TRAVEL
Busy day for Keelung Port
Asia’s biggest luxury cruise ship, Voyager of the Seas, is scheduled to dock at Keelung Port today along with several other cruise ships, which will set a record for daily cruise ship traffic in Taiwan’s seaports, according to a transport official. The ship, operated by the US-based Royal Caribbean Cruises, will bring 1,600 passengers to Keelung from Shanghai, Keelung Port vice manager Wei Shuo-liang (魏碩良) said. The 140,000-tonne ship will later take 3,800 local tourists to Fukuoka, Japan, and Jeju Island, South Korea, Wei said. Since the port will also host other cruise liners today, including the SuperStar Aquarius, about 10,000 tourists will arrive in the country through the port, making it Keelung’s busiest day, he said. Keelung Port, which handles the heaviest cruise ship traffic among all ports in the nation, recorded more than 461,000 cruise ship passengers last year, a 2.6 percent increase from the previous year.
TRANSPORTATION
Bike program expanded
The Taipei City Government yesterday launched an expanded public bicycle rental program that will provide 30 more rental stops and 960 more bicycles around Taipei, as well as a free 30-minute offer that will last until next year. The 30 rental stops were set up around stations along the MRT’s Blue line, Wenhu line and Luzhou line, as well as in the Nangang (南港) and Gongguan (公館) areas. The rental will be free for the first 30 minutes for people who registered their EasyCards with the program, Taipei City’s Department of Transportation said. The registration is available at YouBike service centers at the MRT’s Taipei City Hall Station, Zhongxiao Xinsheng Station or online at www.youbike.com.tw. To boost the use of the system as a green transportation tool, the department said it would set up a further 60 stops in Zhongshan (中山) and Wanhua (萬華) districts and an additional 72 stops in Shilin (士林) and Dazhi (大直) districts, as well as around Neihu Science Park, over the next three years. The department has budgeted NT$14 million (US$470,000) a year to manage the program, which has incurred a loss of more than NT$10 million since its launch in 2009.
LABOR
Firm fined over tattoos
New Taipei City’s (新北市) Department of Labor has fined a company NT$300,000 for firing an employee because of his tattoos. Dismissing an employee on such grounds is discriminatory, the department said. The worker filed a complaint with the department after he was laid off and given a severance pay in May, one month after he was hired as driver by a cleaning product manufacturer, the department said. The man said he was sacked because of his tattoos, which the company claimed were harmful to its business image, the department said. The man said he wore a sleeveless T-shirt to work one day because it was very hot and that was when his boss saw the tattoos for the first time. The driver said he was laid off after his boss expressed dissatisfaction, not with his performance, but with the fact that he had tattoos. The labor department ruled a few days ago that the company had discriminated against the worker on the basis of appearance and fined the owner NT$300,000. The fine for discrimination on the basis of appearance ranges from NT$300,000 to NT$1.5 million, the department said.
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