Minister Without Portfolio Simon Chang (張善政) flew to New York on Saturday to embark on a three-day tour aimed at reviving high-level science and technology exchanges with the US that have not been conducted for several years.
Starting yesterday, Chang and more than 20 local senior academics and experts are to hold talks with leading US research institutes in Washington, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Chang said.
The talks are to focus on a proposal to establish a platform for exchanges between Taiwanese and US research institutes, he said, adding that the two sides are to exchange views on issues in the fields of natural and earth sciences, as well as healthcare and medicine.
Chang said the two countries have maintained close cooperative ties in the field of climate research, which have helped make Taiwan an important platform for typhoon research in the Asia-Pacific region.
However, bilateral academic exchanges in some other fields “have turned cold,” the minister said.
“We have not tried to reheat them until recently,” Chang said, referring to a proposal to establish a platform for joint bilateral technology research.
Among the Taiwanese academics and experts set to attend the meetings in Washington are National Taiwan University President Yang Pan-chyr and Academia Sinica academicians Andrew Wang (王惠鈞) and Ho Ing-Kang (何英剛).
After the meetings, Chang and his delegation are to head to Silicon Valley in California, where they are to meet venture capitalists to try and raise funds for a proposed US$100 million Taiwan-US Silicon Valley Investment Fund.
Chang said the government in Taipei may put up as much as half of the capital for the fund in the hope of reconnecting the nation with the US technology hub.
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