Diplomacy
Ties broken with Dahomey, established with Tonga
April 8, 1965: Taiwan severs diplomatic links with the Republic of Dahomey (present-day People’s Republic of Benin), as the African country recognizes Beijing, ending a three-year relationship with Taiwan. However, ties were resumed in April 1966 when Dahomey became the first country to switch recognition from China to Taiwan. Nonetheless, Dahomey restored ties with China in 1972.
April 10, 1972: Taiwan announces the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Kingdom of Tonga. Relations broke off in 1998 as the south Pacific country switched recognition to China. Tonga currently doesn’t maintain any representation in Taiwan.
Taiwan, US agree to establish fund
April 9, 1965: Taiwan and the US conclude an accord to establish a Sino-American Fund for Economic and Social Development (中美經濟社會發展基金). The fund aims to support Taiwan’s development after the termination of US economic aid on June 30 of the same year. American financial aid to Taiwan began in 1949. According to Executive Yuan statistics, Taiwan received US$1.48 billion from the US during that time, greatly improving the nation’s agricultural and industrial growth.
Taiwan Relations Act signed
April 10, 1979: The Taiwan Relations Act (台灣關係法) is signed by US President Jimmy Carter, guiding the conduct of unofficial US relations with Taiwan following the break in diplomatic ties between the two countries. Under the act, the American Institute in Taiwan becomes the de facto embassy. The act potentially requires the US to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons and to intervene militarily if China attacks or invades Taiwan.
In recent developments, the US House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday to authorize the sale of four decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigates to Taiwan.
Society
Vice president claims victory in civil suit
April 10, 2002: The Taipei District Court rules in favor of then-Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who sued The Journalist (新新聞) magazine over a story that claimed she spread a rumor the then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was having an affair with one of his female staffers. The magazine alleged that Lu spread the rumor to unseat Chen.
The court orders the magazine’s editor in chief Yang Chao (楊照) to clarify that Lu didn’t call him to spread the rumor. The magazine appealed the case twice. In October 2004, the Taiwan High Court ruled that the magazine must apologize to Lu. According to an Apple Daily report, however, Lu herself ended up paying for the half-page apology in a local Chinese-language daily in September 2009.
Court rules on compensation for wrongful conviction
April 10, 2013: The Supreme Court rules on the amount of compensation for the wrongful conviction of Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bing-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳) — also known as the Hsichih Trio — to be NT$15.84 million. The trio were arrested in 1991 on murder charges. They were convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but were also found not guilty in several retrials. The Taiwan High Court closed the case in 2012, in accordance with the Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act (刑事妥速審判法), which was passed by the legislature in 2010 and disallows judges and courts to retry cases indefinitely.
Obituary
Freedom fighter commits suicide
April 7, 1989: Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), editor-in-chief of dissident magazine Freedom Era Weekly (自由時代週刊), self-immolates in his Taipei office as armed police attempt to break in and arrest him on charges of sedition. Deng had published a draft “Taiwan Republic Constitution” in the magazine’s December 1988 issue.
Deng became an iconic figure in defending freedom of expression, and is believed to have pushed for an amendment made to Article 100 of the Criminal Code in 1992. In the revised code, penalties for non-violent acts outlined in the anti-sedition provisions were removed.
Sports
Female tug-of-war team takes Asian championship
April 9, 2010: Taiwan’s female tug-of war team wins the Asian Indoor Championship for the fourth year in a row. The team, composed of students from Taipei Jingmei Girls High School, takes the championship after defeating Vietnam in the semifinals and Mongolia in the final. The Jingmei team later won the World Indoor Championships in Italy.
The Nuremberg trials have inspired filmmakers before, from Stanley Kramer’s 1961 drama to the 2000 television miniseries with Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox. But for the latest take, Nuremberg, writer-director James Vanderbilt focuses on a lesser-known figure: The US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who after the war was assigned to supervise and evaluate captured Nazi leaders to ensure they were fit for trial (and also keep them alive). But his is a name that had been largely forgotten: He wasn’t even a character in the miniseries. Kelley, portrayed in the film by Rami Malek, was an ambitious sort who saw in
It’s always a pleasure to see something one has long advocated slowly become reality. The late August visit of a delegation to the Philippines led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-ching (黃昭欽), Chair of Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council vice president, Lotta Danielsson, was yet another example of how the two nations are drawing closer together. The security threat from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), along with their complementary economies, is finally fostering growth in ties. Interestingly, officials from both sides often refer to a shared Austronesian heritage when arguing for
Nov.10 to Nov.16 As he moved a large stone that had fallen from a truck near his field, 65-year-old Lin Yuan (林淵) felt a sudden urge. He fetched his tools and began to carve. The recently retired farmer had been feeling restless after a lifetime of hard labor in Yuchi Township (魚池), Nantou County. His first piece, Stone Fairy Maiden (石仙姑), completed in 1977, was reportedly a representation of his late wife. This version of how Lin began his late-life art career is recorded in Nantou County historian Teng Hsiang-yang’s (鄧相揚) 2009 biography of him. His expressive work eventually caught the attention
Late last month the Executive Yuan approved a proposal from the Ministry of Labor to allow the hospitality industry to recruit mid-level migrant workers. The industry, surveys said, was short 6,600 laborers. In reality, it is already heavily using illegal foreign workers — foreign wives of foreign residents who cannot work, runaways and illegally moonlighting factory workers. The proposal thus merely legalizes what already exists. The government could generate a similar legal labor supply simply by legalizing moonlighting and permitting spouses of legal residents to work legally on their current visa. But after 30 years of advocating for that reform,
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