SOCIETY
PET bottles collected
About 2,000 Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers collected more than 390,000 plastic bottles from the Taipei Summer Universiade Athletes’ Village in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) for recycling, volunteer leader Liu Chuan-dung (劉傳棟) said yesterday. The recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles can be used to make textiles and other products, which could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 25 tonnes, Liu said. During the Universiade, the about 10,000 athletes and workers at the village used an average of about 17,000 plastic bottles, Liu said. The volunteers collected the discarded bottles every day and took them to recycling facilities in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, Liu said. When the athletes departed on Saturday, about 390,000 plastic bottles had been collected from the village, Liu said.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Delegation to attend APPU
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) is to lead a delegation of lawmakers to Japan to attend the annual meeting of the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union (APPU), Legislative Deputy Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said yesterday. Tsai said that favorable and improved relations with Japan were evidenced by Su last year heading the largest-ever Taiwanese legislative delegation to visit Japan. More than 100 of the legislature’s 113 members have participated in the Taiwan-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Association, he said. Taiwan is keen to work with Japan to preserve peace and stability in East Asia, Tsai said, thanking the Japanese government for its continued benevolence toward Taiwan. Su’s team is to leave on Sept. 17 for the annual meeting, which is to be held from Sept. 18 to Sept. 20 in Oita Prefecture.
RESEARCH
TIER inks MOU in India
The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) and India’s Observer Research Foundation (ORF) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote research and academic exchanges. The agreement was signed by ORF director Sunjoy Joshi and TIER president Jeff Lin (林建甫), who is on a visit to New Delhi until Sunday. The two think tanks have agreed to collaborate on projects such as exchanges of resources and faculty for research purposes, and to come up with joint research projects. Lin said the aim is to promote academic cooperation between the two institutions and to help push for investments and trade between the two nations. Joshi said that this was the first time the ORF has signed an MOU with a Taiwanese think tank and that he looked forward to strengthening the academic ties between the two institutions. The ORF is the largest independent think tank in India.
DIPLOMACY
Envoy visits Bath, England
Representative to the UK David Lin (林永樂) visited Bath, England, on Tuesday last week to promote “smart” city, urban development and tourism exchanges between Taiwan and the UK. Lin met with Bath Mayor Ian Gilchrist, UK House of Lords member Peter Turscott and city councilors Andrew Furse and Mark Shelford, the representative office said. Noting that developing smart cities is a mutually beneficial for bilateral cooperation, Lin welcomed Bath to collaborate with Taiwan in the development of smart cities. Gilchrist expressed his support for promoting smart city development and said he was looking forward to working with Taiwan.
AGRICULTURE
Delegation to visit Japan
The Council of Agriculture is to send a delegation to Japan next month on a fact-finding mission to learn more about the nation’s fruit distribution and marketing system, as part of an effort to modernize the export of Taiwanese fruit, Council of Agriculture Minister Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) said. With a comprehensive market-oriented model already in place for the export of green soybeans, with a 47 percent share of the Japanese market, the council is planning to develop a similar model for bananas, pineapples and mangoes, Lin said. For example, Taiwanese bananas need to adopt a high-price strategy to differentiate them from bananas grown in the Philippines, as well as central and south America, he said. This means that Taiwan needs to formulate a standardized system to ensure the quality of bananas, including transporting the fruit directly from farms to ports for export, he said.
CULTURE
Chen inks Busan agreement
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) on Monday signed a letter of intent with Busan Mayor Suh Byung-soo to promote artistic and cultural exchange between the two cities. Chen greeted Suh and 17 officials from the South Korean city, which has been Kaoshiung’s sister city for 51 years, at Kaohsiung City Hall with a dance performance by kindergarteners. The two mayors signed a letter of intent to promote exchanges between artists, cultural centers and libraries to enhance the artistic development of both cities. In a speech to welcome Suh, Chen commented on the long relationship Kaohsiung and Busan share, which has included exchanges in culture, education and tourism. Chen visited Busan last year and praised the urban development of the city.
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