TRANSPORTATION
Trains delayed after quake
About 1,500 passengers traveling on the Hualien-Taitung line were delayed yesterday when service was suspended to inspect the track after a magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit the east coast. Services between Shoufong (壽豐) and Ruisuei (瑞穗) stations in Hualien County were suspended as a matter of protocol so Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) workers could examine the tracks and cables after an earthquake struck off the coast at 7:34am, the TRA said. The inspection was necessary given the intensity of the earthquake, which measured 4 on the nation’s seven-tier intensity scale in the inspected area, it said. All inspections were completed by 9:48am and no irregularities were found, it added.
SOCIETY
Site asked to change name
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to ask a UK job search Web site to correct a listing that said National Chengchi University is in “Taipei-Taiwan, Province of China,” ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said yesterday. The ministry has contacted Taiwan’s representative office in the UK to get in contact with job.ac.uk to ask the site to remove “Province of China” from the description of a posting for an assistant/associate professor position at the university, Lee said. The ministry takes the improper designation of Taiwan very seriously, he said, adding that it would always contact agencies to make corrections as soon as it is notified of any transgression.
SOCIETY
Traffic control today for party
Traffic control measures are to be in place on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei today for the celebration of Taiwanese independence pioneer Su Beng’s (史明) 100th birthday, the Zhongzheng First Precinct said in a statement yesterday. Starting at 12pm, police officers are to be stationed on Ketagalan Boulevard between Zhongshan S Road and Gongyuan Road to make sure that vehicles slow down and follow traffic signals, the precinct said. The controls, which are not expected to affect traffic flow, are to manage what is likely to be a big turnout for the event, which is to be held on the grounds of the Taipei Guest House. Su Beng, whose real name is Shih Chao-hui (施朝暉), was born on Nov. 9, 1918, but would have turned 100 based on how age is calculated in Taiwan. The celebration, which is to start at 2:30pm and end at 10:40pm, is intended to commemorate Su Beng and raise awareness of the Taiwanese independence movement.
ALLIES
Tsai calls trip a success
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday called her eight-day Pacific tour a success in achieving the goals set prior to her departure on Oct. 28. Speaking after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Tsai said she set two goals for the trip — to promote the nation’s ability to contribute to international causes and check up on Taiwanese living or working abroad — were both achieved. She thanked everyone involved for the success of the trip, which not only helped inform her of realities on the ground, but also allowed her to see how medical and technical missions representing Taiwan are making a difference in allied nations. Her visit to three of the nation’s Pacific island allies — the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands — strengthened Taiwan’s ties with these nations by laying out new cooperation agreements in agriculture, healthcare and medicine, she added.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift