato T. dela Pena and will examine current cooperation projects, academic exchanges and other joint projects in fields such as meteorology. Since 2009, Taiwan has helped the Philippines build more than a dozen weather stations to enhance typhoon prediction capabilities in an effort to reduce the destruction and loss of life caused by typhoons in both countries.
WILDLIFE
Spoonbills stay in Chiayi
A group of black-faced spoonbills that flew to Chiayi County to spend the winter were recently found to have remained in a wetland area there, the Taijiang National Park Administration said. Seventeen of the endangered birds were found to have stayed in Taiwan, rather than migrating back to their breeding grounds in the north, the agency said. The failure of the birds to migrate north is a significant finding for wildlife conservation reference, the agency said, adding they are being observed. If the foraging environment remains stable in Taiwan, the birds might settle permanently in Taiwan, the agency added.
SOCIETY
City women outnumber men
There were 92 men per 100 women in Taipei as of the end of last year, representing one of the highest women-to-men ratios in the country, the latest statistics from the Ministry of the Interior showed. The higher percentage of women in Taipei was attributed by the ministry to a preference among males in the capital to seek overseas job opportunities, coupled with women’s longer life expectancy. A higher women-to-men ratio was also seen in metropolitan areas such as New Taipei City (新北市), Hsinchu City and Greater Taichung, where there were roughly 98 men per 100 women, and in Chiayi City, where there were 96 men per 100 women. Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said there were also more women moving to metropolitan areas, which also contributed to a higher percentage of women than men in the bigger cities. Meanwhile, there were more men than women in the more rural areas, such as Lienchiang County, where there were 136 men per 100 women, followed by Taitung and Yunlin, where there were 109 men to every 100 women.
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
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
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