DIPLOMACY
New York official to visit
Taiwan-born New York City Comptroller John Liu is scheduled to visit Taiwan today and tomorrow. Liu, the Big Apple’s first comptroller of Asian descent, is seeking the US Democratic Party’s nomination to run for New York City mayor next year. He will travel to Taiwan after visiting South Korea. His itinerary includes visits to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and meetings with Taiwanese experts and business executives. Liu will also deliver a speech on New York City’s economic and financial situation at the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance, a think tank and education institution.
AVIATION
Airport worker finds bullets
A worker at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport who was remodeling a section of the ceiling discovered several live bullets when they fell from the roof space, aviation police said. The worker was renovating the ceiling of Terminal 1 on Aug. 21 when he dislodged the nine bullets, the police said. The 7.62mm rounds were covered in dust and the worker did not recognize them as ammunition until several days later when he was cleaning up. He immediately reported his discovery to police. The bullets were sent to the Ministry of National Defense, where they were identified as having been made in Thailand by the Royal Thai Armed Forces. Police are still investigating how the bullets got there.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
New dictionary published
A dictionary featuring the differences between the Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan and that in China was published in China yesterday as part of a joint effort to promote Chinese-language reference materials. The dictionary, which includes common Mandarin Chinese words and phrases used in Taiwan and China, is part of a cross-strait cooperation project aimed at enhancing cultural exchanges by compiling and publishing Chinese-language reference books and setting up a database for the languages used on both sides of the Strait. The 1,800-page dictionary, which contains 5,700 words and more than 27,000 phrases, took 200 Taiwanese and Chinese academics more than 15 months to compile, according to the the dictionary’s Chinese publisher, the China Lexicographical Society. Both sides will continue compiling words and phrases, and will add more vocabulary for daily life situations in the next edition, Taiwan’s National Cultural Association secretary-general Yang Tu (楊渡) said.
SOCIETY
Residency rules to be eased
National Immigration Agency Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said the agency is preparing a draft amendment for legislative review that proposes annulling regulations stipulating that foreign residents must live in the country for at least 183 days per year to keep residency. The draft amendment will also allow foreign residents to keep their permanent residency even if they live outside Taiwan for a long period of time, Hsieh said in a recent media interview. However, the period of time will be limited to a maximum of five continuous years, he said, adding that he expects the Legislative Yuan would quickly pass the amendment after lawmakers start discussing the proposal. If the proposed amendment to the Immigration Act is adopted, it will benefit more than 460,000 foreign residents currently living in 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