■ Democracy
Think tank hosts forum
The Taiwan Advocates, a think tank founded by former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), is set to hold an international conference this weekend to discuss Hong Kong's experience of living under Beijing's "one country, two systems" formula after returning to Chinese rule.
The conference has invited several speakers including former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, Nat Bellocchi; former superintendent of the Tokyo University of Foreign Language Mineo Nakajim; Chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文); chairman of The Friends of Hong Kong and Macau Association, Byron Weng (翁松燃) and others. The academic conference will examine the operation of the "one country, two systems" formula in Hong Kong since its return to China in 1997. The conference will also focus on how human rights and free speech in Hong Kong would be impacted by the imposition of the controversial Article 23 of the Basic Law. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is slated to give an opening speech at the conference on Saturday, while former president Lee Teng-hui will also participate in the seminar and moderate the final round-table discussion.
■ Aboriginals
Farm products promoted
Farming product promotion. The Council of Indigenous People and the Nantou County Government are co-sponsoring a sale of agricultural products grown by Aboriginals in the country from tomorrow through Sunday at Hope Plaza (希望廣場), 49 Pateh Rd Sec 1, close to the Guanghua computer market area. Products on sale will include fruit, fruit wine and vegetables. There will also be performances by Aboriginal groups and a teaching demonstration of traditional Atayal weaving skills. There will also be free plum ice for visitors to taste.
■ Education
Quality control urged
The number of institutes offering graduate studies has increased from 841 in 1998 to 1,904 and quite a few of these institutes are under-staffed, TSU Legislator Cheng Jhen-long (程振隆) said yesterday. He also said that the academic standards of many institutes is questionable. According to his report, 195 graduate institutes have no more than three full-time teachers each and yet many of these have admitted dozens of graduate students. Since graduate school tuition is relatively high, Cheng said there is no justification for these schools to provide low-quality education at such high costs. Saying that some universities have made their graduate schools diploma-mills, Cheng called on the Ministry of Education to review its regulations on the establishment of graduate schools to prevent the deterioration of quality.
■ Executive yuan
Writing change approved
The Cabinet yesterday approved draft amendments to the Decree Governing the Writing of Official Documents (公文程序條例), which would adopt the Western writing format for government documents. The draft will proceed to the legislature for review and approval. The Cabinet wants to see the plan fully implemented in three years. At present the law requires the writing on official documents -- except for charts, graphics and statistical reports -- to run from right to left and from top to bottom. The amendment will require documents to be written from left to right.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
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