Ma must help Chung: DPP
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to actively seek the release of Bruce Chung (鍾鼎邦), a Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioner who has been detained in China for more than a month. The DPP expressed its serious concern about Chung’s detainment and his family being kept from contacting him. “We urge the Ma administration to be responsible for the personal safety of Taiwanese,” DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) told a press conference yesterday. Chung, a manager at a Hsinchu-based technology firm, went to Jiangxi Province to visit relatives on June 15 and was reportedly detained by Chinese police on June 18 “for hijacking the signal of a Chinese TV station in 2003 from Taiwan with the help of Chinese nationals,” according to China’s Xinhua news agency. As personal safety is expected to be an integral part of the cross-strait negotiations on an investment protection agreement next month, Lin said, Chung’s arrest was ironic and was a “touchstone” of how Beijing would protect Taiwanese businesspeople in China if the agreement was signed.
TOURISM
No tours stopped by floods
No tour group to Beijing was canceled because of the heavy flooding that hit the Chinese capital at the weekend, the Travel Agent Association confirmed yesterday. The association’s secretary-general, Roget Hsu (許高慶), said the torrential rain on Saturday had delayed several flights to Beijing, affecting Chinese tourists as well as Taiwanese tourists leaving on that day. However, the association did not receive any report that any travel agency planned to cancel a trip to Bejing because of the disaster, Hsu said.
SEISMOLOGY
Quake jolts northeast Taiwan
A magnitude 4.2 earthquake jolted northeastern Taiwan early yesterday, but there were no reports of casualties or damage, according to the Central Weather Bureau. The tremor’s epicenter was located at sea 43km southeast of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 10.8km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. Yilan’s Nanao Township (南澳) recorded the strongest reading at an intensity of 4, the center said.
CRIME
Kidnapped captain to return
A Taiwanese fishing boat captain who was recently freed after being held for 18 months by Somali pirates is expected to arrive today in Greater Kaohsiung, an official from the city’s Marine Bureau said yesterday. Wu Chao-yi (吳朝義), captain of the Shiuh Fu No. 1, along with his crew of 13 Chinese and 12 Vietnamese, was attacked by Somalian pirates on Dec. 25, 2010, off Madagascar and taken to Somalia. All 26 were released on July 17 following successful ransom negotiations and taken to Tanzania by a Chinese naval vessel. Chang Wen-chun, the boat’s owner, continued to pay his crew’s salaries during their captivity, while the Marine Bureau said it has been paying Wu’s family compensation of NT$4,000 per month. Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Marine Bureau and the Fisheries Agency are scheduled to welcome Wu upon his arrival at Kaohsiung International Airport.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
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