■ China
Taxi fight kills man
A Taiwanese businessman was declared brain dead by doctors in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, in China following a fistfight he had with a local taxi driver. Chen Kuo-yuan (陳國原), 32, a deputy manager of a Taiwanese-invested electrical appliance manufacturing company in Dongguan, was walking back to his dormitory room at around 1am on Saturday when he was inadvertently hit by a taxi which was backing up in an attempt to park. Chen then thumped the taxi cab's back trunk with his fist, and the taxi driver stepped out of his car. The confrontation led to a fistfight, with Chen being quickly knocked down, according to an official from the Taiwanese Business Association in Dongguan.
■ Cross-strait ties
MOFA blasts China
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday blasted China for requiring Taiwan immigrants to Canada to put "China" as their birthplace in their Canadian passports, calling it another of China's tricks to suppress Taiwan. "The incident shows China is trying every means to suppress Taiwan. China must face up to the fact that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country," MOFA spokesman Shih Jui-chi (石瑞琦) was quoted by the Liberty Times as saying. According to the Liberty Times, Canada -- acting on the order of China -- is now asking Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau immigrants to write their birthplace as "China" when applying for Canadian passports. "If they refuse to do so, when they apply for visas to travel to China using their Canadian passports, their application may be rejected," the paper said. Canadian immigration official Suzanne Meunier confirmed that China has notified Canada to tell Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau immigrants to put down their birthplace as "China." She said Canadian passport processors are telling Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau immigrants to pay attention to China's new visa rule to avoid being rejected when they apply for Chinese visas. "But whether they put it down as `China' or not, there is no compulsory rule," she said.
■ Immigration
Illegal immigrants caught
A total of more than 1,800 Chinese illegal immigrants to Taiwan were caught last year, the National Police Administration (NPA) reported yesterday. The number of illegal mainland Chinese immigrants totaled 1,833 last year, up 620 from 2001, NPA officials said. A majority of the illegal Chinese immigrants were caught inside Taiwan, with more than one-third of the total, or 642, being women who had sneaked into Taiwan to engage in the sex trade, the police officials said.
■ Education
Teachers eye Kinmen posts
A total of 156 candidates took part in a two-day screening examination in Kinmen yesterday for 15 teaching positions at various primary schools and kindergartens in Kinmen this fall. Of the 156 candidates, more than two-thirds, or 104, came from Taiwan proper, flying to the outlying island to attend. Kinmen Magistrate Lee Chu-feng (李炷烽) inspected the examination location and offered his welcome to all of the candidates, saying that Kinmen offers equal opportunities to candidates from both Kinmen and Taiwan to compete for the 15 teaching jobs. "All teachers are welcome to teach in Kinmen as long as they are good teachers," Lee said. A total of 75 of the 156 candidates will be selected for the second-round test slated for today, mainly to examine their teaching skills and creative ideas.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
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