TRAVEL
Sichuan gets level-2 alert
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday raised its travel alert for China’s Sichuan Province to level-2 after a new case of H5N1 avian influenza was reported there. Authorities confirmed on Friday last week that a 46-year-old man in the Sichuan city of Suining had contracted the avian flu strain, the first H5N1 human infection in the province this year. The man, who was exposed to dead poultry, developed H5N1 symptoms on Feb. 18 and died on Feb. 27, according to the CDC. Another H5N1 case was reported in China’s Jiangsu Province earlier this year, where a level-2 alert is still in place. Travelers to China should avoid contact with birds, alive or dead, pay attention to personal hygiene and seek immediate medical attention if they develop such symptoms as a fever or a cough, CDC officials said.
POLITICS
New party established
A new political party called Minkuotang (民國黨) — or the Republic Party (MKT) — was officially established yesterday. The founder and chairperson is Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), a legislator who withdrew from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in late January, saying that she wanted to form a “third force” and “to fulfill what the public expects of her.” About a dozen government officials and politicians across party lines, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), KMT caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) and Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) attended yesterday’s ceremony and offered their congratulations. Hsu said at the ceremony that the founding of the MKT, “a party that places people before the nation,” was prompted by the need to get back to the grassroots level and “awaken society.”
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
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