SOCIETY
Go champ Shei wins again
Taiwan’s Shei Imin (謝依旻) won a prestigious go tournament in Japan for the eighth time on Wednesday by beating Japan’s Ayumi Suzuki in two matches in a best-of-three series. In winning the annual Women’s Meijin tournament in Tokyo, Shei broke her own record as the female go player with the most title wins to date. She has now won 20 titles. The Tokyo-based 25-year-old has won every Women’s Meijin tournament since 2008. Wednesday’s win follows on the heels of Shei’s victory at the Women’s Kisei tournament in late January, which she has dominated for the past three years.
TOURISM
TLC hosts join ‘Fun Taiwan’
Travel & Living Channel (TLC) presenters from around the world are taking part in the latest series of the Fun Taiwan (瘋台灣), show host Janet Hsieh (謝怡芬) said on Wednesday. Thirteen guests — including Ian Wright, the Steve Irwin family and Tom and Henry Herbert — are discovering different faces of Taiwan through visiting spots recommended by Fun Taiwan fans, and will experience everything from wildlife and gourmet food to traditional festivals, she said. The more-than 100 destinations to be featured in the series, which is to begin airing on March 29, were selected from ideas submitted by fans, Hsieh said. The episode with Wright is to feature the Yanshui Beehive Rocket Festival, she said. The festival is one of the nation’s biggest Lantern Festival events, where thousands of firecrackers and bottle rockets are fired into crowds for good luck.
EDUCATION
Teacher shortage likely
Taiwan can expect a shortage of teachers in its higher education institutions in the next 10 years when 25 percent of current faculty reaches retirement age, a Ministry of Education official said earlier this week. Currently, one out of every four full-time teachers in colleges and universities is more than 55 years old, Deputy Minister of Education Chen Der-hwa (陳德華) said, citing the ministry’s latest statistics. He predicted that about 12,000 faculty members will retire within the next 10 years, leading to a shortage of academics in the higher-education system. To address the problem, the ministry is drafting a plan to encourage students to enter academia and fill some of the vacancies expected to open up at universities and colleges, Chen said. The ministry plans to convene a forum of higher-education management executives, academics and other experts to discuss the issue, he said.
TRADE
Taiwan, Poland ink air deal
Taiwan and Poland signed an air transport agreement on Tuesday, with immediate effect. Under the pact, carriers designated by the two nations are to be able to provide air transport services between Taiwan and Poland. The agreement was signed by Jack Chiang (江國強), representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Warsaw, and Marek Wejtko, head representative of the Warsaw Trade Office in Taipei. The agreement is expected to help increase the operational flexibility of carriers on both sides, which can further strengthen economic and trade cooperation, promote tourism development and benefit bilateral air service engagements, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said. With the pact taking effect, Taiwan and Poland can designate more airlines to operate on more routes from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Kaohsiung International Airport to Warsaw and two other destinations in Poland via three midpoints, the agency added.
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