WEATHER
Maysak impact limited: CWB
Newly formed Typhoon Maysak was southeast of Guam as of the early hours of yesterday morning and is moving westward toward regions close to Taiwan, Central Weather Bureau (CWB) officials said. The new typhoon, the fourth Pacific storm this year, is still unlikely to influence weather in Taiwan in the short term, the bureau officials added. As of the early hours of yesterday morning, Maysak was about 3,800km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, and about 1,130km southeast of Guam, moving westward at 20kph, the CWB said. Maysak is expected to approach seas east of Luzon in the Philippines over the weekend, if it keeps its current direction and pace.
EMPLOYMENT
One-third want China jobs
Roughly one-third of Taiwanese aged under 40 are hoping to find a job in China due to potentially higher salaries and greater room for career development, a survey from cable television channel TVBS found. According to the survey conducted by the production team of the TVBS program Understanding China, 34 percent of the nation’s young men and women in the 20-29 age bracket would choose to work in China rather than find a job locally, while the percentage for the 30-39 age bracket stands at 32 percent. It fell to 22 percent for the 40-49 age group. As many as 56 percent of respondents aged 20-29 believed they would receive a relatively higher salary in China compared to Taiwan, while 53 percent thought they would see more opportunities in China for career development, the survey revealed.
ENTERTAINMENT
Bocelli to return to Taiwan
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli is to hold a concert in Taipei next month, performing popular opera pieces, Italian songs and pop music. The opera singer is scheduled to perform at the Taipei Arena on April 24, accompanied by the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra and the Taiwan National Choir, according to Management of New Arts, the Taiwanese promoter of the concert. The songs he is to perform include Canto Della Terra by composer Francesco Sartori and Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love, the organizer said, adding that Bocelli also plans to sing with soprano Maria Aleida selections from Romeo et Juliette by French composer Charles-Francois Gounod. It will be Bocelli’s fourth visit to Taiwan since 2008.
TRAVEL
EVA to start new Japan route
EVA Airways, Taiwan’s second-largest airline, is to launch flight services between Kaohsiung and Fukuoka in Japan beginning tomorrow, the company said yesterday. EVA Air will initially offer round-trip flights between the two destinations every Tuesday and Saturday, increasing the number of flights to five per week during the summer. The airline plans to use the 184-seat Airbus A321-200 on the new route. EVA Air decided to add the new service because of substantial growth in the number of Taiwanese travelers to Japan over the past year, the airline said. More than 2.9 million Taiwanese traveled to Japan last year, the most in history and 27 percent more than during the previous year — the airline expects that growth to continue this year. In addition to the new flight route, EVA Air also plans to increase the number of flights between Taoyuan and Osaka from 16 per week to 21, and between Taoyuan and Hakodate in Hokkaido from four to seven. The changes are to take effect tomorrow, the carrier said.
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