Diplomacy
Taiwan severs ties with Dominica
March 30, 2004: Taiwan breaks off diplomatic ties with the Commonwealth of Dominica as the latter switches recognition to China. During the two-decade period of ties, Taiwan sent technical missions to help the island nation with its agricultural and aquaculture industries.
Politics
People First Party is born
March 31, 2000: James Soong (宋楚瑜) establishes the People First Party (PFP, 親民黨) and becomes its chairman after his failed bid to become Taiwan’s president. In 1999, Soong left the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) after losing the presidential nomination to then-vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and ran as an independent in the 2000 presidential elections.
In its early years, the PFP maintained a close but tense relationship with the KMT because the two parties competed for the same voters — with many Taiwan observers believing that Soong split pan-blue voters, thus handing Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) the 2000 election. However, the party’s influence shrank as its seats in the Legislative Yuan dwindled from 46 of 225 in 2001 to 3 out of 113 in 2012.
Cross-strait
‘Mini three links’ extends to Penghu
March 31, 2007: The Mainland Affairs Council (大陸委員會) announces that residents of Taiwan’s outlying island of Penghu are allowed to cross the Taiwan Strait via Kinmen County or Matsu County starting the next day. Chinese tourists can visit Penghu using the same route. Cross-strait travel, known as the “small three links” (小三通), was established in January 2001. It opened the door for unrestricted travel between Kinmen, Matsu and Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province.
Society
Taiwan’s first nuclear power plant beings operations
March 30, 1978: Taiwan’s first nuclear power plant, located in Shihmen District (石門), begins operation with a capacity of 636,000 kilowatts.
In July 2013, typhoon Soulik caused a trip in the generator and turbine of the power plant’s Unit 2, which was shut down for immediate repairs. In August, the power plant’s operator, state-run Taiwan Power Co, received a correction order from the Control Yuan because radioactive water was leaking from two spent fuel pools. In February of this year, news reports pointed to the possibility of the plant’s early shut down due to a lack of waste storage capacity. The plant is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2019.
Tourists killed in China
March 31, 1994: Twenty-four Taiwanese tourists and eight Chinese boat crew and guides are murdered during a robbery on a cruise of Qiandao Lake (千島湖) in China’s Zhejiang Province.
The Chinese government reportedly blocked information regarding its investigation, which triggered a public backlash in Taiwan. Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who was president at the time, publicly called the Communist Party of China a bandit regime. Three suspects were found responsible for the crime and were sentenced to death.
Senior officers killed in military helicopter crash
April 3, 2007: An army UH-1H helicopter crashes during an air surveillance drill in a remote mountain region in what is today’s Greater Kaohsiung, killing all eight army officers onboard, most of them senior officers, including Brigade Chief Colonel Chen Min-tung (陳銘同).
Investigations later concluded human error to be the cause of the crash. The army later announced that chief officers and their deputies would no longer be allowed to travel in the same vehicle or aircraft at the same time.
Obituary
Distinguished painter passes away
April2, 1983: Noted painter, collector and forger Chang Dai-chien (張大千) dies in Taipei at the age of 85. Considered one of the greatest Chinese artists of the 20th century, Chang’s Chinese landscape paintings enjoyed the same critical and commercial acclaim as his modern impressionist and expressionist works.
Trained in China and Japan, Chang left China in 1949 amid civil war. He traveled to various countries including Argentina, Brazil and the US. The meeting between Chang and Pablo Picasso in 1956 was viewed as a summit between masters of Eastern and Western art. Chang settled in Taipei in 1978. After his death, Chang’s home in Shilin District was donated to the National Palace Museum and has been preserved as a memorial.
Culture
Taiwan-made film pockets Japanese film award
March 30, 2013: Director Fu Tien-yu’s (傅天余) The Happy Life of Debbie (黛比的幸福生活) wins top honors at Japan’s Okinawa International Movie Festival. The film follows the life of an Indonesian woman, who leaves her hometown to start a new life with a Taiwanese veteran in Yunlin County. The award comes with a cash prize of 1 million yen (about NT$290,000).
Sports
March 31, 2013: Taiwan’s table tennis team finishes second in the men’s division at the World Team Classic (世界團體桌球經典賽) in Guangzhou, China. The main highlight of the contest comes in the second match of the final contest when Chen Chien-an (陳建安) defeats China’s Olympic gold medalist Zhang Jike (張繼科).
As I finally slid into the warm embrace of the hot, clifftop pool, it was a serene moment of reflection. The sound of the river reflected off the cave walls, the white of our camping lights reflected off the dark, shimmering surface of the water, and I reflected on how fortunate I was to be here. After all, the beautiful walk through narrow canyons that had brought us here had been inaccessible for five years — and will be again soon. The day had started at the Huisun Forest Area (惠蓀林場), at the end of Nantou County Route 80, north and east
Specialty sandwiches loaded with the contents of an entire charcuterie board, overflowing with sauces, creams and all manner of creative add-ons, is perhaps one of the biggest global food trends of this year. From London to New York, lines form down the block for mortadella, burrata, pistachio and more stuffed between slices of fresh sourdough, rye or focaccia. To try the trend in Taipei, Munchies Mafia is for sure the spot — could this be the best sandwich in town? Carlos from Spain and Sergio from Mexico opened this spot just seven months ago. The two met working in the
Exceptions to the rule are sometimes revealing. For a brief few years, there was an emerging ideological split between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that appeared to be pushing the DPP in a direction that would be considered more liberal, and the KMT more conservative. In the previous column, “The KMT-DPP’s bureaucrat-led developmental state” (Dec. 11, page 12), we examined how Taiwan’s democratic system developed, and how both the two main parties largely accepted a similar consensus on how Taiwan should be run domestically and did not split along the left-right lines more familiar in
This month the government ordered a one-year block of Xiaohongshu (小紅書) or Rednote, a Chinese social media platform with more than 3 million users in Taiwan. The government pointed to widespread fraud activity on the platform, along with cybersecurity failures. Officials said that they had reached out to the company and asked it to change. However, they received no response. The pro-China parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), immediately swung into action, denouncing the ban as an attack on free speech. This “free speech” claim was then echoed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC),
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