POLITICS
Lee released from hospital
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was released from Taipei Veterans General Hospital yesterday, 18 days after he underwent a vertebral artery stenting procedure, Lee’s office said yesterday in a press release. Citing Lee’s medical team, office director Wang Yan-chun (王燕軍) said that Lee has almost fully recovered from a post-surgery fever and was released by the hospital even though the cause of the fever remains unknown.
ENVIRONMENT
Food security forum set
A forum featuring global food loss and security issues will take place in Taipei next month, part of efforts to achieve a sustainable environment, the organizers said yesterday. The three-day APEC seminar will cover reducing post-harvest losses, supporting food security, current challenges and other issues, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research said in a statement. More than 120 experts from APEC members have been invited, the institute said. The event will take place from Monday to Wednesday next week. According to a report last month by the World Resources Institute and the UN Environment Programme, one out of every four calories produced by the global agricultural system is lost or wasted. The world will need about 60 percent more food calories in 2050 compared with 2006 if global demand continues on its current trajectory, the report said, noting that halving the current rates of food loss and waste would reduce this gap by 20 percent. This would also result in major savings in water use, energy, pesticides and fertilizers, and would be a boost for global food security, the report said.
CULTURE
Student wins music contest
Kao Han-yen (高瀚諺) won first prize at the 2013 Universal Marimba Competition and Festival in Belgium on Friday last week, the best performance to date by a Taiwanese at the event. The competition, which began on July 19, saw 70 marimba artists from 21 countries competing solo or as duos. Only three contestants made it to the final round — Kao and Hsieh Hsien-te (謝賢德) from Taiwan and Nina Fujisawa of Japan. Kao, a student at the Taipei National University of the Arts, not only claimed the first prize in the solo category, but also gathered the most audience votes, said Wu Pei-ching (吳珮菁), a member of the Ju Percussion Group and a member of the competition jury. No Taiwanese has ever claimed the top award, Wu said, adding that the previous best was Lin Chin-cheng (林金丞), who placed third in 2004. Kao, who is a member of Ju Percussion Group 2, said he was grateful for the teaching he has received from Wu and Ju group founder and artistic director Ju Tzong-ching (朱宗慶).
SOCIETY
Vietnamese found on boat
A Coast Guard Administration patrol based in Hsinchu County found 38 Vietnamese aboard a Chinese fishing boat that broke down in waters off northwestern Taiwan on Sunday night. The coastguard spotted the boat off Hsinchu’s Hsinfeng Township (新豐), Hsinchu Flotilla of the Maritime Patrol Directorate-General officials said yesterday. When the patrol approached the boat, it accelerated in an obvious attempt to flee, the officials said. After a short pursuit the boat stopped suddenly, the officials said. They said an inspection showed the boat’s main engine had broken down. A preliminary investigation has found that the Vietnamese were attempting to enter the country illegally, the officials 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