Taiwanese netizens yesterday responded feverishly to a microblog post by a Chinese subscriber of Time magazine that a page containing a report on the death of Nobel Peace Price winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) had been torn out of the latest issue of the magazine’s Asia edition, saying the incident could be the result of Chinese authorities censoring Time.
“A page in the latest issue of Time was secretly ripped out. I managed to find the missing content and now I know what it is about. It is very old school to censor content by tearing pages out of books in this day and age,” the subscriber said on Sina Weibo.
The page contains a story about Liu’s life and death. It recounts how the academic and activist first rose to prominence in 1989 after helping lead the Tiananmen Square protests, followed by his helping to draft Charter 08 — which called for legislative democracy and a new constitution — which offended Chinese authorities and landed him an 11-year prison term in 2009.
Liu died of cancer on June 13 aged 61 while still in custody.
“His voice was finally silenced on July 13, but his life speaks volumes,” the Time story reads.
The microblog post drew a considerable response after a netizen posted on Professional Technology Temple (PTT), Taiwan’s largest online academic bulletin board system, an article about the incident that attributed the censorship of the magazine to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The PTT post compared the incident to a front-page story on the Chinese-language China Times yesterday about a claim by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) National Policy Foundation that the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) might have censored content on Facebook considered harmful to her government, apparently to highlight the irony of the importance the China Times gave to an unfounded claim given its stance.
“I feel sorry for those tasked with tearing out the page. It must have been laborious to death,” one netizen said.
Others compared the incident to the CCP destroying publications that it deemed contained sensitive content that could weaken its reign during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.
Time in the same issue also reported a “cartoon ban” imposed by China.
“Chinese censors temporarily restricted images and mentions of Winnie-the-Pooh on social media platforms WeChat and Weibo after some users compared the honey-loving bear to [Chinese] President Xi Jinping [習近平],” the magazine reported.
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
COOLING OFF: Temperatures are expected to fall to lows of about 20°C on Sunday and possibly 18°C to 19°C next week, following a wave of northeasterly winds on Friday The Central Weather Administration (CWA) on Sunday forecast more rain and cooler temperatures for northern Taiwan this week, with the mercury dropping to lows of 18°C, as another wave of northeasterly winds sweeps across the country. The current northeasterly winds would continue to affect Taiwan through today, with precipitation peaking today, bringing increased rainfall to windward areas, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said. The weather system would weaken slightly tomorrow before another, stronger wave arrives on Friday, lasting into next week, Liu said. From yesterday to today, northern Taiwan can expect cool, wet weather, with lows of 22°C to 23°C in most areas,
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19
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