■ AIT
Visa application fee goes up
The US Department of State has announced that effective Dec. 1, all nonimmigrant visa applications must be accompanied by application fee receipts totaling US$100, the American Institute said in Taiwan in a press release yesterday. Starting from Nov. 1, applicants for US non-immigration visa were requested to pay US$100. Applicants who purchased application fee receipts prior to Nov. 1 for less than US$100 will be required to purchase a supplemental receipt to bring the total to US$100 for non-immigrant visa applications submitted after Nov. 30, according to the press release.
■ Diplomacy
British delegation arrives
A five-member British delegation -- headed by Tom Cox, co-chairman of the British-Taiwan Parliamentary Group -- arrived yesterday for a seven-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a press release. The delegation plans to discuss Taiwan's politics, cross-strait ties, trade and investment links with Europe and the UK, the statement said. The group will visit the legislature, the ministries of foreign affairs, rational defense and economic affairs, as well as the Mainland Affairs Council. Non-political ties between London and Taipei have grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Official British statistics show that over 70 percent of Taiwanese investors targeting Europe have chosen the UK as their base.
■ Politics
Cheng Yu-cheng quits DPP
DPP Legislator Cheng Yu-cheng (鄭余鎮) yesterday afternoon announced his withdrawal from the ruling party. The announcement was made before the DPP's Central Advisory Committee's decision whether to expel the scandal-plagued lawmaker for ignoring his legislative duties. Cheng also returned his party membership card to the DPP's headquarters in Taipei. "I temporarily lost myself and thought that [Sophie Wang (王筱嬋), Cheng's ex-mistress] was a gift from God," he said. "But the whole thing turned out to be a joke from God," he added, saying that he has already payed a considerable price for his mistake.
■ Smuggling
Cigarette seizures soar
The number of counterfeit cigarettes smuggled into Taiwan more than doubled this year after penalties were relaxed due to Taiwan joining the WTO, officials said yesterday. Most of the cigarettes are smuggled from China, where brand-name cigarettes are copied, said Hung Yi-shun, a coast guard in Keelung, northern Taiwan. The rest are from the Philippines and Hong Kong, he said. Authorities seized 38,000 boxes of smuggled cigarettes in the first 10 months of this year, compared with 14,000 boxes last year, the customs bureau in Keelung said. Since it joined the WTO in January, Taiwan has relaxed its penalties for cigarette smugglers to a maximum one-year jail term, down from the 10-year term before.
■ Human Rights
Dissident escapes charges
Tang Yuanjun (唐元雋), a Chinese dissident who swam to an islet in the Taiwan Strait in mid-October, will not be prosecuted for his illegal entry into Taiwan territory, an official said yesterday. Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) told reporters yesterday that the Kinmen Prosecutor's Office had announced the verdict last week after a full investigation. He added that the government will now respect Tang's wish to send him to any country he wishes to go.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
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